February 5, 2025
Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry describes some events that happened on February 14, the date of St. Valentine’s Day. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.
Today I look back on historical events that occurred on February 14, the date of St. Valentine’s Day.
First Recognition of the “Stars-and- Stripes” by a Foreign Government, 14 February 1778
On 14 February 1778, the Continental Navy sloop Ranger, commanded by Captain John Paul Jones, received the salute of a French squadron under La Motte Picquet, with his flag on Robuste, at Quiberon Bay, France.
On board was Dr. Ezra Green (1746-1847), who penned the following in his diary:
Very squally weather, came to sail at 4 o’clock P.M. Saluted the French Admiral & rec’d nine guns in return. This is the first salute ever pay’d the American flag.
The event is also noted in Dr. Green’s obituary published in a New Hampshire newspaper. He died in 1847 at the age of 101.
This passage reads:
In October 1777 he [Dr. Green] enlisted as surgeon on board the Ranger, a sloop of war of eighteen guns under command of Capt. John Paul Jones… They sailed for France… On the 14th of this month [February 1778] they exchanged salutes with the French Admiral, this being the first salute ever paid to the American flag.
Dr. Ezra Green, son of Ezra and Eunice (Burrill) Green, married Susanna Hayes and left descendants. This pencil-edited, undated photo is thought to be the oldest photograph of Green, who died in 1847 at the age of 101.
Note: A mention of Dr. Green’s photo first appeared in 1898 in “A list of portraits in the various buildings of Harvard University; prepared under the direction of the late Justin Winsor, librarian,” and later featured in the work of Maureen Taylor entitled, “The Last Muster: Images of the Revolutionary War Generation” (2010).
Captain James Cook Died in Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii, 14 February 1779
On 14 February 1779, Captain James Cook (1728-1779), the great English explorer and navigator, was killed by Native Hawaiians during his third visit to the Pacific Islands.
Cook was killed while leading a small party of British marines on a raid to kidnap the King of Hawaii, Kalaniʻōpuʻu. Here is a snippet of an unfinished painting showing the death of Captain James Cook at Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii.
While there are many colorful variations and conflicting narratives about Captain Cook’s death, most historians agree that of all the accounts, the one found in a journal report by a lieutenant who was there is the most concise and unemotional. A newspaper article, “Journal Throws Light on Death of Captain Cook,” provides the intel.
This article reports:
An important manuscript, the original journal kept by Lieut. James Burney aboard H. B. M. S. Discovery, which was a companion ship to the Resolution, commanded by Capt. James Cook on his last voyage around [the world], which ended on the Island of Hawaii, where he met his death, has been purchased by the Mitchell Library of Sydney, the repository of many valuable papers on Australian history.
The journal, which never has been published, throws new light upon the circumstances surrounding the death of Captain Cook. It said that the explorer had gone ashore to invite the king of the island and his sons to discuss the theft of a cutter [small boat] belonging to the Discovery. He was returning to his boat with King Kerrioboo [Kalaniʻōpuʻu] when he was killed, according to the journal.
“Captain cook was about to give orders for embarking when he was provoked by the insolence of a man armed with a thick mat and a long spike,” the journal reads.
“Captain Cook fired at this man with small shot, which neither penetrated the mat nor frightened the Indian, as was expected it would do. Another man with an iron spike came near Mr. [Molesworth] Phillips, who, suspecting his intentions, drove him back with the butt end of his musket.
“Captain Cook, who had a double-barreled gun, immediately fired with ball. The sergeant said he had shot the wrong man, whereupon he told the sergeant to shoot the right one. The Indians gave a volley of stones and began to close. Captain Cook ordered the marines to fire. The Indians gave back, but advanced before the marines had time to load. The marines were obliged to take to the water. Captain Cook was struck by an Indian and he turned and beat his assailant back with his musket. He received at the same moment a blow on the head and a stab with a spike in the neck, which tumbled him into the water. Unable to swim and stunned by the blow, he turned toward the shore and a number of Indians surrounded him and dragged him on the rocks, where they beat and stabbed him in several places, snatching the daggers from each other out of eagerness to have their share in killing him.”
First Apple Paring Machine Patent
Moses Coates (1746-1816) of Chester County, Pennsylvania, an innovator and inventor, was awarded the first U.S. patent for a “Machine for Paring Apples or Other Fruit” on 14 February 1803. A description and engraving of Coates’s apple parer appeared in the first American edition of The Domestic. Here is that image:
In a letter to Thomas Jefferson, Coates writes the following:
“I have another little Curious and Very Usefull machine for Pairing apples other fruit or Roots and allso for cuting, And there ought to be one in Every family town and Country, and I wou’d Beg leave to Suggest to thee the Idea, Whether or no there wou’d not be a Probability and Propriety for the Government of the United States Purchasing my Exclusive Right that it might Become Common to People at Large.”
Coates received patents for an improved sawmill and an improved machine for cutting straw and hay in 1804, and received praise for his inventions.
To be continued…
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Note on the header image: an English Victorian-era Valentine card located in the Museum of London, c. 1870. Credit: rgEbfucR4wKBlg; Wikimedia Commons.
