February 14 -
The eve of the Roman feast of Lupercalia. Naked youths would run through Rome, anointed with the blood of sacrificed dogs and goats, waving thongs cut from the goats. If a young woman was struck by the thong, fertility was assured. Marc Anthony, naked and gore drenched, after a crazed run through the Roman Forum on the feast of Lupercalia, offered Julius Caesar the imperial crown of Rome. Caesar demurred and told Marc Anthony to go home, take a shower and get dressed. Pope Gelasius I decided this was a bit too much, and co-opted the Roman holiday to be the Feast of St. Valentine in 484 A.D.
Sorry, this is a family blog, I can't post the video I have for this entry.
"For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground / And tell sad stories of the death of kings." King Richard II of England, who had been deposed in 1399, died "mysteriously" on February 14, 1400.
February 14, 1779 -
English explorer Captain James Cook and some of his crew are slaughtered, roasted and eaten by angry Hawaiian islanders, after he tried to take a Hawaiian chief hostage over a dispute regarding a stolen boat.
February 14, 1929 -
The Capone gang kills six members of the "Bugs" Moran gang and one other person at the S.M.C. Cartage company in Chicago, (The infamous "Lupercalia Massacre.") Bogus police officers were used so that it appeared to be a routine police bust. Except for all the bodies.
February 14, 1979 -
Walter Carlos, the musician who created "Switched on Bach" and the score of "A Clockwork Orange", reveals to the world that he has had a sex change operation and is henceforth to be referred to as Wendy.
February 14, 1989 -
Ayatollah Khomeini issues a takfir against Salman Rushdie, for his writings in the Satanic Verses. The act propels the otherwise uninteresting book into a bestseller.
And so it goes.
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