ON THIS DAY FEBRUARY 14

Roman Emperor Claudius II executes two Christian martyrs who share the same name – Valentine. Two hundred years later, the church sets up an annual feast, Valentine’s Day, in honour of them. The feast evolves outside of the church to become a celebration of romance and love.

1349 Hundreds of Jews are publicly burnt alive, the rest are hounded from Strasbourg and expelled from the city as part of the Black Death persecutions.

1840 Dingane, stripped of his kingship after he and his Zulu warriors are vanquished at the battle of Maqongqo, at the Umkhuzi River, flees to Swaziland, where he is murdered. 1840 Natal is proclaimed a Voortrekker Republic, with the borders being the Umzimvubu in the south, the Black Mfolozi in the north, the sea to the east. No mention is made of the western border.

1900 British forces begin a fourth attempt to lift the Siege of Ladysmith.

1929 Seven people – six are rivals of mobster Al Capone’s gang – are murdered in the St Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago.

1931 The original Dracula film starring Bela Lugosi as the titular vampire, is released. 1941 The German 5th Light Division, Rommel’s Afrika Corps, arrives in Tripoli to give backbone to the Italian-led Axis forces in North Africa. 1945 Prague is mistaken for Dresden by allied pilots and bombed.

1990 The Voyager 1 spacecraft takes the Pale Blue Dot photograph of Earth.

1994 King Goodwill Zwelithini tells President FW de Klerk he rejects the interim Constitution and is prepared to set up a Zulu kingdom. 2005 Youtube is launched by a group of college students.

2013 A romantic night turns deadly as Olympian and paralympian Oscar Pistorius kills his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. What follows is a riveting trial watched live around the world.

2018 Jacob Zuma does as the ANC orders and resigns as president.

2019 An explosives-packed vehicle rams a paramilitary convoy in Indian-controlled Kashmir killing at least 40 people. The Islamic group Jaish-e-mohammad claims responsibility. | THE HISTORIAN