February 28th: French Fry Friday

French Fry Friday celebrates French fries. So here are 10 facts about chips.

1. French fries may actually have originated in Belgium. There is an ongoing dispute between France and Belgium as to which country they come from. One theory is that US soldiers in Belgium during World War I thought they were in France because French was widely spoken around them, and so attributed the snack to the French.
2. Belgium is the European nation which consumes the most French fries per person per year.
3. There are written references to French fries that pre-date World War I, though. US President Thomas Jefferson is said to have eaten "potatoes served in the French manner" at a White House dinner in 1802.
4. "French Fried Potatoes" first appeared in print in English in 1856 in a book called Cookery for Maids of All Work by E Warren. It says: "French Fried Potatoes. – Cut new Potatoes in thin slices, put them in boiling fat, and a little Salt; fry both sides of a light golden brown colour; drain."
5. Another theory as to the origin of the name is that it refers to the cooking term, "frenching" which means to cut into thin strips. However, this term wasn't used in cookery until 1895, almost 40 years after E. Warren wrote about it.
6. French fries are usually cooked twice - once to cook the potatoes and then again to make the outside crisp.
7. The average American eats between 16 and 30lbs of French fries a year.
8. More than a quarter of the total potato crop in America is turned into French Fries.
9. In its early days, McDonalds extensively studied how to produce consistently good French fries - they pretty much turned it into a science. One of the things they discovered was that potatoes needed to be cured for three weeks so that the right amount of sugar turned to starch and stopped the fries from turning brown when cooked.
10. In 2002, McDonalds fries were found to contain beef extract, and there were a number of lawsuits filed against the chain for labelling them as suitable for vegetarians. McDonalds donated $10 million to Hindu and vegetarian groups in compensation.

27th February: Polar Bear Day

280 years ago today, the first polar bear arrived in London, from Greenland. Here are 10 things you may not know about polar bears:

1. The Latin name for a polar bear is Ursus maritimus, which means "sea bear". Constantine John Phipps, who was the first to describe the polar bear as a distinct species in 1774, gave them that name because they are strong swimmers.
2. The males are called boars and the females are called sows. The collective noun for a group of polar bears is an Aurora.
3. The skin of a polar bear under its white fur is black. The fur is actually made up of transparent, rather than white, hollow hairs, which reflect light and so appear white.
4. Polar bears are the largest land based predator in the world, and have been known to stand up to 11 feet high on their hind legs. When first born, however, a polar bear cub is about the size of a guinea pig.
5. The bulk of the polar bear's diet is seals. They can smell a Seal up to a kilometre away, even if the seal is buried in Snow. Young bears eat mainly the red meat, which is rich in protein, and mature  bears eat the blubber, which is rich in fat. If they can't find any seals, they will eat other things. They have been known to tuck in to Reindeer, birds, eggs, rodents, Crabs, berries, roots, and kelp. They have been known to eat other polar bears, and even people if they are hungry enough, although a polar bear will only attack humans if it is very hungry or if it is severely provoked. They are very clean animals, and after feeding, will wash themselves in the snow.
6. The only species that preys on the polar bear is humans. They were an important source of food for Inuit peoples, who would make use of virtually every part of the animal. As well as eating the meat, they would make clothing from the fur, fuel from the fat and talismans from the teeth.
7. The only part they could not use was the liver, which is poisonous because of the high concentration of vitamin A. Polar bear livers would be buried or thrown into the sea so that the dogs would not eat them.
8. The Chukchi and Yupik of eastern Siberia had a shamanistic ritual of "thanksgiving" to the polar bears that they killed. They would hold a feast in its honour, with traditional music, and including ceremonially offering the skull of the bear food and a pipe to smoke. When they were satisfied that the bear's spirit was appeased, they would take the skull outside the camp and place it in the ground, facing North.
9. Polar bears' feet are highly adapted to their environment. The feet are very large to spread their weight when walking on thin ice or snow. The size of their feet also helps them to swim. Their paws are covered with small papillae to provide grip on icy surfaces.
10. 1,500 year old cave paintings of polar bears have been found in the Chukchi Peninsula.

February 26th: Birthday of the Goddess Nut

In the ancient Egyptian calendar, February 26 was celebrated as the birthday of the goddess Nut.

