Today in history

Today is Thursday, Feb. 14, the 45th day of 2019. There are 320 days left in the year. This is Valentine’s Day. In 1663, New France became a royal province under King Louis XIV. In 1903, the Department of Commerce and Labor was established. (It was divided into separate departments of Commerce and Labor in 1913.) In 1912, Arizona became the 48th state of the Union as President William Howard Taft signed a proclamation. In 1913, labor leader Jimmy Hoffa was born in Brazil, Ind.; college football coach Woody Hayes was born in Clifton, Ohio; sports broadcaster Mel Allen was born in Birmingham, Ala. 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. In 1876, inventors Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray applied separately for patents related to the telephone. (The U.S. Supreme Court eventually ruled Bell the rightful inventor.)