February 14 – Some important events on this day
270 👉🏼 One of many St. Valentine beheaded.
1014 👉🏼 Pope Benedict VIII crowns Henry II Holy Roman Emperor
1076 👉🏼 Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV (for the 1st time)
1349 👉🏼 900 Jews are burned alive in Strasbourg and similar number banned from the city after being blamed for the spread of the Black Death
1779 👉🏼 Captain James Cook killed in Hawaii
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1794 👉🏼 1st US textile machinery patent granted, to James Davenport, Philadelphia
1797 👉🏼 The Battle of Cape St Vincent: British fleet under Admiral Sir John Jervis defeats larger Spanish fleet under Admiral Don José de Córdoba y Ramos near Cape St. Vincent, Portugal. Captain Horatio Nelson distinguishes himself.
1849 👉🏼 In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes first serving US President to have his photograph taken (by Matthew Brady).
On this day, a photographer named Matthew B. Brady took a photo of US President James K. Polk in the White House. He was not the first person to photograph the president, as it is believed William Henry Harrison had been photographed in 1841. However Harrison died only 31 days into his term and the photo has been lost.
A photo was recently unearthed of John Quincy Adams in 1843, but Adams had by this point been out of office for almost twenty years. This would count as the earliest photograph of an American president.
Polk left office in 1849 and died shortly after.
1876 👉🏼 Alexander G. Bell & Elisha Gray apply separately for telephone patents Supreme Court eventually rules Bell rightful inventor
1889 👉🏼 1st train load of fruit (oranges) leaves LA for east
1924 👉🏼 Thomas J. Watson renames the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) as International Business Machines (IBM)
1929 👉🏼 St Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago, 7 gangsters killed, allegedly on Al Capone’s orders.
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1931 👉🏼 The original “Dracula” film starring Bela Lugosi as the titular vampire, is released
1971 👉🏼 Richard Nixon installs secret taping system in the White House
1978 👉🏼 1st “micro on a chip” patented by Texas Instruments
2020 👉🏼 UEFA places 2 year ban on Manchester City from European club competition for committing “serious breaches” of club licensing and financial fair play regulations; EPL champions also fined €30million
2020 👉🏼 More than 800,000 people displaced from their homes in north-western Syria amid assault by Syrian pro-government forces on last rebel stronghold