Friday February

• 45^th Day of 2014 / 320 Remaining
• 34 Days Until The First Day of Spring

• Sunrise:6:59
• Sunset:5:48
• 10 Hours 49 Minutes of Daylight

• Moon Rise:5:56pm
• Moon Set:6:32am

• Full Moon @ 3:54 pm
• Full Snow Moon
• Full Hunger Moon

Since the heaviest snow usually falls during this month, native tribes of the north and east most often called February’s full Moon the Full Snow Moon. Some tribes also referred to this Moon as the Full Hunger Moon, since harsh weather conditions in their areas made hunting very difficult.

• Tides
• High:10:01am/11:21pm
• Low:4:15am/4:42pm

• Rainfall
• This Year:5.84
• Last Year:13.87
• Average Year to Date:15.91

• Holidays
• Ferris Wheel Day
• National Donor Day
• National Have A Heart Day
• Race Relations Day
• Valentine's Day
• National Cream Filled Chocolates Day
• Admission Day-Arizona
• Admission Day-Oregon

• Wine Growers Day-Bulgaria

• On This Day In …
• 0278 --- Valentine, a holy priest in Rome in the days of Emperor Claudius II, was executed. Under the rule of Claudius the Cruel, Rome was involved in many unpopular and bloody campaigns. The emperor had to maintain a strong army, but was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. Claudius believed that Roman men were unwilling to join the army because of their strong attachment to their wives and families. To get rid of the problem, Claudius banned all marriages and engagements in Rome. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Valentine was arrested and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off. The sentence was carried out on February 14, on or about the year 270. Legend also has it that while in jail, St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer's daughter, who had become his friend, and signed it "From Your Valentine." For his great service, Valentine was named a saint after his death. In truth, the exact origins and identity of St. Valentine are unclear. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "At least three different Saint Valentines, all of them martyrs, are mentioned in the early martyrologies under the date of 14 February." One was a priest in Rome, the second one was a bishop of Interamna (now Terni, Italy) and the third St. Valentine was a martyr in the Roman province of Africa. Legends vary on how the martyr's name became connected with romance. The date of his death may have become mingled with the Feast of Lupercalia, a pagan festival of love. On these occasions, the names of young women were placed in a box, from which they were drawn by the men as chance directed. In 496 AD, Pope Gelasius decided to put an end to the Feast of Lupercalia, and he declared that February 14 be celebrated as St Valentine's Day.

• 1778 --- The Stars and Stripes was carried to a foreign port, in France, for the first time. It was aboard the American ship Ranger.
  

  

• 1779 --- A Patriot militia force of 340 led by Colonel Andrew Pickens of South Carolina with Colonel John Dooly and Lieutenant Colonel Elijah Clarke of Georgia defeats a larger force of 700 Loyalist militia commanded by Colonel James Boyd at Kettle Creek, Georgia.

• 1849 --- The first photograph of a U.S. President, while in office, was taken by Matthew Brady in New York City. President James Polk was the subject of the picture.
  

  

• 1859 --- Oregon, the 33rd state, entered the United States of America this day, exactly ten years and six months to the day since it was organized as a territory. Oregon’s many national parks and recreational areas are home to the state animal, the beaver, which also provides the state with its nickname, the Beaver State. Oregon’s agricultural industry raises more hazelnuts than any other

  

  state, hence the state nut is the hazelnut. The fishing industry is also very large in this northwestern state, making the Chinook salmon the official fish. The Douglas fir, a popular Christmas tree in many American households, comes from the forests of Oregon and is the state tree. Other official Oregon state symbols are state bird: western meadowlark; state flower: Oregon grape; state insect: swallowtail butterfly. “She flies with her own wings” (Alis volat Propriis) is Oregon’s state motto. The state gemstone: sunstone; state rock: thunder egg; state song: Oregon, My Oregon; and state dance: square dance. What’s the state capital of Oregon, you ask? No, not Portland, but Salem, and that’s our final answer.

