February 19 is the 50th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 315 days remaining, 316 in leap years.

Events

• 607 - Boniface III becomes Pope.
• 1594 - Having already inherited the throne of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth through his mother Catherine Jagellonica of Poland, Sigismund III of the House of Vasa was crowned King of Sweden, succeeding his father John III of Sweden.
• 1674 - England and the Netherlands sign the Peace of Westminster, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. A provision of the agreement transfers the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam to England, which renamed it New York.
• 1807 - In Alabama, Former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr is arrested for treason.
• 1819 - British explorer William Smith discovered the South Shetland Islands, and claimed them in the name of King George III.
• 1846 - In Austin, Texas the newly-formed Texas state government is officially installed.
• 1847 - The Donner Party is rescued. It is noted that some of the survivors seem to be remarkably well-fed considering their ordeal.
• 1852 - The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity is founded at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.
• 1861 - Serfdom is abolished in Russia.
• 1878 - The phonograph is patented by Thomas Edison.
• 1881 - Kansas became the first U.S. state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages.
• 1913 - Prizes are included in Cracker Jack candy boxes for the first time.
• 1915 - World War I: The Battle of Gallipoli began.
• 1941 - World War II: The Deutsches Afrikakorps, the corps-level headquarters controlling the German Panzer divisions in North Africa, was formed.
• 1942 - World War II: About 150 Japanese warplanes attack Darwin, Australia.
• 1942 - World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the executive order 9066, allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese-Americans to Japanese internment camps.
• 1943 - World War II: Battle of the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia began.
• 1945 - World War II: Battle of Iwo Jima - about 30,000 United States Marines landed on Iwo Jima starting the battle.
• 1949 - Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University.
• 1953 - Censorship: Georgia approves the first literature censorship board in the United States.
• 1959 - The United Kingdom grants Cyprus its independence, which is then on formally proclaimed on August 16, 1960.
• 1964 - Paul Simon writes "The Sounds of Silence," the song which, in a year and a half, will catapult him and Art Garfunkel to stardom as Simon & Garfunkel.
• 1985 - Artificial heart patient William J. Schroeder becomes the first such patient to leave hospital.
• 1985 - A Spanish Boeing 747 crashes into Mount Oiz in Spain, killing 148.
• 1985 - EastEnders first airs on televisions across the United Kingdom, on the first night of a major ident change for BBC1.
• 1986 - The Soviet Union launches the Mir space station.
• 1986 - After waiting 37 years, the United States Senate approves a treaty outlawing genocide.
• 1999 - Dennis Franz receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• 2001 - A Oklahoma City bombing museum is dedicated at the Oklahoma City National Memorial.
• 2002 - NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.
• 2004 - Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal was awarded an honorary knighthood in recognition of a "lifetime of service to humanity."

Births

• 1473 - Nicolaus Copernicus, astronomer (d. 1543)
• 1626 - February 18/19 - Francesco Redi, physician, refuted abiogenesis (d. 1697)
• 1630 - Shivaji, founder of the Maratha Empire (d. 1680)
• 1660 - Friedrich Hoffmann, physician and chemist (d. 1742)
• 1717 - David Garrick, actor (d. 1779)
• 1743 - Luigi Boccherini, Italian composer (d. 1805)
• 1802 - Wilhelm Matthias Näff, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 1881)
• 1804 - David Wark, Canadian politician and Senator (d. 1905)
• 1821 - August Schleicher, linguist (d. 1868)
• 1865 - Sven Hedin, scientist (d. 1952)
• 1876 - Constantin Brancusi, sculptor (d. 1957)
• 1877 - Gabriele Münter, painter, member of Blaue Reiter (d. 1962)
• 1888 - José Eustasio Rivera, Colombian writer (d. 1928)
• 1898 - Enzo Ferrari, founder of Scuderia Ferrari (d. 1988)
• 1911 - Merle Oberon, actress (d. 1979)
• 1912 - Stan Kenton, musician (d. 1979)
• 1916 - Eddie Arcaro, American jockey (d. 1997)
• 1917 - Carson McCullers, author (d. 1967)
• 1920 - George Rose, British music hall entertainer (d. 1988)
• 1924 - Lee Marvin, actor (d. 1987)
• 1930 - John Frankenheimer, American film director (d. 2002_
• 1939 - Alfredo Bryce-Echenique , Peruvian novelist
• 1940 - Smokey Robinson, musician
• 1942 - Paul Krause, American football player
• 1943 - Lou Christie , American singer
• 1945 - Michael Nader, American actor
• 1946 - Karen Silkwood, American activist (d. 1974)
• 1948 - Tony Iommi, British musician (Black Sabbath)
• 1948 - Pim Fortuyn, Dutch politician
• 1949 - Dan Bunten, software developer (d. 1998)
• 1952 - Amy Tan, novelist
• 1953 - Massimo Troisi, Italian actor (d. 1994)
• 1954 - Socrates, football player
• 1955 - Jeff Daniels, actor
• 1957 - Falco, singer (d. 1998)
• 1957 - Ray Winstone, British actor
• 1960 - Prince Andrew, second son of Queen Elizabeth II
• 1962 - Hana Mandlikova, tennis player
• 1963 - Seal, singer
• 1966 - Justine Bateman, actress
• 1966 - Paul Haarhuis, tennis player
• 1967 - Benicio Del Toro, actor
• 1979 - Eva-Maria Bisschop , Belgian pop star
• 1985 - Haylie Duff, American singer, actress
• 1986 - Maria Mena, Norwegian pop star

Deaths

• 197 - Clodius Albinus, Roman governor of Britain
• 1670 - King Frederick III of Denmark (b. 1609)
• 1709 - Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, the fifth shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan (b. 1646)
• 1799 - Jean-Charles de Borda, French mathematician, physicist, political scientist, and sailor (b. 1733)
• 1897 - Karl Weierstraß, German mathematician (b. 1815)
• 1936 - Billy Mitchell, military aviation pioneer (b. 1879)
• 1942 - Frank Abbandando, Mafia hitman, executed (b. 1910)
• 1951 - André Gide, author (b. 1869)
• 1952 - Knut Hamsun, author (b. 1859)
• 1969 - Madge Blake, American actress
• 1970 - Jules Munshin , American actor
• 1972 - Tedd Pierce, animator (b. 1906)
• 1973 - Joseph Szigeti, Hungarian violinist (b. 1892)
• 1980 - Bon Scott, musician ("AC/DC") (b. 1946)
• 1997 - Deng Xiaoping, Chinese Communist political leader and revolutionary (b. 1904)
• 1997 - Leo Rosten, Yiddish writer, humorist
• 1997 - Charles O. Finley, American sports entrepreneur
• 1998 - Grandpa Jones , country music entertainer, comedian
• 1999 - Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr, Iraqi Shiite leader, killed (b. 1943?)
• 2000 - Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Austrian artist (b. 1928)
• 2001 - Priscilla Davis, former Fort Worth, Texas socialite (b. 1942)
• 2001 - Stanley Kramer, director (b. 1913)
• 2001 - Charles Trenet, popular French singer
• 2003 - Johnny Paycheck, country music singer
• 2004 - Clark Byers, American sign maker
• 2004 - Hermann Krings , German philosopher

Holidays and observances

• Chaoflux (Discordianism)

External links

• BBC: On This Day

February 18 - February 20 - January 19 - March 19 -- listing of all days