On This Day: February 15

This is the 46th day of the year.

Fact of the Day: Lupercalia

Lupercalia was an ancient Roman fertility festival which may have been a forerunner of Valentine's Day. Lupercalia is thought to have been established by Romulus and Remus, who according to legend were suckled by a she-wolf at Lupercal, a cave in Palestine. At this festival, goats and dogs were sacrificed. The celebration was kept until the 5th century of the Christian era. In 494 AD, the Christian church under Pope Gelasius I appropriated a form of the rite as the Feast of the Purification.

Holidays

Feast day of St. Tanco or Tatto, St. Agape of Terni, St. Walfrid or Galfrid.

Japan: Kamakura.

United States: Susan B. Anthony Day.

United States: USS Maine Memorial Day.

Lupercalia.

Canada: Flag Day

Events

1758 - The first mustard, made by Benjamin Franklin, went on sale in America.

1804 - New Jersey became the last northern state to abolish slavery.

1842 - In New York City, adhesive postage stamps were used for the first time.

1879 - President Rutherford Hayes signed a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court.

1898 - The USS Maine, sent to Cuba on a friendly visit, exploded and sank in Havana harbor, killing 260 crew members. The origin of the explosion is unknown. This incident led to the Spanish-American War.

1932 - George Burns and Gracie Allen debuted as regulars on "The Guy Lombardo Show" on CBS radio, where they stayed for 18 years before moving their act to television.

1933 - An assassin aiming at President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt had his aim deflected and instead killed Anton J. Cermak, mayor of Chicago.

1942 - British forces in Singapore surrendered to Japanese, after their worst defeat of World War II.

1965 - The new Canadian Maple Leaf national flag was raised above Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

1969 - R. G. Edwards of the Cambridge Physiological Laboratory, Cambridge, England, made the first in vitro fertilization of human egg cells.

1971 - Great Britain and Ireland switched to decimal-based currency.

1978 - Boxer Leon Spinks defeated Muhammad Ali to win the heavyweight boxing crown.

2002 - Defrocked priest Paul Shanley was sentenced in Boston to 12 to 15 years in prison for statutory rape of a minor.

2004 - Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins the Daytona 500 six years to the day after his father won his only Daytona 500.

2005 - YouTube, a popular video-sharing Web site, is started.

Births

1564 - Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer.

1797 - Henry Steinway, American piano maker.

1820 - Susan B. Anthony, American suffragist.

1929 - Graham Hill, British two-time Formula One World Champion.

1935 - Roger Chaffee, a U.S. Navy pilot who became an American astronaut in the Apollo program.

1954 - Matt Groening, American cartoonist; Simpsons creator.

1964 - Chris Farley, American actor and comedian.

Deaths

1928 - H. H. Asquith, British Prime Minister.

1965 - Nat King Cole, American singer and musician.

2002 - Howard K. Smith, American journalist, radio reporter, television anchorman, and commentator.