10 facts about Nut:

1. She is goddess of the night sky, usually pictured as a nude woman arching over the earth and covered in stars. Her name means "Sky". Nut forms the barrier separating the forces of chaos from the ordered cosmos.
2. Nut’s fingers and toes were believed to touch the four cardinal compass points - north, south, east, and west.
3. Sometimes, she appears as a cow, or a giant sow suckling many piglets (representing the stars). She may have a headdress consisting of a small pot or container.
4. Nut is the daughter of Shu and Tefnut, and Geb's sister.
5. She was married to the sun god Ra, but had an affair with her brother, Geb, becoming pregnant by him. Ra was furious and decreed that she would not give birth on any date in the calendar. Thoth, the god of wisdom, came to her rescue by gambling with the moon in order to win some of its light and create new days that were not in the calendar. He managed five new days, so Nut was able to give birth to five children.
6. Nut's children are Osiris, Set, Isis, Horus and Nephthys.
7. According to Egyptian myth, Nut swallows the sun every evening; it passes through her body overnight and is reborn at dawn.
8. Nut also has a role as protector of the dead. Children would pray to her for protection so that they would not die. People who did die would be taken up into the sky where Nut would give them food and drink.
9. Her sacred symbols are a ladder (used by Osiris to enter her skies), and a sycamore tree.
10. Some of the titles of Nut were: Coverer of the Sky; She Who Protects; Mistress of All; She who Bore the Gods and She Who Holds a Thousand Souls.

February 25th: Birth of Anthony Burgess

Anthony Burgess, the author of Clockwork Orange, was born on this date in 1917. Here are 10 facts about him:

1. His full name was John Anthony Burgess Wilson. The name Anthony was added at his confirmation.
2. He was known in childhood as Jack, Little Jack, and Johnny Eagle.
3. Although best known for his writing, he was also a composer, and felt that he was primarily a composer, not a writer.
4. He taught himself to play the piano when he was 14, and wanted to study music at university. However, he didn't get in, because his grades in physics weren't good enough. So he studied English literature instead.
5. He served in the army during World War II and reached the rank of sergeant major.
6. Writing was more of a hobby to him at first, "a sort of gentlemanly hobby because I knew there wasn't any money in it".
7. His first novels were written while he was working as a teacher in Malaya. They were: Time for a Tiger, The Enemy in the Blanket and Beds in the East. These became known as The Malayan Trilogy and were later published in one volume as The Long Day Wanes.
8. In 1958, he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour while teaching in Brunei. Thinking that he was dying, he wrote several more novels to provide an income for his wife. However, on return to England, doctors found no trace of any illness. After that, Burgess became a full time writer.
9. He was a tax exile - to avoid high rates of tax, he and his second wife, Liana, travelled around Europe in a motor-home. Liana drove while Anthony sat in the back, writing.
10. Burgess's epitaph reads "Abba Abba," which means "Father, father" in several Semitic languages. It is also the title of Burgess's 22nd novel, about the death of Keats.

February 24th: Birth of Wilhelm Grimm

The younger of the Brothers Grimm was born on this date in 1786. So here are 10 things you may not know about the Brothers Grimm:

1. The first names of the Brothers Grimm were Jacob and Wilhelm.
2. Jacob was just 13 months older than Wilhelm, born in January 1785.
3. The brothers were always close, attending the same schools and universities and working together as librarians in Kassel. When both were passed over for promotion there, they both left and got jobs at Gottingen University.
4. Originally, they both intended to become lawyers, like their father, but their interest in folklore and literature grew and led them to a different career.
5. Their first book was called Children's and Household Tales, published in 1812.This collection included Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, Hansel and Gretel and The Frog King.
6. Wilhelm married Henriette Wild, a family friend. Jacob never married, and continued to live with his brother and sister in law.
7. They were political activists - they lost their jobs in Gottingen because they protested about the new king's policies.
8. When writing their tales, Jacob would write the first draft and Wilhelm would edit and re-write so that all the tales had a consistent style.
9. The stories were not originally written for children, but were intended to preserve Germanic folk tales. Many of the tales were quite gruesome in their original form. However, young people liked them, and over the years they were gradually sanitised in order to be suitable for younger children.
10. As well as the tales, in their later years, the brothers collaborated on a dictionary of the German language. 

