Today in History

February 14

1924 - The Computing-TabulatingRecording Company is renamed International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).

1943 - Soviet forces recapture Rostov from Germans during Second World War.

1945 - Peru, Paraguay, Chile and Ecuador join the UN.

1946 - The first all-electronic computer is introduced at the University of Pennsylvania.

1958 - Iraq and Jordan form Arab Federation with King Faisal as head of state.

1960 - Ayoub Khan is elected President of Pakistan.

1972 - US trade restrictions against China are relaxed, putting China on same basis as Soviet Union.

1979 - Four armed men kidnap US ambassador to Afghanistan Adolf Dubs. Later he was killed in a shootout with police.

1985 - Hostage CNN reporter Jeremy Levin is released in Beirut.

1989 - Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issues a ‘fatwa’ calling for the death of British author Salman Rushdie.

1993 - Greek Cypriot leader Glafcos Clerides wins an upset victory over incumbent George Vassilou in Cyprus’ presidential election.

2002 - The state of Bahrain is declared the Kingdom of Bahrain.

2005 - Former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri is assassinated.

2007 - Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov is sworn in as Turkmenistan’s new president after winning the country’s first poll with more than one candidate.

2008 - Burj Khalifa sells the highest office floor in the world for Dh44 million to a European investor.

2013 - South African double amputee Olympiad, Oscar Pistorius, is charged with murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp in Johannesburg.

2014 - Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal resigns after being in power for 49 days.

2015 - Michele Ferrero, Italy’s richest man and the owner of a global chocolate and confectionery empire, dies at the age of 89.

2016 - Central African Republic votes in elections towards restoring democratic rule and ending years of violence.

2017 - Half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un is assassinated in Malaysia.