Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day is celebrated on February 14 each year with chocolates, flowers, and brightly colored cards featuring hearts, Cupids, and expressions of love. Although traditionally celebrated as a reflection of romantic love, the holiday has evolved into a more general celebration of friendship and appreciation, one shared with family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers. The holiday is even now celebrated by buying gifts for our pets and for ourselves, indulging in self-gifting as a way to prioritize personal well-being.
History of the holiday
As Encyclopædia Britannica explains, St. Valentine was the name of one or two legendary Christian martyrs who were killed during the persecution of Christians by Roman emperor Claudius II Gothicus about 270 ce: One is believed to have been a priest and physician in Rome and the other a bishop in Terni, Italy. Both are said to have been executed on February 14 about the year 270 and could have been the same person.[1] [2]
Relics of the saint are today dispersed around the world: Dublin’s Whitefriar Street Church possesses some of his bones and a vessel tinged with his blood, Rome’s Basilica of Santa Maria has the skull of the beheaded martyr, and Prague’s Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul has a shoulder blade. Each church has become a pilgrimage site, frequently visited by lovers wanting to be married, to celebrate their bond, or to renew their vows of devotion.[3] [4] [5]
The holiday’s associations with romantic love are tied to stories about Valentine’s life both before and during his imprisonment. In one account, as Britannica explains, Valentine was condemned to death for defying the emperor by secretly marrying couples to spare the husbands from conscription (the military draft) and war. Valentine, while in prison, also allegedly befriended (or fell in love with) his jailer’s daughter, whom he had miraculously cured of blindness. The night before his execution, he is said to have written her a farewell message “from your Valentine.”[1]
Valentine’s Day did not become a holiday, however, until the 5th century, when Pope Gelasius I inaugurated a feast day to commemorate Valentine on the saint’s execution date, February 14. Some believe he initiated the holiday as a replacement for the Roman festival of Lupercalia (celebrated on February 15), which was a raucous and bloody affair, one associated with fertility rites and the coming of spring and the start of the planting season; the festival involved animal sacrifices and blood rituals and were aimed at spurring fertility, cleansing the city, and honoring Lupercus, a Roman god of shepherds, agriculture, and fertility. The pope had banned Christians from participating in the festival.[1] [2] [6]
Still, it would take another thousand years, amid the cult of courtly love in the Middle Ages, before Valentine’s feast day became seen as a time for lovers. Many scholars believe it was Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem The Parlement of Foules (1380–90) that first connected the feast day with romance. In it he highlighted “Seynt Valentynes day” as the time when birds gathered to choose their mates. As author Emily Temple has noted, “Considering Chaucer was basically the equivalent of a Kardashian in his day, the people…followed his lead and began to use the feast of St. Valentine for their romantic purposes.”[7] [8] [9] [10]
Letters between lovers referring to St. Valentine’s Day began to appear soon after Chaucer’s publication. The earliest surviving valentine seems to be from the French court poet Charles, duc d’Orléans, who, while imprisoned in the Tower of London after the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, wrote to his wife, expressing his love, calling her “my very sweet Valentine.” In English, the earliest known valentines are those in the Paston Letters, written by Margery Brews to her future husband, John Paston (“my right well-beloved Valentine”) in 1477.[7] [10] [11] [12]
By the early 1600s Valentine’s Day was common enough in British culture that William Shakespeare included a mention of the holiday in Hamlet (1603). In 1797 a British publisher released The Young Man’s Valentine Writer, which included verses that readers could copy into cards. It spurred the publication of similar books, including The Beauties of Hymen, or a New Valentine Writer for the Present Year, Being a Choice Collection of Original Valentines, Sentimental and Pleasing; Written Expressly for this Work (1824) and The Quiver of Love, a Collection of Valentines Ancient and Modern (1876).[7] [13]
But it was a British postal policy that ultimately cemented the popularity of sending love notes on Valentine’s Day. In 1840 the Royal Mail Service introduced the Penny Post that made the postal service affordable for most people and enabled the sending of valentines, particularly anonymous cards. As Ellen Castelow has noted,
All over the country printers started to mass-produce the mechanical valentines that we recognise today, complete with pre-prepared verses and pretty pictures..…the anonymity aspect of being able to send your Valentine Day cards was also responsible for introducing daring and racy verse to the otherwise prudish Victorians.[7] [14]
In 1847 artist and entrepreneur Esther Howland of Worcester, Massachusetts, commercialized this tradition in the United States. Known as the “mother of the American valentine,” her elaborate layered and laced cards with pop-up features and hidden messages, mass produced by an assembly line of friends, garnered a national market and laid the groundwork for the billion-dollar card industry that exists today.[7] [15] [16]
The economics of the holiday
The amount of money spent on Valentine’s Day reflects the holiday’s wide appeal. 2026 projections include:
- $29.1 billion: total spent on the holiday in the United States
- $200: the average amount spent on the holiday per consumer
- The most popular gift categories: candy (56 percent), flowers (41 percent), greeting cards (41 percent), an evening out (39 percent), and jewelry (25 percent)
- The most expensive gift categories: jewelry ($7 billion), an evening out ($6.3 billion), clothing ($3.5 billion, and flowers ($3.1 billion)
- 83: the percentage of Americans expected to buy a gift for a romantic partner, who will spend a projected $14.5 billion
- 58: the percentage of Americans expected to buy gifts for family members, who will spend a projected $4.5 billion
- 35: the percentage of Americans expected to buy gifts for their pets, who will spend a projected $2.1 billion
- 34: the percentage of Americans expected to buy Valentine’s gifts for themselves (2025 projection)
- 33: the percentage of Americans expected to buy gifts for friends, who will spend a projected $2.4 billion
- 27: percentage of Americans expected to buy gifts for their kids’ classmates and teachers, who will spend a projected $2.2 billion
- 21: percentage of Americans expected to buy gifts for coworkers, who will spend a projected $1.7 billion
Generational spending on the holiday seems to favor young love, according to these 2025 statistics:
- Gen Z (born 1997–early 2010s) spends an average of $235.
