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reetings from Australia. 

Welcome to this Red-Letter Day. Below you will find today's global celebrations, birthdays and events.

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Pip Wilson

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Today is

You did see that on the Lupercal,
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse.
Shakespeare: Mark Antony speaking of Caesar (Julius Caesar, III, ii); he offered him the crown on the day of the Roman Festival of Lupercalia

Dear Lady be cautious of Cupid
List well to the lines of this verse
To be kissed by a fool is stupid
To be fooled by a kiss is worse.
Anon

Birds of a feather 
Upon St Valentine's Day will meet all together.
English traditional proverb

St Valentine
Set thy hopper [seed basket] by mine.
Traditional English proverb

Winter's back breaks about the middle of February.
Traditional English proverb

And, cosyn, uppon Fryday is Sent Volentynes Day, and every brydde chesyth hym a make.
Gairdner; Paston Letter, iii, 169

On St Valentine all the birds of the air in couples do join.
English traditional proverb

On St Valentine's Day cast beans in clay,
But on St Chad sow good and bad.
English traditional proverb

On St Valentine's Day,
Beans should be in the clay.
Huntingdonshire cottagers' form of the English traditional proverb

In Valentine March lays her line.
English traditional proverb

On St Valentine's Day
Will a good goose lay;
If she be a good goose,
Her dame well to pay,
She will lay two eggs
before Valentine's Day.
English traditional proverb

To St Valentine the Spring is a neighbour.
English traditional proverb

For this was on Saint Valentine's Day,
When ev'ry fowl cometh to choose her make (mate) …
Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1345 - 1400), Assembly of the Fowls

Saint Valentine, thou art full high on loft,
Which driveth away the long nightes black,
Thus singen smalle foules for thy sake,
Will have they cause for to gladden oft,
Since each of them recovered hath his Make (Mate):
Full blissful may they sing, when they awake.
Chaucer

Seynte Valentine. Of custome yeere by yeere
Men have an usaunce, in this regioun,
To loke and serche Cupides kalendere,
And chose theyr choyse, by grete affeccioun;
Such as ben move with Cupides mocioun,
Takyng theyre choyse as theyr sort doth falle:
But I love oon whiche excellith alle.
English poet monk, John Lydgate (c. 1370 - c. 1451), from a poem in praise of Queen Catherine, consort to Henry V

Muse, bid the moon awake,
Sad winter now declines,
Each bird doth choose a mate,
This day's Saint Valentine's
Michael Drayton, English poet (1563 - 1631)

See Grandpa Pencil's page of poems for Valentine's Day

Hail, Bishop Valentine! whose day this is;
All the air is thy diocese,
And all the chirping choristers
And other birds are thy parishioners.
John Donne (?1572 - 1631); an epithalamium on the wedding of Princess Elizabeth to Frederick, Count Palatine of the Rhine (February 14, 1614)

Oft have I heard both youths and virgins say
Birds choose their mates, and couple too, today
But by their flight I never can divine
When I shall couple with my Valentine.
Robert Herrick; 'Hesperides', 1648

Called out in the morning by Mr. Moore, whose voice my wife hearing in my dressing-chamber with me, got herself ready, and came down and challenged him for her valentine, this being the day.
Samuel Pepys (1633 - 1703), Diary, February 14, 1660

(Valentine's day). Up early and to Sir W. Batten's, but would not go in till I asked whether they that opened the door was a man or a woman, and Mingo, who was there, answered a woman, which, with his tone, made me laugh; so up I went and took Mrs. Martha for my Valentine (which I do only for complacency), and Sir W. Batten he go in the same manner to my wife, and so we were very merry.
Samuel Pepys, Diary, February 14, 1661

This morning comes in W. Bowyer who was my wife's Valentine ...
Samuel Pepys , Diary, February 14, 1662  

This morning came up to my wife's bedside little Will Mercer to be her valentine, and brought her name written upon blue paper in gold letters.
Samuel Pepys, Diary, February 14, 1667

Go, little gloves, salute my Valentine
Which was, which is, which must and shall be mine.
Love to thee I send these gloves
If you love me, leave out the "g"
And make a pair of loves.
Seventeenth-century English verse on a Valentine card

Last Valentine, the day when birds of kind
Their paramours with mutual chirpings find,
I early rose just at the break of day,
before the sun had chased the stars away:
A-field I went, amid the morning dew,
To milk my kine (for so should housewives do).
Thee first I spied – and the first swain we see,
In spite of Fortune shall our true love be.
English poet John Gay (1685 - 1732) (the words are of a rural woman)

Yestreen at the valentines' dealing,
My heart to my mou gied a sten 
For thrice I drew ane without failing,
And thrice it was written "Tam Glen".
From a 1790 poem

The weary and all for-spent twopenny postman sinks beneath a load of delicate embarrassments, not his own.
Elia (Charles Lamb) quoted by William Hone, The Every-Day Book, or a Guide to the Year, William Tegg and Co., London, 1878; 1825-26 edition online,  p110

Knock the kettle against the van
Give us a penny if you can
We be ragged and you be fine
Please to give us a Valentine.
Up with the kettle and down the spout
Give us a penny and we'll get out.
Children's begging rhyme, England

