Today in History - February 19
Return to home
3CE Feb 19, Sadiq
Hidajat, Persian writer (Blind Person Owl), was born.
(MC, 2/19/02)
197 Feb 19, Lucius Septimius
Severus' army beat Clodius Albinus at Lyon. D Clodius Septimus Albinus,
Roman dignitary in England, died in the battle.
(MC, 2/19/02)
356 Feb 19, Emperor Constantius II
shut all heathen (non-Christian) temples.
(MC, 2/19/02)
842 Feb 19, The Medieval
Iconoclastic Controversy ended as a council in Constantinople formally
reinstated the veneration of icons in the churches.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1401 Feb 19, William Sawtree, 1st
English religious martyr, was burned in London.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1408 Feb 19, Henry IV led a
victory in the Battle of Brabham Moor that marked the end of
domestic threats. The revolt of Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland,
against King Henry IV, ended with his defeat and death at Bramham Moor.
(MWH, 1994)(HN, 2/19/98)
1414 Feb 19, Thomas Arundel,
archbishop of Canterbury, chancellor of England, died.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1473 Feb 19, The astronomer
Copernicus (1473-1543) was born in Torun, Poland. He promulgated the
theory that the earth and the planets move around the sun.
(WUB, 1994, p. 322)(HN, 2/19/98)(AP, 2/19/98)
1539 Feb 19, Jews of Tyrnau,
Hungary, (then Trnava, Czech), were expelled.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1545 Feb 19, Pierre Brully, [Peter
Brulius], Calvinist minister, was burned to death.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1634 Feb 19, At the Battle at
Smolensk Polish king Wladyslaw IV beat the Russians. [see Mar 1]
(MC, 2/19/02)
1671 Feb 19, Charles-Hubert
Gervais, composer, was born.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1674 Feb 19, Netherlands and
England signed the Peace of Westminster. NYC became English.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1687 Feb 19, Johann Adam
Birkenstock, composer and sandal designer, was born.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1701 Feb 19, Philip V of Spain
made his ceremonial entry into Madrid.
(HN, 2/19/99)
1736 Feb 19, Georg F. Handel's
"Alexander's Feast," premiered.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1743 Feb 19, [Rodolfo] Luigi
Boccherini, Italian composer, cellist (Minuet), was born.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1797 Feb 19, Pope Pius VI ceded
papal territory to France in the Treaty of Tolentino.
(PC, 1992 ed, p.353)
1803 Feb 19, Congress voted to
accept Ohio's borders and constitution. However, Congress did not get
around to formally ratifying Ohio statehood until 1953.
(AP, 2/19/98)
1807 Feb 19, Former Vice President
Aaron Burr was arrested in Alabama. He was subsequently tried for
treason and acquitted. [see May 22, Sep 1]
(HN, 2/19/98)(AP, 2/19/98)
1817 Feb 19, William III, King of
the Netherlands, was born.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1831 Feb 19, The 1st practical US
coal-burning locomotive made its 1st trial run in Penn.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1843 Feb 19, Adelina Patti, opera
soprano (Lucio), was born in Madrid, Spain.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1846 Feb 19, The Texas state
government was formally installed in Austin, with J. Pinckney Henderson
taking the oath of office as governor.
(AP, 2/19/07)
1847 Feb 19, Rescuers finally
reached the ill-fated Donner Party in the Sierras, where many resorted
to cannibalism to survive.
(HN, 2/19/99)
1856 Feb 19, Tin-type camera was
patented by Hamilton Smith in Gambier, Ohio.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1858 Feb 19, Alois Basil Nikolaus
Tomasini (78), composer, died.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1859 Feb 19, Svante Arrhenius,
Swedish chemist, founder of physical chemistry, was born.
(HN, 2/19/01)
1859 Feb 19, Daniel E. Sickles, NY
congressman, was acquitted of murder on grounds of temporary insanity.
This was the 1st time this defense was successfully used. Sickles had
shot and killed Philip Barton Key, son of Francis Scott Key, author of
"Star Spangled Banner." He shot Lee, the DC district attorney, in
Lafayette Square for having an affair with his wife. Sickles pleaded
temporary insanity and the sanctity of a man’s home and beat the murder
rap.
(WSJ, 3/29/02, p.W10)(MC, 2/19/02)
1861 Feb 19, Pres.-elect Lincoln
traveled through NYC on his way to Washington.
(WSJ, 2/12/04, p.D12)
1876 Feb 19, Gardiner Hubbard
submitted Alexander Graham Bell's patent application for a telephone.
(ON, 1/03, p.4)
1877 Feb 19, Louis Francois-Marie
Aubert, French composer (Habanera), was born.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1878 Feb 19, Thomas Edison
received a U.S. patent for "an improvement in phonograph or speaking
machines."
(AP, 2/19/07)
1878 Feb 19, Charles F. Daubigny
(61), French restaurateur, painter, died.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1881 Feb 19, Kansas became the
first state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages.
