On This Day in History - February 19 Copernicus Born

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

Feb 19, 1473: Copernicus born

On February 19, 1473, Nicolaus Copernicus is born in Torun, a city in north-central Poland on the Vistula River. The father of modern astronomy, he was the first modern European scientist to propose that Earth and other planets revolve around the sun.  

Copernicus was born into a family of well-to-do merchants, and after his father's death, his uncle--soon to be a bishop--took the boy under his wing. He was given the best education of the day and bred for a career in canon (church) law. At the University of Krakow, he studied liberal arts, including astronomy and astrology, and then, like many Poles of his social class, was sent to Italy to study medicine and law.  

While studying at the University of Bologna, he lived for a time in the home of Domenico Maria de Novara, the principal astronomer at the university. Astronomy and astrology were at the time closely related and equally regarded, and Novara had the responsibility of issuing astrological prognostications for Bologna. Copernicus sometimes assisted him in his observations, and Novara exposed him to criticism of both astrology and aspects of the Ptolemaic system, which placed Earth at the center of the universe.  

Copernicus later studied at the University of Padua and in 1503 received a doctorate in canon law from the University of Ferrara. He returned to Poland, where he became a church administrator and doctor. In his free time, he dedicated himself to scholarly pursuits, which sometimes included astronomical work. By 1514, his reputation as an astronomer was such that he was consulted by church leaders attempting to reform the Julian calendar.  

The cosmology of early 16th-century Europe held that Earth sat stationary and motionless at the center of several rotating, concentric spheres that bore the celestial bodies: the sun, the moon, the known planets, and the stars. From ancient times, philosophers adhered to the belief that the heavens were arranged in circles (which by definition are perfectly round), causing confusion among astronomers who recorded the often eccentric motion of the planets, which sometimes appeared to halt in their orbit of Earth and move retrograde across the sky.  

In the second century A.D., the Alexandrian geographer and astronomer Ptolemy sought to resolve this problem by arguing that the sun, planets, and moon move in small circles around much larger circles that revolve around Earth. These small circles he called epicycles, and by incorporating numerous epicycles rotating at varying speeds he made his celestial system correspond with most astronomical observations on record.  

The Ptolemaic system remained Europe's accepted cosmology for more than 1,000 years, but by Copernicus' day accumulated astronomical evidence had thrown some of his theories into confusion. Astronomers disagreed on the order of the planets from Earth, and it was this problem that Copernicus addressed at the beginning of the 16th century.  

Sometime between 1508 and 1514, he wrote a short astronomical treatise commonly called the Commentariolus, or "Little Commentary," which laid the basis for his heliocentric (sun-centered) system. The work was not published in his lifetime. In the treatise, he correctly postulated the order of the known planets, including Earth, from the sun, and estimated their orbital periods relatively accurately.  

For Copernicus, his heliocentric theory was by no means a watershed, for it created as many problems as it solved. For instance, heavy objects were always assumed to fall to the ground because Earth was the center of the universe. Why would they do so in a sun-centered system? He retained the ancient belief that circles governed the heavens, but his evidence showed that even in a sun-centered universe the planets and stars did not revolve around the sun in circular orbits. Because of these problems and others, Copernicus delayed publication of his major astronomical work, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri vi, or "Six Books Concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs," nearly all his life. Completed around 1530, it was not published until 1543--the year of his death.  

In the work, Copernicus' groundbreaking argument that Earth and the planets revolve around the sun led him to make a number of other major astronomical discoveries. While revolving around the sun, Earth, he argued, spins on its axis daily. Earth takes one year to orbit the sun and during this time wobbles gradually on its axis, which accounts for the precession of the equinoxes. Major flaws in the work include his concept of the sun as the center of the whole universe, not just the solar system, and his failure to grasp the reality of elliptical orbits, which forced him to incorporate numerous epicycles into his system, as did Ptolemy. With no concept of gravity, Earth and the planets still revolved around the sun on giant transparent spheres.  

In his dedication to De revolutionibus--an extremely dense scientific work--Copernicus noted that "mathematics is written for mathematicians." If the work were more accessible, many would have objected to its non-biblical and hence heretical concept of the universe. For decades, De revolutionibus remained unknown to all but the most sophisticated astronomers, and most of these men, while admiring some of Copernicus' arguments, rejected his heliocentric basis. It was not until the early 17th century that Galileo and Johannes Kepler developed and popularized the Copernican theory, which for Galileo resulted in a trial and conviction for heresy. Following Isaac Newton's work in celestial mechanics in the late 17th century, acceptance of the Copernican theory spread rapidly in non-Catholic countries, and by the late 18th century it was almost universally accepted.
