Good morrow Valentine
I'll be yours
If you'll be mine
Valentine – Valentine
Traditional rhyme, England

Lonely? No one to love? Why not come and drink heavily.
Valentine's Day advertisement in the Cambodia Daily, promoting Phnom Penh's Rock Hard Café

Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.
Oscar Wilde, anarchist. The first showing of his last play, The Importance of Being Earnest, was on February 14, 1895

Have you got the opium, dear?
Groucho Marx to his wife, February 14, 1931 (see below for context)

February 14 is the 45^th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 320 days remaining (321 in leap years).
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Feast day of St Valentine of Rome

(Yellow crocus, Crocus mœsiacus, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)

Excerpted from the Wilson's Almanac Valentine's Day page

This year for Valentine's Day, why not dump the sentimental cards and the dozen red roses, and do something really traditional, something that harks back to the origins of this ancient commemoration?

If you want to get right into the ancient spirit of Valentine's Day, try these party tricks. First, go with your friends to a local cave and sacrifice some goats and a dog. Find two young men of good breeding and smear their foreheads with your bloody knife, then wipe the blood off with wool soaked in milk. The youths must laugh during this.

Next, your whole party should run licentiously around town wearing the skins of said goats, and infertile townsfolk will come out on the streets to be belted by you with straps of goat-skin. This will help them have children.

At some appropriate juncture of your evening, arrange to have the names of all the females written on billets, put in a container and drawn out one at a time by the males. This will enable the sexes to pair off as lovers.

Yes, the modern practice of celebrating Valentine's Day most likely has its roots in the ancient Roman celebration of the Lupercalia, when all these weird customs were indulged. The ceremonies started in the cave where it was said Romulus and Remus, the legendary twin founders of Rome, were suckled by a she-wolf. Scholars are uncertain, but it could be from the Latin word for wolf, lupus, that the festival got its name. It could even be there is a connection with the terms wolf whistle and wolf (a rakish man), as has been suggested.

The Lupercalia was celebrated on February 15, and it is generally believed that much of its fertility and romantic significance became transferred, over the centuries, to the  Feast Day of St Valentine, February 14. (More)

Three Saint Valentines

There were as many as three St Valentines whose days all happened to be February 14. As with the Lupercalia, little is known about our Val. Tradition has it that he was a Christian priest of Rome, later a bishop, blessed with the ability to restore sight to the blind. He was clubbed, then beheaded, on February 14, around 279 CE in the persecution of Emperor Claudius the Goth.

The evidence of Valentine's existence is scant, but there is little reason to doubt that some such person existed, particularly as the evidence of an early cultus around him is strong. The Catholic Church, however, has little time for our Val today.

One tradition says that Valentine performed secret weddings when Claudius, thinking marriage prevented men from being good soldiers, banned them. It might partly be from this, too, that this day is associated with love.

What does seem quite certain in our search for the meaning of this day is that in medieval Europe it was widely believed that birds on this day chose their mates. Chaucer, who died in 1400, refers to this belief in The Assembly of Fowls:

For this was on Saint Valentine's Day
When ev'ry fowl cometh to choose her make (mate).

In later years Shakespeare, in Midsummer Night's Dream also alluded to this belief.

February 14 being in the Northern Hemisphere the approximate beginning of the Spring thaw, the birds do in fact pair up round about St Valentine's Day. This observation has influenced the device used on Valentine cards even today, of a pair of love birds snuggling up to each other.

Customs

Certainly as early as the fifteenth century (and probably for centuries before), the British had many customs associated with romantic love for this day, and were using the word 'valentine' to mean one's chosen lover. The Lupercalian practice of drawing billets inscribed with the names of the youths and maidens was the way this choice was made, and as recently as in the 1880s this was also the method in parts of America, such as Georgia.

Another way that the valentine was selected was quite simply that the first person of the opposite sex you saw on St Valentine's morning was the one, and you had to kiss that lucky person. It is for this reason of it being more a chance thing, and a party game, than an affair of the heart, that we can read in the famous diary of Samuel Pepys (February 14, 1667) that the good gentleman was quite nonchalant about his wife having a valentine:

This morning came up to my wife's bedside little Will Mercer to be her Valentine, and brought her name written upon blue paper in gold letters ...

Continued at the Wilson's Almanac Valentine's Day page

Saint Valentine remembered at BBC News
Bella Umbria
Brief History of Valentine's Day at Intelligent Marketing
Lone Keep Internet
Catholic Encyclopedia
Travel Italy, about his final resting place
Travel Italy, brief biography
'Life of St Valentine' in The Golden Legend (Aurea Legenda), compiled by Jacobus de Voragine, 1275, ('Englished by William Caxton, 1483')

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Valentine cards

Valentine's Day cards have been around for a long time. Towards the end of the nineteenth century in England, they became rather more satirical than sentimental.

Valentine, Texas

This is a town so named because the first train happened to arrive there on February 14.

Valentine's Dance

Julius Caesar, who was offered the crown on the Lupercal (or Lupercalia, the mid-February fertility festival of ancient Rome), suffered from epilepsy, which in some parts of Europe is still called St Valentine's Dance.