February 23rd: Mount Fuji Day

10 things you may not know about Mount Fuji:

1. Mount Fuji is 3,776.24 m (12,389 ft) high and 30 miles wide. It has a circumference of 78 miles and its crater is 820 feet deep.
2. It is an active volcano, and last erupted in 1707–08. Some scientists have speculated that it could erupt again in 2015.
3. It is one of Japan's "Three Holy Mountains". The others are Mount Tate and Mount Haku. The summit of Fuji is seen as a sacred place. Shintoists consider the peak sacred to the goddess of nature, Sengen-Sama; there is a shrine to her at the top. The Fujiko sect believe the mountain is a being with a soul. Japanese Buddhists believe the mountain is the gateway to another world.
4. It is believed that the first person to climb it was an anonymous monk in 663 AD. Climbing Fuji was forbidden to women until the Meiji Era (late 19th early 20th century). The first non-Japanese person to reach the summit was Sir Rutherford Alcock in September 1868. The first non-Japanese woman climber was Lady Fanny Parkes in 1869.
5. Today, around 100,000 people climb it every year, around 30% of which are foreigners.
6. The climbing season is July to August. Climbing during the winter is discouraged. The ascent takes 8 -12 hours, and it is recommended to tackle it over two days (there are a number of stations on the way up providing overnight accommodation).
7. A Japanese saying suggests that anybody would be a fool not to climb Mount Fuji once—but a fool to do so twice.
8. For 72 years, until 2004, there was a manned weather station on the summit. It was replaced in that year by a fully automated one.
9. There are two small ski resorts on the lower slopes of the mountain, Fujiten and Snow Town Yeti, which have only 6 lifts between them, but claim a variety of runs and snow parks.
10. Ancient Samurai used the base of the mountain as a remote training area.

22nd February: Thinking Day

Robert Baden-Powell, who founded the Scouting Association, was born on Feb 22 1857. His wife, Olave, had the same birthday but was 32 years younger, and is primarily associated with the Girl Guide Movement. Thinking Day was inaugurated in 1926 as a day for Girl Guides and Scouts to think about their counterparts throughout the world. 

10 facts about scouting, guiding and Thinking Day.

1. Thinking Day always has a theme. In 2014 it is Providing universal access to primary education. Past themes have included food, water, adolescent health and saving the planet.
2. Although Olave Baden-Powell is well known as the head of the guiding movement, the first time she offered to help with it, she was turned down! At that time, she was working as a Scoutmaster and also as her husband's secretary, and later, driver.
3. Olave Baden-Powell is one of only two people to receive a gold "silver fish". The silver fish is the highest accolade in guiding, awarded for outstanding service to the movement. The only other person to receive a gold silver fish was her daughter, Betty Clay.
4. Brownies (girls aged 7-10) were originally known as Rosebuds.
5. Robert Baden-Powell had written military manuals for army scouts, and was responsible for training boys aged 12 - 15 as messengers. When he learned that his books were being used in schools to teach non-military skills, he re-wrote them, and called the new book Scouting for Boys.He tested the ideas in the book at a camp for boys on Brownsea Island in 1907. This camp, and the book, were the beginning of the scouting movement.
6. Baden-Powell was influenced by Rudyard Kipling's books. The name "Akela" for the leader of a group of cub scouts was derived from the name of the wolf pack's leader in The Jungle Book.
7. Girls who live too far away from any Guide troop can become "Lone Guides" who connect with other lone guides and adult leaders by mail or radio (and presumably, these days, e-mail and Facebook although my source only mentioned the old fashioned ways!).
8. Young people over the age of 18 can become Rover Scouts or Ranger Guides.
9. Every 4 years the movement holds a "Jamboree" which is attended by tens of thousands of scouts from all over the world. The first was held in 1920 at Olympia in London; The next, the 23rd, will be held in Japan in 2015. The word "Jamboree" means a noisy, joyful gathering.
10. When not scouting, Robert Baden-Powell was a keen artist and enjoyed amateur dramatics.

21st February: Anais Nin's birthday

Writer Anais Nin was born on this date in 1903. Here are 10 quotations by her:

1. Each friend represents a world in us, a world not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.
2. We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.
3. Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.
4. Age does not protect you from love. But love, to some extent, protects you from age.
5. Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.
6. The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say.
7. The dream was always running ahead of me. To catch up, to live for a moment in unison with it, that was the miracle.
8. When you make a world tolerable for yourself, you make a world tolerable for others.
9. Living never wore one out so much as the effort not to live.
10. And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

February 20th: First US astronaut in space

On this date in 1962 Astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth. Here are 10 things you may not know about his mission.

