History of 14th February

842 - Charles II & Louis the German sign treaty
1009 - First known mention of Lithuania, in the annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg.
1014 - Pope Benedict VIII crowns Henry II, Roman German emperor
1076 - Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Henry IV
1130 - Jewish Cardinal Pietro Pierleone elected as anti-pope Anacletus II
1540 - Emperor Charles V enters Ghent without resistance, executes rebels
1556 - Archbishop Thomas Cranmer declared a heretic
1610 - Polish king Sigismund III, Forges Dimitri #2 & Romanov family sign covenant against czar Vasili Shushki
1613 - King James I's daughter Elizabeth marries Frederik
1630 - Dutch fleet of 69 ships reaches Pernambuco Brazil
1670 - Roman Catholic emperor Leopold I chases Jews out of Vienna
1689 - English parliament places Mary Stuart/Prince Willem III on the throne
1711 - Handel's opera Rinaldo, premieres
1743 - Henry Pelham becomes British Prime Minister.
1746 - Henry Pelham appointed English premier
1766 - Dutch governor Falck signs Treaty of Batticaloa with rebels
1778 - "Stars & Stripes" arrives in foreign port for 1st time (France)
1794 - 1st US textile machinery patent granted, to James Davenport, Phila
1803 - Apple parer patented by Moses Coats, Downington, Penn
1803 - Chief Justice John Marshall declares that any act of U.S. Congress that conflicts with the Constitution is void.
1804 - Karadjordje leads the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire.
1831 - Ras Marye of Yejju marches into Tigray and defeats and kills Dejazmach Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay.
1848 - James K Polk became 1st pres photographed in office (Matthew Brady)
1849 - In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken.
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.
1859 - Oregon admitted as 33rd state
1862 - Galena, 1st US iron-clad warship for service at sea, launched, Conn
1867 - Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection & Insurance Co issues 1st policy
1867 - Morehouse College organizes (Augusta Georgia)
1872 - 1st state bird refuge authorized (Lake Merritt CA)
1876 - A G Bell & Elisha Gray apply separately for telephone patents Supreme Court eventually rules Bell rightful inventor
1879 - Chilean troops occupy Antofagasta
1883 - 1st state labor union legislation; NJ legalizes unions
1887 - Cubs sell Mike King Kelly to Boston for record $10,000
1889 - 1st train load of fruit (oranges) leaves LA for east
1890 - 1st NSW v South Australia 1st-class cricket game
1894 - Venus is both a morning star & evening star
1895 - Oscar Wilde's "Importance of Being Earnest," opens in London
1896 - George Lohmann takes a hat-trick v S Africa, 8-7 for inning
1896 - South Africa all out for 30 v England - their lowest ever
1896 - Stanley Cup: Winnipeg Victorias beat Montreal Victorias, 2-0
1896 - Theodor Herzl publishes "Der Judenstaat"
1899 - US Congress begins using voting machines
1900 - Date of events in movie "Picnic at Hanging Rock"
1900 - Russia responds to international pressure to free Finland by tightening imperial control over the country.
1903 - US Dept of Commerce & Labor forms
1907 - 1st US fox hound association forms in NYC
1912 - 1st US submarines with diesel engines commissioned, Groton, Ct
1912 - Arizona was admitted to the Union as the 48th state
1914 - High Council of Labor forms in Hague Netherlands
1918 - H Atteridge & S Rombergs musical "Sinbad," premieres in NYC
1918 - USSR adopts New Style (Gregorian) calendar (originally Feb 1)
1919 - United Parcel Service forms
1919 - The Polish-Soviet War begins.