Feb 19, 1945: Marines invade Iwo Jima

On this day, Operation Detachment, the U.S. Marines' invasion of Iwo Jima, is launched. Iwo Jima was a barren Pacific island guarded by Japanese artillery, but to American military minds, it was prime real estate on which to build airfields to launch bombing raids against Japan, only 660 miles away.  

The Americans began applying pressure to the Japanese defense of the island in February 1944, when B-24 and B-25 bombers raided the island for 74 days. It was the longest pre-invasion bombardment of the war, necessary because of the extent to which the Japanese--21,000 strong--fortified the island, above and below ground, including a network of caves. Underwater demolition teams ("frogmen") were dispatched by the Americans just before the actual invasion. When the Japanese fired on the frogmen, they gave away many of their "secret" gun positions.  

The amphibious landings of Marines began the morning of February 19 as the secretary of the navy, James Forrestal, accompanied by journalists, surveyed the scene from a command ship offshore. As the Marines made their way onto the island, seven Japanese battalions opened fire on them. By evening, more than 550 Marines were dead and more than 1,800 were wounded. The capture of Mount Suribachi, the highest point of the island and bastion of the Japanese defense, took four more days and many more casualties. When the American flag was finally raised on Iwo Jima, the memorable image was captured in a famous photograph that later won the Pulitzer Prize.











Feb 19, 1942: Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066

Ten weeks after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, authorizing the removal of any or all people from military areas "as deemed necessary or desirable." The military in turn defined the entire West Coast, home to the majority of Americans of Japanese ancestry or citizenship, as a military area. By June, more than 110,000 Japanese Americans were relocated to remote internment camps built by the U.S. military in scattered locations around the country. For the next two and a half years, many of these Japanese Americans endured extremely difficult living conditions and poor treatment by their military guards.  

On December 17, 1944, U.S. Major General Henry C. Pratt issued Public Proclamation No. 21, declaring that, effective January 2, 1945, Japanese-American "evacuees" from the West Coast could return to their homes. During the course of World War II, 10 Americans were convicted of spying for Japan, but not one of them was of Japanese ancestry. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill to recompense each surviving internee with a tax-free check for $20,000 and an apology from the U.S. government.















Feb 19, 1777: Congress overlooks Benedict Arnold for promotion     

On this day in 1777, the Continental Congress votes to promote Thomas Mifflin; Arthur St. Clair; William Alexander, Lord Stirling; Adam Stephen; and Benjamin Lincoln to the rank of major general. Although the promotions were intended in part to balance the number of generals from each state, Brigadier General Benedict Arnold felt slighted that five junior officers received promotions ahead of him and, in response, threatened to resign from the Patriot army.  

In a letter dated April 3, 1777, General George Washington wrote to Arnold from his headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey, and confessed that he was surprised, when I did not see your name in the list of Major Generals. Thinking that the omission of Arnold's name was an error, Washington discouraged the disappointed Arnold from taking any hasty Step.  

To Arnold's dismay, he soon learned that his commander in chief was wrong, and he submitted his resignation to the Congress in July 1777, but withdrew it at Washington's urging. Despite having the support of George Washington, Arnold continued to feel unjustly overlooked by his superiors. Finally, in 1780, Arnold betrayed his country by offering to hand over the Patriot-held fort at West Point, New York, to the British. With West Point in their control, the British would have controlled the critical Hudson River Valley and separated New England from the rest of the colonies. His wife, Margaret, was a Loyalist and would not have objected to his plans. However, his plot was foiled, and Arnold, the hero of Ticonderoga and Saratoga, became the most famous traitor in American history. He continued to fight on the side of the British in the Revolution and, after the war, returned to Britain, where he died destitute in London in 1801.








Feb 19, 1878: Thomas Alva Edison patents the phonograph

The technology that made the modern music business possible came into existence in the New Jersey laboratory where Thomas Alva Edison created the first device to both record sound and play it back. He was awarded U.S. Patent No. 200,521 for his invention--the phonograph--on this day in 1878.  