Launch of Mercury 6: Photo by NASA

1. His spacecraft was called Friendship 7, and the mission, Mercury 6.
2. John Glenn was selected as prime pilot, with M. Scott Carpenter as his backup.
3. Donald K. Slayton and Walter M. Schirra were pilot and backup, respectively, for the second mission, Mercury 7.
4. NASA wanted to launch Mercury 6 in 1961, to orbit an astronaut in the same year as the Soviets, but the mission hardware was not ready until early 1962.
5. The mission was postponed five times from the original planned launch date of January 16 due to problems with the fuel tanks, and bad weather. Once it was postponed simply because cloud cover would have prevented photographs being taken of the launch. There was a further delay of 42 minutes on the morning of the launch because of a defective bolt on the hatch.
6. At lift-off Glenn's pulse rate reached 110 beats per minute.
7. He spotted Perth, Australia, when the city's residents greeted him by switching on their house lights in unison.
8. Glenn orbited the earth three times before making a safe splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean.
9. As the sun rose, he saw thousands of brilliant specks, floating around outside the capsule, resembling fireflies, and thought that he was looking into a star field. It was later determined that they were probably small ice crystals venting from on-board spacecraft systems.
10. A piece of the launch rocket landed on a farm near Aliwal-North, South Africa after about eight hours in orbit. The fragment was recovered by the police and handed over to NASA, which returned it as a token of goodwill, and it is now on display in the Science Museum in Pretoria.

19th February: Winter Olympics

With the Winter Olympics in full swing: 10 things you may not know about the Winter Olympics.

1. The first Winter Olympic Games were held in Chamonix, France in 1924.
2. The first person to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics was Charlew Jewtraw, from Lake Placid in the United States, for the 500 meters speed skating title in 1924. The first Winter Olympic female gold medalist was Herma Planck Szabo of Austria in the Figure Skating Event in 1924.
3. The first Winter Games to be televised were the 1956 Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. The first to be broadcast in colour was in Grenoble, France in 1968.
4. The oldest man to receive a Winter Olympics medal is Anders Haugen, at 83. He was not, however, as old as that when he actually competed. The Norwegian-American received his ski jump bronze medal 50 years after he competed in 1924, when a scoring error was discovered in 1974.
5. No country in the Southern Hemisphere has ever hosted a Winter Games.
6. Four winter Olympic sports take place indoors. They are hockey, curling, figure skating, and speed skating.
7. Man-made Snow was used in the Olympics for the first time at the 1980 Games in Lake Placid.
8. The most medals won by any athletes at the Winter Olympic Games is 12 by cross-country skier Bjorn Dählie of Norway. Cross country skier Raisa Smetanina (USSR) is the woman who has won most, taking 10 medals (four gold; five silver; one bronze). The country which has won the most Winter Olympic medals is Norway.
9. The Sochi 2014 Olympic Torch was the first to travel in space - one leg of the relay involved a spacewalk by Russian cosmonauts.
10. The 2018 Winter Olympics will be held in PyeongChang, South Korea. It will be the first time South Korea has hosted the Winter Games. 

18th February: Birth of "Bloody Mary"

10 things that are known as "Bloody Mary":





The Drink



1. The Original: Queen Mary I of England, Queen from 1553 to 1558, born on 18 February 1516; daughter of Henry VIII and sister of Elizabeth I.
2. The Drink: a cocktail containing vodka, tomato juice, and other flavourings.
3. The legend: a ghost or spirit said to appear in a mirror to individuals or groups (usually teenagers) when her name is called multiple times. She is sometimes covered in blood. Those who summon her may experience her screaming at them, cursing them, strangling them, stealing their soul, drinking their blood, or scratching their eyes out.
4. The movie: 2006 thriller-horror film written and directed by Richard Valentine, about a group of nurses at a psychiatric hospital who dare one of their group to go into the hospital's basement to summon the ghost as described above. She is taken by the vengeful spirit and vanishes. As the film progresses, more people are killed by Bloody Mary in various gruesome ways.
5. The song by Lady Gaga from her second studio album, Born This Way (2011).
6. The comic book character (1): an extraterrestrial vampire in the DC Comics universe. an energy vampire who sucks the life out of her victims. She flies using a disk and can project energy out of her eyes that can hypnotically manipulate her enemies.
7. The elephant: also known as Murderous Mary, an Asian circus Elephant who in 1916, killed a hotel worker named Red Eldridge who led the elephant parade, although he was not qualified. He prodded her behind the ear with a hook after she reached down to nibble on a watermelon rind. She went into a rage, snatched Eldridge with her trunk, threw him against a drink stand and stepped on his head, crushing it. Several nearby towns threatened not to allow the circus to visit if Mary was included. The circus owner, Charlie Sparks, decided that the only way to resolve this was to kill the elephant in public. She was was hanged by the neck from an industrial crane in front of over 2,500 people.
8. The musical character: Bloody Mary is a character in the book Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener, on which the musical South Pacific was based. She is an islander, who trades with the US sailors.
9. The Comic Book Character (2): Corporal "Bloody Mary" Malone in a series of science fiction comic books written by Garth Ennis, set in the year 2012.
10. The TV programme: An episode of South Park in which Randy believes that a bleeding statue of the Virgin Mary can cure his alcoholism.

