On This Day — 14 February
2000s
2020
At least 22 people are killed in an attack on a village in Northwest Region, Cameroon.
Ngarbuh massacre
2019
Pulwama attack takes place in Lethpora in Pulwama district, Jammu and Kashmir, India in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel and a suicide bomber were killed and 35 were injured.
2019 Pulwama attack
2018
Jacob Zuma resigns as President of South Africa.
Jacob Zuma
2018
A shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida is one of the deadliest school massacres with 17 fatalities and 17 injuries.
Parkland high school shooting
2011
As a part of Arab Spring, the Bahraini uprising begins with a 'Day of Rage'.
Arab Spring
2008
Northern Illinois University shooting: A gunman opens fire in a lecture hall of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb County, Illinois, resulting in six fatalities (including the gunman) and 21 injuries.
2008 Northern Illinois University shooting
2005
In Beirut, 23 people, including former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, are killed when the equivalent of around 1,000 kg of TNT is detonated while Hariri's motorcade drives through the city.
Beirut
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, all in the Philippines.
Al-Qaeda
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.
YouTube
2004
In a suburb of Moscow, Russia, the roof of the Transvaal water park collapses, killing more than 28 people, and wounding 193 others.
Moscow
2003
Iraq disarmament crisis: UNMOVIC Executive Chairman Hans Blix reports to the United Nations Security Council that disarmament inspectors have found no weapons of mass destruction in Ba'athist Iraq.
Iraq disarmament crisis
2000
The spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker enters orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.
NEAR Shoemaker
1900s
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 killed 120.
Rail freight transport
1990
Ninety-two people are killed when Indian Airlines Flight 605 crashes in Bangalore, India.
Indian Airlines Flight 605
1990
The Voyager 1 spacecraft takes the photograph of planet Earth that later becomes famous as Pale Blue Dot.
Voyager 1
1989
Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 million to the Indian government for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal disaster.
Union Carbide
1989
Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa encouraging Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.
Iran
1983
United American Bank of Knoxville, Tennessee collapses. Its president, Jake Butcher, is later convicted of fraud.
Knoxville, Tennessee
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.
Kabul
1961
Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California.
Timeline of chemical element discoveries
1954
First Indochina War - small French garrison at Đắk Đoa is overrun by the Viet Minh after a week's siege.
First Indochina War
1949
The Knesset (parliament of Israel) convenes for the first time.
Knesset
1949
The Asbestos Strike begins in Canada. The strike marks the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec.
Asbestos strike
1947
The act abolishing all noble ranks and related styles comes into force in Hungary.
Statute IV of 1947 regarding the abolition of certain titles and ranks
1946
The Bank of England is nationalized.
Bank of England
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.
Bombing of Dresden
1945
World War II: Navigational error leads to the mistaken bombing of Prague, Czechoslovakia by a United States Army Air Forces squadron of B-17s assisting in the Soviet Red Army's Vistula–Oder Offensive.
Bombing of Prague
1945
World War II: Mostar is liberated by Yugoslav partisans
Mostar
1945
President Franklin D. Roosevelt meets King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy, officially beginning U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relations.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
1944
World War II: In the action of 14 February 1944, a Royal Navy submarine sinks a German-controlled Italian Regia Marina submarine in the Strait of Malacca.
Action of 14 February 1944
1943
World War II: Rostov-on-Don, Russia is liberated.
Rostov-on-Don
1943
World War II: Tunisia Campaign: General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim's Fifth Panzer Army launches a counter-attack against Allied positions in Tunisia.
Tunisian campaign
1942
World War II: Battle of Pasir Panjang contributes to the fall of Singapore.
Battle of Pasir Panjang
1939
World War II: German battleship Bismarck is launched.
World War II
1929
Saint Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone's gang, are murdered in Chicago.
Saint Valentine's Day Massacre
1924
The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changes its name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).
IBM
1920
The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago.
League of Women Voters
1919
The Polish–Soviet War begins.
Polish–Soviet War
1918
Soviet Russia adopts the Gregorian calendar.
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
1912
Arizona is admitted as the 48th and the last contiguous U.S. state.
Arizona
1912
The U.S. Navy commissions its first class of diesel-powered submarines.
United States Navy
1903
The United States Department of Commerce and Labor is established (later split into the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor).
United States Department of Commerce and Labor
1900
The British Army begins the Battle of the Tugela Heights in an effort to lift the Siege of Ladysmith.
British Army
1800s
1899
Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections.
Voting machine
1879
The War of the Pacific breaks out when the Chilean Army occupies the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta.
War of the Pacific
1876
Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone, as does Elisha Gray.
Alexander Graham Bell
1859
Oregon is admitted as the 33rd U.S. state.
Oregon
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.
Texas
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.
Great Ormond Street Hospital
1849
In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken.
James K. Polk
1835
The original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in the Latter Day Saint movement, is formed in Kirtland, Ohio.
Quorum of the Twelve
1831
Ras Marye of Yejju marches into Tigray and defeats and kills Dejazmach Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay.
Marye of Yejju
1804
Karađorđe leads the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire.
Karađorđe
Before 1800
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.
French Revolutionary Wars
1779
American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Kettle Creek is fought in Georgia.
American Revolutionary War
1779
James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii.
Death of James Cook
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.
Flag of the United States
1655
The Mapuches launch coordinated attacks against the Spanish in Chile beginning the Mapuche uprising of 1655.
Mapuche
1613
Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Frederick V of the Palatinate at Whitehall Palace, London.
Wedding of Frederick V of the Palatinate and Princess Elizabeth
1556
Having been declared a heretic and laicized by Pope Paul IV on 4 December 1555, Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer is publicly defrocked at Christ Church Cathedral.
Heresy
1556
Coronation of Akbar as ruler of the Mughal Empire.
Akbar
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.
Conquistador
1349
Strasbourg massacre: Several thousand Jews are burned to death by mobs while the remaining Jews are forcibly removed from Strasbourg after being accused of causing the Black Death.
Strasbourg massacre
1130
The troubled 1130 papal election exposes a rift within the College of Cardinals.
1130 papal election
1014
Pope Benedict VIII crowns Henry of Bavaria, King of Germany and of Italy, as Holy Roman Emperor.
Pope Benedict VIII
842
Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the French and German languages.
Charles the Bald
763
The death of Ibrahim ibn Abdallah marks the end of the Alid revolt of 762–763.
Ibrahim ibn Abdallah
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.
Abbasid revolution