Edison's invention came about as spin-off from his ongoing work in telephony and telegraphy. In an effort to facilitate the repeated transmission of a single telegraph message, Edison devised a method for capturing a passage of Morse code as a sequence of indentations on a spool of paper. Reasoning that a similar feat could be accomplished for the telephone, Edison devised a system that transferred the vibrations of a diaphragm—i.e., sound—to an embossing point and then mechanically onto an impressionable medium—paraffin paper at first, and then a spinning, tin-foil wrapped cylinder as he refined his concept. Edison and his mechanic, John Kreusi, worked on the invention through the autumn of 1877 and quickly had a working model ready for demonstration. The December 22, 1877, issue of Scientific American reported that "Mr. Thomas A. Edison recently came into this office, placed a little machine on our desk, turned a crank, and the machine inquired as to our health, asked how we liked the phonograph, informed us that it was very well, and bid us a cordial good night."  

The patent awarded to Edison on February 19, 1878, specified a particular method—embossing—for capturing sound on tin-foil-covered cylinders. The next critical improvement in recording technology came courtesy of Edison's competitor in the race to develop the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell. His newly established Bell Labs developed a phonograph based on the engraving of a wax cylinder, a significant improvement that led directly to the successful commercialization of recorded music in the 1890s and lent a vocabulary to the recording business—e.g., "cutting" records and "spinning wax"—that has long outlived the technology on which it was based.


Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:

197 - Lucius Septimius Severus' army beats Clodius Albinus at Lyon

356 - Emperor Constantius II shuts all heathen temples

607 - Boniface III begins his reign as Catholic Pope

842 - Medieval Iconoclastic Controversy ends as a council in Constantinople formally reinstated the veneration of icons in the churches

1512 - French troops under Gaston de Foix occupy Brescia

1537 - Weavers of Leiden Neth strike

1539 - Jews of Tyrnau Hungary (then Trnava Czech), expelled

1574 - Spanish troops plunder Krommenie, Wormerveer & Jisp Neth

1582 - Francis of Valois becomes duke of Brabant

1594 - Having already inherited the throne of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth through his mother Catherine Jagellonica of Poland, Sigismund III of the House of Vasa is crowned King of Sweden, succeeding his father John III of Sweden.

1600 - The Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes in the most violent eruption in the recorded history of South America.

1619 - Trial against Johan van Oldenbarnevelt begins in The Hague

1634 - Battle at Smolensk: Polish king Wladyslaw IV beats Russians [NS=Mar 1]

1674 - Netherlands & England sign Peace of Westminster (NYC becomes English)

1700 - Last day of Julian calendar in Denmark

1736 - George Frideric Handel's "Alexander's Feast," premieres

1771 - Messier adds M46-M49 to his catalog (galactic clusters in Puppis & Hydra & galaxy in Virgo)

1797 - 1/3 of papal domain ceded to France

1803 - Congress accepts Ohio's constitution, statehood not ratified till 1953

Composer George Friedrich HandelComposer George Friedrich Handel 1807 - British squadron under Adm Duckworth forces passage of Dardanelle

1807 - VP Aaron Burr arrested in Alabama for treason; later found innocent

1819 - British explorer William Smith discovers the South Shetland Islands, and claims them in the name of King George III.

1825 - Franz Grillparzer's "Konig Ottokars Gluck," premieres in Vienna

1831 - 1st practical US coal-burning locomotive makes 1st trial run, Penn

1846 - Texas state government formally installed in Austin

1852 - The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity is founded at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.

1856 - Tin-type camera patented by Hamilton Smith, Gambier, Ohio

1861 - Russian Tsar Alexander II abolishes serfdom [NS=Mar 3]

1864 - Knights of Pythias form 1st lodge in Wash DC (12 members)

1869 - US Assay Office in Boise, Idaho authorized

1878 - Thomas Alva Edison patents gramophone (phonograph)

1881 - Kansas becomes 1st state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages

1884 - Tornadoes in Miss, Ala, NC, SC, Tenn, Ky & In kill 800 people

1900 - British troops occupy Hlangwane Natal

Inventor Thomas EdisonInventor Thomas Edison 1906 - WK Kellogg & Ch Bolin find Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Co

1910 - English premiere of Richard Strauss' "Elektra"

1913 - 1st prize inserted into a Cracker Jack box

1913 - Mexican General V Huerta takes power with US support

1914 - Riccardo Zandonai's opera "Francesco da Rimini," premieres in Turin

1915 - British fleet fire on Dardanellen coast

1919 - Pan-African Congress, organized by W E B Du Bois (Paris)