1920 - League of Women Voters forms in Chicago
1921 - Canadian 5 cent nickel coin is authorized
1921 - Little Review faces obscenity charges for publishing "Ulysses," NY
1924 - IBM Corporation founded by Thomas Watson
1925 - State of emergency crisis in Bayern ends, NSDAP re-allowed
1929 - St Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago, 7 gangsters killed
1931 - Bradman scores 152 Aust v WI, 154 minutes, 13 fours 2 fives
1931 - Spanish Govt of General Damasco Berenguer falls
1932 - S Africa all out for 36 in 1st innings v Aust (Ironmonger 5-6)
1934 - NHL Ace Bailey Benefit Game: Toronto beats All-Stars 7-3 in Toronto
1936 - National Negro Congress organizes in Chicago
1936 - US female Figure Skating championship won by Maribel Vinson
1936 - US male Figure Skating championship won by Robin Lee
1939 - Victor Fleming replaces George Cukor as director of Gone With the Wind
1940 - British merchant vessel fleet is armed
1941 - 1,000,000th vehicle traverses the NY Midtown Tunnel
1941 - Carson McCuller's "Reflections in a Golden Eye" published
1941 - Cebrie Park in the Bronx renamed Halsey Street
1941 - German Africa Corps lands in Tripoli, Libya
1942 - Japanese parachutists land near oil center Palembang Sumatra
1942 - Rotterdam's Maas tunnel opens
1942 - Battle of Pasir Panjang contributes to the fall of Singapore.
1943 - German offensive through de Faid-pass Tunisia
1943 - Soviets recapture Rostov
1943 - World War II: Rostov-on-Don, Russia is liberated.
1944 - Anti-Japanese revolt on Java
1944 - Carl Wick publishes "Salmon Trolling for Commercial & Sport Fishing
1945 - 8th Air Force bombs Dresden
1945 - Peru, Paraguay, Chile & Ecuador joins UN
1945 - World War II: Prague is bombed probably due to a mistake in the orientation of the pilots bombing Dresden.
1945 - World War II: Mostar is liberated by Yugoslav partisans.
1946 - Bank of England nationalized
1949 - 1st session of Knesset (Jerusalem Israel)
1949 - Dutch Drees govt presents plan for the building of 30,000 houses
1950 - Moroney scores cricket twin centuries for Australia at Johannesburg
1950 - USSR & China sign peace treaty
1951 - Sugar Ray Robinson defeats Jake LaMotta & takes middleweight title
1952 - 6th Olympic winter games open at Oslo, Norway
1952 - Comedian Joey Adams marries gossip columnist Cindy Heller
1954 - Beverly Hanson wins LPGA St Petersburg Golf Open
1954 - Sen John Kennedy appears on "Meet the Press"
1954 - WTOC TV channel 11 in Savannah, GA (CBS) begins broadcasting
1955 - WFLA (now WXFL) TV channel 8 in Tampa-St Petersburg, FL (NBC) begins
1956 - 20th Congress of CPSU opens in Moscow
1956 - Indonesia withdraws from Neth Indonesian Union
1956 - Verhoeven/Nauta/De King/Wijnhout win Dutch 11 city skate

1957 - Georgia Senate unanimously approves Sen Leon Butts' bill barring blacks from playing baseball with whites
1958 - Arab Federation of Iraq & Jordan forms
1959 - $3.6 million heroin seizure in NYC
1960 - Beverly Hanson wins LPGA St Petersburg Golf Open
1960 - Marshal Ayub Khan elected president of Pakistan
1961 - Element 103, Lawrencium, 1st produced in Berkeley Calif
1961 - Louise Suggs wins LPGA Royal Poinciana Golf Invitational
1962 - 1st lady Jacqueline Kennedy conducts White House tour on TV
1963 - US launches communications satellite Syncom 1
1966 - Australia introduces 1st decimal currency postage stamps
1966 - Wilt Chamberlain breaks NBA career scoring record at 20,884 points
1966 - Writers Andrei Sinjavski & Joeij Daniel found guilty
1966 - Australian currency is decimalised.