Wolf Whistle

It might be that the terms wolf (rake) and wolf-whistle might have derived from the Roman mid-February fertility festival of the Lupercalia which was associated with the she-wolf who, it was said, suckled the founders of Rome.

Valentine's customs

Young ladies used sometimes to tie coloured ribbons around their bedheads and eat strange foods in order to elicit dreams that might reveal their future spouse.

Valentine's treating

As at Halloween, British children sometimes used to go about the streets begging treats.

Postman's Knock

The old party game of Postman's Knock originated at British Valentine's Eve parties.

Ban Valentine's

Although Oliver Cromwell banned Valentine's Day, along with all saints' days, it could not be repressed among the people and with the Restoration again the practices of sending cards and gifts on this day were back in full swing.

Valentine's gifts

It used to be customary to send gifts on Valentine's Day, usually gloves or stockings.

Popular cards

In the 1840s, the British Post Office had to put on three or four hundred extra workers to cope with the volume of Valentine's Day cards being sent. Christmas cards tended to knock Valentines off their pedestal, but in recent years their popularity has been returning.  

Origin of Valentine's name

It has been suggested that the old Norman word galantin (a lover of women) might have given its name to the supposed saint, Valentine.

First valentine

More at the Wilson's Almanac Valentine's Day page

History of Valentine's Day    Bryn Mawr Classical Review    Esther Howland    Valentine Rose Meanings

Valentine's Day Gift Ideas in Spain    Love Quotes from Literature    Anti-Valentine's Day Forums    St Valentines Day Festival

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Click stars for Universe today Cafe Diem! Our store Highly recommended: Folklore of World Holidays by Margaret Read MacDonald The Price of Loyalty: Bush, the White House, & the Education of Paul O'Neill The Da Vinci Code Ancient Ways A Short History of Nearly Everything Garden Witchery The Twilight of American Culture Golden Bough Folklore classic Sabbat Entertaining The Pagan Book of Days Eight Sabbats for Witches Celebrate the Earth A Year of Holidays in the Pagan Tradition Wheel of the Year The Trouble with Islam Be A Goddess The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq The Oxford Dictionary of Saints Lucifer Ascending: The Occult in Folklore and Popular Culture White Noise The Book of Spells Spellcraft The Book of Saints The Encyclopedia of Saints Daily Everything   To support this project Search by keywords for books, music, computers, software, home and family products and much more.     Search for posters An Inconvenient Truth By Al Gore; DVD & book The Permaculture Home Garden By Linda Woodrow The Corporation Highly recommended DVD A Question of Torture By Alfred McCoy Remotely Controlled: How Television Is Damaging Our Lives and What We Can Do About It What Would Jefferson Do? By Thom Hartmann How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World Pagan Christianity For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire By James Yee Crimes Against Nature : How George W Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy By Robert F Kennedy, Jr The Price of Loyalty The Torture Debate in America The Chronicles of Narnia Boxed Set By CS Lewis Hello Laziness! By Corrine Maier The Great War for Civilisation By Robert Fisk A Question of Torture By Alfred McCoy When Corporations Rule the World Alternatives to Economic Globalization Feminism Without Borders The Skeptic's Dictionary Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them 365 Goddess Adventures in a TV Nation Michael Moore Drawing Down the Moon Globalization/Anti-Globalization More books, calendars, T-shirts, mugs, music, posters, etc at   Cafe Diem! Celtic Daily Prayer Dude, Where's My Country? Photo of the day The Treasure of the Sierra Madre Mother Earth Spirituality Bushwhacked Shamanism 10 Reasons to Abolish the IMF & World Bank The Satanic Verses The Rushdie Affair Firestorm Among the Dead Cities Click to promote  your blog or website  another excellent  way we do

