February 19th in History
Thomas Edison and his phonograph (Photo: Levin Handy, Brady-Handy Collection)
Today in History
- Former US Vice President Aaron Burr is arrested for treason (1807)
- The first group of rescuers reaches the Donner Party (1847)
- Thomas Edison patents the phonograph (1878)
- US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an order allowing for forced relocation of Japanese-Americans to internment camps. (1942)
- US Marines land on the shores of Iwo Jima (1945)
- Georgia establishes the first literature censorship board in the US (1952)
- Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, a key event in modern feminism, is published (1963)
Birthdays
- Nicolaus Copernicus, astronomer (1473)
- David Garrick, actor and impresario (1717)
- Svante Arrhenius, scientist and Nobel laureate, helped found physical chemistry (1859)
- Cedric Hardwicke, ator (1893)
- Merle Oberon, actress (1911)
- Carson McCullers, author (1917)
- Lee Marvin, actor (1924)
- Terry Carr, science fiction writer and editor (1937)
- Smokey Robinson, singer-songwriter (1940)
- Homer Hickam, engineer, author of Rocket Boys (1943)
- Karen Silkwood, nuclear technician and activist, subject of the film Silkwood (1946)
- Amy Tan, author (1952)
- Prince Andrew, son of Queen Elizabeth II (1960)
- Seal, singer-songwriter (1963)
- Justine Bateman, actress (1966)
- Benicio del Toro, filmmaker (1967)
- Jeff Kinney, author and illustrator, creator of Diary of a Wimpy Kid (1971)
Deaths
- Ernst Mach, physicist, namesake of the Mach number for supersonic flight (1916)
- Billy Mitchell, US general and pilot known as the “father of the US Air Force” (1936)
- André Gide, author (1951)
- Grandpa Jones, country musician (1998)
- Stanley Kramer, filmmaker (2001)
- Johnny Paycheck, country musician (2003)
- Umberto Eco, author (2016)
- Harper Lee, author (2016)
Holidays and Celebrations
- Armed Forces Day (Mexico)
- Brancusi Day (Romania)
- Chocolate Mint Day (US)
- Commemoration of Vasil Levsky (Bulgaria)
- Flag Day (Turkmenistan)
- Shivaji Jayanti (Maharashtra, India)
February 19 is the 50th day of the year. There are 315 days (316 in leap years) remaining until the end of the year.