Feb. 14 (UPI) — On this date in history:
In 1779, British navigator and explorer James Cook, first known European to reach the Hawaiian Islands, was stabbed to death by island natives while investigating the theft of a boat.
In 1849, James Polk became the first U.S. president to be photographed while in office. The photographer was Mathew Brady, who is famous for his Civil War pictures.
In 1859, Oregon was admitted as the 33rd member of the United States.
In 1903, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt signed a law creating the Department of Commerce and Labor.
In 1912, Arizona was admitted as the 48th member of the United States.
In 1920, the League of Women Voters was formed in Chicago.
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In 1929, in what became known as the “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre,” gunmen believed to be working for Prohibition-era crime boss Al Capone killed seven members of the rival George “Bugs” Moran gang in a Chicago garage.
In 1949, Israel’s legislature, the Knesset, convened for the first time.
In 1989, Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini, offended by The Satanic Verses, called on Muslims to kill its author, Salman Rushdie. He offered a $1 million reward for Rushdie’s death, sending the writer into hiding. Iran rescinded the death sentence in 1998.
In 1990, 90 people were killed and 56 injured in the crash of an Indian Airlines Airbus 320, about 50 yards short of a runway in Bangalore, India.
In 1994, a convicted serial killer who admitted killing 55 people — Andrei Chikatilo — was executed by a firing squad in a Russian prison.
In 2005, former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated. Twenty-one others died with him.
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In 2005, video-sharing website YouTube was founded by former PayPal employees. The company was purchased by Google a year and a half later for $1.65 billion.
In 2011, Chevron was ordered to pay $8.6 billion to clean up oil pollution in a rain forest area in northeastern Ecuador.
In 2018, a 19-year-old who had been expelled for discipline problems walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and fatally shot 17 people, including 14 students.
In 2022, scientists determined that a megadrought that had gripped the southwestern North America for more than two decades was the driest such event in the region in at least 1,200 years.
In 2024, one person was killed and more than 20 injured after gunmen opened fire on partygoers near the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory parade.
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