19 February History
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).