- Millennials (born 1981–96) spend $176.
- Gen X (born 1965–80) spends $95.
Pros and Cons at a Glance
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Pro 1: Valentine’s Day is a wonderful opportunity for celebrating our romantic partners in a special way. Read More. | Con 1: Celebrating romantic partners should be an everyday practice. Read More. |
| Pro 2: Valentine’s Day is a vital economic boom for businesses large and small. Read More. | Con 2: Valentine’s Day is overly commercialized and expensive. Read More. |
| Pro 3: Valentine’s Day offers a fun day to celebrate all loved ones, including yourself, pets, kids, and neighbors. Read More. | Con 3: Valentine’s Day has lost all meaning. Read More. |
Pro Arguments
(Go to Con Arguments)Pro 1: Valentine’s Day is a wonderful opportunity for celebrating our romantic partners in a special way.
Like a birthday or anniversary, Valentine’s Day is a special day for going the extra mile to celebrate our significant others.
As Chelsea Reeves of South Tampa Therapy & Mediation explains,
Moments of intimacy, affection, and shared joy serve as vital threads that weave the fabric of our bond [with partners]. While it’s tempting to subscribe to the notion that “every day is Valentine’s Day,” the reality is that life’s complexities can sometimes overshadow these moments of tenderness….[The day] can serve as an [sic] poignant reminder to prioritize our connection with our partner. It prompts us to pause amidst life’s hustle and bustle, to reflect on the state of our relationship and to celebrate the love and affection we share. Whether it evokes feelings of warmth and closeness or highlights areas for growth, Valentine’s Day offers a valuable opportunity for introspection and renewal.[19]
A single prominent day on the calendar devoted to love and appreciation is never a bad thing. It’s a wonderful reminder to pause and count our blessings and to show gratitude. It can even inspire us to live better, to improve our ways, and to show appreciation for those who enrich our lives throughout the year.
Pro 2: Valentine’s Day is a vital economic boom for businesses large and small.
Consumers saving money after an expensive winter holiday season and their returns of less-than-perfect gifts fuel the “January slump,” during which retail sales drop, sometimes dramatically.[20]
Mid-February, however, brings Valentine’s Day, which most often features gifts of flowers and dinners at nice restaurants, both of which boost the sales of local and small businesses. Similarly, purchases at candy and jewelry stores and last-minute gift purchases, including trips and self-improvement opportunities, benefit both the local and national economy.
As Rachel Ledbetter of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce explains,
No matter how Americans celebrate Valentine’s Day 2025, American businesses are at the heart of creating memorable experiences with loved ones, friends and family, and patronage for Cupid’s season is a vital economic boost for workers and businesses across the country.[21]
Pro 3: Valentine’s Day offers a fun day to celebrate all loved ones, including yourself, pets, kids, and neighbors.
Holidays evolve as culture evolves, and Valentine’s Day is today an occasion for celebrating everyone and everything that’s special in our lives. The holiday is even a time for random acts of kindness and self-care. That the holiday has become a spur for self-improvement, including buying gym memberships to get into shape and enrolling in special classes for self-improvement, is a good thing.
Author Deanna Washington has argued that the “romantic partners-only” perception of the holiday has actually been destructive for many people, for it is just
one more day when single people could feel isolated and lonely, just two months after Christmas, a period that was already a tough time for many. I think it is high time for us all to become like children on this special day, so everyone gets to feel the high vibe.…It gives us all a way to acknowledge one another, saying “Hey, I’m glad you are part of my life. I appreciate you.”[22]
The best part of the holiday is that you can now choose, freely and proudly, who to celebrate in your life on this special day.
Con Arguments
(Go to Pro Arguments)Con 1: Celebrating romantic partners should be an everyday practice.
We shouldn’t have to be reminded by store displays of candy and flowers or a date on the calendar to celebrate our significant others.
Life coach Anne McKeown has argued that “the practice of loving others should extend far beyond a single day,” explaining that,
while Valentine’s Day serves as a beautiful reminder to celebrate love, its true essence lies in our daily actions and interactions with others. I would like to encourage you to embrace the practice of loving others every day, not just on Valentine’s Day. Whether it’s through small gestures of kindness, heartfelt words of affirmation, or acts of service, let love be the guiding force in your relationships and interactions. By doing so, you’ll not only enrich the lives of those around you but also experience profound personal growth and fulfillment. Remember, love is not limited to a single day—it’s a gift meant to be shared and celebrated every day of our lives.[23]
A high-pressure day of grand gestures and expensive gifts and meals, spurring a “check-the-box” mentality in relationships, can overshadow and even discourage the small and consistent acts of kindness and appreciation that truly nurture bonds and undergird lasting love.
