On This Day 2026
Hello, … and welcome to day 45 of the year.

Saturday, February 14th

Today is Valentines Day, Organ Donor Day, Cream Filled Chocolates Day, World Sound Healing Day and Global Movie Day. Your star sign is Aquarius and your birthstone is Amethyst.
1992 – Wayne’s World, the hit American comedy film starring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey, was released in the United States.
Wayne's World, the hit American comedy film starring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey, was released in the United States.
Today’s birthdays
1948 – Teller (78), American magician and half of the comedy magic duo Penn & Teller, along with Penn Jillette, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

1951 – Kevin Keegan (75), English former footballer (Newcastle United, Liverpool) and manager (Manchester City, Newcastle United), born in Armthorpe, Doncaster, South Yorkshire.

1957 – Chris Lewis (69), British former cricketer (32 Test matches and 53 One Day Internationals (ODIs) for England between 1990 and 1998), born in Georgetown, Guyana.
1970 – Simon Pegg (56), English actor (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Paul, The World’s End), born in Brockworth, Gloucester, Gloucestershire.
1978 – Dean Gaffney (48), English actor, best known for his role as Robbie Jackson in Eastenders (1993 to 2004 and 2017 to 2019), born in Hammersmith, London.
1985 – Philippe Senderos (41), Swiss retired professional footballer (Arsenal, Fulham, Switzerland), born in Geneva, Switzerland.
1986 – Oliver Lee (40), English actor known for his roles as Josh Jones in Hollyoaks and Aiden Scotcher in Waterloo Road, born in Manchester.
1992 – Freddie Highmore (34), English actor (Five Children and It, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Good Doctor, Finding Neverland), born in Camden Town, London.
1999 – Harry Holland (27), English actor (Deadpool & Wolverine) and brother of Tom Holland, born in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey.
Famous deaths
1779 – James Cook (b. 1728), British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer who led three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans between 1768 and 1779.
2002 – Mick Tucker (b. 1947), English musician, and the drummer of the glam rock and hard rock band Sweet (“Ballroom Blitz”).

2013 – Reeva Steenkamp (b. 1983), South African model (FHM) and paralegal, shot and killed by boyfriend Oscar Pistorius.

2021 – Doug Mountjoy (b. 1942), Welsh snooker player from the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, and remained within the top 16 of the world rankings for 11 consecutive years.

The Feast Day of St. Valentine, patron saint of lovers.

There were fourteen Saint Valentines of ancient Rome. Of the Saint Valentine whose feast is on 14th February nothing is known, except his name and that he was buried at the Via Flaminia north of Rome ‘on this day’. Valentines day first became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. Gretna Green, historically the first village in Scotland, has been performing weddings since 1754. They originated from cross-border elopements stemming from differences between Scottish marriage laws and those in neighbouring countries.

The day today
1912 – Arizona became the 48th state to join the United States of America.

1946 – The Bank of England Act received Royal Assent, marking the nationalization of the Bank of England by Clement Attlee’s Labour government. The Act transferred ownership of the central bank from private stockholders to the Treasury, effective March 1, 1946, making it a public institution while retaining its role as the government’s banker and debt manager.

