February 14th: Today in 1779 British explorer James Cook was killed in Hawaii during a fight with local villagers over a pair of stolen tongs he was trying to retrieve. By tradition he was mistaken for god when he arrived in his wild clothes on his huge ship but after leaving the islands his mast broke and he had to return to repair the ship. This return led to bad feelings among the islanders, which led to thefts of small items and a boat. Cook’s overbearing response to this insulted the local people and he had to fall back once fighting started, he was killed on the beach trying to get back to his ship.

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