HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY – St. Valentine, (died 3rd century, Rome; feast day February 14), name of one or two legendary Christian martyrs whose lives seem to be historically based. Although the Roman Catholic Church continues to recognize St. Valentine as a saint of the church, he was removed from the General Roman Calendar in 1969 because of the lack of reliable information about him. He is the patron saint of lovers, epileptics, and beekeepers.
By some accounts, St. Valentine was a Roman priest and physician who suffered martyrdom during the persecution of Christians by the emperor Claudius II Gothicus about 270. He was buried on the Via Flaminia, and Pope Julius I reportedly built a basilica over his grave. Other narratives identify him as the bishop of Terni, Italy, who was martyred, apparently also in Rome, and whose relics were later taken to Terni. It is possible these are different versions of the same original account and refer to only one person.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Valentine
0842 – Charles II & Louis the German sign The Oaths of Strasbourg, a pact uniting their armies in fights against their older brother Lothar
1076 – Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV (for the 1st time)
1130 – Jewish Cardinal Pietro Pierleone elected as anti-pope Anacletus II
1349 – 900 Jews are burned alive in Strasbourg and similar number banned from the city after being blamed for the spread of the Black Death
1400 – The deposed Richard II is murdered in Pontefract Castle in Yorkshire.
1540 – Emperor Charles V enters Ghent without resistance, executes rebels
1549 – Maximilian II, brother of the Emperor Charles V, is recognized as the future king of Bohemia.
1610 – Polish King Sigismund III, Forges Dimitri #2 & Romanov family sign covenant against Tsar Vasili Shushki
1615 – Peruvian nobleman Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala writes to offer Spanish King Philip III his newly completed Chronicle of Andean history and Spanish rule – now only indigenous Andean viewpoint to survive
1670 – Roman Catholic Emperor Leopold I chases Jews out of Vienna
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
1778 – The Stars and Stripes was carried to a foreign port, in France, for the first time. It was aboard the American ship Ranger.
1803 – Chief Justice John Marshall declares that any act of U.S. Congress that conflicts with the Constitution is void
1804 – Jean Victor Marie Moreau, French general who plotted to overthrow Napoleon in the Pichegru Conspiracy, arrested, and exiled to the United States
1849 – The first photograph of a U.S. President, while in office, was taken by Matthew Brady in New York City. President James Polk was the subject of the picture.
1859 – Oregon became the 33rd member of the Union.
1870 – Esther Morris appointed US’ first female in Justice of the Peace in South Pass City, Wyoming, after previous justice, R.S. Barr, resigned to protest passage of Wyoming Territory’s women’s suffrage amendment in 1869
1876 – Alexander Graham Bell filed an application for a patent for the telephone. It was officially issued on March 7, 1876.
1894 – Venus is both a morning star & evening star
1895 – Oscar Wilde’s final play, “The Importance of Being Earnest,” opened at the St. James’ Theatre in London.
1896 – Austro-Hungarian Zionist Theodor Herzl publishes “Der Judenstaat” (The Jewish State), encouraging Jews to purchase land in Palestine
1899 – The U.S. Congress approved voting machines for use in federal elections.
1900 – Russia imposed tighter imperial control over Finland in response to an international petition for Finland’s freedom.
1900 – In South Africa, British Gen. Roberts invaded Orange Free State with 20,000 troops.
1903 – The U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor was established.
1904 – The “Missouri Kid” is captured in Kansas.
1912 – The first diesel engine submarine was commissioned in Groton, CT.
1912 – Arizona was admitted as the 48th U.S. state.
1920 – The League of Women Voters was founded in Chicago. The first president of the organization was Maude Wood Park.
1924 – Thomas J. Watson renames the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) as International Business Machines (IBM)
1929 – The “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” took place in Chicago, IL. Seven gangsters who were rivals of Al Capone were killed.
1940 – Britain announces that all merchant ships will be armed.
1945 – Peru, Paraguay, Chile and Ecuador joined the United Nations.
