February 19 facts for kids

February 19 is the 50th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 315 days remain until the end of the year (316 in leap years).

February 19th is a day filled with many interesting events throughout history! From important battles and new inventions to the birthdays of famous scientists and artists, this date has seen a lot happen. Let's explore some of the key moments and people connected to February 19th.

Events

Historic Moments Before 1600

• 197 – A very big battle happened between two Roman armies. Emperor Septimius Severus won against Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum.
• 356 – In the Roman Empire, a rule was made to stop the worship of old pagan statues and gods.
• 1594 – Sigismund III Vasa, who was already the king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, also became the King of Sweden. He took over after his father, John III of Sweden.
• 1600 – The Huaynaputina volcano in Peru erupted. This was the most powerful volcanic explosion ever recorded in South America.

Events from 1601 to 1900

• 1649 – The Second Battle of Guararapes took place, which effectively ended the Dutch efforts to colonize Brazil.
• 1674 – England and the Netherlands signed the Treaty of Westminster. This agreement ended the Third Anglo-Dutch War and gave the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam to England. New Amsterdam later became New York City.
• 1714 – During the Great Northern War, a battle was fought between Sweden and Russia in Finland. It was called the battle of Napue.
• 1726 – The Supreme Privy Council was created in Russia. This was an important group that advised the ruler.
• 1807 – Aaron Burr, a former Vice President of the United States, was arrested for a serious crime in Alabama.
• 1819 – British explorer William Smith discovered the South Shetland Islands and claimed them for King George III.
• 1836 – King William IV officially created the Province of South Australia.
• 1846 – In Austin, Texas, the new government of the State of Texas officially took over from the Republic of Texas government. This happened after Texas joined the United States.
• 1847 – The first group of rescuers reached the Donner Party, a group of pioneers who were stranded in the mountains.
• 1878 – Thomas Edison received a patent for his invention, the phonograph. This device could record and play sounds.
• 1884 – More than sixty tornadoes hit the Southern United States. This was one of the biggest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history.

Modern Events from 1901 to Today

• 1913 – Pedro Lascuráin became President of Mexico for only 45 minutes. This is the shortest time anyone has ever been president of a country.
• 1915 – World War I: The first naval attack on the Dardanelles began. British and French ships bombed Ottoman defenses along the coast of Gallipoli.
• 1937 – In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, two nationalists tried to harm the viceroy, Rodolfo Graziani, with grenades during a public event.
• 1942 – World War II: Nearly 250 Japanese warplanes attacked the city of Darwin in northern Australia, causing many deaths.
• 1942 – World War II: United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an order that allowed the U.S. military to move Japanese Americans to special camps.
• 1943 – World War II: The Battle of Kasserine Pass began in Tunisia.
• 1945 – World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, about 30,000 U.S. Marines landed on the island of Iwo Jima.
• 1949 – Ezra Pound was awarded the first Bollingen Prize for poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University.
• 1954 – The Crimean Oblast was officially moved from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR by the Soviet government.
• 1959 – The United Kingdom granted Cyprus its independence. It was formally announced on August 16, 1960.
• 1960 – China successfully launched its first sounding rocket, called the T-7.
• 1963 – The book The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan was published. This book helped to restart the feminist movement in the United States.
• 1976 – The order that led to Japanese Americans being moved to camps during World War II was officially ended by President Gerald Ford.
• 1978 – Egyptian forces raided Larnaca International Airport in Cyprus to stop a hijacking. However, they did not have permission from Cyprus, and a fight broke out with Cypriot forces. Many Egyptian commandos were killed.
• 1985 – William J. Schroeder became the first person with an artificial heart to leave the hospital.
• 1985 – Iberia Flight 610, a Boeing 727, crashed into Mount Oiz in Spain, killing 148 people. This was the deadliest accident in Iberia airline's history.
• 1986 – The Sri Lankan Army killed many Tamil farm workers in eastern Sri Lanka in what is known as the Akkaraipattu massacre.
• 2002 – NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe started mapping the surface of Mars using its special camera.
• 2003 – An Ilyushin Il-76 military plane crashed near Kerman, Iran, killing 275 people.
• 2006 – A gas explosion in a coal mine in Mexico killed 65 miners.
• 2011 – A special exhibition of the Belitung shipwreck opened in Singapore. This shipwreck contained the largest collection of artifacts from the Tang Dynasty ever found in one place.
• 2021 – Mya Thwe Thwe Khine, a young protester, sadly died during the anti-coup protests in Myanmar. She was the first known person to die in these protests.

Births

Famous People Born Before 1600

• 1473 – Nicolaus Copernicus, a Prussian mathematician and astronomer. He was famous for saying that the Earth goes around the Sun, not the other way around.
• 1526 – Carolus Clusius, a Flemish botanist and scientist who studied plants.
• 1594 – Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of King James I of England.

Notable Births from 1601 to 1900

• 1630 – Shivaji, an Indian warrior-king who founded the Maratha Empire.
• 1717 – David Garrick, a famous English actor and playwright.
• 1743 – Luigi Boccherini, an Italian cellist and composer.
• 1833 – Élie Ducommun, a Swiss journalist and activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize.
• 1859 – Svante Arrhenius, a Swedish physicist and chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• 1865 – Sven Hedin, a Swedish geographer and explorer.
• 1876 – Constantin Brâncuși, a Romanian-French sculptor, painter, and photographer.
• 1880 – Álvaro Obregón, a Mexican general and the 39th President of Mexico.
• 1896 – André Breton, a French poet and writer.

