February 19: Today in History – Historical Events
Early Centuries – February 19 Historic Events – Before the 1700s
1. 19th Feb 1512: French troops under Gaston de Foix occupied Brescia.
2. 19th Feb 1537: Weavers of Leiden in the Netherlands strike work.
3. 19th Feb 1539: Jews were expelled from Tyrnau Hungary on this day.
4. 19th Feb 1600: The Peruvian Volcano Huaynaputina exploded the most violently in the recorded history of South America
5. 19th Feb 1674: Netherlands and England on this day signed the peace of Westminister.
18th Century – What Happened on February 19 – The 1700s
6. 19th Feb 1700: This day was the last day of the Julian calendar in Denmark.
19th Century – February 19 This Day That Year – The 1800s
7. 19th Feb 1803: Ohio’s constitution was accepted by the U.S. Congress. Statehood was ratified only in 1953.
8. 19th Feb 1807: British squadron under Admiral Duckworth attempts to force passage of Dardanelles.
9. 19th Feb 1807: Former U.S. Vice-President Aaron Burr was on this day arrested and tried for treason and was acquitted.
10. 19th Feb 1819: South Shetland Islands were discovered on this day by British explorer William Smith and he claims them in the name of King George III.
11. 19th Feb 1931: The first practical locomotive run on a coal engine makes the first trial run on this day in Pennsylvania.
12. 19th Feb 1846: The formal transfer of government between the United States and Texas took place on this day.
13. 19th Feb 1852: The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity was founded on this day at Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.
14. 19th Feb 1856: Hamilton Smith on this day patented his Tin-type camera in Gambier, Ohio.
15. 19th Feb 1861: Serfdom was abolished by the Russian Tsar Alexander II.
16. 19th Feb 1869: The U.S. Assay office was on this day authorized in Boise, Idaho.
17. 19th Feb 1878: The gramophone on this day was patented by inventor Thomas Edison.
18. 19th Feb 1881: On this day Kansas became the first state to prohibit alcoholic beverages.
19. 19th Feb 1884: Tornados hit many states in the United States including Mississippi, Alabama, NC etc. About 800 people were killed.
20th Century – Important Events On This Day February 19th – The 1900s
20. 19th Feb 1900: British troops on this day occupied Hlangwane, Natal.
21. 19th Feb 1906: Will Keith Kellogg and Charles D Bolin on this day founded the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company. The company is now a multinational food products company Kellogg’s.
22. 19th Feb 1913: With the help of U.S. support Mexican General V Huerta on this day assumes power.
23. 19th Feb 1915: British fleet on this day opened fire on Dardanelles Coast.
24. 19th Feb 1919: Civil Rights Activist W.E.B. Du Bois organized the Pan-African Congress on this day.
25. 19th Feb 1920: Netherlands on this day joined the League of Nations.
26. 19th Feb 1927: There was a general strike on this day against the British occupiers in Shanghai.
27. 19th Feb 1928: The second Winter Games close on this day at St. Moritz in Switzerland.
28. 19th Feb 1933: All catholic newspapers were banned on this day by Prussian minister Goering.
29. 19th Feb 1934: U.S. contract air mail service was replaced by U.S. Army for six months.
30. 19th Feb 1936: Manuel Azaña became the Spanish Prime Minister on this day.
31. 19th Feb 1938: On this day three men in the United States were charged with writing forged cheques. Two of these men had two cases of forgery pending against them.
32. 19th Feb 1938: This was the day of tension and anxiety in Berlin, Germany when Hitler gave the much-anticipated speech which was delivered to the Third Reich. This was the beginning of the expansion of the Nazi regime which led to the II World War.
33. 19th Feb 1938: Soviet arctic ice station North Pole I was on this day evacuated, Denmark.
34. 19th Feb 1942: The Australian city of Darwin was on this day bombed by about 150 Japanese bombers.
35. 19th Feb 1942: American President Franklin D Roosevelt on this day ordered the detention and internment of all West Coast Japanese Americans.
36. 19th Fe 1942: Japanese troops on this day landed in Timor.
37. 19th Feb 1943: German tanks under the leadership of Brig General Buelowins day attack Kasserine Pass Tunisia.
