Events on February 19 38
Year 197
Emperor Septimius Severus defeats usurper Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum, the bloodiest battle between Roman armies.
Year 356
Emperor Constantius II issues a decree closing all pagan temples in the Roman Empire.
Year 1594
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.
Year 1600
The Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes in the most violent eruption in the recorded history of South America.
Year 1649
The Second Battle of Guararapes takes place, effectively ending Dutch colonization efforts in Brazil.
Year 1674
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.
Year 1807
Former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr is arrested for treason in Wakefield, Alabama and confined to Fort Stoddert.
Year 1819
British explorer William Smith discovers the South Shetland Islands and claims them in the name of King George III.
Year 1846
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.
Year 1859
Daniel E. Sickles, a New York Congressman, is acquitted of murder on grounds of temporary insanity. This is the first time this defense is successfully used in the United States.
Year 1884
More than sixty tornadoes strike the Southern United States, one of the largest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history.
Year 1913
Pedro Lascuráin becomes President of Mexico for 45 minutes; this is the shortest term to date of any person as president of any country.
Year 1915
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.
Year 1937
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.
Year 1942
World War II: Nearly 250 Japanese warplanes attack the northern Australian city of Darwin, killing 243 people.
Year 1942
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.
Year 1945
World War II: Battle of Iwo Jima: About 30,000 United States Marines land on the island of Iwo Jima.
Year 1948
The Conference of Youth and Students of Southeast Asia Fighting for Freedom and Independence convenes in Calcutta.
Year 1949
Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University.
Year 1953
Censorship: Georgia approves the first literature censorship board in the United States.
Year 1959
The United Kingdom grants Cyprus independence, which is formally proclaimed on August 16, 1960.
Year 1963
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.
Year 1965
Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, and a communist spy of the North Vietnamese Viet Minh, along with Generals Lâm Văn Phát and Trần Thiện Khiêm, all Catholics, attempt a coup against the military junta of the Buddhist Nguyễn Khánh.
Year 1976
Executive Order 9066, which led to the relocation of Japanese Americans to internment camps, is rescinded by President Gerald Ford's Proclamation 4417.
Year 1978
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.
Year 1985
William J. Schroeder becomes the first recipient of an artificial heart to leave hospital.
Year 1986
Akkaraipattu massacre: the Sri Lankan Army massacres 80 Tamil farm workers in eastern Sri Lanka.
Year 2002
NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.
Year 2011
The debut exhibition of the Belitung shipwreck, containing the largest collection of Tang dynasty artefacts found in one location, begins in Singapore.