February 14

269 – Refusing Emperor Claudius II Gothicus command to renounce his faith, Sebastien Valentinus is martyred in Rome.

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 9 gun salute to USS Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones.

1779 – Captain James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii.

1849 – In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken.

1855 – With the completion of the line between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas, the state is linked by telegraph to the rest of the U.S.

1859 – Oregon is admitted as the 33rd U.S. state.

1876 – Both Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray separately apply for a patent for the telephone.

1899 – Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections.

1903 – The United States Department of Commerce and Labor is established, later split into the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor. (more departments, more Cabinet Secretaries and bureaucraps)

1912 – Arizona is admitted as the 48th and the last contiguous U.S. state.
The U.S. Navy commissions its first diesel powered submarine, the “E” class USS Skipjack, under the command of Lt. Chester W. Nimitz.

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 – In Chicago, 7 members of George “Bugs” Moran’s North Side Gang are murdered by members of rival Al Capone’s Chicago Outfit gang in what is quickly called The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre.

1945 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt meets King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy, officially beginning U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relations.

1949 – The Knesset, the parliament of Israel, convenes for the first time.

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.

1989 – Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa encouraging Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.

1990 – The Voyager 1 spacecraft takes the photograph of planet Earth that later becomes famous as the Pale Blue Dot.

2005 – YouTube is launched by a group of college students

2008 –A mentally ill man off his medications, opens fire in a lecture hall of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb County, Illinois, killing 5 in attendance and wounding 21 more before committing suicide.

2018 – A former student stages an attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 students and faculty and wounding 17 more before fleeing.