1952 – The VI Olympic Winter Games opened in Oslo, Norway, at Bislett Stadium. Princess Ragnhild inaugurated the Games, marking the first time a female official opened an Olympic event. The Games, held from February 14–25, 1952, featured 30 nations and 694 athletes, with Norway topping the medal table.
1963 – Harold Wilson was elected leader of the Labour Party following the sudden death of Hugh Gaitskell, defeating George Brown and James Callaghan. As a pragmatic leader, Wilson unified the party, focusing on modernizing Britain through the “white heat of the technological revolution,” leading to his 1964 election victory.
1966 – Australia transitioned from the imperial system of pounds, shillings, and pence to a decimal currency (dollars and cents). The Australian dollar replaced the pound, and new decimal currency stamps were introduced to support this, along with new banknotes and coins, following significant planning and a public education campaign.
1973 – Muhammad Ali defeated British heavyweight Joe Bugner by a 12-round unanimous decision at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Despite Ali’s prediction of a 7th-round knockout, the durable Bugner went the distance, though Ali controlled the fight, having entered wearing a custom robe from Elvis Presley.
1975 – The death of the writer, Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, generally known as P.G. Wodehouse. His career lasted more than 70 years and included novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He wrote 15 plays and 250 lyrics for some 30 musical comedies, but is perhaps best remembered for his stories of the butler Jeeves and his master Bertie Wooster.
1978 – Texas Instruments (TI) played a pivotal role in the development of the microchip, with engineer Jack Kilby demonstrating the first working integrated circuit in September 1958 and filing for a patent on February 6, 1959. Later, on February 14, 1978, TI was issued a patent for a “micro on a chip” (microcomputer), designed by Gary Boone and Michael Cochran, marking a major milestone in single-chip technology.
1989 – The spiritual leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, condemned Salman Rushdie’s award-winning novel, The Satanic Verses, as an insult to Islam and issued a fatwa (edict) calling on Muslims to kill the author for committing blasphemy. Rushdie and his family went into hiding.
1990 – NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft captured the “Pale Blue Dot” photograph from a record distance of 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles). Part of the first “Solar System Family Portrait,” the image shows Earth as a tiny speck within a sunbeam.
1991 – American psychological horror thriller “The Silence of the Lambs”, based on the book by Thomas Harris and starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, is released winning the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1992.
1992 – Wayne’s World, the hit American comedy film starring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey based on the popular Saturday Night Live sketch, was released in the United States. The film is famous for popularizing catchphrases like “Party on!”, “Schwing!”, and “Not!”. It also features the iconic scene where the characters headbang to Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”.
1995 – Sizewell B nuclear processing plant in Suffolk, first synchronised with the national grid. It was the UK’s only commercial pressurised water reactor (PWR) power station, with a single reactor.
2000 – The NASA NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft successfully entered orbit around the asteroid 433 Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit a small body. Part of the Discovery Program, the mission conducted a year-long study, including a first-ever landing on an asteroid on February 12, 2001.
2003 – Dolly the sheep, the first cloned mammal, was put down after being diagnosed with a severe lung infection.
2005 – YouTube was founded in San Mateo, California, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim & the domain name youtube.com was activated. YouTube officially launched on December 15, 2005, by which time the site was receiving 8 million daily views.
2006 – Chip and PIN was introduced. UK cardholders had to use their PIN (Personal Identification Number) to be sure that they could pay for goods.
2010 – Alexandre Bilodeau wins the gold medal in the freestyle skiing men’s moguls event, becoming the first Canadian to win gold during an Olympic Games hosted in Canada.
2013 – Oscar Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, a paralegal and model, in his Pretoria home. He claimed he had mistaken Steenkamp for an intruder hiding in the bathroom. He was arrested and charged with murder.
2014 – At the Sochi Winter Olympics, the men’s figure skating singles event marked a historic milestone as all three medalists were of Asian descent: Yuzuru Hanyu (Japan) won gold, Patrick Chan (Canada) took silver, and Denis Ten (Kazakhstan) secured bronze. This 2014 podium represented a significant moment in Olympic figure skating history.
Today in music
1955 – Ruby Murray (also cockney rhyming slang for curry) was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Softly, Softly’. The Belfast-born recording and TV star of the mid 50s was the first act to score five simultaneous Top 20 hits.
1967 – Aretha Franklin records her single “Respect” at Atlantic Studio in NYC; her rendition of Otis Redding’s tune becomes Billboard Song of the Year.

1968 – Manfred Mann were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with their version of the Bob Dylan song ‘The Mighty Quinn’ which was also a No.10 hit in the US. Dylan recorded the song in 1967 during the Basement Tapes sessions, but did not release a version for another three years.

