Events on February 14 64
Year 748
Abbasid Revolution: The Hashimi rebels under Abu Muslim Khorasani take Merv, capital of the Umayyad province Khorasan, marking the consolidation of the Abbasid revolt.
Year 842
Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the French and German languages.
Year 1014
Pope Benedict VIII crowns Henry of Bavaria, King of Germany and of Italy, as Holy Roman Emperor.
Year 1349
Several hundred Jews are burned to death by mobs while the remaining Jews are forcibly removed from Strasbourg.
Year 1400
Richard II of England dies, most probably from starvation, in Pontefract Castle, on the orders of Henry Bolingbroke.
Year 1502
Spanish Inquisition: The Catholic Monarchs issue a decree forcing Muslims in Granada to convert to Catholicism or leave Spain.
Year 1530
Spanish conquistadores, led by Nuño de Guzmán, overthrow and execute Tangaxuan II, the last independent monarch of the Tarascan state in present-day central Mexico.
Year 1655
Arauco War: The Mapuche under their elected military leader, Clentaru, rise up against the Spanish in an insurrection in present-day central Chile.
Year 1778
The United States flag is formally recognized by a foreign naval vessel for the first time, when French Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte renders a nine gun salute to USS Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones.
Year 1779
James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii.
Year 1797
French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Cape St. Vincent: John Jervis, (later 1st Earl of St Vincent) and Horatio Nelson (later 1st Viscount Nelson) lead the British Royal Navy to victory over a Spanish fleet in action near Gibraltar.
Year 1831
Ras Marye of Yejju marches into Tigray and defeats and kills Dejazmach Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay.
Year 1835
The original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in the Latter Day Saint movement, is formed in Kirtland, Ohio.
Year 1849
In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken.
Year 1852
Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, the first hospital in England to provide in-patient beds specifically for children, is founded in London.
Year 1855
Texas is linked by telegraph to the rest of the United States, with the completion of a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas.
Year 1876
Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone, as does Elisha Gray.
Year 1879
The War of the Pacific breaks out when Chilean armed forces occupy the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta.
Year 1900
British forces begin the Battle of the Tugela Heights in an effort to lift the Siege of Ladysmith.
Year 1903
The United States Department of Commerce and Labor is established (later split into the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor).
Year 1918
The Soviet Union adopts the Gregorian calendar (on 1 February according to the Julian calendar).
Year 1924
The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changes its name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).
Year 1929
Saint Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone's gang, are murdered in Chicago.
Year 1943
World War II: Tunisia Campaign: General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim's Fifth Panzer Army launches a concerted attack against Allied positions in Tunisia.
Year 1944
World War II: In the Action of 14 February 1944, a British submarine sinks a German-controlled Italian submarine in the Strait of Malacca.
Year 1945
World War II: On the first day of the bombing of Dresden, the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces begin fire-bombing Dresden.
Year 1945
World War II: Navigational error leads to the mistaken bombing of Prague, Czechoslovakia by an American squadron of B-17s assisting in the Soviet's Vistula-Oder Offensive.
Year 1945
President Franklin D. Roosevelt meets with King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy, officially beginning U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relations.
Year 1949
The Asbestos Strike begins in Canada. The strike marks the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec.
Year 1950
Chinese Civil War: The National Revolutionary Army instigates the unsuccessful Battle of Tianquan against the People's Liberation Army.
Year 1956
The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union begins in Moscow. On the last night of the meeting, Premier Nikita Khrushchev condemns Joseph Stalin's crimes in a secret speech.
Year 1961
Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California.
Year 1979
In Kabul, Setami Milli militants kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs who is later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police.
Year 1983
United American Bank of Knoxville, Tennessee collapses. Its president, Jake Butcher, is later convicted of fraud.
Year 1989
Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 million to the Indian government for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal disaster.
Year 1989
Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa encouraging Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.
Year 1990
Ninety-two people are killed when Indian Airlines Flight 605 crashes in Bangalore, India.
Year 1990
The Voyager 1 spacecraft takes the photograph of planet Earth that later become famous as Pale Blue Dot.
Year 1998
An oil tanker train collides with a freight train in Yaoundé, Cameroon, spilling fuel oil. One person scavenging the oil created a massive explosion which kills 120.
Year 2000
The spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker enters orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.
Year 2004
In a suburb of Moscow, Russia, the roof of the Transvaal water park collapses, killing more than 25 people, and wounding more than 100 others.
Year 2005
Lebanese self-made billionaire and business tycoon Rafic Hariri is assassinated in Beirut, along with 21 other people, when the equivalent of around 1,000 kg of TNT is detonated as his motorcade drove near the St. George Hotel.
Year 2005
Seven people are killed and 151 wounded in a series of bombings by suspected al-Qaeda-linked militants that hit Makati, Davao City, and General Santos City, all in the Philippines.
Year 2005
YouTube is launched by a group of college students, eventually becoming the largest video sharing website in the world and a main source for viral videos.
Year 2008
Northern Illinois University shooting: A gunman opened fire in a lecture hall of the DeKalb County, Illinois university resulting in six fatalities (including gunman) and 21 injuries.