Which example would you think is faster to find the margin-right property?

Example #01

Example #02

You can’t tell me that Example 2 isn’t faster. By alphabetizing your properties, you are creating this consistency that will help you reduce the time you spend searching for a specific property.

I know some people who organize one way and others who organize another, but at my company, we made a consensus decision to all organize alphabetically. It has definitely helped when working with other people’s code. I cringe every time I go into a stylesheet where the properties are not sorted alphabetically.

Efficient CSS with shorthand properties

I get a lot of questions about CSS from people who aren’t crazy enough to have spent the thousands of hours working with CSS that I have. Sometimes I’m asked to take a look at something they’re working on to see if I can figure out why it doesn’t work as expected. When I look at their CSS I often find that it’s both bloated and unorganised.

One of the reasons for using CSS to layout websites is to reduce the amount of HTML sent to site visitors. To avoid just moving the bloat from HTML to CSS, you should try to keep the size of your CSS files down as well, and I thought I’d explain my favourite CSS efficiency trick: shorthand properties. Most people know about and use some shorthand, but many don’t make full use of these space saving properties.

Some background

Shorthand properties can be used to set several properties at once, in a single declaration, instead of using a separate declaration for each individual property. As you’ll see, this can save a lot of space in your CSS file.

Quite a few shorthand properties are available – for details I suggest the W3C CSS specifications of the background, border, border-color, border-style, border sides (border-top, border-right, border-bottom, border-left), border-width, font, list-style, margin, outline, and paddingproperties.

Colours

The most common way of specifying a colour in CSS is to use hexadecimal notation: an octothorpe (#) followed by six digits. You can also use keywords and RBG notation, but I always use hexadecimal. One great shortcut that many don’t know about is that when a colour consists of three pairs of hexadecimal digits, you can omit one digit from each pair:

#000000 becomes #000, #336699 becomes #369.

Box dimensions

The properties that affect box dimensions share the same syntax: the shorthand property followed by one to four space separated values:

• property:value1;
• property:value1 value2;
• property:value1 value2 value3;
• property:value1 value2 value3 value4;

Which sides of the box the values affect depends on how many values you specify. Here’s how it works:

• One value: all sides
• Two values: top and bottom, right and left
• Three values: top, right and left, bottom
• Four values: top, right, bottom, left

Thinking of the face of a clock is an easy way of remembering which side each value affects. Start at 12 o’clock (top), then 3 (right), 6 (bottom), and 9 (left). You can also think of the TRouBLe you’ll be in if you don’t remember the correct order – I first saw this in Eric Meyer’s excellent book Eric Meyer on CSS.

Margin and padding

Using shorthand for these properties can save a lot of space. For example, to specify different margins for all sides of a box, you could use this:

1. margin-top:1em;
2. margin-right:0;
3. margin-bottom:2em;
4. margin-left:0.5em;

But this is much more efficient:

1. margin:1em 0 2em 0.5em;

The same syntax is used for the padding property.

Borders

Borders are slightly more complicated since they can also have a style and a colour. To give an element a one pixel solid black border on all sides, you could use the following CSS:

1. border-width:1px;
2. border-style:solid;
3. border-color:#000;

A more compact way would be to use the border shorthand:

1. border:1px solid #000;

I always specify border values in that order:

1. border:width style color;

Most browsers don’t care about the order, and according to the specification they shouldn’t, but I don’t see a reason for not using the same order as the W3C does in the specification. There’s always the chance of a browser being very strict about the order of shorthand values.

The same syntax can be used with the border-top, border-right, border-bottom, and border-left shorthand properties to define the border of any single side of a box.

You don’t have to specify all three values. Any omitted values are set to their initial values. The initial values are medium for width, none for style, and the value of the element’s color property for color.

How wide a medium border is depends on the user agent.

Note that since the initial value for style is none you do need to specify a style if you want the border to be visible.

The border-width, border-style, and border-color properties used in the first border example above are themselves shorthand properties. Their longhand alternatives are very rarely used, but they do exist:

1. border-width:1px 2px 3px 4px;

is shorthand for

1. border-top-width:1px;
2. border-right-width:2px;
3. border-bottom-width:3px;
4. border-left-width:4px;

The border-style and border-color shorthands use the same syntax as border-width: the box dimensions syntax described above.

