144 things happened on 14 February, from AD 269 to 2021. UK stories come first, then the rest of the world.
1895 · 131 years ago
Oscar Wilde's comedy The Importance of Being Earnest was performed for the first time, at the St James's Theatre in London. It tells the story of two young men who lead double lives and both pretend to be called Ernest. Its witty lines became so well known th…
UK history first: stories from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
UK story
Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King James VI and I, married Frederick V, a German prince, at Whitehall Palace in London. The celebrations included fireworks, tournaments and even a pretend sea battle. Frederick was later King of Bohemia for just one winter, so Elizabeth became known as 'the Winter Queen'. In 1714 her grandson became King George I of Great Britain.
UK story
A British fleet led by Admiral Sir John Jervis defeated a larger Spanish fleet off Cape St Vincent in Portugal. It was one of the first battles of a new war between Britain and Spain. Commodore Horatio Nelson stood out by boarding and capturing two Spanish warships. Nelson went on to become one of the greatest admirals in history.
UK story
The Hospital for Sick Children in Great Ormond Street, London, was founded after a long campaign by Dr Charles West. It was the first hospital in England with beds just for children who needed to stay in. It opened with only 10 beds, and the author Charles Dickens helped to raise money for it. In 1929, J. M. Barrie gave the hospital the rights to his story Peter Pan.
UK story
Scottish-born inventor Alexander Graham Bell applied for a patent for the telephone in the United States. A patent is a legal right that stops other people copying an invention for a time. On the same day, the American engineer Elisha Gray also sent in papers about his own telephone. Bell is credited with patenting the first practical telephone, and his patent was later upheld in court.
UK story
Oscar Wilde's comedy The Importance of Being Earnest was performed for the first time, at the St James's Theatre in London. It tells the story of two young men who lead double lives and both pretend to be called Ernest. Its witty lines became so well known that it was once called the second most quoted play in English. Only Shakespeare's Hamlet was said to be quoted more.
UK story
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.
UK story
American Revolutionary War: At the Battle of Kettle Creek, a militia of Patriots decisively defeated and scattered a Loyalist militia that was on its way to British-controlled Augusta, Georgia.
UK story
The British Army begins the Battle of the Tugela Heights in an effort to lift the Siege of Ladysmith.
UK story
World War I: Britain, France and Russia made the Declaration of Sainte-Adresse, stating that they would refuse to sign any peace treaty with the Central Powers that failed to ensure the political and economic independence of Belgium.
UK story
The Singapore Naval Base, the cornerstone of the Singapore strategy, a British naval defence policy, was opened.
Akbar was crowned emperor of the Mughal Empire in India, succeeding his father, Humayun. He was only 13, so a regent called Bairam Khan helped him to rule at first. Akbar went on to expand the empire across much of the Indian subcontinent. He is remembered as Akbar the Great, one of the greatest Mughal emperors.
Looking back from over 6 billion kilometres away, NASA's Voyager 1 space probe photographed Earth. In the picture, Earth is smaller than a single pixel, a tiny dot in a band of sunlight. No photograph of Earth had ever been taken from so far away. The astronomer Carl Sagan, who had urged NASA to take it, later wrote a book called Pale Blue Dot.
The video-sharing website YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim. All three had worked at the company PayPal. The first video, called 'Me at the zoo', was uploaded by Karim in April 2005. The founders sold YouTube to Google in 2006, and it is now the second most visited website in the world.
Abbasid Revolution: The Hashimi rebels under Abu Muslim Khorasani take Merv, capital of the Umayyad province Khorasan, marking the consolidation of the Abbasid revolt.
Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the French and German languages.
Pope Benedict VIII crowns Henry of Bavaria, King of Germany and of Italy, as Holy Roman Emperor.
The troubled 1130 papal election exposes a rift within the College of Cardinals.
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.
Arauco War: The Mapuche carried out a series of coordinated attacks against Spanish settlements and forts in colonial Chile, beginning a ten-year period of warfare.
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 USS Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones.
