| 17431 | February 14 | Event | 1852 – Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, the first hospital in England to provide in-patient beds specifically for children, is founded in London. |
| 17432 | February 14 | Event | 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. |
| 17433 | February 14 | Event | 1859 – Oregon is admitted as the 33rd U.S. state. |
| 17434 | February 14 | Event | 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone, as does Elisha Gray. |
| 17435 | February 14 | Event | 1879 – The War of the Pacific breaks out when Chilean armed forces occupy the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta. |
| 17436 | February 14 | Event | 1899 – Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections. |
| 17437 | February 14 | Event | 1900 – Second Boer War: In South Africa, 20,000 British troops invade the Orange Free State. |
| 17438 | February 14 | Event | 1903 – The United States Department of Commerce and Labor is established (later split into the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor). |
| 17439 | February 14 | Event | 1912 – Arizona is admitted as the 48th U.S. state. |
| 17440 | February 14 | Event | 1912 – In Groton, Connecticut, the first diesel-powered submarine is commissioned. |
| 17441 | February 14 | Event | 1918 – The Soviet Union adopts the Gregorian calendar (on 1 February according to the Julian calendar). |
| 17442 | February 14 | Event | 1919 – The Polish–Soviet War begins. |
| 17443 | February 14 | Event | 1920 – The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago. |
| 17444 | February 14 | Event | 1924 – The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changes its name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). |
| 17445 | February 14 | Event | 1929 – Saint Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone's gang, are murdered in Chicago. |
| 17446 | February 14 | Event | 1942 – Battle of Pasir Panjang contributes to the fall of Singapore. |
| 17447 | February 14 | Event | 1943 – World War II: Rostov-on-Don, Russia is liberated. |
| 17448 | February 14 | Event | 1943 – World War II: Tunisia Campaign – General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim's Fifth Panzer Army launches a concerted attack against Allied positions in Tunisia. |
| 17449 | February 14 | Event | 1944 – World War II: Anti-Japanese revolt on Java. |
| 17450 | February 14 | Event | 1945 – World War II: On the first day of the bombing of Dresden, the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces begin fire-bombing Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony. |
| 17451 | February 14 | Event | 1945 – World War II: Navigational error leads to the mistaken bombing of Prague, Czechoslovakia by an American squadron of B-17s assisting in the Soviet's Vistula–Oder Offensive. |
| 17452 | February 14 | Event | 1945 – World War II: Mostar is liberated by Yugoslav partisans. |
| 17453 | February 14 | Event | 1945 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt meets with King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy, officially beginning U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relations. |
| 17454 | February 14 | Event | 1946 – The Bank of England is nationalized. |
| 17455 | February 14 | Event | 1949 – The Knesset (Israeli parliament) convenes for the first time. |
| 17456 | February 14 | Event | 1949 – The Asbestos Strike begins in Canada. The strike marks the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec. |
| 17457 | February 14 | Event | 1950 – Chinese Civil War: The National Revolutionary Army instigates the unsuccessful Battle of Tianquan against the People's Liberation Army. |
| 17458 | February 14 | Event | 1956 – The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union begins in Moscow. On the last night of the meeting, Premier Nikita Khrushchev condemns Joseph Stalin's crimes in a secret speech. |
| 17459 | February 14 | Event | 1961 – Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California. |
| 17460 | February 14 | Event | 1962 – First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy takes television viewers on a tour of the White House. |