Using the various border shorthands can also save some typing when you want to give an element’s border different properties on different sides. These declarations will make an element’s right and bottom borders solid, black, and one pixel wide:

1. border-right:1px solid #000;
2. border-bottom:1px solid #000;

And so will these:

1. border:1px solid #000;
2. border-width:0 1px 1px 0;

First the borders on all sides are styled identically, and then the different widths are specified.

Backgrounds

Another very useful shorthand property is background. Instead of using background-color, background-image, background-repeat, background-attachment, and background-position to specify an element’s background, you can use just background:

1. background-color:#f00;
2. background-image:url(background.gif);
3. background-repeat:no-repeat;
4. background-attachment:fixed;
5. background-position:0 0;

can be condensed to

1. background:#f00 url(background.gif) no-repeat fixed 0 0;

Like with the border shorthands the order of the values isn’t supposed to matter, but I’ve seen reports of early versions of Safari having problems when the values aren’t listed in the order used in the W3C specification, which is this:

1. background:color image repeat attachment position;

Remember that when you give two values for position, they have to appear together. When using length or percentage values, put the horizontal value first.

As with the border and border sides properties, you don’t have to specify all values. If a value is omitted, its initial value is used. The initial values for the individual background properties are as follows:

• color: transparent
• image: none
• repeat: repeat
• attachment: scroll
• position: 0% 0%

This means that it’s pointless to use the background shorthand without giving a value for either color or image – doing so would make the background transparent.

I almost always use the background shorthand to specify background colours for elements, since background:#f00; is the same as background-color:#f00;.

Remember that this will remove any background image specified by a previous rule. Consider these rules:

1. p {
2. background:#f00 url(image.gif) no-repeat;
3. }
4. div p {
5. background:#0f0;
6. }

All paragraphs not in a div element will have a background image and be red where the image doesn’t cover the background. Any paragraph that is in a div will have a green background, and no background image.

Fonts

As with the background property, font can be used to combine several individual properties:

1. font-style:italic;
2. font-variant:small-caps;
3. font-weight:bold;
4. font-size:1em;
5. line-height:140%;
6. font-family:"Lucida Grande",sans-serif;

Can be combined into

1. font:italic small-caps bold 1em/140% "Lucida Grande",sans-serif;

Again, when it comes to the order of the values, I see no reason not to use the order given by the W3C. Better safe than sorry.

When using the font shorthand you can omit any values except font-size and font-family – you always need to give values for those, and in that order. The initial values for the individual font properties are these:

• font-style: normal
• font-variant: normal
• font-weight: normal
• font-size: medium
• line-height: normal
• font-family: depends on the user agent

Lists

The shorthand property for ordered and unordered lists is list-style. I personally only use it to set the list-style-type property to none, which removes any bullets or numbering from the list:

1. list-style:none;

instead of

1. list-style-type:none;

You can also use it to set the list-style-position and list-style-image properties, so to specify that unordered lists should render their list item markers inside each list item, use an image for the list item markers, and use squares if that image is not available, the following two rules would do the same thing:

1. list-style:square inside url(image.gif);

is shorthand for

1. list-style-type:square;
2. list-style-position:inside;
3. list-style-image:url(image.gif);

Outlines

The outline property is very rarely used, mainly because of its current poor browser support – as far as I know only Safari, OmniWeb and Opera currently support it. Anyway, using the individual properties you can define an outline like this:

1. outline-color:#f00;
2. outline-style:solid;
3. outline-width:2px;

or like this:

1. outline:#f00 solid 2px;

Outlines have some interesting characteristics that make them useful: unlike borders, they do not take up any space and are always drawn on top of a box. This means that hiding or showing outlines doesn’t cause reflow, and they don’t influence the position or size of the element they are applied to or that of any other boxes. Outlines may also be non-rectangular.

Referred from : http://www.456bereastreet.com

W3C has offered some new options for borders in CSS3, of which one is border-radius. Both Mozila/Firefox and Safari 3 have implemented this function, which allows you to create round corners on box-items. One of the most talked about aspects of CSS3 is border-radius property. Rounder corners can be created independently using the four individual border-radius properties (border-bottom-left-radius, border-bottom-right-radius, border-top-left-radius, border-top-right-radius.) We can use border-radius shorthand property for all four corners simultaneously. It will take a single value for all the four corners.

This is an example:

The code for this example above is actually quite simple:

These different corners can also each be handled on their own, Mozilla has other names for the feature than the spec says it should have though, as it has f.i. -moz-border-radius-topright as opposed to -webkit-border-top-right-radius:

Each border-corner properties will take either one or two values( it may a constant value or percentage).