1920 - Netherlands joins League of Nations

1922 - Ed Wynn becomes 1st talent to sign as a radio entertainer

1923 - Jean Sibelius' 6th Symphony, premieres

1923 - Philip Barry's "You & I," premieres in NYC

1927 - General strike against British occupiers in Shanghai

1928 - 2nd Winter Olympic games close at St Moritz, Switzerland

1928 - Canadian hockey team wins 3rd consecutive gold medal

1929 - Medical diathermy machine 1st used, Schenectady, NY

Author and Nobel Laureate William FaulknerAuthor and Nobel Laureate William Faulkner 1932 - William Faulkner completes his novel "Light in August"

1933 - Prussian minister Goering bans all Catholic newspapers

1934 - US contract air mail service canceled, replaced by US army for 6 mos

1935 - Clifford Odets' "Awake & Sing," premieres in NYC

1936 - Manuel Azaña becomes Spanish premier

1938 - Soviet arctic ice research station North Pole 1 evacuated, Denmark

1941 - Nazi police attacks & driven away from Koco Amsterdam (by young Jews)

1941 - Nazi raid Amsterdam & round up 429 young Jews for deportation

1942 - About 150 Japanese warplanes attacked the Australian city of Darwin

1942 - Bill Longson beats Managoff & Sandor Szabo, to become wrestling champ

1942 - Dutch actors protest obligatory membership of Culture Chamber

1942 - FDR orders detention & internment of all west-coast Japanese-Americans

1942 - Japanese troop land on Timor

1942 - Tommy Dorsey & his orchestra recorded "I'll Take Tallulah"

1942 - NY Yankees annouce 5,000 uniformed soldiers admitted free at each of their upcoming home games

32nd US President Franklin D. Roosevelt32nd US President Franklin D. Roosevelt 1943 - German tanks under brig gen Buelowius attack Kasserine Pass Tunesia

1944 - 823 British bombers attack Berlin

1944 - U-264 sinks off Ireland

1945 - 30,000 US Marines land on Iwo Jima

1945 - 900 Japanese soldiers reportedly killed by crocodiles in 2 days

1945 - Brotherhood Day-1st celebrated

1945 - US 5th Fleet launches invasion of Iwo Jima against the Japanese

1946 - Giants outfielder Danny Gardella is 1st major leaguer to announce he is jumping to the "outlaw" Mexican League

1947 - CBS radio premiere of Villa-Lobos' "Bachianas Brasilieras No 3"

1949 - "Inside USA" closes at Century Theater NYC after 339 performances

1949 - 1st Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Ezra Pound

1949 - Mass arrests of communists in India

1952 - French offensive at Hanoi

1953 - Georgia approves US 1st literature censorship board

1953 - William Inge's "Picnic," premieres in NYC

Poet Ezra PoundPoet Ezra Pound 1955 - South East Asia Collective Defense Treaty goes into effect

1956 - Kathy Cornelius wins LPGA St Petersburg Golf Open

1958 - Carl Perkins leaves Sun Records for Columbia Records

1959 - Britain, Turkey & Greece sign agreement granting Cyprus independence

1959 - Gabon adopts its constitution

1959 - USAF rocket-powered rail sled attains Mach 4.1 (4970 kph), NM

1960 - Bil Keane's "Family Circus" cartoon strip debuts

1960 - Protest strike in Poznan Poland

1961 - Albania disavows Chinese "Revisionism"

1961 - Henk van der Grift (Neth) becomes world champ all-round skater

1962 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1963 - Robert Frost wins Bollingen Prize

1963 - USSR informs JFK it's withdrawing several thousand troops from Cuba

1964 - UK flies ½ ton of The Beatles wigs to the US

1965 - NFL adds 6th official

US President John F. KennedyUS President John F. Kennedy 1967 - Stien Kaiser becomes world champion lady's skater

1968 - 1st US Teachers strike (Florida)

1969 - 1st Test flight of Boeing 747 jumbo jet

1970 - AL Cy Young winner Denny McLain suspended for bookmaking

1970 - USSR launches Sputnik 52 & Molniya 1-13 communications satellite

1971 - Paul McCartney releases "Another Day" in UK

1971 - Walt Wesley becomes 1st Cleve Cavalier to score 50 pts in a game

1972 - Glenn Turner carries his bat for 223* v WI at Kingston

1972 - The Asama-Sanso hostage standoff begins in Japan.