17th February: World Cabbage Day

Cabbage, aka Brassica oleracea is one of the oldest vegetables known to man. Here are 10 things you may not know about cabbage:

1. Cabbage is good for you. Here's why: 150 grams of shredded raw cabbage contains 190% of the recommended daily amount of Vitamin C; 150 grams of shredded, boiled cabbage contains 91% of the recommended daily amount of vitamin K. It is also a a good source of calcium, Potassium, magnesium and fibre. As they are 90% water they are low in calories.
2. The country that consumes the most cabbage per person is Russia. People there eat on average 20kg of cabbage a year. In fact, it is considered their national food. Garden plots planted with kopusta, or cabbage would be given as tributes by Russian princes, alongside things like jewels or racehorses. The countries that produce the most cabbage (and related veggies) are China and India.
3. Scott Robb of Palmer, Alaska, broke the world record for the heaviest cabbage at 62.71 kilograms (138.25 lb) in 2012. The largest cabbage dish ever made was in 2008 in the Macedonian city of Prilep, with 80,191 sarmas (cabbage rolls) weighing 544 kg (1,221 lbs).
4. US baseball legend Babe Ruth used to wear a cabbage leaf under his hat during games, changing it for a new leaf at half time.
5. Eating cabbage or other greens is considered good luck on New Year's Eve because the green leaves are representative of money.
6. According to Roman mythology, cabbages sprang from the tears of Lycurgus, King of the Edonians.
7. There is also an old tale that the Man on the Moon was banished there for being caught stealing a cabbage from his neighbour on Christmas Eve. 
8. Cabbage has been used as a cure for many ailments, including gout, headaches, baldness, rheumatism, sore throat, colic, and melancholy. The Ancient Greeks used it as a laxative, for eye salves and liniments to help bruises heal. Cato the Elder suggested that women could prevent diseases by bathing in urine from someone who had eaten a lot of cabbage. Roman nobleman Pliny the Elder recommended it as a hangover cure, and Ancient Egyptians ate cooked cabbage at the beginning of meals to reduce the intoxicating effects of Wine.The leaves were used in Britain as a treatment for trench foot in World War I, and as compresses for ulcers and abscesses. Sauerkraut was used by Dutch sailors to prevent scurvy during long sea voyages. Captain Cook also swore by it. His ship doctor used it for compresses to prevent gangrene. Salted boiled cabbage was added to the rice given to workers on the Great Wall of China, to give them strength and endurance.
9. There is no Sanskrit or other ancient Eastern language word for cabbage, which suggests that it was introduced to South Asia relatively recently. In Chinese, the word for "vegetable" is choi, which is the same as the word for cabbage. 
10. Frankish king Charlemange cultivated cabbage in his garden.

February 16th: Lithuania Independence Day

Lithuania's Act of Independence was signed on 16 February 1918, declaring the establishment of a sovereign State of Lithuania. 10 things you may not know about Lithuania:

Lithuania's flag

1. The first written mention of Lithuania is found in a medieval German manuscript, the Annals of Quedlinburg, in an entry dated 9 March 1009.
2. The Kingdom of Lithuania, was created on 6 July 1253 when King Mindaugas was crowned and united the Lithuanian lands.
3. During the 14th century, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was the largest country in Europe, including present-day Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Poland and Russia. Now, Lithuania covers an area of about 65,200 square kilometres, which is about the size of the US state of West Virginia; larger than Belgium, Denmark, Latvia, the Netherlands, or Switzerland.
4. Lithuania has its own legendary Robin Hood character. His name was Tadas Blinda and he lived from 1846 to 1877.Like Robin Hood, he was an outlaw with a band of followers who lived in a forest.
5. Hannibal Lecter is Lituanian.
6. The population of Lithuania in 2013 was about 3 million.
7. Its capital and largest city is Vilnius.
8. According to some geographers, the geographical midpoint of Europe is just north of Vilnius.
9. The Longest river is the Nemunas.
10. The highest point is Aukštojas Hill at 294m.

February 15th: Lupercalia

Lupercalia is an ancient Roman festival celebrated from 13 - 15 February each year

1. It may have evolved from a festival called Februa, which was about purification and fertility of land, farm animals, and people. This ancient festival gives our present day month of February its name. In Roman times, the new year began in March, so there would have been an element of clearing away all the crap ready for a new start in the new year. It also tended to rain a lot in February, so cleansing and washing were an integral part. Although, even in Roman times, nobody was completely sure how it originated or which god they were supposed to be honouring. 

