Valentine’s Day: Quotes, Traditions & Ideas

Featured Articles

Featured

7 Unique Valentine’s Day Traditions

Celebrating Valentine’s Day in the United States comes with multiple go-to practices. Offering a bouquet of red roses to your beloved. Purchasing a card with a heartfelt message. Sharing a candlelit meal with your partner. Giving a heart-shaped box of delicious chocolates. However, different times, places and cultures have commemorated February 14 and the days […]

Who Was the Real St. Valentine? The Many Myths Behind the Inspiration for Valentine’s Day

On February 14, when we share chocolates, special dinners or doily cards with our loved ones, we do it in the name of Saint Valentine. But who was this saint of romance? Search the internet, and you can find plenty of stories about him—or them. One Saint Valentine was supposedly a Roman priest who performed […]

The Dos and Don’ts of 1940s Dating Etiquette

History Flashback takes a look at historical “found footage” of all kinds—newsreels, instructional films, even cartoons—to give us a glimpse into how much things have changed, and how much has remained the same. The world of dating has always been perilous, but teens in the 1940s weren’t left to figure it out on their own. […]

Topics

See All

(Original Caption) Trumans Drive to Gettysburg. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: President and Mrs. Truman are shown in their small convertible, the President driving, as they made a pilgrimage to the battlefield at Gettysburg today. (July 6).

Featured

Great Romances in History

The Trumans He first saw her in Sunday school when he was six years old and she was just five. “She had golden curls and beautiful blue eyes,” he recalled. They graduated from high school together in 1901, but went their separate ways. He moved to Kansas City and she to Colorado for a year […]

History of Valentine’s Day

The Legend of St. Valentine Where did Valentine’s Day originate from? The history of the holiday—and the story of its patron saint—is shrouded in mystery. We do know that February has long been celebrated as a month of romance, and that St. Valentine’s Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and […]

Valentine's Day heart-shaped chocolates, an antique card and roses on a satin background.

Valentine’s Day Quotes

Love is among the greatest muses, inspiring the world’s most famous romantics, from Shakespeare, who wrote 154 sonnets dealing with love, time, beauty and mortality, to Chilean poet and diplomat Pablo Neruda. The work of these authors, poets and playwrights speaks to the enduring power of love across the ages of human history. Quotes Above […]

Lupercalia

Lupercalia and the Legend of Romulus and Remus No one knows the exact origin of Lupercalia, but it has been traced back as far as the 6th century B.C. According to Roman legend, the ancient King Amulius ordered Romulus and Remus—his twin nephews and founders of Rome—to be thrown into the Tiber River to drown […]

Stories

See All

Featured

WWII Sweethearts ‘Sexted’ With Bawdy Acronyms

Long before AOL Instant Messenger, Winston Churchill received a World War I letter that said “OMG” (LOL). And decades before Baby Boomers began wringing their hands over “sexting,” their parents were sending each other racy acronyms in their World War II letters. Some of these acronyms were fairly mild by today’s standards. For example, soldiers […]

Victorian-Era ‘Vinegar’ Valentines Could Be Mean and Hostile

In the Victorian era, and into the 20th century, lovers exchanged elaborate lace-trimmed cards on Valentine’s Day, expressing their undying love and devotion with sentiments and poems. For those not on good terms, or who wanted to fend off an enemy or unwanted suitor, “vinegar valentines” offered a stinging alternative. “To My Valentine / ‘Tis […]

Charles of Orleans, with his third wife Marie of Cleves

History’s Oldest-Known Valentine Was Written in Prison

Valentine’s Day is the one holiday made for showing love and affection. But the history behind the oldest-known valentine involves a tale of royal in-fighting, warfare and imprisonment in a medieval tower. The “valentine” itself was actually a few lines in a poem, written by Charles, the Duke of Orléans, in 1415, when he was […]

American First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy (1929-1994), in a red dress, stands before a dining room table in the White House during the filming of a CBS News Special program called 'A Tour of the White House with Mrs. John F. Kennedy,' Washington, D.C., January 15, 1962.

10 Things You Didn’t Know Happened on Valentine’s Day

1. Captain James Cook is killed: 1779 Among Britain’s most accomplished explorers, James Cook charted lands from Newfoundland to New Zealand to Alaska. In 1778, on his third voyage to the Pacific Ocean, he became the first European on record to visit the Hawaiian Islands and was received with honors. He encountered a much different […]

Videos

See All

2:32 minTV-PG

Play

Featured

History of Valentine’s Day

How did St. Valentine become associated with love and romance? Get the full story behind the holiday.

3:46 minTV-14

Hand Made Chocolate

Famous Fat Dave creates an unforgettable box of chocolates for his special someone.

Watch now

3:06 minTV-G

History of Valentine’s Day

Why do we celebrate Valentine’s Day on February 14th and where do the holiday customs come from?

Watch now

3:07 minTV-PG

Valentine’s Day Quotations

From the first mail-posted Valentine on record in 1806 to some of the precursors to today’s Valentines, Nancy Rosin’s 10,000 piece collection is a chronicle of the world’s social history of love.

Watch now