Today in HistoryToday is Tuesday, February 14, the 45th day of 2006. There are 320 days left in the year. This is Valentine’s Day.

ON THIS DATE<$>

In 1778, the American ship Ranger<$> carried the recently adopted Star and Stripes to a foreign port for the first time as it arrived in France.

In 1894, comedian Jack Benny was born Benjamin Kubelsky in Waukegan, Illinois.

In 1895, Oscar Wilde’s final play, “The Importance of Being Earnest,” opened in London.

In 1929, the “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” took place in a Chicago garage as seven rivals of Al Capone’s gang were gunned down.

In 1979, Adolph Dubs, the US ambassador to Afghanistan, was kidnapped in Kabul by Muslim extremists and killed in a shootout between his abductors and police.

In 1989, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini called on Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of “The Satanic Verses,” a novel condemned as blasphemous.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” — Jack Benny (1894-1974).