Why February 14 Holds a Special Place in History

1689 English parliament places Mary Stuart and Prince William III on the throne
1747 Astronomer James Bradley presents his discovery of the wobbling motion of the Earth on its axis to the Royal Society, London
1777 US Congress commissions Benjamin Lincoln a major general in the Continental Army
1778 "Stars & Stripes" arrives in foreign port for 1st time (France)
1803 Chief Justice John Marshall declares that any act of U.S. Congress that conflicts with the Constitution is void
1844 John C. Frémont and his party become the first Europeans to discover Lake Tahoe during his second expedition through the American West
1849 In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes first serving US President to have his photograph taken (by Matthew Brady).
1855 Texas is linked by telegraph to the rest of the United States, with the completion of a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas.
1859 Oregon admitted as 33rd state of the Union
1862 Galena, 1st US iron-clad warship for service at sea, launched, Connecticut
1870 Seraph Young becomes the first woman to legally vote in the modern United States, two days after the Utah legislature passed a law allowing women the vote
1876 Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray apply separately for telephone patents, the Supreme Court eventually rules Bell the rightful inventor
1883 1st state labor union legislation; New Jersey legalizes unions
1899 US Congress begins using voting machines
1903 President Theodore Roosevelt signs bill into law establishing US Department of Commerce & Labor
1912 1st US submarines with diesel engines commissioned, Groton, Connecticut
1919 United Parcel Service forms
1924 Thomas J. Watson Sr. renames the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) as International Business Machines (IBM)
1954 Senator John F. Kennedy appears on "Meet the Press”
1962 US 1st lady Jacqueline Kennedy conducts White House tour on TV
1971 Richard Nixon installs secret taping system in the White House
1989 The first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System are placed into orbit.
2019 Amazon cancels plans to build a corporate campus in Long Island, Queens, New York after widespread opposition
2023 Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley announces she is running for US President, the first to challenge Donald Trump for the Republican party nomination

For even more On This Date In History, visit our friends at https://www.onthisday.com/