I was busy with lousy weather all day yesterday, so I socked down in the basement late in the afternoon and checked out Today In History for a few days, including Kissy Face Day today. I found out some interesting things then and just now.
Valentine's Day was originally designed to celebrate the martyrdom of Valentine of Terni in 197AD under Aurelian and Valentine of Rome in 269AD. The romantic side of the whole deal did not come around until Chaucer wrote his Parlement of Foules in 1382. (This info was culled from a Wikipedia article, so take it for what it's worth.) Now with that in mind, check out these February 14th events down through history:
1349 2,000 Jews burned at the stake in Strasbourg France
1540 Emperor Charles V enters Ghent without resistance, executes rebels
1556 Archbishop Thomas Cranmer declared a heretic [Guess he forgot to send Bloody Mary a valentine?]
1670 Roman Catholic emperor Leopold I chases Jews out of Vienna
1894 Venus is both a morning star & evening star [Did card sales double that year?]
1919 United Parcel Service forms [think of all those V-Day packages they've delivered in 89 years!]
1929 St Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago IL, 7 gangsters killed
1940 British merchant vessel fleet is armed [probably with guns, not chocolates]
1941 German Africa Corps lands in Tripoli, Libya [looking for the perfect Valentine's Day gift for der Fraulines?!!]
1943 Soviets recapture Rostov [did they send hearts and flowers to Babushkas?!]
1944 Anti-Japanese revolt on Java [Hey, the day is for chocolate, not 'java', i.e., coffee!]
1945 8th Air Force bombs Dresden [Geez, unrequited love or what?!]
1950 USSR & China sign peace treaty [FINALLY, All We Need Is Love!]
1975 Bomb explodes at annex of Amsterdam metro station
1976 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site [can you get a heart-shaped mushroom cloud?]
1989 Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini offers $1-$3 million bounty on Salman Rushdie's death due to his novel, "Satanic Verses"
Ya know, now that I think about it this martyrdom/violence/romance expression down through history has a precedent...Judas betrayed Jesus to his death 'with a kiss'...
Got coincidence?
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