2. Lupercus, although his name derives from lupus, or Wolf, is the Roman god of shepherds. His temple was founded on February 15th, hence the festival. 

3. Ceremonies were conducted by priests of Lupercus, who would be wearing goatskins.

4. The festival also honoured Lupa, the wolf who suckled Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome. It was celebrated near the cave of Lupercal, where the she-wolf lived. An interesting aside, many of the words connected with prostitutes and brothels derive from the same root words connected with wolves. Could Romulus and Remus therefore have been suckled by a wet nurse of easy virtue, rather than by a wild animal who was surely more likely to have eaten them? I guess we'll never know for sure.

5. Vestal Virgins brought sacred cakes made from the first ears of that year's grain harvest. These would be burnt during the ceremony. 

6. The festival began with the ritual sacrifice of two male goats and a dog, and the anointing of two young noblemen with the blood of the goats and milk, after which the young men were supposed to Laugh. This was followed by a feast, (presumably of Goat meat) at which the wine would flow freely, which no doubt helped fuel the next custom of the festival...

7. ... Young men used to race through the city naked, carrying thongs made from the skins of the sacrificed goats, with which they would lash bystanders. Young women in particular would make sure they were at the front of the crowd, because getting hit by a bit of goatskin would bring them fertility and ease childbirth. In the early days of the festival, the women were required to bare their bottoms to be hit; later they just held out their hands.

8. Shakespeare's play, Julius Caesar, begins during Lupercalia, where Mark Antony is to be one of the young men running around naked. Caesar asks Mark Antony to make sure he hits Caesar's wife Calpurnia, so she will conceive an heir.

9. It is said that the Lupercalia festivities included a "sex lottery" where the young women wrote their names on clay tablets and the young men would draw a name to be their partner for the orgy; and that the Christians put a stop to that, substituting instead a drawing of the names of saints to pray to on that day instead. There is no firm evidence that either custom ever actually took place.

10. Pope Gelasius tried to get Lupercalia banned in the fifth century. It is widely believed that St Valentine's Day is a Christianisation of this festival, although there is no direct evidence of any connection.

February 14th: Sick of Valentine's Day? Things to celebrate instead

Sick of all the sickly sweet schmaltz of Valentine's Day? Well here are 10 other February 14th celebrations which might be more to your taste:

1. Ferris wheel day, because it is the birthday of George WG Ferris, who invented it.

2. Various holidays invented as a backlash against Valentine's Day and all it stands for: National Call in Single Day; Quirky Alone Day, for example, which allow those without partners a chance to take time out to try and find one, or to celebrate the positive side of being single.

3. Arizona and Oregon admission day .

4. Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Day/Have a Heart Day/Women's Heart Day - while it is probably no coincidence that these coincide with Valentine's day, they are about keeping your heart healthy rather than romance.

5. Day of National Mourning for Vincent Guerrero (Mexico).

6. Extra-terrestrial culture day (New Mexico).

7. National Random Acts of Kindness Day.

8. Race Relations Day - a church based observance to highlight the importance of good relationships between racial groups.

9. St Maron's Day - celebrates a Syrian hermit who lived in a hut covered in sheep skins.

10. The anniversary of the first telephone speaking clock, which began operation on this date in 1933, in Paris.

February 13th: St Valentine's Eve

St Valentine's eve – one of several dates in the year when it is traditional to try and divine who your future spouse will be (other dates include Halloween and Midsummer's day).