1974 - 1st American Music Award: Helen Reddy & Jim Croce win

1976 - Frente Polisario forms Democratic Republic of Sahara

1977 - 19th Grammy Awards: This Masquerade, Starland Vocal Band

1977 - A's sell pitcher Paul Lindblad to the Rangers for $400,000

1977 - Doug Walters scores 250 v NZ, 217 stand for 7th wicket w/Gilmour

1977 - Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" album released

Musician & member of the Beatles Paul McCartneyMusician & member of the Beatles Paul McCartney 1977 - France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island

1977 - Shuttle Enterprise makes 1st Test flight atop a 747 jetliner

1978 - "On the 20th Century" opens at St James Theater NYC for 460 perfs

1978 - Brigitte Kraus runs world record 1000 m indoor (2:34.8)

1978 - Coleman, Comden & Green's musical premieres in NYC

1980 - Botham a century & 13 wickets in Jubilee Test Cricket at Bombay

1980 - Eric Heiden skates Olympic record 1000m in 1:15.18

1981 - George Harrison is ordered to pay ABKCO Music $587,000 for "subconscious plagiarism" "My Sweet Lord" with "He's So Fine"

1982 - Hanneke Jagersma installed as Neth's 1st Communist mayor

1982 - Sharie Langford, California, sets women's bowling series record of 853

1982 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

1983 - Fernando Valenzuela wins his salary arbitration of $1 million

1983 - Vladimir Salnikov (USSR) sets 400 m free style swimming record

1984 - "Doonesbury" closes at Biltmore Theater NYC after 104 performances

1984 - 14th winter Olympic games close at Sarajevo, Yugoslavia

1984 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

1984 - 1st brother combo to win Gold & Silver in same event at Olympics (Phil & Steve Mahre-Slalom)

1985 - 150 killed when a Spanish jetliner crashed approaching Bilbao, Spain

1985 - ADM of Amsterdam declares bankruptcy

1985 - Canned & bottled Cherry Coke introduced by Coca-Cola

1985 - Mickey Mouse welcomed in China

1985 - William Schroeder is 1st artificial heart patient to leave hospital He spent 15 minutes outside Humana Hospital in Louisville, Ky

1986 - Jordanian King Hussein severs ties with PLO

1986 - US Senate ratifies UN's anti-genocide convention 37 years later

1986 - USSR launches Mir space station into Earth orbit

1987 - "Stardust" opens at Biltmore Theater NYC for 102 performances

1987 - Anti-smoking ad airs for 1st time on TV, featuring Yul Brynner

1987 - Less than a month after re-signing, A's pitcher Vida Blue retires

1987 - Minn sheriff office arrest FBI most wanted, Thomas G Harrelson

US President & Actor Ronald ReaganUS President & Actor Ronald Reagan 1987 - US President Reagan lifts trade boycott against Poland

1988 - Helga Arendt, Silke-Beate Knoll, Mechthild Kluth, Gisela Kinzel walk indoor female world record 4x200m (1:32.55)

1989 - "Legs Diamond" closes at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC after 64 perfs

1989 - Edgar Bowers wins Bollingen Prize

1990 - Police kill 8 demonstrators for multi party system in Nepal

1990 - Soyuz TM-9 lands

1992 - "Crazy For You" opens at Shubert Theater NYC for 1622 performances

1992 - Ken Ludwig's musical "Crazy for You," premieres in NYC

1992 - Peter Collins discovers nova Cygni 1992

1992 - Porn producer Jim Mitchell found guilty of killing his brother Artie

1993 - Kenya Moore, 22, (Michigan), crowned 42nd Miss USA

1994 - Marta Figueras-Dotti wins Cup o' Noodles Hawaiian Ladies Golf Open

1995 - 1st broadcast of "Woman of Independent Means" on NBC-TV

1995 - Irina Privalova runs indoor woman's European record 200m (22.10 sec)

1995 - Kenneth Koch wins Bollingen Prize

1995 - Linford Christie runs world record 200m indoor (20.25 sec)

1995 - Linford Christie runs European record 60m indoor (6.47 sec)

1995 - Michael Tippett's "Rose Lake," premieres

1996 - Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in York PA on WQXA 105.7 FM

1997 - FCC makes available 311 for non-emergency calls & 711 for hearing or speech-impaired emergency calls

1998 - Soyuz TM-26 lands

1998 - US hockey team destroys their rooms at Olympic village in Japan

2001 - An Oklahoma City bombing museum is dedicated at the Oklahoma City National Memorial.

