The last Oldsmobile comes off the assembly line at the Lansing Car Assembly pant in Michigan. A victim of the 2008 financial crisis, the 106-year old car brand was America’s oldest. Oldsmobile revolutionized the industry when it introduced their Rocket engine which served as a basis for the logo.
On February 14, around the year 278 A.D., Valentine, a holy priest in Rome in the days of Emperor Claudius II, was executed.
Under the rule of Claudius the Cruel, Rome was involved in many unpopular and bloody campaigns. The emperor had to maintain a strong army but was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. Claudius believed that Roman men were unwilling to join the army because of their strong attachment to their wives and families.
To get rid of the problem, Claudius banned all marriages and engagements in Rome. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret.
When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Valentine was arrested and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off. The sentence was carried out on February 14, on or about the year 270.
Legend also has it that while in jail, St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer’s daughter, who had become his friend, and signed it “From Your Valentine.”
For his great service, Valentine was named a saint after his death.
source: www.history.com
Thomas Edison is credited with having invented the incandescent light bulb. However, scientists and inventors have actually been working on developing a long-lasting and cost effective bulb for almost eighty years before Edison joins the race. In fact, Humphrey Davy develops the first incandescent lamp in 1802, but it requires too much electricity to power it for practical purposes. On February 3, 1879 in England, Joseph Swan publicly demonstrates a working incandescent light with a carbon-based filament.
Later the same year, in his lab in Menlo Park, California, Thomas Edison develops a similar bulb and an effective electrical system to power it. He subsequently sues Swan for patent infringement, but the two eventually join forces to create Edison-Swan United, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of lightbulbs.
Pride and Prejudice, a novel by Jane Austen, is first published in 1813. The story follows the romance between Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. To date, the book has sold some 20 million copies worldwide.