Con 2: Valentine’s Day is overly commercialized and expensive.
According to the National Retail Federation, Americans were expected to spend a record-breaking $29.1 billion on Valentine’s Day gifts and events in 2026, with each consumer spending an average of $200. Considering the amount of personal debt in the United States, this is a ridiculous amount of money and spending in which the country should not be encouraging its citizens to indulge.[27]
As student journalist Gayda Makki has argued,
From chocolates to flowers and pricey jewelry, the holiday has become a corporate feeding frenzy. Retailers flood stores with themed merchandise months in advance, exploiting societal pressures and convincing people that love is best expressed through expensive and tangible tokens. This narrative isn’t just manipulative—it’s dehumanizing.[24]
Valentine’s Day has become a reflection of consumerism at the expense of individualized acts of love. We should instead follow Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles, duc d’Orléans, and the Pastons and write our own poems and indulge in the those little, unexpected gestures of love that mean so much more than stale verses on cheap cardstock, expensive meals and chocolates that no one needs, and last-minute flowers bought at the grocery store.
Con 3: Valentine’s Day has lost all meaning.
The contemporary version of Valentine’s Day has us celebrating everyone and everything, from newborns through adults (regardless of relationship), including ourselves and even our pets. And when everything is celebrated, nothing is truly celebrated.
Diluting the day’s legendary focus on romantic love steals the essence of what made the holiday special in the first place.
As philosophy professor Mark D. White explains,
Call me a curmudgeon, but I feel that it waters down the romantic focus of the holiday to use it to celebrate all types of relationships and love, not just romantic ones. We have other holidays to recognize many of the other people in our lives and how we relate to them; let’s save February 14 for romantic love.[25]
The holiday has even become an indulgent celebration of self-love, which is the very opposite of the day’s intent of specifically looking beyond ourselves in a celebration of “the other,” of those whom we love and who enrich our lives.
Slideshow: Vintage valentines
Slideshow: On Valentine’s Day in history
| Year | Event | More information |
|---|---|---|
| 1404 | Italian architect and author Leon Battista Alberti was born in Genoa, Italy. | Alberti was the prototype of the “Renaissance man,” thanks to his breadth of learning, accomplishments, and personality. |
| 1515 | Frederick III was born in Simmern, Germany. | Frederick III was the elector Palatine of the Rhine (1559–76) and a leader of the German Protestant princes who worked for a Protestant victory in Germany, France, and the Netherlands. |
| 1549 | Italian painter Il Sodoma died in Siena, Italy, on the 14th or 15th of February. | His works reflect the transition from High Renaissance to Mannerist style. |
| 1590 | Italian composer Gioseffo Zarlino died in Venice. | Zarlino was a Venetian composer and writer on music, the most celebrated music theorist of the mid-16th century. |
| 1602 | Italian composer Francesco Cavalli was born in Crema, Republic of Venice (Italy). | Cavalli was the most important Italian composer of opera in the mid-17th century. |
| 1676 | French artist Abraham Bosse died in Paris. | Bosse was a notable engraver, painter, and architect who was active during the Baroque period in France. |
| 1707 | French author Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon was born in Paris. | Crébillon was a French novelist whose works provide a lighthearted, licentious, and satirical view of 18th-century high society in France. |
| 1717 | English author Richard Owen Cambridge was born in London. | Cambridge was an English poet and essayist and author of the Scribleriad. |
| 1722 | German geologist Georg Christian Füchsel was born Ilmenau, Thuringia, Holy Roman Empire. | Füchsel was a German geologist, a pioneer in the development of stratigraphy, the study of rock strata. |
| 1744 | British mathematician John Hadley died in East Barnet, Hertfordshire. | Hadley was a British mathematician and inventor who improved the reflecting telescope, producing the first such instrument of sufficient accuracy and power to be useful in astronomy. |
| 1760 | American clergyman Richard Allen was born in Philadelphia. | Allen was the founder and first bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, a major American denomination. |
| 1763 | French Gen. Victor Moreau was born in Morlaix, France. | Moreau was a leading French general of the French Revolutionary Wars (1792–99); he later became a bitter opponent of Napoleon Bonaparte’s regime. |
| 1779 | British naval officer James Cook died in Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii. | Cook was a British naval captain, navigator, and explorer who sailed the seaways and coasts of Canada and conducted three expeditions to the Pacific Ocean, ranging from the Antarctic ice fields to the Bering Strait and from the coasts of North America to Australia and New Zealand. |
| 1780 | English jurist William Blackstone died in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, England. | Blackstone wrote the four-volume Commentaries on the Laws of England, which is the best-known description of the doctrines of English law and became the basis of university legal education in England and North America. |
| 1781 | President of Mexico Valentín Gómez Farías was born in Guadalajara. | Gómez Farías was the leader of Mexican liberalism in the mid-19th century, notable for his social reforms of 1833–34, which earned him the enmity of the clergy, the army, and the gentry. |
| 1793 | British inventor Sir Goldsworthy Gurney was born in Treator, Cornwall, England. | Gurney was a prolific English inventor who built technically successful steam carriages a half century before the advent of the gasoline-powered automobile. |
| 1806 | French dancer Jean Dauberval died in Tours, France. | Dauberval was a French ballet dancer, teacher, and choreographer often credited with establishing the comic ballet as a genre. |
