Sweetest Day Timeline

1913

Valentine’s Day Gets Real

Hallmark starts offering Valentine’s Cards, leading to an average expenditure of $140 by most Americans

1921

Cleveland’s Candy Day

A committee of 12 confectioners in Cleveland stage the world’s first Sweetest Day by distributing 20,000 boxes of candy

1937

Sweetest Day Tries for the Week

Efforts by the candy industry to kickstart “sweetest week” also fall flat by the candy industry, but it’s sort of sweet that they tried