MOMENTS IN TIME

The History Channel

• On Feb. 14, 278 A.D., Valentine, a holy priest in Rome in the days of Emperor Claudius II, is executed. Claudius the Cruel had banned all marriages and engagements. Valentine defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret.

• On Feb. 17, 1904, Giacomo Puccini’s opera “Madame Butterfly” premieres at the La Scala theater in Milan, Italy. Set in Nagasaki, Japan, “Madame Butterfly” told the story of an American sailor, B.F. Pinkerton, who marries and then abandons a young Japanese geisha, Cio-Cio-San, or Madame Butterfly.

• On Feb. 11, 1916, Emma...