| 1806 | Hungarian statesman Lajos, count Batthyány was born Pozsony, Hungary, Austrian Empire (now in Bratislava, Slovakia). | Batthyány was a statesman who during the revolution of 1848 was premier of the first Hungarian parliamentary government and a martyr for Magyar independence. |
| 1808 | American Founding Father John Dickinson died in Wilmington, Delaware. | Dickinson drafted and wrote so many influential documents that he was deemed “penman of the revolution.” |
| 1811 | President of Argentina Domingo Faustino Sarmiento was born in San Juan, Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata (now in Argentina). | Sarmiento laid the foundation for later national progress by fostering public education, stimulating the growth of commerce and agriculture, and encouraging the development of rapid transportation and communication. |
| 1813 | Russian composer Aleksandr Dargomyzhsky was born near Tula, Russia. | Dargomyzhsky was a composer of songs and operas whose works are now seldom performed. |
| 1816 | Scottish theologian James Morison born Bathgate, Linlithgowshire (now in West Lothian), Scotland. | Morison was a Scottish theologian and founder of the Evangelical Union (Morisonians). |
| 1819 | American inventor Christopher Latham Sholes was born near Mooresburg, Pennsylvania. | Sholes developed the typewriter, the patent rights for which he sold to the Remington Arms Company that sold the machine as the Remington Typewriter. |
| 1820 | French prince Charles-Ferdinand de Bourbon, duke de Berry died in Paris. | The prince was a French prince whose murder by the fanatic Louvel marked a turning point in the history of the Restoration monarchy (1814–30). |
| 1824 | American Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock was born in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. | Hancock was a Union general during the American Civil War (1861–65) and the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate in 1880. James A. Garfield won the election by the narrowest margin among presidents who won the popular vote in American history. |
| 1830 | German theologian Richard Adelbert Lipsius was born in Gera, Prussia. | Lipsius was a German Protestant theologian who clarified the origin and authorship of early Christian literature, particularly the apocryphal acts of various apostles. |
| 1831 | British engineer and inventor Henry Maudslay died in London. | Maudslay was a British engineer and inventor of the metal lathe and other devices. |
| 1831 | Mexican leader Vicente Guerrero died in Chilapa, Mexico. | Guerrero was a hero of the Mexican independence struggle against Spain. |
| 1838 | American inventor Margaret E. Knight was born in York, Maine. | Knight was a prolific American inventor of machines and mechanisms for a variety of industrial and everyday purposes. |
| 1843 | French pianist Louis-Joseph Diémer was born in Paris. | Diémer was a French pianist and teacher who was one of the first advocates of early keyboard music and instruments. |
| 1845 | British educator Quintin Hogg was born in London. | Hogg was an English philanthropist, social reformer, and founder of the Polytechnic, which became a model for later social and educational centers for underprivileged youth. |
| 1845 | French educator Joseph Lakanal died in Paris. | Lakanal was an educator who reformed the French educational system during the French Revolution. |
| 1846 | German nationalist Ernst Hasse was born in Leulitz, Saxony (Germany). | Hasse was a German nationalist and political leader who turned the General German League, founded in 1891, into the militantly nationalistic and anti-Semitic Pan-German League in 1894. |
| 1847 | American minister Anna Howard Shaw was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England. | Shaw was a lecturer and, with Susan B. Anthony, one of the chief leaders of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. |
| 1855 | Russian writer Vsevolod Mikhaylovich Garshin was born in the Bakhmutsky district, Russian Empire. | Garshin was a Russian short-story writer whose works helped to foster the vogue enjoyed by that genre in Russia in the late 19th century. |
| 1856 | American journalist Frank Harris was born in County Galway, Ireland. | Harris was best known for his unreliable autobiography, My Life and Loves, 3 vol. (1923–27), the sexual frankness of which was new for its day and created trouble with censors in Great Britain and the United States. |
| 1858 | Scottish explorer Joseph Thomson was born in Penpont, Dumfries, Scotland. | Thomson was a Scottish geologist, naturalist, and explorer who was the first European to enter several regions of eastern Africa and whose writings are outstanding contributions to geographical knowledge, exceptional for their careful records and surveys. |
| 1860 | American geologist Waldemar Lindgren was born in Kalmar, Sweden. | Lindgren was an economic geologist noted for a system of ore classification that he detailed in his book Mineral Deposits (1913). |
| 1863 | Japanese art critic Okakura Kakuzō was born Yokohama, Japan. | Okakura was an art critic who had a great influence upon modern Japanese art. |
| 1864 | American sociologist Robert E. Park was born in Harveyville, Pennsylvania. | Park was noted for his work on ethnic minority groups, particularly African Americans, and on human ecology, a term he is credited with coining. |
| 1864 | British author Israel Zangwill was born in London. | Zangwill was a novelist, playwright, and Zionist leader, one of the earliest English interpreters of Jewish immigrant life. |
| 1864 | Scottish artist William Dyce died in London. | Dyce was a painter and pioneer of state art education in Great Britain. |
| 1869 | British physicist C.T.R. Wilson was born in Glencorse, Midlothian, Scotland. | Wilson received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1927 (with Arthur H. Compton) for his invention of the Wilson cloud chamber, which became widely used in the study of radioactivity, X-rays, cosmic rays, and other nuclear phenomena. |
| 1876 | Telephone patent. | Alexander Graham Bell applied for a patent for the telephone. |
| 1877 | American electrical engineer Greenleaf Whittier Pickard was born in Portland, Maine. | Pickard was an American electrical engineer who invented the crystal detector (one of the first devices widely used for receiving radio broadcasts) and who was also one of the first scientists to demonstrate the wireless electromagnetic transmission of speech. |
