14 February 1749

A Friday in history

Weekday

Friday

Season

Winter (N. Hemisphere)

Century

18th century

Records

409

  1. 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.

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  2. 2011

    Arab Spring: On the Day of Rage, Bahraini youths began an uprising against the government in 55 marches across 25 locations.

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  3. 2008

    A gunman opened fire into a crowded lecture hall at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, killing five people and injuring twenty-one others.

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  4. 2007

    The first of several bombings in Zahedan, Iran, killed 18 members of the Revolutionary Guards.

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  5. 2005

    The online video platform YouTube was founded by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim.

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  6. 1992

    Sri Temasek (pictured), the official residence of the prime minister of Singapore, was declared a national monument.

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  7. 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.

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  8. 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).

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  9. 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.

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  10. 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.

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  11. 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.

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  12. 1943

    World War II: General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim's 5th Panzer Army launched a concerted attack against Allied positions in Tunisia.

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  13. 1938

    The Singapore Naval Base, the cornerstone of the Singapore strategy, a British naval defence policy, was opened.

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  14. 1924

    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.

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  15. 1919

    The Battle of Bereza Kartuska, the first serious armed conflict of the Polish–Soviet War, took place near present-day Biaroza, Belarus.

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  16. 1916

    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.

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  17. 1914

    The animated film Gertie the Dinosaur was released, later greatly influencing future animators such as the Fleischer brothers and Walt Disney.

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  18. 1895

    Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest (production pictured), once described as the second-most quoted English-language play after Hamlet, premiered in London.

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  19. 1852

    The Hospital for Sick Children, the first hospital in England to provide in-patient beds specifically for children, was founded in London.

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  20. 1804

    Serb chieftains elected Đorđe Petrović as their leader and began an uprising against the Ottoman Empire.

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  21. 1779

    Native Hawaiians killed the English explorer Captain James Cook as he attempted to kidnap Kalaniʻōpuʻu, the ruling chief of the island of Hawaii.

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  22. 1779

    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.

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  23. 1655

    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.

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Photo archive

24 historic images from this day — tap to open the gallery.

What was life like?

Prices, jobs, food, music and everyday routine — the world as it felt to live in.

Sources & fact check

Every claim is traced to primary sources, archives, universities and the press — with an explicit confidence rating. Dossiers are generated once and cached permanently.