(AP, 2/19/98)
1884 Feb 19, A series of tornadoes
left an estimated 800 people dead in 7 US states (Miss, Ala, NC, SC,
Tenn., Ky & In).
(WSJ, 9/13/01, p.B11)(MC, 2/19/02)
1887 Feb 19, The 49th US Congress
passed the Edmunds-Tucker Act. It abolished women's suffrage, forced
wives to testify against their husbands, disincorporated the LDS
Church, dismantled the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company, abolished the
Nauvoo Legion, and provided that LDS Church property in excess of
$50,000 would be forfeited to the United States.
(http://somemormonstuff.blogspot.com/2007/02/edmunds-tucker-act-chap.html)
1902 Feb 19, Kay Boyle, short
story writer (“The White Horses of Vienna”), was born.
(HN, 2/19/01)
1902 Feb 19, Smallpox vaccination
became obligatory in France.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1903 Feb 19, The Austria-Hungary
government decreed a mandatory two year military service.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1906 Feb 19, W.K. Kellogg & Ch
Bolin incorporated the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Co. Will Kellogg
spent 2/3 of the company budget to advertise Corn Flakes.
(SFC, 11/16/96, p.E4)(ON, 2/05, p.10)
1910 Feb 19, English premiere of
Richard Strauss' "Elektra."
(MC, 2/19/02)
1910 Feb 19, Mary Mallon (aka
Typhoid Mary) was released from 4 years of quarantine on New York’s
North Brother Island. In 1914 she caused a typhus outbreak in the
Sloane Maternity Hospital. She was again arrested and returned to North
Brother Island where she died Nov 11, 1938.
(ON, 7/01, p.12)
1911 Feb 19, Merle Oberon, film
actress, was born.
(HN, 2/19/01)
1912 Feb 19, Stan Kenton,
[Newcomb], jazz musician (Music 55), was born in Wichita, Ks.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1915 Feb 19, British and French
warships began their attacks on the Turkish forts at the mouth of the
Dardenelles, in an abortive expedition to force the straits of
Gallipoli. Winston Churchill was the architect of the disastrous
campaign.
(HN, 2/19/99)(NW, 12/24/01, p.64)
1917 Feb 19, Carson McCuller,
writer (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter), was born.
(HN, 2/19/01)
1917 Feb 19, American troops were
recalled from the Mexican border.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1919 Feb 19, The First Pan African
Congress met in Paris, France.
(HN, 2/19/99)
1921 Feb 19, Claude Rene Georges
Pascal, composer, was born.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1921 Feb 19, The U.S. Red Cross
reported that approximately 20,000 children died yearly in auto
accidents.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1923 Feb 19, Jean Sibelius' 6th
Symphony premiered.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1925 Feb 19, President
Calvin Coolidge proposed the phasing out of inheritance tax.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1926 Feb 19, Dr. Lane of Princeton
estimated the earth’s age at one billion years.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1929 Feb 19, A medical diathermy
machine was 1st used in Schenectady, NY.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1930 Feb 19, John Frankenheimer
(d.2002), Hollywood film director (Birdman of Alcatraz, The Train), was
born in NYC.
(SSFC, 7/7/02, p.A23)(MC, 2/19/02)
1932 Feb 19, Jean-Pierre Ponnele,
opera director (Carmina Burana), was born in Paris, France.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1933 Feb 19, Herman Goring, Nazi
Prussian minister, banned all Catholic newspapers.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1940 Feb 19, Smokey Robinson,
American singer and songwriter, was born. He was famous for his songs
"Tears of a Clown" and "Tracks of My Tears."
(HN, 2/19/99)
1940 Feb 19, Saparmurad Niyazov,
later president of Turkmenistan (1992-2006), was born.
(www.turkmenistanembassy.org/turkmen/gov/presbio.html)(WSJ, 12/29/06,
p.A8)
1941 Feb 19, Nazi police were
attacked and driven away from Koco, Amsterdam by young Jews. Nazis
raided Amsterdam and rounded up 429 young Jews for deportation.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1941 Feb 19, Hamilton Harty
(61), composer, conductor, died.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1942 Feb 19, Tommy Dorsey and his
orchestra recorded "I'll Take Tallulah."
(MC, 2/19/02)
1942 Feb 19, President Roosevelt
signed executive order 9066 that gave the military the authority to
relocate and intern Japanese-Americans. The order resulted in the
incarceration of more than 110,000 Japanese-Americans living in
California, Oregon, Washington and Arizona. By the end of March, 1942,
the Japanese-Americans were moved to 10 relocation camps throughout the
U.S. interior. The mass expulsion of Japanese-Americans from the
West Coast ended on January, 2, 1945. [see Feb 20]
(AP, 2/20/98)(SFC, 2/19/98, p.A13)(HNQ, 9/3/99)
1942 Feb 19, Port Darwin, on the
northern coast of Australia, was bombed by about 150 Japanese
warplanes. General George C. Kenney, who pioneered aerial warfare
strategy and tactics in the Pacific theater, ordered 3,000 parafrag
bombs to be sent to Australia, where he thought they might come in
handy against the Japanese. Darwin was virtually leveled by 64 bombing
raids over 21 months.