Trifon Zarezan, Bulgaria This day commemorates the day of viticulturists in Bulgaria, and is that country's Bacchanalia. The customs are based on the ancient cult of Bacchus and Dionysus, gods of wine and merriment.   Anthesteria, ancient Greece (Feb 13 - 15), festival to the god Dionysus Festivals in ancient Greece Parentalia, ancient Rome  (Feb 13 - 21) Feast day of St Abraham of Harran Feast day of St Angelus of Gualdo Feast day of St Antoninus of Sorrento Feast day of St Auxentius, hermit of Bithynia Feast day of St Conran, bishop of Orkney Feast day of Ss Cyril and Methodius These saints were brothers, known as "the apostles of the Slavs". They are patron saints of the Danubian countries and of unity between the Eastern and Western Churches. Cyril and Methodius were two Bulgarians brothers born in Thessaloniki in the Byzantine Empire in the 9th Century, who became missionaries of Christianity in Khazaria and Great Moravia. They are believed to have devised and spread the Glagolitic alphabet used for Slavonic manuscripts before the development of the Cyrillic, an alphabet derived from Glagolitic, which with small modifications is still used in a number of Slavic languages.  The brothers' feast day can be a little confusing: they are commemorated on February 14 in the Western Church, including Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran and Anglican Church. The Eastern Orthodox Church has a commemoration day for Cyril on February 14 and for both brothers on May 11. In the Czech lands and Slovakia, the two brothers were originally commemorated on March 9, but Pope Pius IX changed this date to July 5. May 24, believed to be the date of the arrival of the two brothers to Great Moravia in 863, is a national holiday in the Czech Republic, a national holiday in Slovakia and a national holiday in Bulgaria. Cyril     Methodius    More    More    And more Feast day of St Maro, abbot in Syria Feast day of St Valentine of Terni Feast day of St Vicente Vilar David Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days    Shop saints Shiwasu Matsuri, Mikado Jinja, Nango, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan (Jan 20 - Feb 20) Sounkyo Ice Festival, Sounkyo Onsen (spa), Hokkaido, Japan (Jan 29 - Mar 5) Powamu, Pueblo/Hopi purification ceremony, (Feb 12 - 28)  Feast day of Juno Februa, ancient Rome Feast day of Vali, Norse deity Borrowed, or borrowing days, Scotland (Feb 12, 13 and 14, and Mar 29, 30 and 31) Trndez, or Tearnandarach, Armenian religion Orthodox Candlemas. The eve is celebrated (see Feb 13). Fjortende Februar, Denmark Today is the traditional day in Denmark for children to exchange gifts and tokens. Admission Day, Arizona, USA (1912)  Celebrated by schools and some other institutions, today commemorates the signing, by President Taft, of Arizona into the Union (February 14, 1912). Admission Day, Oregon, USA (1859) On this day in 1859, Oregon was admitted as the 33rd State of the Union, and the event is commemorated annually. Gaekkebrev, Denmark Children exchange pieces of paper with holes cut in them, the object being to guess the sender. The forfeit is an Easter egg. Day of National Mourning, Mexico (1831)     1483 Zahir al-Din Mohammed Babur Shah (d. 1530), founder of the Moghul dynasty 1745 Lady Sarah Lennox, London beauty whom King George III wanted to marry Lady Sarah Lennox George III hoped to marry this lady, but was forced by his mother to marry Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Sarah's mother, Lady Cadogan, had been an ugly duckling, and after her wedding, her appalled new husband, Lord March, fled to Europe. After years he returned to England, falling in love with a beauty at the theatre. She turned out to be his wife, now the toast of London. 1766 Thomas Malthus  (d. 1834), British  clergyman, economist and exponent of  theories on population 1817 or 1818 Frederick Douglass (sources vary as to birth date; d. February 20, 1895), American abolitionist, writer, statesman; born a slave, founder of the influential The North Star newspaper in Rochester, New York. 1819 Christopher Sholes, American inventor of the modern typewriter 1827 Frederick Tooth, English-born Australian brewer and merchant 1856 Frank Harris (d. 1931), author and editor 1858 Joseph Thomson, Scottish naturalist after whom Thomson's Gazelle (Gazella thomsoni) was named 1869 Charles Wilson (d. 1959), physicist 1882 John Barrymore, American actor Barrymore family of American actors 1884 Hezekiah M Washburn (d. 1972), missionary 1890 Nina Hamnett (d. 1956), artist 1894 Jack Benny (born Benjamin Kubelsky; d. 1974), American comic actor "Jack Benny's most famous gag was on his radio show when, in his usual character as a comical miser, is confronted by a robber who says "Your money or your life" followed by 2-3 minutes of absolute dead silence except for the audience which laughed with increasing volume as the silence continued, realizing that it's an impossible choice for Jack and is followed by the robber prodding Jack who responded 'I'm thinking it over'."   Source   1895 Max Horkheimer (d. 1973), philosopher and sociologist 1895 Nigel Bruce, English actor, best known as Dr John Watson to Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes 1898 Fritz Zwicky (d. 1974), physicist and astronomer 1905 Thelma Ritter (d. 1969), actress (All About Eve) 1907 Johnny Longden, English-born American jockey who rode 6,032 winners 1912 Tibor Sekelj (d. 1988), Croat explorer 1913 Jimmy Hoffa (d. 1975 [disappeared]), labor union leader 1913 Bishop James Pike, American religious iconoclast and writer on life after death 1916 Masaki Kobayashi, director 1917 Herbert A Hauptman, biophysicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1985 1921 Hugh Downs, game show host, journalist 1929 Vic Morrow (d. 1982), actor 1932 Alexander Kluge, actor and film director 1934 Michel Corboz, Swiss conductor 1934 Florence Henderson, American television actress 1943 Maceo Parker, musician (P-Funk) 1944 Alan Parker, director, writer 1944 Carl Bernstein, American journalist who, with Bob Woodward, broke the Watergate story 1944 Alan Parker, British film director (Bugsy Malone; Midnight Express) 1946 Bernard Dowiyogo (d. 2003), former president of Nauru 1946 Gregory Hines (d. 2003), dancer, actor 1948 Raymond Teller, American magician, best known as the smaller, silent half of the comedy magic duo known as Penn & Teller, with Penn Jillette (TV series: Bullshit!) 