See the example:
border-top-left-radius: 20px; // Single value
border-top-left-radius: 20px 30px; // taking separate values
border-top-left-radius: 5% 10%; // take percentage

The following diagram gives a graphical representation of the first 2 examples:

If one of the values is zero, the corner wont be rendered as rounded corner. It will be a squared one.

We can use border-radius shorthand property define all four corners simultaneously. The property accepts either one or two sets of values, each consisting of one to four constants or percentages.

Example:
border-radius: 4px 8px 2px 6px / 8px 4px 6px 2px;
border-radius: 10px;
border-radius: 10px 15px / 10px;

The first set of values define the horizontal radius for all four corners. An optional second set of values, preceded by a ‘/’, define the vertical radius for all four corners. If only one set of values are given; these are used to determine both the vertical and horizontal equally.

If all four values are given, these represent the top-left, top-right, bottom-right and bottom-left radius respectively. If bottom-left is omitted from the given set, its value is the same as top-right, if bottom-right is omitted it is the same as top-left, and if only one value is given it is used to set all four radii equally.

The -moz- prefix and -webkit- prefix

While Internet Explorer doesn’t support many (or any) advanced CSS properties, you can get started using Firefox and any of the ‘Mozilla’ family of browsers. Apple’s WebKit web browser engine also supports rounded corners making them available in the Safari and Chrome web browsers, the iPhone and other devices running WebKit.

Mozilla’s Firefox browser has supported the border-radius property, with the -moz- prefix, since version 1.0. However, it is only since version 3.5 that the browser has allowed elliptical corners.

