TODAY in HISTORY
Today is Wednesday, February 14, the 45th day of 2018. There are 320 days left in the year.
1556 Coronation of Akbar. 1655 Arauco War: The Mapuche under their elected military leader, Clentaru, rise up against the Spanish in an insurrection in present- day central Chile.
1778 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. 1804 Karadorde leads the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire.
1831 Ras Marye of Yejju marches into Tigray and defeats and kills Dejazmach Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay.
1835 The original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in the Latter Day Saint movement, is formed in Kirtland, Ohio. 1849 In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken. 1899 Voting machines are approved by the US Congress for use in federal elections. 1919 The Polish– Soviet War begins.
1920 The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago. 1945 President Franklin D. Roosevelt meets with King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy, officially beginning USSaudi diplomatic relations. 1966 Australian currency is decimalised. 1983 United American Bank of Knoxville, Tennessee collapses. Its president, Jake Butcher, is later convicted of fraud. 1989 Union Carbide agrees to pay $ 470 million to the Indian government for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal disaster. 1989 Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa encouraging Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.
1998 An oil tanker train collides with a freight train in Yaoundé, Cameroon, spilling fuel oil. One person scavenging the oil created a massive explosion which kills 120. 2004 In a suburb of Moscow, Russia, the roof of the Transvaal water park collapses, killing more than 25 people, and wounding more than 100 others. 2005 Lebanese self- made billionaire and business tycoon Rafic Hariri is assassinated in Beirut, along with 21 other people, when the equivalent of around 1,000 kg of TNT is detonated as his motorcade drove near the St. George Hotel. 2005 Seven people are killed and 151 wounded in a series of bombings by that hit Makati, Davao City, and General Santos City, all in the Philippines.