• 1895 --- Oscar Wilde's final play, "The Importance of Being Earnest," opened at the St. James' Theatre in London.

• 1899 --- The U.S. Congress approved voting machines for use in federal elections.

• 1903 --- The U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor was established.

• 1912 --- Arizona (probably derived from the word arizonac, from two Papago Indian words meaning ‘place of the young spring’) entered the United States of America this day. For almost five decades, Arizona, the Grand Canyon State, was considered to be the last (48th) state. From its beautiful deserts come the state bird: the

  

  cactus wren; the state flower: the saguaro cactus’ flower, the state reptile: Arizona ridgenose rattlesnake; state fossil: petrified wood; state gem: turquoise; the oasis, the capital city of Phoenix. More American Indians live in Arizona than any other state, representing over 14 different tribes. But the Spanish influence is everywhere, including the official state neckwear: the bolo tie. Arizona has a state fish: the Arizona trout. From the Grand Canyon to the Painted Desert, Arizona is proof of its state motto: Ditat Deus (God enriches).

• 1920 --- The League of Women Voters was founded in Chicago. The first president of the organization was Maude Wood Park.

• 1929 --- Four men dressed as police officers enter gangster Bugs Moran's headquarters on North Clark Street in Chicago, line seven of Moran's henchmen against a wall, and shoot them to death. The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, as it is now called, was the culmination of a gang war between arch rivals Al Capone and Bugs Moran. George "Bugs" Moran was a career criminal who ran the North Side gang in Chicago during the bootlegging era of the 1920s. He fought

  

  bitterly with "Scarface" Al Capone for control of smuggling and trafficking operations in the Windy City. Throughout the 1920s, both survived several attempted murders. On one notorious occasion, Moran and his associates drove six cars past a hotel in Cicero, Illionis, where Capone and his associates were having lunch and showered the building with more than 1,000 bullets. A $50,000 bounty on Capone's head was the final straw for the gangster. He ordered that Moran's gang be destroyed. On February 14, a delivery of bootleg whiskey was expected at Moran's headquarters. But Moran was late and happened to see police officers entering his establishment. Moran waited outside, thinking that his gunmen inside were being arrested in a raid. However, the disguised assassins were actually killing the seven men inside.

• 1929 --- Sir Alexander Fleming was a young bacteriologist when an accidental discovery led to one of the great developments of modern medicine. Having left a plate of staphylococcus bacteria uncovered, Fleming noticed that a mold that had fallen on the culture had killed many of the bacteria. He identified the mold as penicillium notatum, similar to the kind found on bread. On February 14, 1929, Fleming introduced his mold by-product called penicillin to cure bacterial infections.

• 1946 --- ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was unveiled. The device, built at the University of Pennsylvania, was the world's first general purpose electronic computer.
  

  

• 1962 --- U.S. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy gave a tour of the White House on television.
  

  

• 1972 --- John Lennon and Yoko Ono began a weeklong stay as co-hosts on "The Mike Douglas Show."
  

  

• 1972 --- The musical, Grease, opened at the Eden Theatre in New York City. The play later moved to the Broadhurst Theatre on Broadway where it became the longest-running musical ever with 3,388 performances.
  

  

• 1977 --- The B-52's, one of the strangest and, to fans, most irresistible, pop groups ever to achieve mainstream success, makes its worldwide debut at a Valentine's Day house party in Athens, GA.

• 1980 --- Walter Cronkite announced his retirement from the "CBS Evening News."
  

  

• 1989 --- Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini called on Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of "The Satanic Verses," a novel Khomeini condemned as blasphemous.

• Birthdays
• Jack Benny
• Florence Henderson
• Hugh Downs
• Carl Bernstein
• Teller (Penn & Teller)
• Meg Tilly
• Rob Thomas
• Anna Howard Shaw
• George Washington Ferris
• Woody Hayes
• Jimmy Hoffa
• Frank Borman
• Vic Morrow
• Maceo Parker
• Gregory Hines
• Manuela Maleeva
• Sakichi Toyoda
• Margaret E. Knight