Here are the CSS and browser-specific attributes

Some Examples

• * 1404 – Leone Battista Alberti, Italian painter and philosopher (d. 1472)
• * 1468 – Johann Werner, German mathematician (d. 1522)
• * 1483 – Babur, Moghul emperor of India (d. 1530)
• * 1602 – Francesco Cavalli, Italian composer (d. 1676)
• * 1680 – John Sidney, 6th Earl of Leicester, English privy councillor (d. 1737)
• * 1692 – Pierre-Claude Nivelle de La Chaussée, French writer (d. 1754)
• * 1701 – Enrique Florez, Spanish historian (d. 1773)
• * 1763 – Jean Victor Marie Moreau, French general (d. 1813)
• * 1788 – Fernando Sor, Spanish composer (d. 1839)
• * 1799 – Walenty Wańkowicz, Polish painter (d. 1842)
• * 1800 – Emory Washburn, 22nd Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1877)
• * 1812 – Alfred Thomas Agate, American artist (d. 1846)
• * 1819 – Joshua A. Norton, American eccentric (d. 1880)
• * 1819 – Christopher Sholes, American inventor (d. 1890)
• * 1824 – Winfield Scott Hancock, American Civil War Union general (d. 1886)
• * 1828 – Edmond François Valentin About, French writer (d. 1885)
• * 1838 – Margaret E. Knight, American inventor, famous as female Thomas Edison, (d. 1914)
• * 1846 – Julian Scott, American artist and Civil War Medal of Honor recipient. (d. 1901)
• * 1847 – Anna Howard Shaw, American suffragette (d. 1919)
• * 1847 – Maria Pia of Italy, queen of Portugal (d. 1911)
• * 1848 – Benjamin Baillaud, French astronomer (d. 1934)
• * 1856 – Frank Harris, Irish author and editor (d. 1931)
• * 1859 – George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., engineer and inventor (d. 1896)
• * 1860 – Eugen Schiffer, German politician (d. 1954)
• * 1869 – Charles Wilson, Scottish physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1959)
• * 1871 – Gerda Lundequist, Swedish actress (d. 1959)
• * 1884 – Nils Olaf Chrisander, Swedish actor, film director (d. 1947)
• * 1884 – Joe Jagersberger, Austrian racing driver (d. 1952)
• * 1884 – Kostas Varnalis, Greek poet (d. 1974)
• * 1884 – Hezekiah M. Washburn, missionary (d. 1972)
• * 1885 – Syed Zafarul Hasan, Prominent Muslim Indian/Pakistani philosopher (d. 1949)
• * 1890 – Nina Hamnett, Welsh artist (d. 1956)
• * 1892 – Radola Gajda, Czech military commander (d. 1948)
• * 1894 – Jack Benny, American actor and comedian (d. 1974)
• * 1895 – Max Horkheimer, German philosopher and sociologist (d. 1973)
• * 1898 – Fritz Zwicky, Swiss-American physicist and astronomer (d. 1974)
• * 1902 – Thelma Ritter, American actress (d. 1969)
• * 1903 – Stu Erwin, American actor (d. 1967)
• * 1904 – Charles Oatley, Professor of electrical engineering, (scanning electron microscope), (d. 1996)
• * 1904 – Hertta Kuusinen, Finnish communist (d. 1974)
• * 1912 – Tibor Sekelj, Croatian explorer (d. 1988)
• * 1913 – Mel Allen, American sports reporter (d. 1996)
• * 1913 – Woody Hayes, American college football coach (d. 1987)
• * 1913 – Jimmy Hoffa, American labor union leader
• * 1914 – Norman Von Nida, Australian golfer (d. 2007)
• * 1916 – Marcel Bigeard, French general
• * 1916 – Masaki Kobayashi, Japanese director (d. 1996)
• * 1916 – Edward Platt, American actor (d. 1974)
• * 1917 – Herbert A. Hauptman, American mathematician, Nobel Prize Laureate
• * 1921 – Hugh Downs, American television host
• * 1922 – Murray the K, American impresario and disk jockey (d. 1982)
• * 1927 – Lois Maxwell, Canadian actress (d. 2007)
• * 1929 – Vic Morrow, American actor (d. 1982)
• * 1931 – Bernie Geoffrion, Canadian hockey player (d. 2006)
• * 1931 – Brian Kelly, American actor (d. 2005)
• * 1931 – Phyllis McGuire, American singer (The McGuire Sisters)
• * 1932 – Alexander Kluge, German actor and film director
• * 1933 – Madhubala, Indian actress (d. 1969)
• * 1934 – Michel Corboz, Swiss conductor
• * 1934 – Florence Henderson, American actress
• * 1936 – Fanne Foxe, Argentine dancer and focus of a 1974 scandal involving Congressman Wilbur Mills.
• * 1936 – Andrew Prine, American actor
• * 1941 – Donna Shalala, American educator
• * 1941 – Paul Tsongas, United States Senator from Massachusetts (d. 1997)
• * 1942 – Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City
• * 1942 – Andrew Robinson, American actor
• * 1942 – Ricardo Rodríguez, Mexican racing driver (d. 1962)
• * 1943 – Maceo Parker, American musician (P-Funk)
• * 1943 – Aaron Russo, American movie producer (d. 2007)
• * 1944 – Carl Bernstein, American journalist
• * 1944 – Alan Parker, British film director and writer
• * 1944 – Ronnie Peterson, Swedish racing driver (d. 1978)
• * 1945 – Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein
• * 1946 – Bernard Dowiyogo, President of Nauru (d. 2003)