| 1878 | American chemist Julius Arthur Nieuwland was born in Hensbeke, Belgium. | Nieuwland was a Belgian-born American chemist whose studies of acetylene culminated in the discovery of lewisite, a chemical-warfare agent, and neoprene, the first commercially successful synthetic rubber. |
| 1881 | American politician Fernando Wood died in Hot Springs, Arkansas. | Wood was an American congressional representative and mayor of New York City who led the Northern peace Democrats—or “Copperheads”—during the American Civil War. |
| 1881 | Welsh poet William John Gruffydd was born in Bethel, Caernarvonshire, Wales. | Gruffydd was a Welsh-language poet and scholar whose works represented first a rebellion against Victorian standards of morality and literature and later a longing for the society he knew as a youth. |
| 1882 | American writer George Jean Nathan was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana. | Nathan was an American author, editor, and drama critic, who is credited with raising the standards of play producers and playgoers alike. |
| 1882 | Polish pianist Ignacy Friedman was born in Podgórze, Poland. | Friedman was noted for his performances of the works of Frédéric Chopin. |
| 1885 | French writer Jules Vallès died in Paris. | Vallès was a French socialist journalist and novelist, founder of Le Cri du Peuple (1871), which became one of France’s leading socialist newspapers. |
| 1891 | American Civil War Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman died in New York City. | Sherman was a major architect of modern warfare. He led Union forces in crushing campaigns through the South, marching through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–65). |
| 1894 | American comedian Jack Benny was born in Chicago. | Benny was an entertainer whose unusual comedic method and expert timing made him a legendary success in U.S. radio and television for more than 30 years. |
| 1894 | American lawyer and editor Myra Bradwell died in Chicago. | Bradwell was involved in several landmark cases concerning the legal rights of women. |
| 1895 | German philosopher Max Horkeimer was born in Stuttgart, Germany. | Horkheimer developed an original interdisciplinary movement, known as critical theory, that combined Marxist-oriented political philosophy with social and cultural analysis informed by empirical research. |
| 1896 | British astrophysicist Edward Arthur Milne was born in Hull, Yorkshire, England. | Milne was an English astrophysicist and cosmologist best known for his development of kinematic relativity. |
| 1898 | Swiss astronomer and physicist Fritz Zwicky was born in Varna, Bulgaria. | Zwicky was a Swiss astronomer and physicist who made valuable contributions to the theory and understanding of supernovas (stars that for a short time are far brighter than normal). |
| 1899 | American historian and philosopher John Herman Randall, Jr. was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. | Randall was an American historian and philosopher who wrote a series of highly respected works on the history of philosophy. |
| 1907 | American jockey Johnny Longden was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, England. | Longden had a career of 40 years (1927–66), during which he established a world record in Thoroughbred racing with 6,032 victories (some sources give 6,026). Notably, he died on February 14, 2003. |
| 1907 | Lithuanian author Bernardas Brazdžionis was born in Stebeikėliai, Lithuania, Russian Empire. | Brazdžionis was a leading Lithuanian poet, editor, critic, and—under his pseudonym [Vytė Nemunėlis]—author of popular children’s books. |
| 1913 | American labor leader Jimmy Hoffa was born in Brazil, Indiana. | Hoffa served as president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1957 to 1971 and was one of the most controversial labor organizers of his time. Hoffa’s disappearance in 1975 became one of the most enduring unsolved cases in the United States. |
| 1913 | American sports broadcaster Mel Allen was born in Birmingham, Alabama. | Allen was an announcer and sportscaster who was a pioneer in both radio and television broadcasts of baseball games. |
| 1913 | American football coach Woody Hayes was born in Clifton, Ohio. | Hayes was inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983 with a career coaching record of 238 games won, 72 lost, and 10 tied. |
| 1917 | American mathematician and crystallographer Herbert A. Hauptman was born in New York City. | Hauptman received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1985 (with Jerome Karle). |
| 1920 | League of Women Voters formed. | Six months before the establishment of women’s suffrage in the United States, Carrie Chapman Catt formed the League of Women Voters in Chicago. |
| 1923 | American scientist Charles Henry Turner died in Chicago. | Turner was a behavioral scientist and early pioneer in the field of insect behavior. He is best known for his work showing that social insects can modify their behavior as a result of experience. |
| 1925 | French author Jacques Rivière died in Paris. | Rivière was a writer, critic, and editor who was a major force in the intellectual life of France in the period immediately following World War I. |
| 1927 | American historian Lucy Maynard Salmon died in Poughkeepsie, New York. | Salmon was an American historian who extended the offerings in history during her long tenure at Vassar College. |
| 1928 | Australian author Bruce Beaver was born Manly, New South Wales, Australia. | Beaver was an Australian poet, novelist, and journalist noted for his experimental forms and courageous self-examination, both of which made him one of the major forces in Australian poetry during the 1960s and ’70s. |
| 1929 | The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. | Members of Al Capone’s gang of bootleggers massacred a rival gang run by George (“Bugs”) Moran in Chicago during the Prohibition era. |
| 1930 | Prime minister of New Zealand Sir Thomas Mackenzie died in Dunedin, New Zealand. | Mackenzie was a Scottish-born explorer, businessman, and politician who was for a short time prime minister of New Zealand (1912) and who later served as High Commissioner in London during World War I. |
| 1933 | Indian actress Madhubala was born in Delhi. | Madhubala was one of Bollywood’s most celebrated female stars during the 1950s and ’60s. |