Serb chieftains elected Đorđe Petrović as their leader and began an uprising against the Ottoman Empire.
The original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in the Latter Day Saint movement, is formed in Kirtland, Ohio.
In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken.
Texas is linked by telegraph to the rest of the United States, with the completion of a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas.
Oregon is admitted as the 33rd U.S. state.
The War of the Pacific breaks out when the Chilean Army occupies the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta.
Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections.
The United States Department of Commerce and Labor is established (later split into the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor).
The U.S. Navy commissions its first class of diesel-powered submarines.
Arizona is admitted as the 48th and the last contiguous U.S. state.
The animated film Gertie the Dinosaur was released, later greatly influencing future animators such as the Fleischer brothers and Walt Disney.
Soviet Russia adopts the Gregorian calendar.
The Battle of Bereza Kartuska, the first serious armed conflict of the Polish–Soviet War, took place near present-day Biaroza, Belarus.
The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago.
The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company was renamed as International Business Machines (IBM), later growing into one of the world's largest companies by market capitalization.
World War II: German battleship Bismarck is launched.
World War II: Battle of Pasir Panjang contributes to the fall of Singapore.
World War II: Rostov-on-Don, Russia is liberated.
World War II: General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim's 5th Panzer Army launched a concerted attack against Allied positions in Tunisia.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt meets King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy, officially beginning U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relations.
World War II: Mostar is liberated by Yugoslav partisans
The act abolishing all noble ranks and related styles comes into force in Hungary.
The Knesset (parliament of Israel) convenes for the first time.
The Asbestos Strike begins in Canada. The strike marks the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec.
First Indochina War - small French garrison at Đắk Đoa is overrun by the Viet Minh after a week's siege.
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.
United American Bank of Knoxville, Tennessee collapses. Its president, Jake Butcher, is later convicted of fraud.
Sri Temasek (pictured), the official residence of the prime minister of Singapore, was declared a national monument.
The spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker enters orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.
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.
Arab Spring: On the Day of Rage, Bahraini youths began an uprising against the government in 55 marches across 25 locations.
Jacob Zuma resigns as President of South Africa.
Every answer is somewhere on this page. Have a go, then check!
In which year did this happen: “Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest is first performed”?
A: 1895. 1895 — that’s 131 years ago. Find it on the page
In which year did this happen: “Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone”?
A: 1876. 1876 — that’s 150 years ago. Find it on the page
Which of these happened first?
B: Great Ormond Street Hospital for children is founded in London. 1895: Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest is first performed · 1852: Great Ormond Street Hospital for children is founded in London · 1876: Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone Find it on the page
“Great Ormond Street Hospital for children is founded in London” happened in 1852. How many years ago was that?
A: 174 years. 2026 − 1852 = 174. Find it on the page
Famous people whose birthday is 14 February.
UK story
Charles Thomson Rees Wilson was a Scottish physicist and weather scientist. He invented the cloud chamber, a device that shows the paths of tiny, invisible particles as trails of mist. Scientists later used cloud chambers to discover new particles, such as the positron. In 1927 Wilson shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for his invention.
UK story
John Wilkins was an English clergyman, scientist and writer, and one of the founders of the Royal Society. He is one of the few people to have been head of a college at both Oxford and Cambridge universities. In a book in 1668, he suggested a universal language and a system of measurement similar to the metric system. He later became Bishop of Chester.
Well-known people who died on 14 February.
Festivals, holidays and saints’ days celebrated on 14 February somewhere in the world.
Content note: these entries mention things like war, violence, deaths, disasters or crime. They are part of history, but they can be upsetting. Grown-ups and teachers: you may want to read them first. They come straight from Wikipedia and have not been rewritten for children.
Stories with a heading have been written for young readers by A Day in the Past, using the linked articles as sources. Other entries show text from Wikipedia’s “February 14” page and its “On this day” feed, written by Wikipedia contributors and shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. Each “Read more” link goes to the article an entry is based on. Photos are credited under each picture. Spotted a mistake? Please tell us.