TODAY IN HISTORY: First Valentine card sent

In AD 270 (traditional), Valentine, a priest in Rome during the reign of Claudius II, was beheaded. A reason for his later relationship to the romantic holiday: Claudius, seeking to more easily recruit troops, nixed family ties by forbidding marriage. Valentine ignored the order and performed secret marriages – an act that led to his arrest and execution.

In 1349, about 2,000 Jews were burned at the stake in Strasbourg, France.

In 1477, Margery Brews sent a letter to John Paston in Norfolk, England, addressed “To my right welbelovyd Voluntyne,” thought to be the world’s first Valentine.

In 1879, “La Marseillaise” became the national anthem of France.

In 1918, the first “Tarzan of the Apes” movie was released.

In 1920, the League of Women Voters was founded in Chicago; its first president was Maud Wood Park.

In 1927, Conn Smythe took over the Toronto St. Patricks team of the NHL and renamed them the Maple Leafs.

In 1929, the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre took place in a Chicago garage as seven rivals of Al Capone’s gang were gunned down. Two of the shooters were dressed as police officers, the others wore suits.

In 1949, Chaim Weizmann was elected the first president of Israel.

In 1951, Sugar Ray Robinson won the world middleweight title by scoring a technical knockout in the 13th round over Jake LaMotta in Chicago.

In 1956, a 148-day strike at General Motors Canada was settled.

In 1974, Buffalo Sabres defenceman Tim Horton died in a single-vehicle highway accident in St. Catharines, Ont. Horton was returning home from a game in Toronto. The future Hockey Hall-of-Famer was 44.

In 1984, six-year-old Stormie Jones became the world’s first heart-liver transplant recipient at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. She lived until November 1990.

In 1989, Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini called on Muslims to kill author Salman Rushdie and the publishers of his book, “The Satanic Verses.” Muslims considered passages of the novel blasphemous. Several Islamic countries banned the book. The British-born author went into hiding for almost 10 years until the religious decree, called a fatwa, was rescinded.

In 1987, George Strait became the first artist to debut an album at No. 1 on Billboard’s country chart when “Ocean Front Property” went to the top spot in its first week.

In 1990, an Indian Airlines Airbus 320 crashed as it was about to land at Bangalore in southern India, killing 93 of 146 people on board.

In 1996, “Mr. Dressup,” CBC-TV’s children show starring Ernie Coombs, taped its last episode after 29 years. Coombs made the name Mr. Dressup instantly recognizable to a generation of Canadian children. The show received several awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Children’s Broadcast Institute in 1989.

In 2010, Doug Fieger, the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of “The Knack” who had a No.1 hit in 1979 with “My Sharona,” died in Woodhills, California of cancer at age 57.

In 2022, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took the unprecedented step of invoking the Emergencies Act to try to end anti-government blockades related to protests over COVID-19 restrictions. It was the first time the act was used since it came into force in 1988.