TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – FEB 14
Happy Valentine’s Day!Today is St. Valentine’s Day, the feast day of two Christian martyrs named Valentine: one a priest and physician, the other the Bishop of Terni. Both are purported to have been beheaded on this day. The custom of sending handmade ‘valentines’ to one’s beloved became popular during the 17th century and was first commercialized in the United States in the 1840s.
1076 Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV (for the 1st time)
1349 2,000 Jews are burned at the stake in Strasbourg, Germany.
1400 The deposed Richard II is murdered in Pontefract Castle in Yorkshire.
1778 The Stars and Stripes was carried to a foreign port, in France, for the first time. It was aboard the American ship Ranger.
1848 James Polk becomes the first U.S. President to be photographed in office by Matthew Brady.
1859 Oregon is admitted as the thirty-third state.
1876 Alexander G. Bell & Elisha Gray apply separately for telephone patents Supreme Court eventually rules Bell rightful inventor
1899 The U.S. Congress approved voting machines for use in federal elections.
1903 The U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor was established.
1904 The “Missouri Kid” is captured in Kansas.
1912 Arizona becomes the 48th state in the Union.
1920 The League of Women Voters is formed in Chicago in celebration of the imminent ratification of the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote.
1924 Thomas Watson founds International Business Machines Corp.
1929 Sir Alexander Fleming discovers Penicillin after leaving a plate of staphylococcus bacteria uncovered, he noticed that a mold that had fallen on the culture had killed many of the bacteria.
1929 Chicago gang war between Al Capone and George “Bugs” Moran culminates with several Moran confederates being gunned down in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.
1939 Germany launches the battleship Bismarck.
1942 In the midst of World War II, a new anti-fascist broadcast was aired on four major U.S. television stations. This series had lasted for 13 weeks and featured actors such as James Stewart, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and Tyrone Power.
1946 ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was unveiled. The device, built at the University of Pennsylvania, was the world’s first general purpose electronic computer.
1949 The Knesset, the parliament of Israel, convenes for the first time The term “Knesset” is derived from the Hebrew name of an ancient Great Assembly: Anshei Knesset HaGedolah.
1949 The United States charges the Soviet Union with interning up to 14 million in labor camps.
1955 A Jewish couple loses their fight to adopt Catholic twins as the U.S. Supreme Court refuses to rule on state law.
1957 The Georgia state senate outlaws interracial athletics.
1962 First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy gives a tour of the White House shown on Television which 3 out of 4 Americans watch on TV.
1965 Malcolm X’s home is firebombed. No injuries are reported.
1973 The United States and Hanoi set up a group to channel reconstruction aid directly to Hanoi.
1979 Adolph Dubs, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, was kidnapped in Kabul by Muslim extremists. He was killed in a shootout between his abductors and police.
1979 Armed guerrillas attack the U.S. embassy in Tehran.
1989 Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini charges that Salman Rushdie’s novel, The Satanic Verses, is blasphemous and issues an edict (fatwa) calling on Muslims to kill Rushdie.
1998 U.S. authorities officially announced that Eric Rudolph was a suspect in a bombing of an abortion clinic in Alabama.
2001 The Kansas Board of Education reversed its 1999 ruling and restored evolution to the state’s science curriculum.
2002 The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Shays-Meehan bill. The bill, if passed by the U.S. Senate, would ban millions of unregulated money that goes to the national political parties.
2003 Dolly the sheep is put to death Dolly, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult, had shown signs of premature aging and contracted various diseases.
2005 Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is assassinated Several sources reported that the U.N. Special Tribunal for Lebanon found compelling evidence for the Lebanese militia Hezbollah’s involvement.
2008 A former student of Northern Illinois University Steven Kazmierczak opens fire at a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University killing 7 and injuring 14 more
2014 A federal judge in Virginia overturned the state’s ban on gay marriage.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com
