On This Day February 14th

 OTD

February 14th is the Forty-fifth day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 320 days remain until the end of the year.

 

Events

842 – Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the French and German languages.

1556 – Having been declared a heretic and laicized by Pope Paul IV on 4 December 1555, Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer is publicly defrocked at Christ Church Cathedral

1778 – A foreign naval vessel formally recognizes The United States flag for the first time when French Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte renders a nine-gun salute to the USS Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones.

1779 – Native Hawaiians kill James Cook near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii.

1849 – In New York City, James Knox Polk became the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken.

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.

1876 – Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone.

1929 – Saint Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone's gang, are murdered in Chicago.

1961 – Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California.

2000 – The spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker enters orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.

2005 – YouTube is launched by a group of college students, eventually becoming the largest video-sharing website in the world and a primary source for viral videos.

 

Birthdays

1468 – Johannes Werner, German priest and mathematician (d. 1522)

1614 – John Wilkins, English bishop, academic and natural philosopher (d. 1672)

1813 – Lydia Hamilton Smith, African-American businesswoman (d. 1884)

1819 – Christopher Latham Sholes, American journalist and politician, invented the typewriter (d. 1890)

1859 – George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., American engineer, inventor of the Ferris wheel (d. 1896)

1894 – Jack Benny, American actor and producer (d. 1974)

1913 – Woody Hayes, American football player and coach (d. 1987)

1937 – Magic Sam, American singer and guitarist (d. 1969)

1960 – Jim Kelly was an American football player and businessman.

1972 – Rob Thomas, American singer-songwriter

1999 – Tyler Adams, American soccer player[65]

 

Holiday Spotlight

Valentines Day

The believed origins came from the feast for the patron saint named Valentine, by the Catholic Church in 496 A.D. This was a way to overshadow and later replace the deemed brutal Pagan festival of Lupercalia. This festival was celebrated at the beginning of spring and paid homage to the Roman God of Agriculture, Faunus, on February 15. A goat and dog would be sacrificed, symbolizing fertility and purity. This would then involve the hide of the goat being torn into strips, dipped in the sacrificial blood, and painted across the women and crops.

Despite there being many Valentines associated with the patron saints day, historians believe that the romanticized element of how Valentine’s Day is celebrated today came from a priest who emperor Claudius II Gothicus martyred in around 270 A.D. Varying stories talk about different St Valentines, with some saying one was marrying couples in secret to prevent men going off to war, another healed the blind, and the next wrote a message to his daughter signed ‘your Valentine.’ There is also a possibility that they could be the same person!

It was during the 1400s that the day was associated with romance. Messages, or ‘Valentines’ as they were called, began to appear. Hand-written letters and poems declaring affection or love became more and more popular. In the mid-1800s, Valentine’s cards started to be commercially produced, and traditional gifts were candy and flowers, especially red roses symbolizing love and beauty.

Valentine’s Day has become inclusive of friends and family to show how much you care and love them. Companies have seized the opportunity to fit their products and services into the Valentine’s Day period to benefit from the sales boost, which continues to grow yearly.

 

Others Include.

Ash Wednesday

Frederick Douglass Day

International Book Giving Day

League of Women Voters Day

Library Lovers Day

National Call in Single Day

National Condom Awareness Day

National Creme-Filled Chocolates Day

National Donor Day

National Ferris Wheel Day

National Have a Heart Day

National Pet Theft Awareness Day

National Women's Heart Day

Pet Theft Awareness Day

Quirky Alone Day

Race Relations Day

Read to Your Child Day

Singles Awareness Day (S.A.D.)

Statehood Day in Arizona

Statehood Day in Oregon

Valentine's Day

World Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Day

World Sound Healing Day

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