1. Putting any of the following under your pillow leads to dreams of future spouses: a piece of wedding cake; a piece of Cheese that has been passed through a Wedding ring; a mirror; daisies; Mistletoe. Alternatively, such dreams can be brought on by: wearing nightclothes inside out; brushing your hair three times in a mirror before bed; rubbing lemon peel on the headboard; eating a thimbleful of Salt or a salted herring; putting a sprig of Rosemary in one shoe and a sprig of Thyme in the other, sprinkle with Water three times and leave at the foot of the bed.
2. In England in the mid 18th century girls would pin 5 bay-leaves to their pillows, one in each corner and one in the middle. Then they would hard-boil an Egg, take out the yolk, fill the hole with salt, and eat it, shell and all, at bedtime, and then go to bed without speaking to anyone or drinking. The person who brought them water in their dreams would be their future husband.
3. Another custom was for a girl to write potential lovers' names on pieces of Paper, roll them up in clay, and put them into water: the first that floated was their valentine. 
4. Place two Hazelnuts side by side on a grate over a fire, to represent two sweethearts. If they burn together, the couple will marry. If one nut cracks or jumps off the grate, however, this means one of the pair will be unfaithful.
5. To discover the name of a future spouse, peel an Apple without the peeling breaking. Swing the peel three times around your head and then drop it. The letter the peel resembles when it falls is the first letter of your true love's name.
6. Another way to establish who you are going to marry using an apple is to say the names of all the likely candidates while twisting the stem of an apple. You will marry the one whose name you are saying when the stem falls off. Alternatively, recite the alphabet and the letter you get to when the stem falls off is the future true love's initial.
7. An old Valentine's Eve custom was for single man and women to put their names in a hat for members of the opposite sex to draw, and whoever's name a person pulled out would be their partner for the Valentine's celebrations, and possibly beyond!
8. Go into a cabbage patch with your eyes blindfolded or closed and pull up a Cabbage. Look at its roots. Straight roots mean a handsome husband, crooked roots mean an ugly husband, and if there is a lot of soil clinging to the roots you will marry a rich man.
9.  Blond, brunette or redhead? There are a number of ways to divine the colour of a future spouse's hair: finding a hair on the heel of your shoe, especially if you just heard a dove cooing and turned around three times before looking; when it is raining and the sun is shining at the same time, pick up a stone and look for a hair; run around the house three times, touching the same rock each time – then look for a hair to match that of your future spouse. If you don't find a hair, then presumably that means either you will stay single or you'll marry someone who is bald!
10. Take four Onions and name each of them after a prospective partner. Put them under your bed. The one which sprouts first will is the one you will marry.

February 12th: Charles Darwin's Birthday

Charles Darwin was born on this date in 1809. 10 things you may not know about him:

1. Darwin first went to university in Edinburgh to study medicine and become a doctor like his father. However, he found the subject of medicine didn't interest him and also that he couldn't stand the sight of blood. His next choice of potential career was to study to become a priest. He passed this degree but had already become very interested in naturalism, which led to his being chosen as companion to the captain of the Beagle.

2. As a young man, Darwin was very religious, but on his voyage, observing slavery started to make him question his faith, which he finally lost completely on the death of his daughter, Annie. However, although he stopped attending church, he described himself as an agnostic rather than an atheist.

3. He almost didn't get the job on the Beagle, because the captain, Robert FitzRoy, believed that facial features were a reliable predictor of character – and he did not like the shape of Darwin's nose. FitzRoy believed that Darwin's nose shape showed a lack of determination. Something made him change his mind, and the two men became great friends.

4. Charles Darwin's wife, Emma Wedgewood, was his first cousin. When deciding whether to propose to her, he wrote out a list of pros and cons of marriage. Pros included: A companion and friend in old age, who would be better than a dog; not wanting to live his life alone in a dingy flat doing nothing but work; someone to look after the house; Constant companion and friend in old age; an object to be beloved and played with — better than a dog; someone to take care of the house; the charms of music and female chit-chat.; someone to enjoy books and music with. The cons included: loss of freedom – being forced to visit relatives instead of going to a men's club for intelligent conversation; the expense and anxiety of having children; having less money to spend on books; fears that Emma would not want to live in London. His decision was to marry her. Despite his reservations about children, his knowledge of heredity and fears that his close relationship to his wife would lead to weaknesses caused by inbreeding, he still fathered ten of them!

5. Every night between 8 and 8:30 PM, Darwin would play two games of backgammon with Emma, and kept score of every game for years!

6. Darwin liked to eat the meat of strange and exotic animals; he belonged to a “Gourmet Club” when he was at university which would cook and eat animals not usually eaten. The wide range of creatures he ate during this time, and also on his travels included hawk, armadillo, puma, Iguana and giant tortoises. The best tasting meat, he said, was agouti (a type of rodent). His least favourite was owl, which he said was “indescribable”.

7. Darwin's health was often bad. He suffered from heart palpitations and chest pain, which at first he kept quiet in case it meant he wouldn't be able to sail with the Beagle; sea sickness; stomach problems and vomiting (one wonders if some of this, at least, wasn't down to eating all those exotic animals!); skin diseases, headaches, depression, vertigo and panic attacks. He was often confined to bed, but looked on the bright side – when he was ill, he didn't have to socialise. The causes of his ill-health were never fully explained, but modern doctors have come up with several theories, which include: migraine; lactose intolerance; Asperger's; arsenic poisoning; Crohn's disease; lupus; allergies; obsessive compulsive disorder; or that his symptoms were psychosomatic and brought on by stress and overwork.