1956 Tom Burlinson, Canadian-born Australian actor (The Man From Snowy River) 1959 Renee Fleming, Canadian soprano 1968 Jules Asner, model, television personality 1970 Simon Pegg, comedian, writer and actor 1971 Noriko Sakai, Japanese singer   Phew!! Have a rest before the big This day in history section Send free e-cards to friends & family for celebrations & any topic Do you forget birthdays and anniversaries? Schedule your cards to be sent during the coming year. Zodiac birthday Free astrology e-cards Pet Sitting   Birthdays I Value Our Friendship Day [ Feb 13 ]   Valentine's Day [ Feb 14 ] Varies Full Moon Day Varies Friday the 13th Varies Buddhist e-cards Varies Christian e-cards Varies Hindu e-cards Varies Jewish e-cards Varies Muslim e-cards Varies Pagan e-cards Varies Peace e-cards Varies Friendship e-cards Varies Chinese New Year Varies Vasant Panchami Varies Tu B'Shvat Varies Maha Shivaratri Varies Mardi Gras Varies Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) Varies Ash Wednesday / Lent February 5 Super Sunday 5 Primrose Day 5 Chocolate Fondue Day 6 Reggae Day 7 Send A Card To A Friend Day 8 Smile Day 8 Laugh And Grow Rich Day 8 Boy Scout Day 8 Rebel Day 9 Weather Day 9 Toothache Day 9 Pizza Pie Day 10 Umbrella Day 11 Make A New Friend Day 11 Thomas Edison Day 11 Grandmother Achievement Day 12 Chocolate Day 12 Lantern Festival 13 I Value Our Friendship Day 13 Dream Of Your Sweetheart Day 13 Clean Out Your Computer Day 14 Valentine's Day 14 Hug Day 14 Heart To Heart Day 14 Have A Heart Day 15 Thanks For A Great Valentine's Day 15 Burger Lovers' Day 15 Flag Day (Canada) 15 Jewelry Day 15 Gumdrop Day 18 Thumb Appreciation Day 18 Pluto Day 19 Chocolate Mint Day 19 Temporary Insanity Day 19 Solar System Day 20 Presidents' Day (USA) 20 Love Your Pet Day 20 Cherry Pie Day 21 Directory Day 22 George Washington Day (USA) 22 Teddy Bear Day 22 World Thinking Day 23 Tennis Day 23 Banana Bread Day 24 Calendar Day 24 Obnoxious Day 24 Children's Day 25 Cuddle Day 27 Polar Bear Day ... More Events Visit the Blogmanac, where today's Almanac is 'live' And I hope you will sign my GuestMap Your family and friends will get a kick when they hear their own name being sung in 'Happy Birthday'!! You can schedule your singing cards in advance, and even add your own face to funny animations. (Pay cards)         If you are enjoying this page, click to receive similar items daily with a free subscription to Wilson's Almanac ezine Webmaster, webmasters free content, or else articles at very reasonable rates Pip Wilson's articles are available for your website or publication, on application. Further details   1014 Pope Boniface I recognised Henry of Bavaria as King of Germany. 1076 Pope Gregory VII excommunicated Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor. 1349 Germany: 2,000 Jews were burned at the stake in Strasbourg (now part of France). 1400 King Richard II of England (b. 1367) was murdered at Pontefract Castle. 1556 Thomas Cranmer was declared a heretic. 1743 Henry Pelham became British Prime Minister.   1779 At Kealakekua Bay, Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), Captain James Cook (b. 1728) was speared to death by natives. The world's greatest navigator might have then been eaten, but this is still a matter of some debate. The death of Captain Cook The man considered by many to be the world's greatest navigator was killed over a pair of tongs and a chisel, stolen by natives of Hawaii where Cook and his men were sojourning. An English officer attempted to seize the boat of another native, hoping that the thief would be given up, but the animosity this caused led to Cook's being speared and dismembered when he went to discuss the trouble with the king. "Conflicting accounts regarding his death circulated as there was some confusion over whether Cook was facing the Hawaiians and whether he had ordered his men to shoot at the islanders. Lieutenant James King, who was on the voyage but did not witness the incident, reported that 'it was remarked that while he faced the natives, none of them had offered him any violence, but that having turned about, to give his orders to the boats, he was stabbed in the back, and fell with his face into the water.'"   Source "After negotiations with the Hawaiians, Clerke, now in command, was able to have parts of Cook's body returned. All the long bones, thighs, legs, arms and the skull - though the jawbone was missing. All had been scraped clean for flesh and burned in a fire except some flesh from Cook's thigh, the scalp, and the hands. The hands were preserved with salt, and there were enough identifying marks (a scar between the thumb and forefinger of the right hand), that they were able to determine that it was Cook's body. The remains were put into a coffin, and with great ceremony buried at sea in KEALAKEKUA BAY."   Source "Just after dark on February 16, 1779, a kahuna, or holy man, rode a canoe to His Majesty's Sloop Resolution, anchored off the coast of Hawaii. The kahuna came aboard with a bundle under his arm. Charles Clerke, the ship's commander, unwrapped the parcel in the presence of his officers. He found 'a large piece of Flesh which we soon saw to be Human,' Clerke wrote in his journal. 'It was clearly a part of the Thigh about 6 or 8 pounds without any bone at all.'  "Two days before, islanders had killed five of the ship's men on the lava shoreline of Kealakekua Bay, and carried off the bodies. Nothing had been seen of the corpses since. Unsure what to make of the kahuna's grisly offering, Clerke and his men asked if the rest of the body had been eaten. The Hawaiian seemed appalled by this question. Did Englishmen eat their foes?  "Hawaiians weren't cannibals, the kahuna said. They cut up and cooked the bodies of high chiefs to extract certain bones that possessed godly power. Islanders distributed these remains among their leaders, and discarded the flesh. Hence the kahuna's return of the deboned thigh, 'which,' Clerk wrote, 'he gave us to understand was part of our late unfortunate Captain.'"   Source Cook's widow After Captain Cook was speared to death in the Hawaiian Islands, his widow, Elizabeth Batts, survived him by 56 years. Pictured: "The Death of Captain James Cook, 1779. Artist: John Webber (artist), Francesco Bartolozzi (engraver), William Byrne (engraver), 1784. John Webber was on board the Resolution anchored offshore when Cook was killed in Hawaii on 14 February 1779. This is the most accurate of the pictures of Cook's death because Webber had first-hand descriptions of the event from the survivors. After the tragedy the expedition continued to the Asiatic side of the Bering Sea, finally returning to England in October 1780."   Source   See also The Death of Captain James Cook, by Johann Zoffany; and another print (1807) Cook & Omai: The Cult of the South Seas   1797 The British fleet, commanded by Admiral John Jervis and Captain Horatio Nelson, defeated the Spanish fleet off Cape St Vincent. 1803 USA: Chief Justice John Marshall declared that any act of US Congress which conflicts with the Constitution is void. 1804 Karadjordje led the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire. 1831 Death of Vincente Guerrero (b. 1782), Mexican revolutionary hero. 1831 Death of Henry Maudslay (b. 1771), inventor and machine tool-maker. 1846 The first swimming championships ever in Australia were held at Sydney's Domain. W Redman won the 440-yard (402-metre) freestyle race in eight minutes and 43 seconds. 1849 In New York City, James Knox Polk became the first President of the United States to have his photograph taken. 1852 Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, London, opened, the first patient admitted being Eliza Armstrong. 1854 Texas was linked by telegraph with the rest of the United States, when a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas was completed. 1859 Oregon was admitted as the 33rd US state. 1876 Alexander Graham Bell applied for a patent for the telephone. So did Elisha Gray (1835 - 1901), two hours later. 1879 The War of the Pacific broke out when Chilean armed forces occupied the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta (now part of Chile). 1879 The Marseillaise, written by Rouget de Lisle in 1792, officially became the French national anthem. 1886 The USA West Coast citrus industry was established when the first trainload of oranges left Los Angeles for eastern markets. 1895 The first showing of Oscar Wilde's last play The Importance of Being Earnest (St James's Theatre in London). Oscar told the journalist The title of his play: "The Importance of Being Earnest begins this very day but it will outlive you and me – " Wilde fixed him with a stare, "I shall not live till judgement day – but Earnest will be there." From 'Walt Whitman Shall Not Sleep' 1899 Voting machines were approved by the US Congress for use in federal elections. 1900 Russia responded to international pressure to free Finland by tightening imperial control over the country. 1900 Boer War: In South Africa, 20,000 British troops invaded the Orange Free State. 1900 The three girls in the 1967 novel by Australian author, Joan Lindsay (1896 - 1984), Picnic at Hanging Rock, went missing. A movie of the book made by Peter Weir is widely considered one of the most significant Australian films. "The 'secret' final chapter of her enduring book was released, appropriately enough, on St Valentine's Day, 1987. It was launched at a private school within view of Hanging Rock and built on the slopes of Mount Macedon – the model, some say, for Appleyard College in her Picnic story." The Mystique of Hanging Rock 1901 King Edward VII opened British Parliament. 1903 The United States Department of Commerce and Labor was established (later split into Department of Commerce and Department of Labor). 1906 Outside the British Houses of Parliament, a street fight broke out between suffragettes and the London constabulary. 1912 Arizona (sometimes called the Apache State or, because it was admitted on this day, the Valentine State) was admitted as the 48th US state.   1912 In Groton, Connecticut, USA, the first diesel-powered submarine was commissioned.   1914 Italy: Giovanni Passannante [sometimes spelled Passanante] died, following 32 years of unbelievable suffering in prison, age 61. The 29-year-old anarchist Giovanni Passannante attempted to assassinate the Beloved and Respected Comrade Leader King Humbert I, whom he stabbed and wounded.  Condemned to death, his sentence was commuted to life in prison. Every night seamen from Elba could hear Passannante's screams of pain as he was savagely beaten. The prison governor, Simon, was to brag to Amilcare Cipriani: "I broke Passanante and I'll break you too!" In 1899, a parliamentarian, Bertani, denounced his mistreatment, which caused a scandal. Experts examined Passannante and found him reduced to little more than jelly. He was moved to a criminal asylum in Montelupo Fiorentino where physical and mental recovery were impossible. More Source: The Daily Bleed 1918 The Soviet Union adopted the Gregorian calendar (February 1, according to the Julian calendar). 1918 The movie Tarzan of the Apes was released. 1920 The League of Women Voters was founded in Chicago, Illinois. 1924 The IBM corporation was founded. 1924 A new cooking device, the casserole, was shown in Melbourne, Australia. 1925 In the film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre a close-up of a lottery list showed the winning numbers drawn in the Mexican National Lottery, dated February 14, 1925. The camera pulled back to the hands of a man holding a lottery ticket. The scraggly-looking bum, a dirty, ragged scrounger (later identified as Fred C Dobbs 'Dobbsie', played by Humphrey Bogart), tears his losing ticket to pieces. The film was made from John Huston's film script of anarchist B Traven's book of the same name. Source: The Daily Bleed 1929 The St Valentine's Day Massacre took place in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Seven of bootlegger "Bugsy" Moran's henchmen were gunned down in cold blood by rival gangsters, probably in Al Capone's employ.   