• * 1946 – Gregory Hines, American dancer and actor (d. 2003)
• * 1947 – Tim Buckley, American singer-songwriter (d. 1975)
• * 1947 – Judd Gregg, American politician, senior senator from New Hampshire
• * 1948 – Pat O’Brien, American sportscaster and television host
• * 1948 – Teller, American magician (Penn and Teller)
• * 1950 – Roger Fisher, American musician (Heart)
• * 1951 – Kevin Keegan, English footballer
• * 1951 – JoJo Starbuck, American ice skater
• * 1952 – Nancy Keenan, current NARAL president
• * 1955 – Ronald Desruelles, Belgian athlete
• * 1955 – James Eckhouse, American actor
• * 1955 – Carol Kalish, American publishing executive (d. 1991)
• * 1955 – Rip Rogers, American professional wrestler
• * 1957 – Alan Hunter, one of the original MTV VJs
• * 1957 – Soile Isokoski, Finnish soprano
• * 1958 – Enrique Mansilla, Argentine racing driver
• * 1958 – Grant Thomas, Australian rules footballer
• * 1959 – Renée Fleming, American soprano
• * 1960 – Jim Kelly, American football player
• * 1960 – Meg Tilly, Canadian actress
• * 1961 – Phillip Hamilton, American author
• * 1961 – Latifa, Tunisian singer
• * 1962 – Kevyn Aucoin, American cosmetologist (d. 2002)
• * 1962 – Michael Higgs, English actor
• * 1962 – Philippe Sella, French rugby player
• * 1962 – Sakina Jaffrey, Indian actress
• * 1963 – Enrico Colantoni, Canadian actor
• * 1963 – John Marzano, American baseball player
• * 1964 – Gianni Bugno, Italian cyclist
• * 1964 – Zach Galligan, American actor
• * 1966 – Petr Svoboda, National Hockey League player
• * 1967 – Manuela Maleeva, Bulgarian tennis player
• * 1967 – Stelios Haji-Ioannou, British entrepreneur
• * 1968 – Jules Asner, American television personality
• * 1968 – Scott McClellan, American politician
• * 1969 – Adriana Behar, Brazilian beach volleyball player
• * 1969 – Harry Colon, American football player
• * 1970 – Giuseppe Guerini, Italian cyclist
• * 1970 – Simon Pegg, British comedian and actor
• * 1971 – Kris Aquino, Filipino Actress and TV Host
• * 1971 – Gheorghe Muresan, Romanian basketball player
• * 1971 – Noriko Sakai, Japanese singer
• * 1971 – Tommy Dreamer, American professional wrestler
• * 1972 – Drew Bledsoe, American football player
• * 1972 – Big Daddy V, American professional wrestler
• * 1972 – Hiroshi, Japanese comedian
• * 1972 – Najwa Nimri, Spanish actress
• * 1972 – Rob Thomas, American musician (Matchbox Twenty)
• * 1973 – Tyus Edney, American basketball player
• * 1973 – Steve McNair, American football player
• * 1974 – Filippa Giordano, Italian singer
• * 1974 – Philippe Léonard, Belgian footballer
• * 1975 – Scott Owen, Australian musician (The Living End)
• * 1975 – Yul Kwon, American Survivor contestant
• * 1975 – Malik Zidi, French actor
• * 1976 – Liv Kristine, Norwegian singer (Leaves’ Eyes)
• * 1977 – Darren Bennett, a Professional Latin Ballroom Dancer
• * 1977 – Cadel Evans, Australian cyclist
• * 1977 – Darren Purse, English footballer
• * 1977 – Elmer Symons, South African motorcycle racer (d. 2007)
• * 1978 – Dean Gaffney, British actor
• * 1978 – Richard Hamilton, American basketball player
• * 1978 – Darius Songaila, basketball player
• * 1978 – Dwele, American R&B/Soul singer
• * 1979 – Pablo Pallante, Uruguayan footballer
• * 1980 – Fátima Leyva, Mexican footballer
• * 1980 – Michelle Ye, Hong Kong actress
• * 1980 – Josh Senter, American screenwriter
• * 1982 – Marián Gáborík, Slovak hockey player
• * 1983 – Bacary Sagna, French footballer
• * 1983 – Rhydian Roberts, Welsh Singer, X factor Runner Up
• * 1984 – Hamed Namouchi, Tunisian footballer
• * 1985 – Karima Adebibe, Moroccan-English actress and model
• * 1985 – Tyler Clippard, American baseball player
• * 1985 – Heart Evangelista, Filipina singer, TV and movie actress
• * 1985 – Natsume Sano, Japanese gravure idol
• * 1985 – Philippe Senderos, Swiss footballer
• * 1985 – Gonzalo Venegas, aka G1, of hip hop group Rebel Diaz
• * 1985 – Miki Yeung, Hong Kong singer and actress
• * 1986 – Michael Ammermüller, German racing driver
• * 1986 – Roxanne Guinoo, Filipina actress
• * 1986 – Aschwin Wildeboer, Spanish swimmer
• * 1987 – Joseph Pichler, American actor
• * 1987 – Julia Savicheva, Russian singer
• * 1987 – David Wheater, English footballer
• * 1988 – Ángel Di María, Argentine footballer
• * 1988 – Asia Nitollano, American dancer, Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll winner
• * 1988 – Eliska Sursova, American actress
• * 1988 – Quentin Mosimann, Swiss singer, winner of Star Academy France 7
• * 1989 – Brandon Sutter, Canadian ice hockey player
• * 1992 – Freddie Highmore, English actor
• * 1994 – Paul Butcher, American actor

