14 February 1844

A Wednesday in history

Weekday

Wednesday

Season

Winter (N. Hemisphere)

Century

19th century

Records

410

  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.

  2. 2011

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

  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.

  4. 2007

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

  5. 2005

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

  6. 1992

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

  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.

  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).

  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.

  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.

  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.

  12. 1943

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

  13. 1938

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

  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.

  15. 1919

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

  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.

  17. 1914

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

  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.

  19. 1852

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

  20. 1804

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

  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.

  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.

  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.

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.