2002 - NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.

2004 - Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal is awarded an honorary knighthood in recognition of a "lifetime of service to humanity."

2007 - Three Salvadoran deputies to the Central American Parliament and their driver are murdered in Guatemala.

2008 - Toshiba announces its formal recall of its HD DVD video formatting, ending the format war between it and Sony's Blu-Ray Disc

2012 - 44 people killed in prison brawl in Apocada, Mexico, between two rival drug cartels

2013 - 12 people are killed and 11 are injured after a Yemeni Air Force plane crashes in Sana'a

1807 - Former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr was arrested in Alabama. He was later tried and acquitted on charges of treason.   1846 - The formal transfer of government between Texas and the United States took place. Texas had officially become a state on December 29, 1845.   1856 - The tintype camera was patented by Professor Hamilton L. Smith.   1864 - The Knights of Pythias was founded in Washington, DC. A dozen members formed what became Lodge No. 1.   1878 - Thomas Alva Edison patented a music player (the phonograph).   1881 - Kansas became the first state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages.   1922 - Ed Wynn became the first big-name, vaudeville talent to sign on as a radio talent.   1942 - U.S. President Roosevelt signed an executive order giving the military the authority to relocate and intern Japanese-Americans.   1942 - The New York Yankees announced that they would admit 5,000 uniformed servicemen free to each of their home ball games during the coming season.   1942 - Approximately 150 Japanese warplanes attacked the Australian city of Darwin.   1945 - During World War II, about 30,000 U.S. Marines landed on Iwo Jima.   1949 - Bollingen Foundation and Yale University awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry ($5,000) to Ezra Pound.   1953 - The State of Georgia approved the first literature censorship board in the U.S. Newspapers were excluded from the new legislation.   1959 - Cyprus was granted its independence with the signing of an agreement with Britain, Turkey and Greece.   1963 - The Soviet Union informed U.S. President Kennedy it would withdraw "several thousand" of its troops in Cuba.   1981 - The U.S. State Department call El Savador a "textbook case" of a Communist plot.   1981 - Ford Motor Company announced its loss of $1.5 billion.   1985 - Mickey Mouse was welcomed to China as part of the 30th anniversary of Disneyland. The touring mouse played 30 cities in 30 days.   1985 - William Schroeder became the first artificial-heart patient to leave the confines of the hospital.   1985 - Cherry Coke was introduced by the Coca-Cola Company.   1986 - The U.S. Senate approved a treaty outlawing genocide. The pact had been submitted 37 years earlier for ratification.   1986 - The Soviet Union launched the Mir space station.   1987 - A controversial, anti-smoking publice service announcement aired for the first time on television. Yul Brynner filmed the ad shortly before dying of lung cancer. Brynner made it clear in the ad that he would have died from cigarette smoking before ad aired.   1997 - Deng Xiaoping of China died at the age of 92. He was the last of China's major revolutionaries.   1999 - Dennis Franz received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.   2001 - The museum at the Oklahoma City National Memorial Center was dedicated.   2002 - NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft began using its thermal emission imaging system to map Mars.   2004 - Former Enron Corp. chief executive Jeffrey Skilling was charged with fraud, insider trading and other crimes in connection with the energy trader's collapse. Skilling was later convicted and sentenced to more than 24 years in prison.   2005 - The USS Jimmy Carter was commissioned at Groton, CT. It was the last of the Seawolf class of attack submarines.   2008 - Fidel Castro resigned the Cuban presidency. His brother Raul was later named as his successor.



1674 The Netherlands and England signed the Peace of Westminster, by which New Amsterdam passed to the English (and was renamed New York). 1807 Aaron Burr, vice president under Thomas Jefferson, was arrested for treason. He was later acquitted. 1878 Thomas Edison patented the gramophone (phonograph). 1942 President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order that resulted in the internment of thousands of Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast. 1945 The U.S. Marines went ashore at Iwo Jima. 1959 Britain, Turkey, and Greece signed the agreement granting Cyprus independence. 1968 The first nationwide broadcast of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood aired on PBS. 1997 Deng Xiaoping, Chinese Communist leader, died. 2008 Fidel Castro resigned as President of Cuba after 49 years in power. Raúl Castro, Fidel's brother, succeeded him as president.

The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/feb19.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory