This day is observed in most countries as Valentine's Day.
Events Pre-1600 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. 763 – The death of Ibrahim ibn Abdallah marks the end of the Alid revolt of 762–763. 842 – Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the French and German languages. 1014 – Pope Benedict VIII crowns Henry of Bavaria, King of Germany and of Italy, as Holy Roman Emperor. 1130 – The troubled 1130 papal election exposes a rift within the College of Cardinals. 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. 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. 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. 1556 – Coronation of Akbar as ruler of the Mughal Empire.
1601–1900 1613 – Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Frederick V of the Palatinate at Whitehall Palace, London.Ethel Carleton Williams, Anne of Denmark (London, 1970), p. 157. 1655 – The Mapuches launch coordinated attacks against the Spanish in Chile beginning the Mapuche uprising of 1655. 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 , commanded by John Paul Jones. 1779 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Kettle Creek is fought in Georgia. 1779 – James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii. 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. 1804 – Karađorđe 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. 1835 – The original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in the Latter Day Saint movement, is formed in Kirtland, Ohio. 1849 – In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken. 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. 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 is admitted as the 33rd U.S. state. 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone, as does Elisha Gray. 1879 – The War of the Pacific breaks out when the Chilean Army occupies the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta. 1899 – Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections. 1900 – The British Army begins the Battle of the Tugela Heights in an effort to lift the Siege of Ladysmith.
1901–present 1903 – The United States Department of Commerce and Labor is established (later split into the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor). 1912 – Arizona is admitted as the 48th and the last contiguous U.S. state. 1912 – The U.S. Navy commissions its first class of diesel-powered submarines. 1918 – Soviet Russia adopts the Gregorian calendar. 1919 – The Polish–Soviet War begins. 1920 – The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago. 1924 – The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changes its name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). 1929 – Saint Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone's gang, are murdered in Chicago. 1939 – World War II: German battleship Bismarck is launched. 1942 – World War II: Battle of Pasir Panjang contributes to the fall of Singapore. 1943 – World War II: Rostov-on-Don, Russia is liberated. 1943 – World War II: Tunisia Campaign: General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim's Fifth Panzer Army launches a counter-attack against Allied positions in Tunisia. 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. 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. 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. 1945 – World War II: Mostar is liberated by Yugoslav partisans 1945 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt meets King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the , officially beginning U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relations. 1946 – The Bank of England is nationalized. 1947 – The act abolishing all noble ranks and related styles comes into force in Hungary. 1949 – The Knesset (parliament of Israel) convenes for the first time. 1949 – The Asbestos Strike begins in Canada. The strike marks the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec. 1954 – First Indochina War - small French garrison at Đắk Đoa is overrun by the Viet Minh after a week's siege. 1961 – Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California. 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. 1983 – United American Bank of Knoxville, Tennessee collapses. Its president, Jake Butcher, is later convicted of fraud. 1989 – Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 million to the Indian government for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal disaster. 1989 – Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa encouraging Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses. 1990 – Ninety-two people are killed when Indian Airlines Flight 605 crashes in Bangalore, India. 1990 – The Voyager 1 spacecraft takes the photograph of planet Earth that later becomes famous as Pale Blue Dot. 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. 2000 – The spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker enters orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid. 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. 2004 – In a suburb of Moscow, Russia, the roof of the Transvaal water park collapses, killing more than 28 people, and wounding 193 others. 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. 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. 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. 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. 2011 – As a part of Arab Spring, the Bahraini uprising begins with a 'Day of Rage'. 2018 – Jacob Zuma resigns as President of South Africa. 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. 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. 2020 - At least 22 people are killed in an attack on a village in Northwest Region, Cameroon.
Births Pre-1600 1404 – Leon Battista Alberti, Italian painter, poet, and philosopher (died 1472) 1408 – John FitzAlan, 14th Earl of Arundel (died 1435) 1452 – Pandolfo Petrucci, tyrant of Siena (died 1512) 1468 – Johannes Werner, German priest and mathematician (died 1522) 1483 – Babur, Mughal emperor (died 1530) 1490 – Valentin Friedland, German scholar and educationist of the Reformation (died 1556) 1513 – Domenico Ferrabosco, Italian composer (died 1573) 1545 – Lucrezia de' Medici, Duchess of Ferrara (died 1561)
1601–1900 1602 – Francesco Cavalli, Italian composer (died 1676) 1614 – John Wilkins, English bishop, academic and natural philosopher (died 1672) 1625 – Countess Palatine Maria Euphrosyne of Zweibrücken, Swedish princess (died 1687) 1628 – Valentine Greatrakes, Irish faith healer (died 1683) 1640 – Countess Palatine Anna Magdalena of Birkenfeld-Bischweiler (died 1693) 1670 – Rajaram Raj Bhonsle, third Chhatrapati of the Maratha Confederacy (died 1700) 1679 – Georg Friedrich Kauffmann, German organist and composer (died 1735) 1692 – Pierre-Claude Nivelle de La Chaussée, French author and playwright (died 1754) 1701 – Enrique Flórez, Spanish historian and author (died 1773) 1763 – Jean Victor Marie Moreau, French general (died 1813) 1782 – Eleanora Atherton, English philanthropist (died 1870) 1784 – Heinrich Baermann, German clarinetist (died 1847) 1799 – Walenty Wańkowicz, Polish painter and illustrator (died 1842) 1800 – Emory Washburn, American historian, lawyer, and politician, 22nd Governor of Massachusetts (died 1877) 1808 – Michael Costa, Italian-English conductor and composer (died 1884) 1812 – Fernando Wood, American merchant and politician, 73rd Mayor of New York City (died 1881) 1813 – Lydia Hamilton Smith, African-American businesswoman (died 1884) 1819 – Christopher Latham Sholes, American journalist and politician, invented the typewriter (died 1890) 1824 – Winfield Scott Hancock, American general and politician (died 1886) 1828 – Edmond François Valentin About, French journalist and author (died 1885) 1829 – Alfred Iverson Jr., American Confederate Army officer (died 1911) 1835 – Piet Paaltjens, Dutch minister and poet (died 1894) 1838 – Margaret E. Knight, American inventor (died 1914) 1846 – Julian Scott, American soldier and drummer, Medal of Honor recipient (died 1901) 1847 – Anna Howard Shaw, American physician, minister, and activist (died 1919) 1848 – Benjamin Baillaud, French astronomer and academic (died 1934) 1855 – Frank Harris, Irish author and journalist (died 1931) 1859 – George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., American engineer, inventor of the Ferris wheel (died 1896) 1860 – Eugen Schiffer, German lawyer and politician, Vice-Chancellor of Germany (died 1954) 1864 – Hadley Williams, Canadian surgeon and educator (died 1932) 1869 – Charles Thomson Rees Wilson, Scottish physicist and meteorologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1959) 1878 – Julius Nieuwland, Belgian priest, chemist and academic (died 1936) 1882 – John Barrymore, American actor (died 1942) 1884 – Nils Olaf Chrisander, Swedish actor and director (died 1947) 1884 – Kostas Varnalis, Greek poet and playwright (died 1974) 1888 – Chandrashekhar Agashe, Indian industrialist (died 1956) 1890 – Nina Hamnett, Welsh-English painter and author (died 1956) 1890 – Dick Richards, Welsh international footballer (died 1934) 1891 – Katherine Stinson, American aviator (died 1977) 1892 – Radola Gajda, Czech commander and politician (died 1948) 1894 – Jack Benny, American actor and producer (died 1974)