• * 270 – St. Valentine marking Valentines Day
• * 869 – Saint Cyril, Greek monk, scholar, theologian and linguist (b. 827)
• * 1317 – Marguerite of France, queen of Edward I of England (b. 1282)
• * 1400 – King Richard II of England (murdered) (b. 1367)
• * 1405 – Timur, Mongol conqueror (b. 1336)
• * 1571 – Odet de Coligny, French cardinal and Protestant (b. 1517)
• * 1676 – Abraham Bosse, French engraver and artist
• * 1714 – Maria Luisa of Savoy, Queen Consort of Spain (b. 1688)
• * 1737 – Charles Talbot, 1st Baron Talbot of Hensol, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1685)
• * 1744 – John Hadley, inventor (b. 1682)
• * 1779 – James Cook, British naval captain and explorer (b. 1728)
• * 1780 – William Blackstone, English jurist (b. 1723)
• * 1808 – John Dickinson, American lawyer and Governor of Delaware and Pennsylvania (b. 1732)
• * 1831 – Vicente Guerrero, Mexican revolutionary hero (b. 1782)
• * 1831 – Henry Maudslay, English inventor (b. 1771)
• * 1870 – St. John Richardson Liddell, American Civil War Confederate General (b. 1815)
• * 1881 – Fernando Wood, New York City mayor (b. 1812)
• * 1885 – Jules Vallès, French writer (b. 1832)
• * 1891 – William Tecumseh Sherman, Civil War General (b. 1820)
• * 1894 – Eugène Charles Catalan, Belgian mathematician (b. 1814)
• * 1922 – Heikki Ritavuori, Finnish politician (assassinated) (b. 1880)
• * 1929 – Tom Burke, American runner (b. 1875)
• * 1942 – Adnan Bin Saidi, Officer of the Malay Regiment killed in the defense of Singapore (b. 1915)
• * 1943 – Dora Gerson, German actress, cabaret singer, and Holocaust victim (b. 1899)
• * 1943 – David Hilbert, German mathematician (b. 1862)
• * 1948 – Mordecai Brown, American baseball player (b. 1876)
• * 1949 – Yusuf Salman Yusuf, Iraqi-Assyrian communist leader (b. 1901)
• * 1950 – Karl Guthe Jansky, American Discoverer of cosmic radio waves (b. 1905)
• * 1952 – Maurice De Waele, Belgian cyclist (b. 1896)
• * 1958 – Abdul Rab Nishtar, veteran leader of Pakistan Movement, (b. 1899)
• * 1959 – Baby Dodds, American jazz drummer (b. 1898)
• * 1967 – Sig Ruman, German-American actor (b. 1884)
• * 1969 – Vito Genovese, American gangster (b. 1897)
• * 1970 – Herbert Strudwick, English cricketer (b. 1880).
• * 1974 – Stewie Dempster, New Zealand cricketer (b. 1903)
• * 1975 – Julian Huxley, British biologist (b. 1887)
• * 1975 – P. G. Wodehouse, English writer (b. 1881)
• * 1978 – Paul Governali, American professional football player (b. 1921)
• * 1979 – Adolph Dubs, American diplomat (b. 1920)
• * 1980 – Luitkonwar Rudra Baruah, Assamese composer and actor
• * 1983 – Lina Radke, German athlete (b. 1903)
• * 1986 – Edmund Rubbra, English Composer (b. 1901)
• * 1987 – Dmitri Borisovich Kabalevsky, Russian composer (b. 1904)
• * 1987 – Karolos Koun, Greek theater director (b. 1908)
• * 1988 – Frederick Loewe, Austrian-American composer (b. 1901)
• * 1989 – James Bond, American ornithologist (b. 1900)
• * 1990 – Tony Holiday, German singer
• * 1994 – Andrei Chikatilo, Russian serial killer (executed) (b. 1936)
• * 1995 – U Nu, Burmese politician (b. 1907)
• * 1995 – Michael V. Gazzo, American actor (b. 1923)
• * 1996 – Bob Paisley, English football manager (b. 1919)
• * 1999 – John Ehrlichman, American presidential advisor (b. 1925)
• * 1999 – Buddy Knox, American singer and songwriter (b. 1933)
• * 2002 – Nándor Hidegkuti, Hungarian footballer (b. 1922)
• * 2003 – Dolly, first cloned mammal (b. 1996)
• * 2003 – Johnny Longden, English jockey (b. 1907)
• * 2004 – Marco Pantani, Italian cyclist (b. 1970)
• * 2005 – Najai Turpin, American boxer
• * 2005 – Rafik Hariri, Lebanese politician and billionaire businessman (b. 1944)
• * 2006 – Shoshana Damari, Israeli singer and actress (b. 1923)
• * 2006 – Lynden David Hall, British singer (b. 1974)
• * 2006 – Darry Cowl, French musician and actor (b. 1925)
• * 2007 – Gareth Morris, British flautist (b. 1920)
• * 2007 – Ryan Larkin, Canadian animated film maker. (b. 1943)