| 1933 | German botanist Carl Erich Correns died in Berlin. | Correns was a German botanist and geneticist who in 1900, independent of, but simultaneously with, the biologists Erich Tschermak von Seysenegg and Hugo de Vries, rediscovered Gregor Mendel’s historic paper outlining the principles of heredity. |
| 1935 | American golfer Mickey Wright born in San Diego, California. | Wright was an American golfer who is widely considered the sport’s greatest female competitor, known for her record-setting play in the 1950s and ’60s. |
| 1936 | Russian statesman Aleksandr Ivanovich Guchkov died in Paris. | Guchov was a statesman and leader of the moderate liberal political movement in Russia between 1905 and 1917. |
| 1936 | South Korean religious leader David Yonggi Cho was born South Kyŏngsang province, Korea. | Cho was a Korean religious leader and Christian evangelist who founded (1958) [and presided over until 2008] the Yoido Full Gospel Church (YFGC) in Seoul. |
| 1939 | American economist Eugene F. Fama was born in Boston. | Fama was awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize for Economics (with Lars P. Hansen and Robert J. Shiller). |
| 1941 | American government official Donna Shalala was born in Cleveland, Ohio. | Shalala was secretary of Health and Human Services (1993–2001) under U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton and who later served in the U.S. House of Representatives (2019–21). |
| 1942 | American businessman and politician Michael Bloomberg was born in Medford, Massachusetts. | Bloomberg is an American businessman and politician, who founded a financial data-services firm and served as mayor of New York City (2002–13). |
| 1943 | German mathematician David Hilbert died in Göttingen, Germany. | Hilbert reduced geometry to a series of axioms and contributed substantially to the establishment of the formalistic foundations of mathematics. |
| 1943 | Australian journalist Alice Henry died in Melbourne. | Henry promoted trade unionism, women’s suffrage, and social reform in Australia and the United States. |
| 1944 | British director, writer, and producer Alan Parker was born in Islington, London. | Parker was best known for Midnight Express (1978) and Fame (1980). |
| 1945 | Prince of Liechtenstein Hans Adam II was born in Zürich. | He became prince (head of state) of Liechtenstein in 1989 upon the death of his father, Prince Francis Joseph II. |
| 1946 | American dancer, actor, and choreographer Gregory Hines was born in New York City. | Hines was a major figure in the revitalization of tap dancing in the late 20th century. |
| 1946 | ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) demonstrated. | The first general-purpose high-speed electronic digital computer, the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), was demonstrated to the public by its creators, J. Presper Eckert, Jr., and John W. Mauchly. |
| 1947 | Vietnamese pilot and cosmonaut Phạm Tuân was born in Quôc Tuân, Vietnam. | Tuân is a Vietnamese pilot and cosmonaut, the first Vietnamese citizen in space. |
| 1948 | German photographer Hugo Erfurth died in Gaienhofen, Germany. | Erfurth was a German photographer noted mainly for his portraits of artists, intellectuals, and celebrities of the 1920s. |
| 1950 | American engineer Karl Jansky died in Red Bank, New Jersey. | Jansky’s discovery of radio waves from an extraterrestrial source inaugurated the development of radio astronomy. |
| 1950 | German linguist Eduard Hermann died Göttingen, West Germany. | Hermann was a German linguist who specialized in comparative studies of Indo-European languages and whose exhaustive linguistic exegesis of passages from Homer is a model of its kind. |
| 1952 | Indian politician Sushma Swaraj was born in Ambala, Punjab (now in Haryana), India. | Swaraj was the first woman to serve as chief minister of Delhi and held a number of other political offices until her death in 2019. |
| 1954 | Ukrainian mathematician Vladimir Drinfeld was born in Kharkov, Ukraine, U.S.S.R. (now Kharkiv, Ukraine). | Drinfeld was awarded the Fields Medal in 1990 for his work in algebraic geometry and mathematical physics. |
| 1957 | British diplomat Robert Gilbert Vansittart, Baron Vansittart, died in Denham, Buckinghamshire, England. | Vansittart was an author and extreme Germanophobe. |
| 1959 | American musician Baby Dodds died in Chicago. | Dobbs was a leading early jazz percussionist and one of the first major jazz drummers on record. |
| 1959 | American soprano Renée Fleming was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania. | Fleming has an extraordinarily broad repertoire spanning three centuries and ranging from Handel and Mozart through 19th-century bel canto to the works of a number of contemporary composers. |
| 1964 | British politician and scholar William George Arthur Ormsby-Gore, 4th Baron Harlech died in London. | Ormsby-Gore was a British politician and scholar who was active in promoting education in the British colonies. |
| 1967 | Prime Minister of the Netherlands and Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Mark Rutte was born in The Hague. | Rutte was able find common ground and broker unlikely alliances to form coalition governments during his four terms as prime minister of the Netherlands. |
| 1969 | American gangster Vito Genovese died in Springfield, Missouri. | Genovese was one of the most powerful of American crime syndicate and Mafia bosses from the 1930s to the 1950s and a major influence even from prison, 1959–69. |
| 1970 | British actor and screenwriter Simon Pegg was born in Gloucester, England. | Pegg is an English actor, writer, and comedian best known for his nerdy character roles. |
| 1973 | American football player Steve McNair was born in Mount Olive, Mississippi. | McNair threw 174 touchdown passes during his 13 National Football League (NFL) seasons (1995–2008), primarily while playing for the Tennessee Titans. |
| 1975 | British author P.G. Wodehouse died in Southampton, New York. | Wodehouse is perhaps most famous for creating the valet Jeeves in his 1915 short story “Extricating Young Gussie.” |
| 1975 | English biologist, philosopher, and educator Julian Huxley died in London. | Huxley greatly influenced the modern development of embryology, systematics, and studies of behavior and evolution. |
