ON THIS DAY

On this date in 1788, the American Ship Ranger arrived in France, the first ship to bear the brand-new flag of the United States of America. Out of habit, France surrendered.

In 1848, President Polk became the first U.S. president to be photographed while in office.

• After taking the family photo, photographer Matthew Brady uttered those immortal words, "That's all, Polks!" 
• It was for the annual White House swimsuit issue. 
• Ironically, while he was being photographed in-office, he had on his out-of-office. 
• You've heard of the first lady, etc. This was the first selfie. 

On this date in 1876, inventors Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray both applied separately for patents for the telephone.

• The U.S. Supreme Court eventually ruled Bell the rightful inventor. Yes, we were that close to Ma Gray. 
• Makes you wonder if Elisha last name was Dialtone or something, if he might have won. 
• "Ma Gray" just didn't have a ring to it. 

In 1886 the very first trainload of oranges left Los Angeles, bound for eastern U.S. It wasn't until 30 years later that the east returned the favor, when the first train full of lemons left Detroit.

On this date in 1918, Leon Douglas displayed his color movie device. Ironically, the guy in the row behind him, talked the entire time. He also was famous for inventing the $4 bag of popcorn.

In 1957, Georgia outlawed interracial athletic competitions. Seriously. It really wasn't that long ago.

In 1962, First Lady Jackie Kennedy took the nation on a tour of the White House. You figure at 50 cents each, she made quite a bit of money that day. It was on this date in 1966, that Wilt Chamberlain set the NBA scoring record of 20,884 over 7 seasons. I'll bet you thought we were talking about points.

On this date in 1971, President Richard Nixon installed secret recording devices in the White House. Eventually, one of his staff became a "singer"... and testified against him.

Elton John married a woman in Sydney, Australia, in 1984. Her name was Renate Blauel and the marriage lasted just under five years. Wonder why they broke up?

TODAY IS

Happy Valentine's Day!

• Life with you is great, it seems, I love you more than pork and beans. 
• It's Valentine's Day, ironically, with the initials V.D. 
• Just making sure I'm getting this right: Cupid is a guy wearing a diaper that shoots arrows into people... and that's supposed to be romantic? 

Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20 is 46. Or, is it Tom Roberts of Matchbox 20 is 46? One of those.

Ice-T turns the big 6-0 today. Way past the pull date.

• Would you like lemon with that birthday? 
• Hey, there's no crime in rhymin'. 
• Sometimes he's a little strong, but only because he's brewed that way. 
• At what point does he stop using his rapper name and go by the name he was born with: Percy Wimpynerd? Yeah, probably never. 

Teller of Penn & Teller, turns 70 today. Is he the quiet one or the noisy one?

Valentine's Day -- a day that celebrates the feast of two Christian martyrs of this name. Both history and legend are vague and contradictory about details of the two Valentines. An old legend has it that birds choose their mates on Valentine's Day. Now it is one of the widely observed unofficial holidays. Want more?

• The Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare's lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet every Valentine's Day. 
• Historians claim that the first valentine was a poem sent in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London at the time. In the U.S., Miss Esther Howland is given credit for sending the first Valentine's Day cards. Commercial valentines were introduced in the 1800's and now the date is very commercialized. 
• In the Middle Ages, one Valentine's Day custom was for young men and women to draw names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would then wear these names on their sleeves for one week. This is where we got the phrase "To wear your heart on your sleeve" Bubba. 
• In the U.S., 64 percent of men do not make plans in advance for a romantic Valentine's Day with their sweethearts. It's all at the last minute. Kind of like we just did at Christmas. 
• Second only to Christmas, Valentine's Day brings out the card-giver in people, with an average of over 1 billion cards purchased every year. 
• The Chocolate Manufacturers Association of America says that 36 million boxes of chocolate are sold for Valentine's Day. According to Hershey's Chocolate Company, Valentine's Day ranks fourth in sales behind Halloween, Christmas, and Easter. 
• American men usually spend about twice what their wives or girlfriends will spend on them for Valentine's Day-but the women's gifts, while cheaper; tend to be a lot more thoughtful. Guys just buy what ever they see at the Walgreen's checkout counter.