8. Many things have been named after Charles Darwin, including: a mountain in the Andes; the city of Darwin in Australia; 120 species, including the genus of birds known as “Darwin's finches”; asteroid number 1991; the Darwin Wallace medal awarded by the Linnean Society; and Darwin Sound, where Darwin helped to save a landing party from being marooned by a large wave caused by a collapsing glacier.

9. Darwin's picture appears on the UK £10 note along with a Hummingbird and HMS Beagle.

10. He is buried in Westminster Abbey, close to John Herschel and Isaac Newton.

February 11: Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison was born on this date in 1847. 

Here are 10 Edison quotations:

1. Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

2. Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.

3. To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.

4. Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless.

5. I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun.

6. Your worth consists in what you are and not in what you have.

7. The chief function of the body is to carry the brain around.

8. We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.

9. To have a great idea, have a lot of them.

10. I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.

February 10th: Umbrella Day

To celebrate Umbrella Day here are 10 things you may not know about brollies:

1. The word umbrella derives from the Latin word, umbra, meaning shadow, and the French suffix -ella, meaning little, so the literal meaning is "little shadow".

2. Other words for umbrella include: brolly or umbrolly (UK slang), gamp (archaic UK slang derived from the character of Mrs Gamp in Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit, who was known for always carrying an umbrella), and bumbershoot (US slang). The cricket ground at Edgbaston, Birmingham, used to be protected by a large rainproof cover, which was nicknamed the "Brumbrella" from "Brum", a nickname for Birmingham, and it's function as a rain cover.

3. Umbrellas, and their fine weather counterparts, parasols, appear in ancient Persian and Chinese art. Sculptures found in Nineveh (in present day Iraq) depict a king with a parasol held over his head by a servant. In that time, no-one other than the king was allowed to use a parasol or umbrella. In Burma, too, umbrellas were a status symbol and the kings and princes there would give themselves titles, such as "King of the White Elephant and Lord of the twenty-four Umbrellas" or "His great, glorious, and most excellent Majesty, who reigns over the kingdoms of Thunaparanta, Tampadipa, and all the great umbrella-wearing chiefs of the Eastern countries." The servant who held the king's umbrella for him was usually a very high ranking one.

4. The first reference to an umbrella that can be collapsed and folded away is from China in 21AD, when the Emperor Wang Mang had one designed for his ceremonial carriage. The ancient Greeks had parasols that could open and close.

5. According to Sanskrit legend, Jamadagni, a descendent of the god Vishnu, was a skilled archer, and his wife's job was to retrieve his arrows. She was usually very quick at this, but one day, it took her the whole day. She blamed the delay on the heat of the sun, so Jamadagni shot at the sun in a temper. To stop his onslaught, the sun gave them an umbrella.

6. Despite the umbrella being an iconic accessory for the British today, they weren't widely used until the seventeenth century, when they were probably introduced from China. Before that, people would use their cloaks to protect them from the rain, and the first people to carry umbrellas in England were ridiculed.

7. Aztec army chiefs carried elaborate umbrellas made from feathers and gold, which also served as flags.

8. A large umbrella, or Umbraculum, was once a piece of the regalia for the Pope, and used on a daily basis to shield him from the sun. Nowadays it is largely ceremonial. Every basilica has one, to be opened when the Pope visits.

9. It is generally considered unlucky to open an umbrella indoors. Some say this superstition originated in Victorian times, when umbrellas were clunky, spring loaded contraptions, which would open quite violently, often breaking valuable ornaments or doing some innocent bystander an injury. Telling people it was unlucky to open umbrellas indoors reduced the number of umbrella related accidents substantially. Others believe the superstition originated in ancient Egypt, where umbrellas were used as protection from the sun, and opening one indoors was insulting to the sun god, or to the umbrella itself. Also, because only nobility were allowed to use them, any commoner unfortunate enough to pass under the shadow of one faced potentially very serious punishment.

10. As well as protecting people from the weather, umbrellas can be used in photography to deflect light, or as a weapon. Late 19th and early 20th century publications gave instructions on how to defend yourself with an umbrella. It is possible to go one step further and adapt an umbrella to make it even more deadly, as is believed to have happened with dissident Georgi Markov, who was injected with deadly poison by means of an umbrella. In fiction, Batman's adversary, The Penguin, has an umbrella that can fire bullets and poison gas. And of course, James Bond had a modified umbrella - in For Your Eyes Only, there was an umbrella which, when it got wet, would close and crush the person using it with steel claws. Mary Poppins, as we all know, had one which enabled her to fly.