1967 - Aretha Franklin records "Respect"
1967 - Latin American nuclear free zone proposal drawn up
1968 - Pennsylvania Railroad/NYC Central merge into Penn Central
1968 - WHKY TV channel 14 in Hickory, NC (IND) begins broadcasting
1970 - "Gantry" closes at George Abbott Theater NYC after 1 performance
1971 - Movie "Ben Hur" 1st shown on television
1971 - Richard Nixon installs secret taping system in White House
1972 - John & Yoko co-host "Mike Douglas Show" for entire week
1972 - Luna 20 (Russia) launched to orbit & soft landing on Moon
1975 - Bomb explodes at annex of Amsterdam metro station
1976 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1978 - 1st "micro on a chip" patented by Texas Instruments
1978 - In girls' HS basketball, Chicago Latin beats Harvard St George
1979 - "Whoopee!" opens at ANTA Theater NYC for 204 performances
1979 - In Kabul, Muslims kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs who is later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police.
1980 - "West Side Story" opens at Minskoff Theater NYC for 341 performances
1980 - 13th Winter Olympic games open in Lake Placid, NY
1980 - US launches Solar Maximum Mission Observatory to study solar flares
1981 - Stardust Disaster: A fire in a Dublin nightclub kills 48 people
1982 - "Night of 100 Stars" takes place at NY's Radio City Music Hall
1982 - Hollis Stacy wins LPGA S&H Golf Classic
1984 - Singer Elton John marries Renate Blauel in Sydney Australia
1985 - Hostage CNN reporter Jeremy Levin is released in Beirut
1987 - 53,745 largest NBA crowd to date-Phila at Detroit
1988 - 49th PGA Seniors Golf Championship: Gary Player
1988 - Alfredo Stroessner re-elected president of Paraguay
1988 - Bobby Allison at 50 becomes oldest driver to win Daytona 500
1988 - General hospital star Jackie Zeman marries Glenn Gorden
1988 - Patty Sheehan wins LPGA Sarasota Golf Classic
1989 - African National Congress (ANC) opens office in Amsterdam
1989 - Boxer Mike Tyson divorces actress Robin Givens
1989 - Khomeini orders Moslems to murder "Satanic Verses" novelist Rushdie
1989 - Robin Givens is granted a divorce from Mike Tyson in Dom Rep
1989 - Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 mill damages for Bhopol disaster
1989 - World's 1st satellite Skyphone opens
1989 - The first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System are placed into orbit.
1990 - Alan Ayckbourn's "Man of the Moment," premieres in London
1990 - Perrier recalls 160 million bottles of sparkling water after traces of benzene, a carcinogen, are found in some
1990 - Space probe Voyager 1 takes photograph of entire solar system
1991 - "Mule Bone" opens at Ethel Barrymore Theater NYC for 67 performances
1991 - NL Cy Young winner Doug Drabek wins record $3 mil salary arbitration
1992 - Andre Cason runs world record 6 m indoor (6.41 sec)
1992 - Cease fire in Somalia begins
1992 - Kieren John Perkins swims world record 800m freestyle (7:46.60)
1992 - Merlene Ottey runs world record 60m indoor (6.96 sec)
1993 - Fire in Linxi department store in Tangshan China, kills 79
1994 - Alexander Golubev skates Olympic record 500m (36.33)
1994 - Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia (51) weds Deborah Koons
1994 - Andrei Chikatilo, a Russian serial killer is executed by shooting.
1995 - Roseanne weds bodyguard Ben Thomas
1995 - Wellington 2-498d & 4-475 beat Canterbury 496 & 2-476d
1998 - Authorities in the United States announce that Eric Robert Rudolph is a suspect in an Alabama abortion clinic bombing.
2000 - The spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker enters orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.
2002 - The Tullaghmurray Lass sinks off the coast of Kilkeel, County Down, Northern Ireland killing three members of the same family on board.
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.
2005 - Lebanon's former Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, is assassinated, prompting the country to fall into chaos.
2005 - Seven people are killed and 151 wounded in a series of bombings by suspected Al-Qaeda-linked militants that hit the Philippines' Makati financial district in Metro Manila, Davao City, and General Santos City.
2008 - Northern Illinois University shooting: a gunman opened fire in a lecture hall of the DeKalb County, Illinois university resulting in 24 casualties; 6 fatalities (including gunman) and 18 injured.