On This Day

A mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School killed 17 people, sparking the March for Our Lives movement.

YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, former PayPal employees.

Voyager 1 took the famous "Pale Blue Dot" photograph of Earth from 6 billion km away, at the suggestion of Carl Sagan.

Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the death of author Salman Rushdie over "The Satanic Verses."

ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), the first general-purpose electronic digital computer, was publicly demonstrated at the University of Pennsylvania. The formal dedication followed on February 15.

The US Eighth Air Force conducted massive follow-up bombing raids on Dresden. The campaign had begun the night before with devastating RAF raids, killing an estimated 22,700–25,000 people total over three days.

Seven members of the North Side Gang were murdered in a Chicago garage, allegedly on orders of Al Capone.

Arizona was admitted as the 48th state, the last of the contiguous states to join the United States.

Oscar Wilde's comedy premiered at St James's Theatre in London to great acclaim.

Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray both filed paperwork for telephone designs on the same day. Bell was granted the patent.

British explorer Captain James Cook was killed during a confrontation with Native Hawaiians at Kealakekua Bay during his third Pacific voyage.

Richard II died in captivity at Pontefract Castle, likely starved on orders of Henry IV.

During the Black Death persecutions, 2,000 Jews were publicly burned alive in Strasbourg after being blamed for the plague.

Saint Valentine of Rome was martyred around this date, an event that later inspired the celebration of Valentine's Day. The exact year is uncertain.