* According to gourmet
chocolate maker, Godiva Chocolate, 80% of
men purchase a gift for their Valentine, compared to only 65% of
women?
* Flowers are considered by both sexes to be
the most romantic Valentine’s Day gift, followed by jewelery, lingerie, chocolates and perfume?
* In
496, Pope Gelasius set aside February 14
as the date to honor St. Valentine?...Commercial valentines first appeared around
1800?
* Credit for creating the first valentine in the
United
States goes to
Esther Howland, student at
Mt.
Holyoke
College, around
1830?
Alexander Graham Bell applied
for his patent to the telephone on Valentine’s Day, 1876?
*
Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor founded, February
14, 1881?
*
At the home of Theodore Roosevelt in
New
York City,
his mother died of typhoid fever, and his wife
Alice
died of Bright’s disease, both on
February
14, 1884?
*
Chaim Weizmann
was elected first president of
Israel
February
14, 1949?
*
Christopher Latham Sholes, inventor of the
first practical typewriter, was born February
14, 1819?
*
The first voting machines for use in federal elections were approved
by Congress, and the bill was signed by President William McKinley,
on February
14, 1899?
*
On February
14, 1879,
“La Marseillaise” officially became the French national anthem?
*
The German battleship was launched February
14, 1939?
*
Captain James Cook was dismembered by natives of the
Sandwich
Islands
(Hawaii)
on February
14, 1779?
*
Savannah,
Georgia,
was founded on February
14, 1733?
*
Two states were admitted to the
Union
of February 14: Oregon
in 1859 and Arizona
in 1912?
*
The U.S.
Department of Commerce and Labor was
established by Congress, February
14, 1903?
Also on February
14:
* In 1842 Juliet Carson was
born. She opened the
New
York
School of Cookery
in 1876 and is generally considered to be the founding mother of
Domestic Science. But just why she called it Science, no one has
been able to figure out.
*
Yohio’ Ozaki, mayor of Tokyo, presented a
gift of 3,000 cherry trees comprising 12 varieties to the
United
States.
The trees were shipped from
Yokohama
on the "SS Awa Maru" on
February
14, 1912.
*
On February
14, 1803:
Moses Coats, from Downington,
Pennsylvania,
invented the apple corer.
*
Valentine,
Nebraska,
was named in honor of Congressman E.K.
Valentine, elected from that district.
*
George Washington Gale Ferris, an American engineer, was born
February 14, 1859. He invented the Ferris Wheel for the World’s
Columbian Exposition at
Chicago
in 1893.
Valentine Legends:
Who
was St. Valentine, exactly?
We
don’t know for sure, but one legend holds that Valentinus, a priest in third century Rome,
married a couple on the sly, even though marriage was temporarily
forbidden by Emperor Claudius who was in the throes of a battle and
believed that bachelor soldiers would do a better job at fighting. –
Another
legend has it that Valentinus was a
Christian who was imprisoned for his refusal to worship pagan gods.
The prisoner is said to have cured the jailer’s blind daughter with
prayer, and on the day of his execution – February 14 – sent her
farewell note signed, “Your Valentine.”
St.
Valentine has been the patron saint of lovers ever
since.  Hartson Dowd
|