19 February History


Month:                           Date:     

  • 1408    -    The revolt of Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, against King Henry IV, ends with his defeat and death at Bramham Moor.
  • 1701    -    Philip V of Spain makes his ceremonial entry into Madrid.
  • 1807    -    Vice President Aaron Burr is arrested in Alabama for treason. He is later found innocent.
  • 1847    -    Rescuers finally reach the ill-fated Donnor Party in the Sierras.
  • 1861    -    Russian Tsar Alexander II abolishes serfdom.
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  • 1902    -    Smallpox vaccination becomes obligatory in France.
  • 1903    -    The Austria-Hungary government decrees a mandatory two year military service.
  • 1915    -    British and French warships begin their attacks on the Turkish forts at the mouth of the Dardenelles, in an abortive expedition to force the straits of Gallipoli.
  • 1917    -    American troops are recalled from the Mexican border.
  • 1919    -    The First Pan African Congress meets in Paris, France.
  • 1925    -    President Calvin Coolidge proposes the phasing out of inheritance tax.
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  • 1926    -    Dr. Lane of Princeton estimates the earth's age at one billion years.
  • 1942    -    Port Darwin, on the northern coast of Australia, is bombed by the Japanese.
  • 1944    -    The U.S. Eighth Air Force and Royal Air Force begin "Big Week," a series of heavy bomber attacks against German aircraft production facilities.
  • 1965    -    Fourteen Vietnam War protesters are arrested for blocking the United Nations' doors in New York.
  • 1966    -    Robert F. Kennedy suggests the United States offer the Vietcong a role in governing South Vietnam.
  • 1976    -    Britain slashes welfare spending.
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  • 1981    -    The U.S. State Department calls El Salvador a "textbook case" of a Communist plot.
  • 1987    -    New York Governor Mario Cuomo declares that he will not run for president in the next election.

  • 19 February Birthdays

  • 1473    -    Nicholas Copernicus, Polish astronomer who introduced the idea that the earth revolved around the sun.
  • 1683    -    Philip V, King of Spain.
  • 1817    -    William III, King of the Netherlands.
  • 1859    -    Svante Arrhenius, Swedish chemist, founder of physical chemistry.
  • 1902    -    Kay Boyle, short story writer ("The White Horses of Vienna").
  • 1911    -    Merle Oberon, film actress.
  • 1917    -    Carson McCuller, writer (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter).
  • 1940    -    Smokey Robinson, American singer and songwriter.
  • 1952    -    Amy Tan, novelist (The Joy Luck CLub, The Kitchen God's Wife).