Canada became a royal province of France

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 1663, Canada became a royal province of France.

In 1779, British explorer Capt. James Cook, apparently embroiled in an argument over a stolen boat, was clubbed and stabbed to death by Hawaiian natives who had appeared to trust him. Cook was 50.

In 1803, twins Eli and John Phipps were born in Virginia and lived for more than 108 years. The odds against both twins living that long are more than 700 million to one.

In 1835, Joseph Smith chose the 12 apostles of the Mormon Church.

In 1836, more than 1,600 people were killed by a disastrous fire at a theatre in Canton, China.

In 1876, inventors Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray applied separately for American patents related to the telephone. The U.S. Supreme

Court eventually ruled that Bell – who moved to Canada from his native Scotland – was the rightful inventor.

In 1879, physicist Eli Burton was born in Toronto. Educated at the University of Toronto and Cambridge, Burton returned to U-of-T as head of the physics department in 1932. His most notable achievement was building the first electron microscope in North America with Cecil Hall, James Hillier and A.F. Prebus in the late 1930s. He died July 6, 1948.

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

In 1894, Benjamin Kubelsky, who achieved fame as comedian Jack Benny, was born in Waukegan, Ill. He died in 1974.