| 1978 | American actress Danai Gurira was born in Grinnell, Iowa. | Gurira is a Zimbabwean American stage and screen actress and playwright perhaps best known for her roles in the television series The Walking Dead and the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Black Panther movies. |
| 1980 | American architect Victor Gruen died in Vienna, Austria. | Gruen was an architect and city planner best known as a pioneer of the regional shopping centre (Northland, Detroit, Michigan, 1952) and of the renewal and revitalization of city core areas (Fort Worth, Texas, 1955). |
| 1983 | German athlete Lina Radke died in Karlsruhe, Germany. | Radke was a German athlete who set several middle-distance running records between 1927 and 1930. Her victory in the 800-metre race at the 1928 Olympic Games—the first Olympics to include women’s athletics—set a world record that was not broken for 16 years. |
| 1985 | American labor leader Ralph Helstein died in Chicago. | Helstein was an American labor union official who was president of the United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA) from 1946 to 1968. |
| 1985 | New Zealand writer Douglas Stewart died in Sydney. | Stewart was a poet, playwright, and critic who helped establish an Australian national tradition through mythical re-creation of the past in his plays. |
| 1987 | Russian composer Dmitry Kabalevsky died in Moscow. | Kabalevsky was a Soviet composer of music in a nationalistic Russian idiom, whose music also found an international audience. |
| 1988 | American composer Frederick Loewe died in Palm Springs, California. | Loewe was a German-born composer and collaborator with Alan Jay Lerner on a series of hit musical plays, including the phenomenally successful My Fair Lady. |
| 1988 | Nicaraguan revolutionary and diplomat Nora Astorga died in Managua, Nicaragua. | Astorga took part in the revolution that overthrew the regime of Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979 and later served (1986–88) as Nicaragua’s chief delegate to the United Nations (UN). |
| 1989 | Fatwa issued against Salman Rushdie | Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa and offered a bounty for the assassination of author Rushdie, whose novel The Satanic Verses (1988) Khomeini denounced as blasphemous. |
| 1991 | The Silence of the Lambs. | The psychological thriller The Silence of the Lambs was released in American theaters. |
| 1994 | Italian-American architect Pietro Belluschi died in Portland, Oregon. | Belluschi was a Modernist architect identified first with regional architecture of the American Northwest … [who was] noted for his use of indigenous materials, especially woods for residential buildings and aluminum for tall office buildings. |
| 1994 | Soviet serial killer Andrei Chikatilo died in Moscow. | Chikatilo was a Soviet serial killer who murdered at least 50 people between 1978 and 1990. His case is noteworthy not only because of the large number of his victims but because efforts by Soviet police to issue warnings to the public during their investigation were hampered by the country’s official ideology, which asserted that serial murder was impossible in a communist society. |
| 1995 | Prime minister of Myanmar U Nu died in Yangon, Myanmar. | U Nu was a Burmese independence leader and prime minister of Myanmar (formerly Burma) from 1948 to 1958 and from 1960 to 1962. |
| 1996 | Irish journalist and novelist Caroline Blackwood died in New York City. | Blackwood was an Irish journalist and novelist whose psychological fiction examines physical and emotional deformity. |
| 1999 | American political adviser John D. Ehrlichman died in Atlanta. | Ehrlichman was the assistant for domestic affairs during the administration of U.S. Pres. Richard M. Nixon, and was best known for his participation in the Watergate scandal that led to Nixon’s resignation. |
| 2000 | American physicist Walter Henry Zinn died in Clearwater, Florida. | Zinn was a Canadian-born nuclear physicist, who contributed to the U.S. atomic bomb project during World War II and to the development of the nuclear reactor. |
| 2003 | American jockey Johnny Longden died in Wakefield, Yorkshire, England. | Longden a career of 40 years (1927–66), during which he established a world record in Thoroughbred racing with 6,032 victories (some sources give 6,026). Notably, he was born on February 14, 1907. |
| 2005 | Prime Minister of Lebanon Rafic al-Hariri was assassinated in Beirut. | al-Hariri served two terms as prime minister of Lebanon (1992–98 and 2000–04) and is credited with rebuilding the country after the civil war. |
| 2005 | YouTube registered. | Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim registered the social network. |
| 2009 | American musician Louie Bellson died in Los Angeles. | Bellson was one of the most heralded jazz drummers, known for his taste and restraint in displaying his considerable technical skills. |
| 2010 | British jockey and writer Dick Francis died in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. | Francis was a mystery writer known for his realistic plots centered on the sport of horse racing. |
| 2013 | Sicangu Lakota activist and author Mary Crow Dog died in Crystal Lake, Nevada. | Crow Dog was a Sicangu Lakota activist and author who was best known for her book Lakota Woman (1990), which earned an American Book Award in 1991. |
| 2015 | American poet Philip Levine died in Fresno, California. | Levine was a poet of urban working-class life. He won numerous prestigious awards and served as U.S. poet laureate (2011–12). |
| 2018 | Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Morgan Tsvangirai died in South Africa. | Tsvangirai was known for his dissent against the policies of Zimbabwe’s longtime president Robert Mugabe. He formed a power-sharing government with Mugabe and served as prime minister (2009–13). |
| 2018 | South African Pres. Jacob Zuma resigned. | Zuma resigned before facing potential impeachment charges. |
| 2021 | President of Argentina Carlos Menem died in Buenos Aires. | Menem was a politician and lawyer who served as president of Argentina (1989–99)—the first Peronist to be elected president of Argentina since Juan Perón in 1973. |
Assessment quiz
After reading the above debate, take our assessment quiz to test your knowledge of this issue. Good luck!