38. 19th Feb 1944: Berlin was attacked on this day by 823 British bombers.
39. 19th Feb 1944: German U-boat U-264 sinks off the coast of Ireland on this day.
40. 19th Feb 1945: In Ramree Island in Burma 980 Japanese soldiers were reported killed by crocodiles in 2 days.
41. 19th Feb 1945: Brotherhood Day was first celebrated on this day.
42. 19th Feb 1945: The U.S. fifth fleet on this day launched an invasion of Iwo Jima and raised the US flag atop Mount Suribachi on this day during the battle of Iwo Jima.
43. 19th Feb 1949: The Bollingen Foundation and Yale University awarded the first Bollingen prize for poetry on this day. It was awarded to Ezra Pound.
44. 19th Feb 1950: There was a train crash in Rockville Centre New York, when a train did not stop at the red signal and hit another passenger train coming in the opposite direction. 29 deaths and over 100 sustained injuries in the crash.
45. 19th Feb 1950: It was announced on this day that a dairy exhibit would take place the next day at Ada, Oklahoma. The purpose of the exhibit was to educate and inform people about profitable dairy production.
46. 19th Feb 1953: The state of Georgia approved the first literature censorship board in the United States. Newspapers however were excluded from the new legislation.
47. 19th Feb 1954: The Ford T-bird prototype appeared in the market. Its sale however commenced late in the year. It was priced at $ 2,900.
48. 19th Feb 1959: Britain, Turkey, and Greece signed a joint agreement giving Cyprus independence on this day.19th Feb 1962: The United States on this day performed a nuclear test at its Nevada test site.
49. 19th Feb 1963: The Soviet Union on this day informed U.S. President John Kennedy that it would withdraw several thousand of its troops from Cuba.
50. 19th Feb 1963: Poet Robert Frost wins the Bollingen Prize for poetry.
51. 19th Feb 1964: The United Kingdom on this day flew half a ton of Beatles wigs to the United States.
52. 19th Feb 1968: Damages for children born with deficiencies caused by mothers taking the drug thalidomide during pregnancy were set by the high court in the United Kingdom.
53. 19th Feb 1968: U.S. teachers go on strike on this day in Florida.
54. 19th Feb 1969: The first test flight of the Boeing 747 jumbo jet took place on this day.
55. 19th Feb 1970: U.S.S.R on this day launched Sputnik 52 and Molniya 1-13 communication satellites.
56. 19th Feb 1972: The Asama-Sanso hostage standoff began in Japan today.
57. 19th Feb 1976: The Democratic Republic of Sahara was on this day formed by Frante Polisario.
58. 19th Feb 1977: France on this day performed a nuclear test at Muruora Island.
59. 19th Feb 1977: Today Space Shuttle Enterprise made its first test flight atop a Boeing 747.
60. 19th Feb 1981: Ford Motor Company on this day announced a loss of $1.5 million.
61. 19th Feb 1981: The U.S. State Department on this day called El Salvador a textbook case of communist plot.
62. 19th Feb 1982: U.S.S.R on this day performed a nuclear test at the Eastern Kazak test site.
63. 19th Feb 1984: The 14th Winter Olympics games close at Sarajevo in Yugoslavia.
64. 19th Feb 1984: The U.S.S.R performed a nuclear test today at the East Kazak test site in U.S.S.R.
65. 19th Feb 1985: A Spanish Jetliner crashed while approaching Bilbo in Spain killing 150 people.
19th Feb 1985: Mickey Mouse was on this day welcomed to China as part of the 30 anniversary of Disneyland. The mouse played 30 cities in 30 days.
66. 19th Feb 1985: Coca-Cola introduced canned and bottled Cherry Coke today.
67. 19th Feb 1986: King Hussein of Jordan severed ties with the Palestinian Liberation Organization today.
68. 19th Feb 1986: The United States Senate on this day ratified United Nation’s anti-genocide convention 37 years later.
69. 19th Feb 1986: The U.S.S.R. on this day launched Mir space station into the earth’s orbit.
70. 19th Feb 1987: The trade boycott against Poland was lifted on this day by U.S. President Ronald Regan.
71. 19th Feb 1987: Minnesota Sheriff’s Office arrested Thomas G. Harrelson on this day. He was the FBI’s most wanted.
