Alexander Graham Bell Applied For A Patent For The Telephone

If you're calling your special someone today, you have Alexander Graham Bell to thank for it. The inventor of the telephone filed his patent application on 14 February 1876, just hours before his rival Elisha Grey applied for a patent for his own version of the invention. The Patent Office decided to honor Bell's application, and he was officially awarded the patent for his invention on March 7.

Captain James Cook Killed in 1779

 

Captain James Cook was Killed on 14 February 1779

 British explorer James Cook certainly got around. The well-traveled surveyor charted previously uncharted lands from Alaska all the way to New Zealand, and he was the first European to reach the Hawaiian islands in 1778. Though he was received with honours then, Cook returned a year later and things weren't so rosy. Cook kidnapped a Hawaiian chief after one of his boats was stolen, which as you can imagine didn't go over so well with the locals. Cook paid for this insult with his life -- not exactly a day of romance.

Madhubala Birth Anniversary

Arguably the most beautiful artiste to ever grace the Indian screen, Madhubala, born on 14 February 1933, rose from humble beginnings to become the most captivating star India has ever produced. Madhubala was born Mumtaz Jehan Begum on Valentine's Day 1933, in a poor, conservative family of Pathan Muslims in Delhi, a part of a prolific brood of sisters, and entered the world of films at the tender age of eight. After about five years of playing child roles, Madhubala got her first break in a lead role in Neel Kamal (1947), produced and directed by her mentor, veteran filmmaker Kidar Sharma. At the age of 14, she played a romantic lead against fledgling star, Raj Kapoor, and Madhubala had finally arrived on the Indian screen. Over the next two years she had blossomed into a truly rapturous beauty (which earned her the sobriquet of the Venus of the Indian screen) and with the movie Mahal (1949), literally overnight, she was a superstar. Her movies like Tarana (1951), Mr. & Mrs. '55 (1955) and of course her swansong Mughal-E-Azam (1960) showcased her remarkable talents as a serious artiste across several genres and revealed what this ethereal beauty was truly capable of.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honouring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, through later folk traditions, has become a significant cultural, religious, and commercial celebration of romance and love in many regions of the world.

There are a number of martyrdom stories associated with various Valentines connected to February 14, including an account of the imprisonment of Saint Valentine of Rome for ministerial to Christians persecuted under the Roman Empire in the third century. According to early tradition, Saint Valentine restored sight to the blind daughter of his jailer

Numerous later additions to the legend have better related it to the theme of love: an 18th century embellishment to the legend claims he wrote the jailer's daughter a letter signed "Your Valentine: as a farewell before his execution; another tradition maintains that Saint Valentine performed weddings for Christian soldiers who were forbidden to marry.