1946 – ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was unveiled. The device, built at the University of Pennsylvania, was the world’s first general purpose electronic computer.
1949 – The Knesset, the parliament of Israel, convenes for the first time, The term “Knesset” is derived from the Hebrew name of an ancient Great Assembly: Anshei Knesset HaGedolah.
1949 – The United States charges the Soviet Union with interning up to 14 million in labor camps.
1955 – A Jewish couple loses their fight to adopt Catholic twins as the U.S. Supreme Court refuses to rule on state law.
1957 – The Georgia state senate outlaws interracial athletics.
1961 – Lawrencium, element 103, was first produced in Berkely, CA.
1962 – U.S. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy gave a tour of the White House on television.
1966 – Rick Mount of Lebanon, IN, became the first high school, male athlete to be pictured on the cover of “Sports Illustrated”.
1967 – Latin American nuclear free zone proposal drawn up
1968 – The fourth Madison Square Gardens opened.
1971 – Richard Nixon installs secret taping system in the White House
1971 – Moscow publicizes a new five-year plan geared to expanding consumer production.
1973 – The United States and Hanoi set up a group to channel reconstruction aid directly to Hanoi.
1979 – Adolph Dubs, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, was kidnapped in Kabul by Muslim extremists. He was killed in a shootout between his abductors and police.
1980 – Walter Cronkite announced his retirement from the “CBS Evening News.”
1985 – Vietnamese troops surround the main Khmer Rouge base at Phnom Malai.
1985 – Cable News Network (CNN) reporter Jeremy Levin was freed. He had been being held in Lebanon by extremists.
1989 – Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini called on Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie because of his novel “The Satanic Verses.”
1989 – The first satellite of the Global Positioning System was placed into orbit around Earth.
1989 – Union Carbide agreed to pay $470 million to the government of India. The court-ordered settlement was a result of the 1984 Bhopal gas leak disaster.
1992 – Cease fire in Somalia begins
1998 – U.S. authorities officially announced that Eric Rudolph was a suspect in a bombing of an abortion clinic in Alabama.
2002 – The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Shays-Meehan bill. The bill, if passed by the U.S. Senate, would ban millions of unregulated money that goes to the national political parties.
2002 – Sylvester Stallone filed a lawsuit against Kenneth Starr. The suit alleged that Starr had given bad advice about selling Planet Hollywood stock.
2003 – Dolly, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult, had shown signs of premature aging and contracted various diseases put to death
2004 – In a suburb of Moscow, Russia, the roof of the Transvaal water park collapses, killing more than 25 people, and wounding more than 100 others.
2005 – The video-sharing website YouTube was activated.
2005 – Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is assassinated, Several sources reported that the U.N. Special Tribunal for Lebanon found compelling evidence for the Lebanese militia Hezbollah’s involvement.
2005 – Seven people are killed and 151 wounded in a series of bombings by suspected Al-Qaeda-linked militants that hit the Philippines’ Makati financial district in Metro Manila, Davao City, and General Santos City.
2008 – Northern Illinois University shooting: a gunman opened fire in a lecture hall of the DeKalb County, Illinois university resulting in 24 casualties; 6 fatalities (including gunman) and 18 injured.
2018 – Ex-student Nikolas Cruz shoots and kills 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Florida, before being captured
2019 – Amazon cancels plans to build a corporate campus in Long Island, Queens, New York after widespread opposition
2019 – Colombian Juan Carlos Sánchez Latorre jailed for sexual abuse of 276 children in Barranquilla
2019 – Egyptian parliament approves measures to enable President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to extend his rule till 2034
2019 – Explosive-packed vehicle rams paramilitary convoy in Indian-controlled Kashmir killing at least 40. Islamic group Jaish-e-Mohammad claim responsibility.
2020 – More than 800,000 people displaced from their homes in north-western Syria amid assault by Syrian pro-government forces on last rebel stronghold
2021 – Guinea declares an Ebola epidemic after three deaths, its first deaths since 2016
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