1970 – The Who appeared at Leeds University. The show was recorded for the bands forthcoming ‘Live At Leeds’ album. Since its initial reception, Live at Leeds has been cited by several music critics as the best live rock recording of all time.
1972 – John Lennon and Yoko Ono started a five-episode run as co-hosts on the Mike Douglas US TV show. The Philadelphia-based talk show was the most popular show on daytime television, seen by about 40 million people a week. As hosts, Lennon and Ono broached controversial topics, including the empowerment of women, the deterioration of the environment, as well as police violence.
1987 – Bon Jovi started a four week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’, the group’s second US No.1, was a No.4 hit in the UK. Jon Bon Jovi did not like the original recording of this song, which can be found as a hidden track on 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong. Lead guitarist Richie Sambora, however, convinced him the song was good, and they reworked it with a new bassline.
1992 – The film Waynes World, which featured appearances from Meat Loaf and Alice Cooper premiered in the US. The use of Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in the film propelled the song to No.2 on the US singles charts nearly 20 years after its first release.
1999 – Lenny Kravitz scored his first UK No.1 single with ‘Fly Away’ a No.12 hit in the US. The track which had been used in a Peugeot TV ad won a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Performance in 1999.
2002 – English drummer and singer Mick Tucker with glam rock band Sweet died of leukaemia aged 54. Sweet had the 1973 UK No.1 single ‘Blockbuster’, plus 14 other UK Top 40 singles. He was a founding member of the band Sweetshop in January 1968. “Sweetshop” was shortened to “The Sweet” in 1968.
2005 – Kerrang! magazine announced the results of its readers’ poll for the best British rock albums ever. The Top 10 were: No.1, Black Sabbath’s Black Sabbath, No.2, Iron Maiden’s Number Of The Beast. Sex Pistols’ Never Mind The Bollock’s, Here’s The Sex Pistols; No. 4, Led Zeppelin IV; No.5, Black Sabbath’s Paranoid; No.6, Muse’s Absolution; No.7, The Clash’s London Calling; No.8, Queen’s Sheer Heart Attack; No.9, Iron Maiden’s Iron Maiden and No.10, Manic Street Preachers’ The Holy Bible.
2007 – Winners at the 27th annual Brit Awards at London’s Earls Court included Muse who won Best British Live Act, British Breakthrough Act went to The Fratellis. Winner of the Best International Breakthrough Act was Orson. Take That won the first-ever live vote, when they took home the Best British Single for ‘Patience.’ Arctic Monkeys were named Best British Group, James Morrison was named Best British Male and Amy Winehouse won Best British Female. Justin Timberlake won Best International Male and Nelly Furtado won Best International female. The Killers won Best International Group and Best International Album for Sam’s Town and Oasis won the Outstanding Contribution to Music Award.
2008 – Oasis singer Liam Gallagher married his long-term partner, the ex-All Saints singer Nicole Appleton at a civil ceremony in London. The venue, Westminster Register Office, was where Gallagher married his first wife, Patsy Kensit, in 1997. Gallagher was divorced from Appleton in April 2014.
2010 – Everybody Hurts, recorded to help Haiti’s earthquake victims went to No.1 on the UK singles chart. The REM cover featured Leona Lewis, Kylie Minogue, Robbie Williams and Take That sold over 453,000 copies in its first week.
2024 – Guitarist Ian Amey, (Tich), from the British pop/rock group, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich, died at his home in Salisbury, Wiltshire at the age of 79. They scored the 1968 UK No.1 single ‘Legend Of Xanadu’.
Today in history
1400 – The death of King Richard II at Pontefract Castle, Yorkshire (Pontefract Castle was once the most important castle in the whole of Yorkshire). Sources think that the king was either intentionally neglected until he starved to death or that he was cruelly murdered in the dungeons. The once huge castle was intentionally destroyed by Parliament and the will of the locals as it had been a long-time magnet for trouble, death and despair with armies regularly pillaging the castle and generally pillaging the town as well.
1477 – Margery Brews sent a letter to John Paston in Norfolk, addressed – Be my olde Valentine. It is the oldest known Valentine’s Day message in the English language and was uncovered by the British Library.
1566 – Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, was declared a heretic. He was tried for treason and heresy after Mary I, a Roman Catholic, came to the throne. Although he apparently reconciled himself with the Roman Catholic Church, on the day of his execution, on 21st March 1556, he dramatically withdrew earlier statements and was thus a heretic to Roman Catholics and a martyr to others.
1779 – Captain Cook, British explorer, navigator and cartographer, was stabbed to death on the beach at Kealakekua (Hawaii) by the Polynesian natives. Numerous memorials worldwide have been dedicated to him, including one at Whitby, North Yorkshire, where James Cook served as a merchant navy apprentice.
1797 – A British fleet of 15 ships commanded by Admiral Sir John Jervis defeated a larger 27-ship Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent, Portugal, during the French Revolutionary Wars. Supported by Captain Horatio Nelson’s audacious initiative, the British disrupted the Spanish line, capturing four ships and preventing a strategic merger with the French.
1853 – London’s famous children’s hospital in Great Ormond Street accepted its first patient, three year-old Eliza Armstrong. It was the first hospital in the English speaking world providing in-patient beds specifically for children.
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