History Events on February 19

World War II: Battle of Iwo Jima: About 30,000 United States Marines land on the island of Iwo Jima.

#Battle_of_Iwo_Jima

China successfully launches the T-7, its first sounding rocket.

#T-7_(rocket)

Censorship: Georgia approves the first literature censorship board in the United States.

#Censorship

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

#Stratovolcano

Pedro Lascuráin becomes President of Mexico for 45 minutes; this is the shortest term to date of any person as president of any country.

#Pedro_Lascuráin

Executive Order 9066, which led to the relocation of Japanese Americans to internment camps, is rescinded by President Gerald Ford's Proclamation 4417.

#Executive_Order_9066

Thomas Edison patents the phonograph.

#Thomas_Edison

Emperor Septimius Severus defeats usurper Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum, the bloodiest battle between Roman armies.

#Septimius_Severus

Former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr is arrested for treason in Wakefield, Alabama and confined to Fort Stoddert.

#Vice_President_of_the_United_States

World War II: United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs executive order 9066, allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese Americans to internment camps.

#Franklin_D._Roosevelt

The Second Battle of Guararapes takes place, effectively ending Dutch colonization efforts in Brazil.

#Second_Battle_of_Guararapes

In Austin, Texas the newly formed Texas state government is officially installed. The Republic of Texas government officially transfers power to the State of Texas government following the annexation of Texas by the United States.

#Austin,_Texas

An Ilyushin Il-76 military aircraft crashes near Kerman, Iran, killing 275.

#Ilyushin_Il-76

World War II: Nearly 250 Japanese warplanes attack the northern Australian city of Darwin, killing 243 people.

#World_War_II

Transfer of Crimea: The Soviet Politburo of the Soviet Union orders the transfer of the Crimean Oblast from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR.

#1954_transfer_of_Crimea

The first group of rescuers reaches the Donner Party.

#Donner_Party

The United Kingdom grants Cyprus independence, which is formally proclaimed on August 16, 1960.

#Cyprus

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

#NASA

Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University.

#Ezra_Pound

Having already been elected to the throne of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1587, Sigismund III of the House of Vasa is crowned King of Sweden, having succeeded his father John III of Sweden in 1592.

#Polish-Lithuanian_Commonwealth

A methane explosion in a coal mine near Nueva Rosita, Mexico, kills 65 miners.

#Methane

Akkaraipattu massacre: the Sri Lankan Army massacres 80 Tamil farm workers in eastern Sri Lanka.

#Akkaraipattu_massacre

Emperor Constantius II issues a decree closing all pagan temples in the Roman Empire.

#Constantius_II

World War I: The first naval attack on the Dardanelles begins when a strong Anglo-French task force bombards Ottoman artillery along the coast of Gallipoli.

#World_War_I

Yekatit 12: During a public ceremony at the Viceregal Palace (the former Imperial residence) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, two Ethiopian nationalists of Eritrean origin attempt to kill viceroy Rodolfo Graziani with a number of grenades.

#Yekatit_12

The publication of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique reawakens the feminist movement in the United States as women's organizations and consciousness raising groups spread.

#Betty_Friedan

The debut exhibition of the Belitung shipwreck, containing the largest collection of Tang dynasty artifacts found in one location, begins in Singapore.

#Belitung_shipwreck

World War II: Battle of Kasserine Pass in Tunisia begins.

#Battle_of_Kasserine_Pass

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

#British_Empire

Forty-four people are killed in a prison brawl in Apodaca, Nuevo León, Mexico.

Iberia Airlines Boeing 727 crashes into Mount Oiz in Spain, killing 148.

William J. Schroeder becomes the first recipient of an artificial heart to leave hospital.

Egyptian forces raid Larnaca International Airport in an attempt to intervene in a hijacking, without authorisation from the Republic of Cyprus authorities. The Cypriot National Guard and Police forces kill 15 Egyptian commandos and destroy the Egyptian C-130 transport plane in open combat.

Colonel Ph?m Ng?c Th?o of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, and a communist spy of the North Vietnamese Viet Minh, along with Generals Lâm V?n Phát and Tr?n Thi?n Khiêm, all Catholics, attempt a coup against the military junta of the Buddhist Nguy?n Khánh.

The Conference of Youth and Students of Southeast Asia Fighting for Freedom and Independence convenes in Calcutta.

More than sixty tornadoes strike the Southern United States, one of the largest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history.

Daniel E. Sickles, a New York Congressman, is acquitted of murder on grounds of temporary insanity.

The Supreme Privy Council is established in Russia.

England and the Netherlands sign the Treaty of Westminster, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. A provision of the agreement transfers the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam to England, and it is renamed New York.