72. 19th Feb 1987: Anti-smoking advertisements were aired for the first time on TV. They featured Yul Brynner, who died of smoking-induced induced cancer on 10th Oct 1985.
73. 19th Feb 1989: The Bollingen Prize for poetry was won by Edger Bowers.
74. 19th Feb 1990: The police in Nepal killed 8 demonstrators of the multi-party system in Nepal.
75. 19th Feb 1990: The Soviet Space Craft Soyuz TM-9 landed on this day.
76. 19th Feb 1992: The Merchandising Equipment Group (MEG) was planning a mass lay off which led to rumors of the company going into bankruptcy. The company however recovered over some time.
77. 19th Feb 1992: Producer Jim Mitchell on this day was found guilty of killing his brother Artie.
78. 19th Feb 1994: Cup o’ Noodles Golf Hawaiian Ladies Golf Open was won by Marta Figueras-Dotti.
79. 19th Feb 1997: The FCC on this day made available 311 for non-emergency calls and 711 for hearing or speech-impaired emergency calls.
80. 19th Feb 1998: Spacecraft Soyuz TM-26 landed on this day.
81. 19th Feb 1998: U.S. hockey team destroys its rooms at Olympic village in Japan.
21st Century – February 19 This Day In History – The 2000s
82. 19th Feb 2001: A suspected case of foot and mouth disease was detected at the Essex abattoir. This was the first case in 20 years.
83. 19th Feb 2001: An Oklahoma City bombing museum was dedicated on this day at the Oklahoma City National Memorial.
84. 19th Feb 2002: Mapping of Mars’s surface using thermal emission imaging system begins by space probe Mars Odessey, launched by NASA.
85. 19th Feb 2004: Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, was awarded honorary knighthood for “lifetime service to humanity” on this day.
86. 19th Feb 2004: Former Enron Corporation CEO Jeffery Skilling is charged with fraud, insider trading, and other charges in connection with the collapse of the company.
87. 19th Feb 2005: USS Jimmy Carter was commissioned today. It was the last of the Seawolf class of attack submarines.
88. 19th Feb 2006: Following Palestinian Legislative Council elections Hamas leader Ismail Haniya forms the government.
89. 19th Feb 2008: Forty-nine years after assuming power in an armed revolution Fidel Castro stepped down. His retirement has raised expectations of a post-communist system of government. The U.S. calls for democracy.
90. 19th Feb 2008: Toshiba on this day formally announced the recall of its HD DVD video formatting bringing to an end the format war between it and Sony’s Blue-Ray Disc.
91. 19th Feb 2008: The parliamentary election in Pakistan has resulted in the ouster of leading figures of the Muslim-League Q party including its leader.
92. 19th Feb 2009: The Nobel-Prize-winning Archbishop Desmond Tutu on this day warned President Obama that he is running the risk of squandering the goodwill generated by his election. He should therefore apologize for the invasion of Iraq.
93. 19th Feb 2010: World number one golfer Tiger Woods on this day made a public apology. He said during the press meet that he was unfaithful, he had affairs and he cheated. What he did, he said was unacceptable.
94. 19th Feb 2011: Somali pirates hijacked a yacht traveling from India to Oman and took four Americans as hostages. The owners of the yacht with two crew members have been traveling around the world since 2002.
95. 19th Feb 2021: Forty-four people were killed in a prison brawl between two rival drug cartels in Apocada, Mexico.
96. 19th Feb 2012: A team of scientists at Maastricht University led by Professor Mark Post successfully grew muscle tissues in a lab from stem cells. This was the first step towards their goal of creating a lab-grown hamburger.
97. 19th Feb 2013: German car manufacturer BMW recalled 7, 20,000 cars throughout the world, mostly from North America due to electrical problems. The affected cars were those which were manufactured between 2007 and 2011.
98. 19th Feb 2013: A Yemeni Air Force plane crashed in Sana’a, killing 12 and injuring 11.
99. 19th Feb 2014: United Kingdom ministers on this day announced that Scotland would be granted the power to issue its investment bond along with other changes. The move came a few months before the referendum.
100. 19th Feb 2014: The death toll in Ukraine’s government crackdown on protesters reached 26.
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