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What happened on February 14
Every February 14 carries a layer of history: wars that began or ended, inventions, premieres, treaties, and people born or lost on this day across the centuries. We gathered 12 of the most striking events recorded on February 14, plus notable births and deaths, each with its year and a link to the Wikipedia article where the story continues. It is a fast way to answer "what happened on February 14" without digging through many sources: the list arrives ranked by relevance and dated.
Notable events
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2018 | An lone gunman shot and killed seventeen people and injured seventeen others in a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Nikolas Cruz |
| 2011 | Arab Spring: On the Day of Rage, Bahraini youths began an uprising against the government in 55 marches across 25 locations. Arab Spring |
| 2008 | A gunman opened fire into a crowded lecture hall at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, killing five people and injuring twenty-one others. 2008 Northern Illinois University shooting |
| 2007 | The first of several bombings in Zahedan, Iran, killed 18 members of the Revolutionary Guards. Zahedan |
| 2005 | The online video platform YouTube was founded by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. YouTube |
| 1992 | Sri Temasek, the official residence of the prime minister of Singapore, was declared a national monument. Sri Temasek |
| 1990 | Indian Airlines Flight 605 crashed near Hindustan Airport during its approach to the airport, which resulted in 92 out of the 146 people on board being killed. Indian Airlines Flight 605 |
| 1990 | The NASA space probe Voyager 1 took Pale Blue Dot (detail pictured), a photograph of Earth from a record distance of 40.5 astronomical units (6.06 billion km; 3.76 billion mi). NASA |
| 1989 | Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa calling for the death of Salman Rushdie, the author of The Satanic Verses, a novel considered to be blasphemous by some Muslims. Ruhollah Khomeini |
| 1979 | Adolph Dubs, United States Ambassador to Afghanistan, was kidnapped by unknown agents and killed during a gun battle between Afghan police and the perpetrators. Adolph Dubs |
| 1961 | Lawrencium, the radioactive synthetic element with atomic number 103, was first synthesized at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. Synthetic element |
| 1943 | World War II: General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim's 5th Panzer Army launched a concerted attack against Allied positions in Tunisia. World War II |
Births
| Year | Who |
|---|---|
| 2002 | Jaxon Smith-Njigba, American football player Jaxon Smith-Njigba |
| 1999 | Tyler Adams, American soccer player Tyler Adams |
| 1997 | Jaehyun, South Korean singer and actor Jaehyun |
| 1997 | Breel Embolo, Swiss footballer Breel Embolo |
Deaths
| Year | Who |
|---|---|
| 2026 | Tom Noonan, American actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1951) Tom Noonan |
| 2021 | Carlos Menem, Argentine former president, lawyer, and statesman (born 1930) Carlos Menem |
| 2018 | Ruud Lubbers, Dutch politician and diplomat, Prime Minister and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (born 1939) Ruud Lubbers |
| 2018 | Morgan Tsvangirai, 2nd Prime Minister of Zimbabwe (born 1952) Morgan Tsvangirai |
A single anniversary does not explain on its own why a day matters: one February 14 can hold a scientific milestone, a tragedy and the birth of an artist, centuries apart. That is why we date every row and link the source, so you can follow what interests you. The selection mixes 12 events, 4 births and 4 deaths; the full list, with every reference, lives on Wikipedia.
Source, license and method
This page curates the day's anniversaries for February 14 from Wikipedia, delivered through the Wikimedia "On this day" feed (the encyclopedia's own open dataset). It is not original research: the facts, years and wording come from Wikipedia and are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike (CC BY-SA 4.0), which requires crediting the source and keeping the same license. We pick each day's most relevant items, favouring the editors' own selection and the most prominent articles, and every row links back to the matching entry. For the full list and primary references, see the day's article on Wikipedia (February 14).
Continue in the dates cluster
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Last updated: · Methodology and sources