1-minute survey
After reading this debate, take our quick survey to see how this information affected your opinion of this topic. We appreciate your feedback.
Discussion questions
- Should we celebrate Valentine’s Day? Why or why not?
- Is Valentine’s Day overly commercialized? Explain your answer.
- Who should we celebrate on Valentine’s Day? Only romantic partners? Ourselves? Coworkers and pets? Anyone we appreciate? Explain your answer.
- What questions do you have after reading the debate above? Where might you find answers?
- What was the most interesting thing you learned from this debate?
- Consider how you felt about the issue before reading this article. After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? How and why?. If your thoughts have not changed, explain how and why you better understand the other side of the debate.
- Push for the position and policies you support by writing local officials, U.S. senators and representatives, or other people in a position to make the change you champion.
Sources
- Britannica Editors, “St. Valentine” (January 9, 2026), britannica.com
- Alicja Zelazko, “Why Do We Give Valentine Cards?” (accessed January 13, 2026), britannica.com
- Whitefriar Street Church, “Shrine of St. Valentine” (accessed January 13, 2026), whitefriarstreetchurch.com
- Civitatis Rome, “Santa Maria in Cosmedin” (accessed January 13, 2026), rome.net
- Prague Morning, “This Church in Prague Contains a Piece of the Real-Life St. Valentine” (February 14, 2025), praguemorning.cz
- Britannica Editors, “Lupercalia” (March 19, 2025), britannica.com
- Ellen Castelow, “St Valentines Day” (accessed January 13, 2026), historic-uk.com
- Larry D. Benson, ed., The Riverside Chaucer (1987)
- Vatican News, “St. Valentin, Martyr on the via Flaminia” (accessed January 13, 2026), vaticannews.va
- Emily Temple, “You Can Blame Geoffrey Chaucer for Valentine’s Day” (February 14, 2020), lithub.com
- Nathen Amin, “Margery Brews and the Earliest Valentine’s Day Letter” (February 14, 2025), nathenamin.substack.com
- The British Museum, “Charles, Duke of Orléans” (accessed January 13, 2026), britishmuseum.org
- Lyuba Basin, “Straight From the Heart” (February 14, 2019), blog.lib.utah.edu
- The London Mint Office, “The Penny Post - A Invention That Changed the World” (accessed January 13, 2026), londonmintoffice.org
- Britannica Editors, “Valentine’s Day” (October 22, 2025), britannica.com
- Dan Reidy, “How Worcester’s Esther Howland Made the Valentine’s Day Card Popular” (February 14, 2024), spectrumnews1.com
- National Retail Federation, “NRF Survey: Valentine’s Day Spending Reaches Record $27.5 Billion” (January 28, 2025), nrf.com
- Dieter Holger, “Gen Z to Spend Most on Valentine’s Day Gifts in 2025, Survey Says” (February 4, 2025), consumeraffairs.com
- Chelsea Reeves, “Embracing Valentine’s Day: A Pathway to Deeper Connection in Your Relationships” (accessed January 13, 2026), southtampacounselor.com
- Slava Bogdan, “Claim Your Share of $960 Billion — 5 Ways Small Businesses Can Win the Holiday Season” (November 12, 2025), entrepreneur.com
- Rachel Ledbetter, “Valentine’s Day a Boon for Local Businesses, Economies” (February 10, 2025), uschamber.com
- Mark Teich, “Time to Share the Love! Why Valentine’s Is for All” (January 26, 2022), 1800flowers.com
- Anne McKeown, “The Power of Loving Every Day – Not Just on Valentine’s Day!” (February 11, 2024), annemckeown.com
- Gayda Makki, “Capitalists Take Over Valentine’s Day” (February 14, 2025), chantillynews.org
- Mark D. White, “Who Is Valentine’s Day Really For, Anyway?” (February 11, 2011), psychologytoday.com
- Capital One Shopping Research, “Valentine’s Day Shopping Statistics” (January 7, 2026), capitaloneshopping.com
- National Retail Federation, “Valentine’s Day Spending Expected to Reach New Records” (January 27, 2026), nrf.com