This Day in Pop Culture for February 14

496 AD: The Start of Valentine’s Day

It was Pope Gelasius who came up with the Feast of Saint Valentine. The feast was to honor the saint for his diligence in wanting to spread the Gospel of Christ. Held on February 14th, the day wasn’t about romance.

Americans first started exchanging “Valentines” or love notes in the early 1700s. We have Esther Howland of Worcester, Massachusetts to thank for the first mass-produced Valentines in 1847. Hallmark didn’t print their first ones until 1916.

When it comes to candy, it was Cadbury in England who came up with the concept of heart-shaped boxes of chocolates in 1868 (boxed chocolates had been around a bit earlier). In 1901, Necco began selling heart-shaped conversation hearts with short messages printed on them.

It is often said that Domino’s came up with the first heart-shaped pizza, but it is believed that pizza-maker Raffaele Esposito in Italy deserves that honor. He made one in 1950 for Queen Margherita of Savoy. She was impressed. Today, the Margherita pizza is a classic pizza variety. (Image by Bruno from Pixabay)

1859: Oregon Becomes the 33^rd U.S. State

1991: Creepy Movie Debuts on Valentine’s Day

Hardly a romantic movie, the psychological horror thriller, The Silence of the Lambs was released in theaters on this day in 1991. The movie was adapted from Thomas Harris’ 1988 novel of the same name.

Lambs was directed by Jonathan Demme and starred Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins and Ted Levine. Foster played FBI trainee, Clarice Starling on the hunt to find a serial killer named “Buffalo Bill” and seeking the advice of Dr. Hannibal Lecter who was not only a former psychiatrist, but a cannibal as well.

Despite it being released on Valentines Day and it being a horror film, it was a huge hit and won five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Adapted Screenplay.

1912: Arizona Becomes the 48^th U.S. State

2005: You Tube is Launched

YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, three former employees of PayPal on this day in 2005. However, the very first YouTube video wasn’t uploaded until April 23rd.

The 18 second video, “Me at the Zoo,” featured Karim at the San Diego Zoo and can still be viewed on the website. To this day, the video has received over 13,500,000 views.

By July of 2006, YouTube was receiving over 65,000 videos a day and over 100 million videos were being viewed each day. In April 2011, YouTube stated that about 30% of all the videos posted made up about 99% of views on the site. (Image: YouTube)