Valentine’s Day or Saint Valentine’s Day is a holiday celebrated on February 14 by many people throughout the world. In the West, it is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine’s cards, presenting flowers, or offering confectionery. The holiday is named after two among the numerous Early Christian martyrs named Valentine. The day became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.

An alternative theory from Belarus states that the holiday originates from the story of Saint Valentine, who upon rejection by his mistress was so heartbroken that he took a knife to his chest and sent her his still-beating heart as a token of his undying love for her. Hence, heart-shaped cards are now sent as a tribute to his overwhelming passion and suffering.

The day is most closely associated with the mutual exchange of love notes in the form of “valentines.” Modern Valentine symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten notes have largely given way to mass-produced greeting cards.. The sending of Valentines was a fashion in nineteenth-century Great Britain, and, in 1847, Esther Howland developed a successful business in her Worcester, Massachusetts home with hand-made Valentine cards based on British models. The popularity of Valentine cards in 19th-century America was a harbinger of the future commercialization of holidays in the United States.

The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentines are sent each year worldwide, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas. The association estimates that women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentines.

Saint വാലന്‍ന്റൈന്‍

Numerous early Christian martyrs were named Valentine. Until 1969, the Catholic Church formally recognized eleven Valentine’s Days. The Valentines honored on February 14 are Valentine of Rome (Valentinus presb. m. Romae) and Valentine of Terni (Valentinus ep. Interamnensis m. Romae). Valentine of Rome was a priest in Rome who suffered martyrdom about AD 269 and was buried on the Via Flaminia. His relics are at the Church of Saint Praxed in Rome. and at Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland.

Valentine of Terni became bishop of Interamna (modern Terni) about AD 197 and is said to have been killed during the persecution of Emperor Aurelian. He is also buried on the Via Flaminia, but in a different location than Valentine of Rome. His relics are at the Basilica of Saint Valentine in Terni (Basilica di San Valentino).

The Catholic Encyclopedia also speaks of a third saint named Valentine who was mentioned in early martyrologies under date of February 14. He was martyred in Africa with a number of companions, but nothing more is known about him.

No romantic elements are present in the original early medieval biographies of either of these martyrs. By the time a Saint Valentine became linked to romance in the fourteenth century, distinctions between Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni were utterly lost.

In the 1969 revision of the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints, the feastday of Saint Valentine on February 14 was removed from the General Roman Calendar and relegated to particular (local or even national) calendars for the following reason: “Though the memorial of Saint Valentine is ancient, it is left to particular calendars, since, apart from his name, nothing is known of Saint Valentine except that he was buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14.” The feast day is still celebrated in Balzan (Malta) where relics of the saint are claimed to be found, and also throughout the world by Traditionalist Catholics who follow the older, pre-Vatican II calendar.

The Early Medieval acta of either Saint Valentine were excerpted by Bede and briefly expounded in Legenda Aurea. According to that version, St Valentine was persecuted as a Christian and interrogated by Roman Emperor Claudius II in person. Claudius was impressed by Valentine and had a discussion with him, attempting to get him to convert to Roman paganism in order to save his life. Valentine refused and tried to convert Claudius to Christianity instead. Because of this, he was executed. Before his execution, he is reported to have performed a miracle by healing the blind daughter of his jailer.

Legenda Aurea still providing no connections whatsoever with sentimental love, appropriate lore has been embroidered in modern times to portray Valentine as a priest who refused an unattested law attributed to Roman Emperor Claudius II, allegedly ordering that young men remain single. The Emperor supposedly did this to grow his army, believing that married men did not make for good soldiers. The priest Valentine, however, secretly performed marriage ceremonies for young men. When Claudius found out about this, he had Valentine arrested and thrown in jail. In an embellishment to The Golden Legend, on the evening before Valentine was to be executed, he wrote the first “valentine” himself, addressed to a young girl variously identified as his beloved, as the jailer’s daughter whom he had befriended and healed, or both. It was a note that read “From your Valentine.”

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