What happened on your birthday?

What’s Your Vietnam War Draft Lottery Number?

The Vietnam War draft lottery ran from 1969 to 1972. If you were born on February 14, would your number have been called?

  • Vietnam War 1969 Lottery
    CalledDrafted
    4
  • Vietnam War 1970 Lottery
    Not CalledNot drafted
    260
  • Vietnam War 1971 Lottery
    CalledDrafted
    64
  • Vietnam War 1972 Lottery
    Not CalledNot drafted
    348

Read on to learn more about the Vietnam war draft lottery.





more events on February 14

  • 1989

    Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini charges that Salman Rushdie’s novel, The Satanic Verses, is blasphemous and issues an edict (fatwa) calling on Muslims to kill Rushdie.

  • 1985

    Vietnamese troops surround the main Khmer Rouge base at Phnom Malai.

  • 1979

    Armed guerrillas attack the U.S. embassy in Tehran.

  • 1973

    The United States and Hanoi set up a group to channel reconstruction aid directly to Hanoi.

  • 1971

    Moscow publicizes a new five-year plan geared to expanding consumer production.

  • 1965

    Malcolm X’s home is firebombed. No injuries are reported.

  • 1957

    The Georgia state senate outlaws interracial athletics.

  • 1955

    A Jewish couple loses their fight to adopt Catholic twins as the U.S. Supreme Court refuses to rule on state law.

  • 1949

    The United States charges the Soviet Union with interning up to 14 million in labor camps.

  • 1945

    The siege of Budapest ends as the Soviets take the city. Only 785 German and Hungarian soldiers managed to escape.

  • 800 Allied aircraft firebomb the German city of Dresden. Smaller followup bombing raids last until April with a total death toll of between 35,000 to 130,000 civilians.

  • 1942

    Japanese paratroopers attack Sumatra. Aidan MacCarthy‘s RAF unit flew to Palembang, in eastern Sumatra, where 30 Royal Australian Air Force Lockheed A-28 Hudson bombers were waiting.

  • 1940

    Britain announces that all merchant ships will be armed.

  • 1939

    Germany launches the battleship Bismarck.

  • 1934

    Happy Valentine’s Day! Today is St. Valentine’s Day, the feast day of two Christian martyrs named Valentine: one a priest and physician, the other the Bishop of Terni. Both are purported to have been beheaded on this day. The custom of sending handmade ‘valentines’ to one’s beloved became popular during the 17th century and was first commercialized in the United States in the 1840s. 

  • 1929

    Chicago gang war between Al Capone and George “Bugs” Moran culminates with several Moran confederates being gunned down in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

  • 1924

    Thomas Watson founds International Business Machines Corp.

  • 1920

    The League of Women Voters is formed in Chicago in celebration of the imminent ratification of the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote.

  • 1918

    Warsaw demonstrators protest the transfer of Polish territory to the Ukraine.

  • 1915

    Kaiser Wilhelm II invites the U.S. Ambassador to Berlin in order to confer on the war.

  • 1912

    Arizona becomes the 48th state in the Union.

  • 1904

    The “Missouri Kid” is captured in Kansas.

  • 1900

    General Roberts invades South Africa’s Orange Free State with 20,000 British troops.

  • 1894

    Mary Lucinda Cardwell Dawson, founded the National Negro Opera Company (NNOC) and was appointed to President John F. Kennedy‘s National Committee on Music.

  • Jack Benny, comedian, radio and television performer, and violinist.

  • 1876

    Rival inventors Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell both apply for patents for the telephone.

  • 1870

    Esther Morris becomes the world’s first female justice of the peace.

  • 1859

    George Washington Gale Ferris, inventor of the Ferris Wheel.

  • Oregon is admitted as the thirty-third state.

  • 1848

    James Polk becomes the first U.S. President to be photographed in office by Matthew Brady.

  • 1845

    Quinton Hogg, English philanthropist.

  • 1819

    Christopher Latham Sholes, inventor of the first practical typewriter.

  • 1817

    Frederick Douglass, slave, and later, activist and author.

  • 1797

    The Spanish fleet is destroyed by the British under Admiral Jervis (with Nelson in support) at the battle of Cape St. Vincent, off Portugal.

  • 1779

    American Loyalists are defeated by Patriots at Kettle Creek, Ga.

  • 1760

    Richard Allen, first black ordained by a Methodist-Episcopal church.

  • 1549

    Maximilian II, brother of the Emperor Charles V, is recognized as the future king of Bohemia.

  • 1400

    The deposed Richard II is murdered in Pontefract Castle in Yorkshire.

  • 1349

    2,000 Jews are burned at the stake in Strasbourg, Germany.