1931 Groucho Marx and his family were strip-searched by New York customs officers after he said to his wife, in exasperation at a delay, "Have you got the opium, dear?"   1933 The Oxford Pledge movement for peace took off when large numbers of students at that university pledged not to bear arms for 'King and country'. As an indication that this peace movement was communist influenced, it evaporated once the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Stalin and Hitler was reneged upon and many of the former peaceniks rushed to fight the Nazi menace. 1933 The world's first telephone "talking clock" went into operation, at Paris. 1936 AG Weser launched the first of 162 U-boats (last one launched on March 1, 1945). 1936 The Brisbane River Bridge was opened at Indooroopilly, Queensland, Australia. 1938 The British Singapore naval base was opened. 1939 The Bismarck was launched from Hamburg, Germany. 1940 The first porpoise born in captivity was born today. 1943 World War II: Rostov, Russia was liberated. 1943 World War II: The Battle of the Kasserine Pass – German General Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps launched an offensive against Allied defences in Tunisia. 1944 World War II: Anti-Japanese revolt on Java. 1945 Germany: The Allied fire-bombing of Dresden, killing approximately 135,000 German citizens, entered its second day. Many died of suffocation as fire storms, unleashed by the raids, consumed all the oxygen over large areas of the city. To the victor goes more than the spoils, but also the cover-up of its own crimes and atrocities. The US and other Allies and their media divert attention from these by focusing on German atrocities, and especially the Holocaust. Source: The Daily Bleed 1945 Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru joined the United Nations. 1945 President Franklin Roosevelt met with King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy, officially starting the US-Saudi diplomatic relationship. 1946 ENIAC (for "Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer"), the first general-purpose electronic computer, was unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania. 1946 The Bank of England was nationalised. 1949 The Knesset (Israeli parliament) first convened. 1956 In his speech, 'On the Personality Cult and its Consequences', Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev denounced the actions of Joseph Stalin. The speech Russia wants to forget 1961 Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, was first synthesized (Berkeley, California). 1962 USA: First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy took television viewers on a tour of the White House. 1964 'Love Me Do' by The Beatles reached number one in the Australian charts where it held the spot for ten weeks.   Beatles tour Australia    Wilson's Almanac Book of Days hip list   1966 Decimal currency was introduced in Australia. Pounds, shillings and pence gave way to dollars and cents. The conversion was aided by a large advertising campaign that lasted for months. A cartoon character named 'Dollar Bill' (pictured) sang (to the tune of the traditional Australian folksong 'Click Go the Shears') the words: In come the dollars and in come the cents to replace the pounds, the shillings and the pence. Be prepared folks when the coins begin to mix on the 14th of February 1966. Clink go the cents folks, clink, clink, clink. Changeover day is closer than you think. Learn the value of the coins and the way that they appear and things will be much smoother when the decimal point appears ...   'Shears' control In 1966 most Aussies were unaware of Valentine's Day as it was hardly celebrated then in Australia, if at all. Me, I prefer the original folksong, especially the third verse about the British 'newchum' ("colonial experience man"): Out on the board the old shearer stands, grasping his shears in his thin bony hands. Fixed is his gaze on a blue-bellied joe, glory if he gets her, won't he make the ringer go. [Chorus sung after each verse] Click go the shears boys, click, click, click, wide is his blow and his hands move quick. The ringer looks around and is beaten by a blow, and curses the old snagger with the blue-bellied joe. In the middle of the floor in his cane-bottomed chair sits the boss of the board with his eyes everywhere, notes well each fleece as it comes to the screen, paying strict attention that it's taken off clean. The colonial experience man, he is there of course, with his shiny leggings on, just got off his horse, gazes all around him like a real connoisseur, scented soap and brilliantine and smelling like a whore. The tar-boy is there waiting in demand with his blackened tar-pot in his tarry hand, spies one old sheep with a cut upon its back, hears what he's waiting for it's "Tar here Jack". Now the shearing is all over, we've all got our cheques, so roll up your swags and it's off down the track. The first pub we come to it's there we'll have a spree, and everyone that comes along it's "Have a drink on me". Down by the bar the old shearer stands, grasping his glass in his thin bony hands. Fixed is his gaze on a green-painted keg, glory he'll get down on it ere he stirs a peg. There we leave him standing, shouting for all hands whilst all around him every shouter stands. His eyes are on the cask which is now lowering fast. He works hard he drinks hard and goes to hell at last. You take off the belly-wool clean out the crutch, go up the neck for the rules they are such. You clean round the horns first shoulder go down, one blow up the back and you then turn around. Click, click, that's how the shears go, click, click, click, so awfully quick. You pull out a sheep he'll give a kick, and still hear your shears going click, click, click. Glossary Board: Floor of the shearing shed. Ringer: Fastest shearer on the team. Snagger: Lucky fellow. Blue-bellied (bare-bellied) joe: Sheep with completely shaved belly. Tar: Antiseptic tar used for cuts on the sheep. Shouter: One who 'shouts', ie, buys drinks for the others. More    And more   1973 A Libyan passenger plane was shot down by an Israeli fighter over the Sinai Desert, killing 74 passengers and crew. 1975 The Order of Australia was instituted by the Whitlam Labor Government. 