Today is...Valentine's Day

Today is Saint Valentine’s Day. What will you do for your valentine today?

There are two Saint Valentines who are honored on February 14, Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni.

Saint Valentine's Day did not have any romantic connotations until Chaucer's poem about Valentines in the 14th century.

The earliest surviving valentine is a 15th century poem by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife.

The modern cliche of "Roses are red, violets are blue" can be tracked back to 1784 in a collection of nursey rhymes called Gammer Gurton's Garland.

The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately 190 million valentines are sent each year.

Valentine's Day also marks the anniversary of the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, the conflict in 1929 between Al Capone's South Side Italians and Bugs Moran's North Side Irish that resulted in the death of 7.

The massacre was meant to take out Moran, though Moran was not one of the victims. It is alleged that Albert Weinschenk, an occasional employee of Moran looked similar to Moran, which started the massacre before Moran arrived.

The massacre really took an even worse turn for Capone, in that the public outrage marked the beginning of the end of Capone's influence in Chicago.