On this day in 197, Lucius Septimius Severus' army defeated Clodius Albinus at Lyon. In 356 on this day, Emperor Constantius II shut down all heathen temples. Boniface III began his reign as Catholic Pope on this day in 607. In 842 on this day, the Medieval Iconoclastic Controversy ended as a council in Constantinople formally reinstated the veneration of icons in the churches. On this day in 1473, noted Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, often regarded as the father of modern astronomy, was born in Torun, a city in north-central Poland on the Vistula River. He was the first modern European scientist to propose that Earth and other planets revolve around the sun, altering our understanding of the solar system and Earth's place in it. On this day in 1777, the Continental Congress voted 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. On this day in 1878, Thomas Alva Edison patented the gramophone (phonograph). On this day in 1942, American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which authorized the removal of all people from military areas. Coming just weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, it specifically targeted Americans of Japanese background. On this day in 1945, Operation Detachment, the U.S. Marines' invasion of Iwo Jima, with 30,000 US Marines landing on the island. On this day in 1959, Cyprus was granted its independence with the signing of an agreement between Britain, Turkey and Greece. On this day in 1986, the U.S. Senate approved the ratification of the UN's anti-genocide convention 37 years after the fact. The USSR launched the Mir space station into Earth orbit on this day in 1986. On this day in 1997, Deng Xiaoping, the leader of China died at the age of 92. He was the last of China's major revolutionaries. In 2008 on this day, Fidel Castro resigned as President of Cuba after 49 years in power. Raúl Castro, Fidel's brother, succeeded him as president.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
• On this day in 1473, noted Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was 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.
• On this day in 1777, the Continental Congress voted 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.
• On this day in 1942, American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which authorized the removal, detention & internment of all west-coast Japanese-Americans. The language suggested that all people viewed as a threat to national security from military areas. Coming just weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, it specifically targeted Americans of Japanese background. 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.
• On this day in 1945, Operation Detachment, the U.S. Marines' invasion of Iwo Jima, with 30,000 US Marines landing on the island. 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.
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
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