Tuesday, February 21, 2017

There will be no further updates to this page.

Monday, February 20, 2017

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Friday, February 17, 2017

Class on the 17th of February

Remember you have a current event on Qassim Al Rimi due on Monday.

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Class on the 16th of February

Today in class we continued our comparative government projects. Remember you have a citizenship test and current event due tomorrow.

Class on the 16th of February

Today in class we wrapped up X-Men and the St. Louis. Tomorrow you have a current event due as well as a citizenship test.

Be Ready for the test...Bub

Class on the 16th of Febuary

Remember you have a map quiz tomorrow, and a current event due Monday.

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Class on the 15th of February

Today we began our project on forms of Government. Reminder you have a citizenship test on Friday, as well as a current event due.

From the above mentioned options choose three forms of government to portray positively. You will create advertising style posters touting the merits of these systems, in an attempt to entice people. Your poster must be accurate to the definitions provided and cannot use misinformation. Do not compare the system of government to any other allow it to stand on its own merits. Remember this is an advertising poster so it must include a visual eye grabbing component. This cannot be a random image it must relate to the form of government. Most importantly your poster must contain a simple marketing slogan, surmising the benefits of this form of government.

Your posters will be assessed based on the enclosed rubric.

	A	B	C	NYC	IWS
alternatives.	Contains all elements of the assignment. Demonstrates an understanding of the terms and information contained within the assignment. All terms are used accurately. Poster is eye catching, clear concise and organized. Slogan encapsulates and shows applicable knowledge of the form of government.	Contains all elements of the assignment. Demonstrates an understanding of the terms and information contained within the assignment. All terms are used accurately. Poster is eye catching, clear concise and organized. Slogan encapsulates the form of government.	Contains all elements of the assignment. Demonstrates an understanding of the terms and information contained within the assignment. All terms are used accurately. Poster is clear concise and organized. Slogan applies to the form of government.	Does not include all elements in assignment description.

February 15th

Today we finished our movie and began work on the SS St Louis, which will be due tomorrow. Remember you have a current event due Friday as well as a citizenship test.

Name ______________________

What percentage of the passengers of the SS St Louis were killed by the Nazis upon its return to Europe?

Why couldn’t the family of Gisela Feldman wait for her father before leaving Europe?

Describe the living conditions of Jews living in Germany in the late 1930’s.

What happened when the SS St. Louis arrived in Cuba?

What happened when the SS St. Louis tried to dock in the US?

Why did Cuba and the US choose to send the SS St. Louis away?

If there were 130 million people in the US in 1939, how great a percentage increase would it be if all 900 passenger were allowed to stay?

Write a paragraph explaining to the parents of Joachim Hirsch it is in the national interest of the United States to send their son back to Europe and be killed at Auschwitz.

SS St Louis: The ship of Jewish refugees nobody wanted

By Mike LanchinBBC

On 13 May 1939, more than 900 Jews fled Germany aboard a luxury cruise liner, the SS St Louis. They hoped to reach Cuba and then travel to the US - but were turned away in Havana and forced to return to Europe, where more than 250 were killed by the Nazis.

"It was really something to be going on a luxury liner," says Gisela Feldman. "We didn't really know where we were heading, or how we would cope when we got there."

At the age of 90, Feldman still clearly remembers the raw and mixed emotions she felt as a 15-year-old girl boarding the St Louis at Hamburg docks with her mother and younger sister.

"I was always aware of how anxious my mother looked, embarking on such a long journey, on her own with two teenage daughters," she says.

In the years following the rise to power of Hitler's Nazi party, ordinary Jewish families like Feldman's had been left in no doubt about the increasing dangers they were facing.

St Louis

Jewish properties had been confiscated, synagogues and businesses burned down. After Feldman's Polish father was arrested and deported to Poland her mother decided it was time to leave.

Feldman remembers her father pleading with her mother to wait for him to return but her mother was adamant and always replied: "I have to take the girls away to safety."

So, armed with visas for Cuba which she had bought in Berlin, 10 German marks in her purse and another 200 hidden in her underclothes, she headed for Hamburg and the St Louis.

"We were fortunate that my mother was so brave," says Feldman with a note of pride in her voice.

Tearful relatives waved them off at the station in Berlin. "They knew we would never see each other again," she says softly. "We were the lucky ones - we managed to get out." She would never see her father or more than 30 other close family members again.

By early 1939, the Nazis had closed most of Germany's borders and many countries had imposed quotas limiting the number of Jewish refugees they would allow in.

Cuba was seen as a temporary transit point to get to America and officials at the Cuban embassy in Berlin were offering visas for about $200 or $300 each - $3,000 to $5,000 (£1,800 to £3,000) at today's prices.

When six-year-old Gerald Granston was told by his father that they were leaving their small town in southern Germany to take a ship to the other side of the world, he struggled to understand what that meant.

"I'd never heard of Cuba and I couldn't imagine what was going to happen. I remember being scared all the time," he says, now aged 81.

For many of the young passengers and their parents however, the trepidation and anxiety soon faded as the St Louis began its two-week transatlantic voyage.

Feldman, who shared a cabin in the lower part of the ship with her sister Sonja, spent her time walking around the deck chatting with boys of her own age, or swimming in the ship's pool.

On board, there was a dance band in the evenings and even a cinema. There were regular meals with a variety of food that the passengers rarely saw back home.

Under orders from the ship's captain, Gustav Schroder, the waiters and crew members treated the passengers politely, in stark contrast to the open hostility Jewish families had become accustomed to under the Nazis.

The captain allowed traditional Friday night prayers to be held, during which he gave permission for the portrait of Adolf Hitler hanging in the main dining room to be taken down.

Six-year-old Sol Messinger, who was travelling with his father and mother, recalls how happy everyone seemed. In fact, he says, the youngsters were constantly being told by the adults that they were now safe from harm: "We're going away," he heard people say again and again on that outward journey. "We don't have to look over our shoulders any more."

But as the luxury liner reached the coast of Havana on 27 May, that sense of optimism disappeared to be replaced by fear, then dread.

Granston was up on deck with his father and dozens of other families, their suitcases packed and ready to disembark, when the Cuban officials, all smiles, first came aboard.

What happened next?

§ 288 passengers went to Great Britain, all of whom survived WW2 except one who died in an air raid in 1940

§ The Netherlands took 181 people, Belgium 214 and France 224

§ 87 of these emigrated before Germany invaded - of the 532 left, 278 survived and 254 died

§ The journey was the subject of the 1976 film Voyage of the Damned

It quickly became clear that the ship was not going to dock and that no-one was being allowed off. He kept hearing the words "manana, manana" - tomorrow, tomorrow. When the Cubans left and the ship's captain announced that people would have to wait, he could feel, even as a little boy, that something was wrong.

For the next seven days, Captain Schroder tried in vain to persuade the Cuban authorities to allow them in. In fact, the Cubans had already decided to revoke all but a handful of the visas - probably out of fear of being inundated with more refugees fleeing Europe.

The captain then steered the St Louis towards the Florida coast, but the US authorities also refused it the right to dock, despite direct appeals to President Franklin Roosevelt. Granston thinks he too was worried about the potential flood of migrants.

By early June, Captain Schroder had no option but to turn the giant liner back towards Europe. "The joy had gone out of everything," Feldman recalls. "No-one was talking about what would happen now."

As the ship headed back across the Atlantic, six-year-old Granston kept asking his father whether they were going back to see their grandparents. His father just shook his head in silent despair.

By then, people were openly crying as they wandered the ship - one passenger even slit his wrists and threw himself overboard out of sheer desperation. "If I close my eyes, I can still hear his shrieks and see the blood," Granston says quietly.

In the end, the ship's passengers did not have to go back to Nazi Germany. Instead, Belgium, France, Holland and the UK agreed to take the refugees. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee(JDC) posted a cash guarantee of $500,000 - or $8 million (£4.7m) in today's money - as part of an agreement to cover any associated costs.

On 17 June, the liner docked at the Belgian port of Antwerp, more than a month after it had set sail from Hamburg. Feldman, her mother and sisters all went on to England, as did Granston and his father.

They both survived the war but between them they lost scores of relatives in the Holocaust, including Feldman's father who never managed to get out of Poland.

Messinger and his parents went to live in France but then had to flee the Nazis for a second time, leaving just six weeks before Hitler invaded.

Two-hundred-and-fifty-four other passengers from the St Louis were not so fortunate and were killed as the Nazis swept across Western Europe.

Class on the 15th of February

Today in class we reviewed for your map test on Friday, and examined growing political trends throughout Europe. Your Europe project will be due on Tuesday the 21st of February. Reminder you also have a current event due on Monday the 20th.

Name ____________________________

For each country summarize the emerging political party.

Germany

France

The Netherlands

Greece

Hungary

Sweden

Austria

Slovakia

How will the continued success of these political parties change Europe?

Europe’s Rising Far Right: A Guide to the Most Prominent Parties

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

Amid a migrant crisis, sluggish economic growth and growing disillusionment with the European Union, far-right parties — some longstanding, others newly formed — have been achieving electoral success in a number of European nations. Here is a quick guide to eight prominent far-right parties that have been making news; it is not a comprehensive list of all the Continent’s active far-right groups. The parties are listed by order of the populations of the countries where they are based.

Supporters of the Alternative for Germany candidate Uwe Junge, center, celebrated after parliamentary elections in March. Backing for the party shot up after sexual assaults in Cologne on New Year’s Eve. Roland Holschneider/European Pressphoto Agency

Germany

Alternative for Germany

The Alternative for Germany party, started three years ago as a protest movement against the euro currency, won up to 25 percent of the vote in German state elections in March, challenging Germany’s consensus-driven politics. In September, the party took second place in the Legislature in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the home state of Chancellor Angela Merkel. Support for the party shot up after the New Year’s Eve sexual assaults in Cologne. The party attracts voters who are “anti-establishment, anti-liberalization, anti-European, anti-everything that has come to be regarded as the norm,” said Sylke Tempel of the German Council on Foreign Relations. Frauke Petry, 40, the party’s leader, has said border guards might need to turn guns on anyone crossing a frontier illegally. The party’s policy platform says “Islam does not belong in Germany” and calls for a ban on the construction of mosques.

Electoral posters for Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Front, in Calais, France, in December. She is expected to run for president in 2017.Philippe Huguen/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

France

National Front

The National Front is a nationalist party that uses populist rhetoric to promote its anti-immigration and anti-European Union positions. The party favors protectionist economic policies and would clamp down on government benefits for immigrants, including health care, and drastically reduce the number of immigrants allowed into France. The party was established in 1972; its founders and sympathizers included former Nazi collaborators and members of the wartime collaborationist Vichy regime. The National Front is now led by Marine Le Pen, who took over from her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in 2011. She has tried to soften the party’s image. Mr. Le Pen had used overtly anti-Semitic and racist language and faced repeated prosecution on accusations of Holocaust denial and inciting racial hatred. In the first round of voting in regional elections in December, the National Front won a plurality of the national vote (27 percent), but in the second-round runoff s, the party was denied victory in all 13 regions. Ms. Le Pen is expected to be her party’s candidate in the 2017 presidential election. Since Donald J. Trump’s election win, French news outlets, along with Ms. Le Pen’s mainstream political rivals, have been repeating the same thing: A victory by Ms. Le Pen could happen in France.

Geert Wilders, the leader of the Party for Freedom, carried a sign reading “No Hate Imams in the Netherlands” outside a center for Islamic studies in Utrecht, Netherlands, last year.Peter Dejong/Associated Press

The Netherlands

Party for Freedom

The anti-European Union, anti-Islam Party for Freedom has called for closing all Islamic schools and recording the ethnicity of all Dutch citizens. In early November, the party was leading in polls ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections. The Party for Freedom is led by Geert Wilders, one of Europe’s most prominent far-right politicians, who is currently on trial for hate speech for comments he made about Moroccans in 2014. In a Twitter posting on Oct. 31, Mr. Wilders wrote that the Netherlands “has a huge problem with Moroccans,” echoing the statements for which he is being prosecuted. In 2008, as a member of the Dutch Parliament, he released a short film that depicted Islam as inherently violent. In 2011, he was acquitted on charges of inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims. The party holds 15 seats in the lower house, down from the 24 it won in elections in 2010.

Greece

Golden Dawn

Founded in 1980, the neo-fascist party Golden Dawn came to international attention in 2012 when it entered the Greek Parliament for the first time, winning 18 seats and becoming the country’s third-largest party. The election results came amid the country’s debilitating debt crisis and resulting austerity measures. The party, which the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner described in 2013 as “neo-Nazi and violent,” holds extreme anti-immigrant views, favors a defense agreement with Russia and said the euro “turned out to be our destruction.” In September 2013, the Greek authorities arrested dozens of senior Golden Dawn officials, including members of Parliament and the party’s leader, Nikos Michaloliakos, who was charged with forming a criminal organization. Others were charged with murder. Golden Dawn, which again won 18 seats in parliamentary elections in September, was largely silent as the migrant crisis in Greece began, but in recent weeks, members have been marching in several areas where migrants are camped. The party hailed Mr. Trump’s election as a victory against “illegal immigration” and in favor of “ethnically clean states.”

Supporters of the Jobbik party demanded the closing of a reception camp for migrants in Kormend, Hungary, earlier this year. Gyorgy Varga/European Pressphoto Agency

Hungary

Jobbik

Jobbik, an anti-immigration, populist and economic protectionist party, won 20 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections in 2014, making it Hungary’s third-largest party. Its policy platform includes holding a referendum on membership in the European Union and a call to “stop hushing up such taboo issues” as “the Zionist Israel’s efforts to dominate Hungary and the world.” It wants to increase government spending on ethnic Hungarians living abroad and to form a new ministry dedicated to supporting them. In a 2012 bill targeting homosexuals, the party proposed criminalizing the promotion of “sexual deviancy” with prison terms of up to eight years. In September, a reporter for an internet television channel associated with the party was fired after images showed her kicking and tripping immigrants in a makeshift camp near Hungary’s border with Serbia. In late April, the party’s leader, Gabor Vona, said Jobbik would remove half its leadership board; some analysts saw the move as an attempt to purge the party’s most extremist elements before a bid to become Hungary’s governing party by 2018.

Jimmie Akesson, the leader of the Sweden Democrats, at an election night party in Stockholm in 2014. The party calls for heavy restrictions on immigration, opposes allowing Turkey to join the European Union and seeks a referendum on membership in the bloc.Anders Wiklund/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Sweden

Sweden Democrats

The Sweden Democrats party, which has disavowed its roots in the white supremacist movement, won about 13 percent of the vote in elections in September 2014, which gave it 49 of the 349 seats in Parliament. Because none of the mainstream parties would form a coalition with the Sweden Democrats, the country is governed by a shaky minority coalition of Social Democrats and the Green Party. The Sweden Democrats’ platform calls for heavily restricting immigration, opposes allowing Turkey to join the European Union and seeks a referendum on European Union membership. The party, led by Jimmie Akesson, was Sweden’s most popular in some opinion polls in the winter. A poll on Nov. 16 showed the party vying for second place, with support from 21.5 percent of voters. In an interview with Swedish TV after Mr. Trump’s victory, Mr. Akesson said, “there is a movement in both Europe and the United States where the establishment is being challenged. It is clearly happening here as well.”

