What is today history February 19

Today in History : February 19

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 Donner 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 seize 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.

Born on February 19

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 McCullers, 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).