1975 Australia's former king of rock 'n' roll, Johnny O'Keefe, married his second wife, Maureen, in Waverley, New South Wales. 1977 US President and devout Baptist Jimmy Carter prohibited alcohol and dancing at presidential functions. 1979 In Kabul, extremists kidnapped the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs who was later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police. 1980 Veteran American broadcaster Walter Cronkite announced his retirement from CBS Evening News. 1984 Australia: Elton John married his sound engineer, Renate Blauel, at St Mark's Church, Darling Point, New South Wales. 1985 CNN reporter Jeremy Levin was freed from captivity in Lebanon. 1986 Australia: Queensland Premier Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen opened Jupiter's, a $186 million casino on the Queensland Gold Coast. 1986 Frank Zappa appeared on the TV show, Miami Vice, playing a crime boss named 'Mr Frankie'.   1989 The American TNC (transnational corporation) Union Carbide agreed to pay USD $470 million to the Indian government for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal Disaster. Much of the money was eaten up in legal fees and many people in Bhopal continue to suffer; therefore there is a continuing campaign for justice. "On December 3, 2004, the twentieth anniversary of the disaster, a man claiming to be a Dow representative named 'Jude Finesterra' was interviewed on the BBC. He claimed that the company had agreed to clean up the site and compensate those harmed in the incident. (video) Immediately afterward, Dow's share price fell 4.2% in 23 minutes, for a loss of $2 billion in market value.[1] Dow quickly issued a statement saying that they had no employee by that name — that he was an impostor, not affiliated with Dow, and that his claims were a hoax. BBC broadcast a correction and an apology. The statement was widely carried. [2] "'Jude Finisterra' was actually Andy Bichlbaum, a member of the activist prankster group The Yes Men. In 2002, The Yes Men issued a phony press release explaining why Dow refused to take responsibility for the disaster and started up a website, DowEthics.com, designed to look like the Dow website but give what they felt was a more accurate cast on the events. In 2004, a producer for BBC News emailed them through the website requesting an interview, which they gladly obliged." Source: Wikipedia    Slow justice: The lawsuit    Corp Watch Website of Students for Bhopal, the student network for justice in Bhopal  Greenpeace report on the whereabouts of Warren Anderson    BBC Investigation Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabiliation Department, Indian Government Union Carbide's spin site    Fake Dow website by The Yes Men    Greenpeace Bhopal campaign   1989 The first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System was placed into orbit. 1989 British author Salman Rushdie, widely decried by Muslims as a blasphemer for passages in his book The Satanic Verses, was placed under a fatwah, or edict, of death by Iran's dictator the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The Satanic Verses 1996 Eva Hart, Titanic survivor, died at 90, while river rafting. 1997 USA: In 'Prince of Peace Plowshares', six activists poured blood and symbolically disarmed the USS Sullivans at the Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine. All were eventually convicted of trespass and destruction of government property. 1997 Palestine: The last remaining Jahalin Bedouin families, who had been living in the Abu-Dis area for over 40 years, were forcibly removed to make way for new Jewish settlements (illegal under the Oslo Accords). 1998 Authorities in the United States announced that Eric Robert Rudolph was a suspect in an Alabama abortion clinic bombing. 2003 Dolly the sheep (b. 1996), the world's first cloned mammal, died. 2004 In a suburb of Moscow, Russia, the roof of the Transvaal water park collapsed, killing more than 25 people, and wounding more than 100 others.   Tomorrow: Is this man to blame for today's office design?    Main calendar | Yesterday | Tomorrow | Search     These are entries to a competition asking for a rhyme with the most romantic first line, but the least romantic second line:  Love may be beautiful, love may be bliss but I only slept with you, because I was pissed  I thought that I could love no other Until, that is, I met your brother  Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so are you. But the roses are wilting, the violets are dead, the sugar bowl's empty, and so is your head.  Of loving beauty you float with grace If only you could hide your face  Kind, intelligent, loving and hot This describes everything you are not  I want to feel your sweet embrace But don't take that paper bag off of your face  I love your smile, your face, and your eyes Damn, I'm good at telling lies!  My darling, my lover, my beautiful wife: Marrying you screwed up my life  I see your face when I am dreaming That's why I always wake up screaming  My love you take my breath away What have you stepped in to smell this way  My feelings for you no words can tell Except for maybe "go to hell"  What inspired this amorous rhyme? Two parts vodka, one part lime Wikipedia and David Brown's prodigious Daily Bleed are both excellent resources that aid my research. I frequently make use of their generously liberal 'fair use', 'copyleft' and 'anti-copyright' policies, with much gratitude. © My own copyright policy is also liberal, but as this is my livelihood, conditions apply. Read more about today at Wilson's Blogmanac

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