Austria

Freedom Party

Norbert Hofer of the nationalist and anti-immigration Freedom Party emerged as the clear front-runner in the first round of the presidential election in Austria in late April, winning 35 percent of the vote. He lost in the first runoff against against Alexander Van der Bellen, an economics professor and former Green Party leader. Mr. Van der Bellen won 50.3 percent of the vote, Mr. Hofer 49.7 percent, a difference of just more than 30,000 votes. In June the party challenged the results of the presidential runoff election, citing “numerous irregularities and failures” in the counting of votes. In July, Austria’s highest court ordered a repeat of the runoff election on Dec. 4. This time, Mr. Van der Bellen won a decisive victory — by 6.6 percentage points. Mr. Hofer had campaigned on strengthening the country’s borders and its army, limiting benefits for immigrants and favoring Austrians in the job market. On the social front, one of the party’s policy points is “Yes to families rather than gender madness.” The party, whose motto is “Austria first,” holds 40 of the 183 seats in the National Council.

A rally for the anti-Roma People’s Party-Our Slovakia in Bratislava, Slovakia, in 2015. The party’s leader, Marian Kotleba, has said, “Even one immigrant is one too many.”Vladimir Simicek/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Slovakia

People’s Party-Our Slovakia

The anti-Roma People’s Party-Our Slovakia won 8 percent of the vote in March elections, securing 14 seats in the country’s 150-member Parliament. The party’s leader, Marian Kotleba, has said, “Even one immigrant is one too many,” and has called NATO a “criminal organization.” Mr. Kotleba is virulently anti-American; a banner on the administrative building in the Banska Bystrica region, where he is governor, reads “Yankees Go Home.” He has also spoken favorably of Jozef Tiso, the head of the Slovak state during World War II, who was responsible for sending tens of thousands of Jews to concentration camps. The party favors leaving the European Union and the eurozone.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Class on the 14th of February

Today in class you received a current event on Qassum Al Rimi due Friday and a homework assignment on Valentine's Day. In class we began to look at various forms of government.

Name ________________

Forms of Government

Using the above terms and definitions as a guide answer the following questions.

Which form of government is the most free? How so?

Which form of government is the least free? How so?

Which form of government fosters the greatest equality among citizens? How so?

Which form of government creates the safest environment for citizens? How so?

Which form of government creates the least safe environment for citizens? How so?

Which form of government fosters the greatest inequality among citizens? How so?

Which form of government would you like to live under the most, why?

Which form of government would you least like to live under, why?

dic·ta·tor·ship

noun

a country, government, or the form of government in which absolute power is exercised by a dictator.

absolute, imperious, or overbearing power or control.

the office or position held by a dictator.

Origin:
1580–90; dictator + -ship

mon·ar·chy

noun, plural -chies.

a state or nation in which the supreme power is actually or nominally lodged in a monarch. Compare absolute monarchy, limited monarchy.

supreme power or sovereignty held by a single person.

Origin:
1300–50; Middle English monarchie < Late Latin monarchia < Greek monarchía. See monarch, -y³

de·moc·ra·cy

noun, plural -cies.

government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.

a state having such a form of government: The United States and Canada are democracies.

a state of society characterized by formal equality of rights and privileges.

political or social equality; democratic spirit.

the common people of a community as distinguished from any privileged class; the common people with respect to their political power.

Origin:
1525–35; < Middle French démocratie < Late Latin dēmocratia < Greek dēmokratía popular government, equivalent to dēmo- demo- + -kratia -cracy

ol·i·gar·chy

noun, plural -chies.

a form of government in which all power is vested in a few persons or in a dominant class or clique; government by the few.

a state or organization so ruled.

the persons or class so ruling.

Origin:
1570–80; < Medieval Latin oligarchia < Greek oligarchía. See olig-, -archy

re·pub·lic

noun

a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them.

any body of persons viewed as a commonwealth.

a state in which the head of government is not a monarch or other hereditary head of state.