Well-known People Born from 1901 to Today

• 1902 – Kay Boyle, an American novelist and short story writer.
• 1911 – Merle Oberon, an Indian-American actress.
• 1917 – Carson McCullers, an American novelist and playwright.
• 1924 – Lee Marvin, a famous American actor.
• 1930 – John Frankenheimer, an American director and producer.
• 1932 – Joseph P. Kerwin, an American astronaut and physician.
• 1940 – Smokey Robinson, a very famous American singer-songwriter and producer.
• 1941 – David Gross, an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize.
• 1943 – Tim Hunt, an English biochemist who won the Nobel Prize.
• 1948 – Tony Iommi, an English guitarist and songwriter, known for being in the band Black Sabbath.
• 1952 – Amy Tan, an American novelist and writer.
• 1952 – Danilo Türk, the 3rd President of Slovenia.
• 1953 – Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, a lawyer and politician who became President of Argentina and Vice President of Argentina.
• 1954 – Sócrates, a famous Brazilian footballer and manager.
• 1955 – Jeff Daniels, an American actor and playwright.
• 1957 – Falco, a popular Austrian singer-songwriter.
• 1957 – Ray Winstone, an English actor.
• 1960 – Prince Andrew, Duke of York, a member of the British royal family.
• 1963 – Seal, a well-known English singer-songwriter.
• 1964 – Jennifer Doudna, an American biochemist who won a Nobel Prize for her work on gene editing.
• 1966 – Justine Bateman, an American actress and producer.
• 1967 – Benicio del Toro, a Puerto Rican actor.
• 1971 – Jeff Kinney, an American author and illustrator, famous for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.
• 1975 – Daniel Adair, a Canadian drummer.
• 1977 – Gianluca Zambrotta, an Italian footballer.
• 1980 – Ma Lin, a Chinese table tennis player.
• 1983 – Mika Nakashima, a Japanese singer and actress.
• 1985 – Haylie Duff, an American actress and singer.
• 1986 – Marta, a very famous Brazilian female footballer.
• 1993 – Mauro Icardi, an Argentine footballer.
• 1993 – Victoria Justice, an American actress and singer.
• 1995 – Nikola Jokić, a Serbian basketball player.
• 2004 – Millie Bobby Brown, an English actress, model, and producer, known for her role in Stranger Things.

Deaths

Historical Figures Who Died Before 1600

• 197 – Clodius Albinus, a Roman leader who challenged the emperor.
• 1133 – Irene Doukaina, the wife of Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos.
• 1414 – Thomas Arundel, a powerful Archbishop of Canterbury in England.
• 1553 – Erasmus Reinhold, a German astronomer and mathematician.

People Who Died from 1601 to 1900

• 1672 – Charles Chauncy, an English-American minister and academic.
• 1709 – Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, a Japanese shōgun, a powerful military ruler.
• 1799 – Jean-Charles de Borda, a French mathematician, physicist, and sailor.
• 1837 – Georg Büchner, a German-Swiss poet and playwright.
• 1897 – Karl Weierstrass, a German mathematician.

Notable Deaths from 1901 to Today

• 1915 – Gopal Krishna Gokhale, an Indian philosopher and politician.
• 1916 – Ernst Mach, an Austrian-Czech physicist and philosopher.
• 1936 – Billy Mitchell, an American general and pilot.
• 1945 – John Basilone, an American sergeant who received the Medal of Honor for his bravery.
• 1951 – André Gide, a French novelist and writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• 1952 – Knut Hamsun, a Norwegian novelist and poet who won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• 1962 – Georgios Papanikolaou, a Greek-American pathologist who invented the Pap smear test.
• 1972 – Lee Morgan, a famous American trumpet player.
• 1980 – Bon Scott, the lead singer of the rock band AC/DC.
• 1988 – André Frédéric Cournand, a French-American physician who won the Nobel Prize.
• 1994 – Derek Jarman, an English director and artist.
• 1997 – Deng Xiaoping, an important Chinese politician.
• 2001 – Stanley Kramer, an American director and producer.
• 2001 – Charles Trenet, a French singer-songwriter.
• 2007 – Celia Franca, an English-Canadian dancer who founded the National Ballet of Canada.
• 2013 – Robert Coleman Richardson, an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize.
• 2014 – Dale Gardner, an American astronaut.
• 2014 – Valeri Kubasov, a Russian engineer and astronaut.
• 2016 – Umberto Eco, an Italian novelist and philosopher.
• 2016 – Harper Lee, an American author, famous for To Kill a Mockingbird.
• 2019 – Karl Lagerfeld, a German fashion designer.
• 2020 – Pop Smoke, an American rapper.

Holidays and observances

• Armed Forces Day (Mexico)
• Brâncuși Day (Romania)
• Christian feast day:
  • Barbatus of Benevento
  • Boniface of Brussels
  • Conrad of Piacenza
  • Lucy Yi Zhenmei (one of Martyrs of Guizhou)
  • February 19 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Commemoration of Vasil Levski (Bulgaria)
• Flag Day (Turkmenistan)
• Shivaji Jayanti (Maharashtra, India)

See also

In Spanish: 19 de febrero para niños