( initial capital letter

) any of the five periods of republican government in France. Compare First Republic, Second Republic, Third Republic, Fourth Republic, Fifth Republic.

( initial capital letter, italics

) a philosophical dialogue (4th century b.c.) by Plato dealing with the composition and structure of the ideal state.

Origin:
1595–1605; < French république, Middle French < Latin rēs pūblica, equivalent to rēs thing, entity + pūblica public

the·oc·ra·cy

noun, plural -cies.

a form of government in which God or a deity is recognized as the supreme civil ruler, the God's or deity's laws being interpreted by the ecclesiastical authorities.

a system of government by priests claiming a divine commission.

a commonwealth or state under such a form or system of government.

Origin:
1615–25; < Greek theokratía. See theo-, -cracy

an·ar·chy

noun

a state of society without government or law.

political and social disorder due to the absence of governmental control: The death of the king was followed by a year of anarchy.

a theory that regards the absence of all direct or coercive government as a political ideal and that proposes the cooperative and voluntary association of individuals and groups as the principal mode of organized society.

confusion; chaos; disorder: Intellectual and moral anarchy followed his loss of faith.

Origin:
1530–40; (< Middle French anarchie or Medieval Latin anarchia ) < Greek, anarchía lawlessness, literally, lack of a leader, equivalent to ánarch ( os ) leaderless ( an- an-¹+ arch ( ós ) leader + -os adj. suffix) + -ia -y

so·cial·ism

noun

a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.

procedure or practice in accordance with this theory.

(in Marxist theory) the stage following capitalism in the transition of a society to communism, characterized by the imperfect implementation of collectivist principles.

Origin:
1830–40; social + -ism

cap·i·tal·ism

noun

an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.

1854, "condition of having capital;" from capital + -ism. Meaning "political/economic system which encourages capitalists" is recorded by 1877.

com·mu·nism

noun

a theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state.

( often initial capital letter

) a system of social organization in which all economic and social activity is controlled by a totalitarian state dominated by a single and self-perpetuating political party.

Origin:
1835–45; < French communisme. See common, -ism

Name _________________

Valentine’s Day is a mix of what cultures?

What is one legend/story about Saint Valentines?

What is one version of why Valentine’s Day falls when it does?

When did Valentine’s Day become popular in Britain?

How did postage changes affect Valentine culture?

How many Valentine’s Cards are exchanged each year?

What are other countries that celebrate Valentine’s Day?

Every February 14, across the United States and in other places around the world, candy, flowers and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint, and where did these traditions come from? Find out about the history of this centuries-old holiday, from ancient Roman rituals to the customs of Victorian England.

The history of Valentine's Day — and its patron saint — is shrouded in mystery. But we do know that February has long been a month of romance. St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. So, who was Saint Valentine and how did he become associated with this ancient rite? Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.

One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men — his crop of potential soldiers. 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.

Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured.

According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first "valentine" greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl — who may have been his jailor's daughter — who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed "From your Valentine," an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure. It's no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France.

While some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial — which probably occurred around 270 A.D — others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to "christianize" celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival. In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by sweeping them out and then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat called spelt throughout their interiors. Lupercalia, which began at the ides of February, February 15, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.

To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at the sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would then sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification.

The boys then sliced the goat's hide into strips, dipped them in the sacrificial blood and took to the streets, gently slapping both women and fields of crops with the goathide strips. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed being touched with the hides because it was believed the strips would make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city's bachelors would then each choose a name out of the urn and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage. Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day around 498 A.D. The Roman "lottery" system for romantic pairing was deemed un-Christian and outlawed. Later, during the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds' mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of February — Valentine's Day — should be a day for romance. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. The greeting, which was written in 1415, is part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England. Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois.

In Great Britain, Valentine's Day began to be popularly celebrated around the seventeenth century. By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and lovers in all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes. By the end of the century, printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one's feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine's Day greetings. Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began to sell the first mass-produced valentines in America.

According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.)

Approximately 85 percent of all valentines are purchased by women. In addition to the United States, Valentine's Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia.

Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages (written Valentine's didn't begin to appear until after 1400), and the oldest known Valentine card is on display at the British Museum. The first commercial Valentine's Day greeting cards produced in the U.S. were created in the 1840s by Esther A. Howland. Howland, known as the Mother of the Valentine, made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as "scrap."

141 million Valentine's Day cards are exchanged annually, making Valentine's Day the second-most popular greeting-card-giving occasion. (This total excludes packaged kids valentines for classroom exchanges.) (Source: Hallmark research)

Over 50 percent of all Valentine's Day cards are purchased in the six days prior to the observance, making Valentine's Day a procrastinator's delight. (Source: Hallmark research)

Research reveals that more than half of the U.S. population celebrates Valentine's Day by purchasing a greeting card. (Source: Hallmark research)

Flowers

The combined wholesale value of domestically produced cut flowers in 2005 for all flower-producing operations with $100,000 or more in sales was $397 million. Among states, California was the leading producer, alone accounting for nearly three-quarters of this amount ($289 million).

The combined wholesale value of domestically produced cut roses in 2005 for all operations with $100,000 or more in sales was $39 million. Among all types of cut flowers, roses were third in receipts ($39 million)to lilies ($76.9 million) and tulips ($39.1 million).

There were 21,667 florists nationwide in 2004. These businesses employed 109,915 people.

Jewelry

There were 28,772 jewelry stores in the United States in 2004. Jewelry stores offer engagement, wedding and other rings to lovers of all ages. In February 2006, these stores sold $2.6 billion worth of merchandise. (This figure has not been adjusted for seasonal variation, holiday or trading day differences or price changes). The merchandise at these locations could well have been produced at one of the nation's 1,864 jewelry manufacturing establishments. The manufacture of jewelry was an $9 billion industry in 2004.

904: The number of dating service establishments nationwide as of 2002. These establishments, which include Internet dating services, employed nearly 4,300 people and pulled in $489 million in revenues.

Be Mine

2.2 million marriages take place in the United States annually. That breaks down to more than 6,000 a day.

112,185 marriages were performed in Nevada during 2008. So many couples "tie the knot" in the Silver State that it ranked fourth nationally in marriages, even though it's total population that year among states was 35th.

The estimated U.S. median ages at first marriage for women and men are 25.9 and 27.6 respectively, in 2008. The age for women rose 4.2 years in the last three decades. The age for men at first marriage is up 3.6 years.

Men and women in northeastern states generally have a higher median age at first marriage than the national average. In Massachusetts, for example, women were a median of 27.4 years old and men 29.1 years of age at first marriage. States where people typically marry young include Utah, where women were a median of 21.9 years and men, 23.9 years.

57% and 60% of American women and men, respectively, are 15 or older and currently married (includes those who are separated).

70%: The percentage of men and women ages 30 to 34 in 2008 who had been married at some point in their lives - either currently or formerly.

4.9 million opposite-sex cohabitating couples maintained households in 2005. These couples comprised 4.3 percent of all households.

Candy is Dandy

1,241: The number of locations producing chocolate and cocoa products in 2004. These establishments employed 43,322 people. California led the nation in the number of such establishments with 136, followed by Pennsylvania with 122. (Source:http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/cbptotal.html)

515 locations produced nonchocolate confectionary products in 2004. These establishments employed 22,234 people.

The total value of shipments in 2004 for firms producing chocolate and cocoa products was $13.9 billion. Nonchocolate confectionery product manufacturing, meanwhile, was a $5.7 billion industry.

3,467 Number of confectionery and nut stores in the United States in 2004. Often referred to as candy stores, they are among the best sources of sweets for Valentine's Day.

The per capita consumption of candy by Americans in 2005 was 25.7 pounds. Candy consumption has actually declined over the last few years; in 1997, each American gobbled or savored more than 27 pounds of candy a year.