(AP, 2/19/98)(HN, 2/19/98)(SFEC, 9/10/00, p.T10)
1942 Feb 19, Japanese troops
landed on Timor. Australian commandos battled the Japanese with support
from local people. Japanese reprisals killed 60,000 civilians, 13% of
the population.
(SFC, 5/17/02, p.A15)(MC, 2/19/02)
1943 Feb 19, German tanks under
brig. general Buelowius attacked Kasserine Pass, Tunisia.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1944 Feb 19, The U.S. Eighth Air
Force and Royal Air Force began "Big Week," a series of heavy bomber
attacks against German aircraft production facilities.
(HN, 2/19/99)
1944 Feb 19, U-264 sank off
Ireland.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1945 Feb 19, About 60,000 [75,000]
US marines went ashore at Iwo Jima, an 8-sq. mile island of rock,
volcanic ash and black sand. During World War II, some 30,000 U.S.
Marines landed on Iwo Jima, where they began a month-long battle to
seize control of the island from Japanese forces. The 36-day battle
took the lives of 7,000 Americans and about 20,000 of 22,000 Japanese
defenders.
(SFC, 6/19/96, p.A20)(HN, 2/19/98)(AP, 2/19/98)(SFC,
9/21/00, p.C6)
1945 Feb 19, On Ramree Island off
the coast of old Burma, some 900 Japanese soldiers retreated from
British soldiers into an alligator filled swamp. Only about 20 men
survived.
(SFEC, 2/23/96, Z1 p.2)(MC, 2/19/02)
1945 Feb 19, Ivan Kozhedub of the
Ukraine became the only Soviet pilot to shoot down a Messerschmitt
Me-262 jet fighter and, on April 19, 1945, he downed two Focke-Wulf
Fw-190s to bring his final tally to 62--the top Allied ace of the war.
He was the Allies’ top ace and one of only two Soviet fighter pilots to
be awarded the Gold Star of a Hero of the Soviet Union three times
during World War II. Ironically prevented from fighting because his
skill as a pilot made him more useful as an instructor, Kozhedub did
not fly his first combat mission until March 26, 1943.
(HNQ, 4//01)
1947 Feb 19, CBS radio premiere of
Villa-Lobos' "Bachianas Brasilieras No 3."
(MC, 2/19/02)
1949 Feb 19, Ezra Pound won the
Bollingen Prize.
(HFA, '96, p.24)
1949 Feb 19, Mass arrests of
communists took place in India.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1951 Feb 19, Andre Paul-Guillaume
Gide (b.1869), French novelist and critic, died. Andre Gide’s novels
included "The Immoralist," "Straight Is the Gate," "Lafcadio's
Adventures," "Corydon," "The Counterfeiters" and his explicit memoir
"If It Die…" (1926). In 1999 Alan Sheridan published the biography
"André Gide: A Life in the Present." Gide won the Nobel Prize in
1947. "There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of
them." "Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find
it." “The color of truth is gray.”
(AP, 10/31/97)(AP, 3/24/98)(SFEC, 6/28/98, Z1
p.8)(WSJ, 4/6/99, p.A24)(SFEC, 6/13/99, BR p.4)(MC, 11/22/01)
1952 Feb 19, Amy Tan, novelist
(The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife), was born.
(HN, 2/19/01)
1952 Feb 19, There was a French
offensive at Hanoi.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1952 Feb 19, Knut Hamsun (b.1859),
Norwegian writer, died. He won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1920.
His work included "From the Cultural Life in Modern America" (1889),
"Hunger," "The Growth of the Soil," "Victoria," and "An Overgrown
Path." A film portrait of his life was produced in 1997. In 2009 Ingar
Sletten Kolloen authored “Knut Hamsun: Dreamer and Dissenter.”
(SFEC, 4/20/97, DB p.47-49)(Econ, 11/7/09, p.79)
1953 Feb 19, William Inge's
"Picnic," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1953 Feb 19, Georgia approved the
1st US literature censorship board.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1958 Feb 19, Rebecca ("Becky")
Hoppe, founder of Soccer Moms of US, was born.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1958 Feb 19, Hail the size of
baseballs was reported with flash lightning over parts of Minneapolis.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1959 Feb 19, A USAF rocket-powered
rail sled attained Mach 4.1 (4970 kph) in NM.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1959 Feb 19, An agreement was
signed by Britain, Turkey and Greece granting Cyprus its independence.
(AP, 2/19/98)
1960 Feb 19, California Gov.
Edmund G. Brown gave a 60-day stay of execution for San Quentin inmate
Caryl Chessman (39), convicted sex offender and best-selling author,
the Red Light Bandit.” The governor hoped to quiet public sentiment in
Latin America for Pres. Eisenhower’s impending visit.
(SFC, 4/20/02, p.A23)(SSFC, 2/14/10, DB p.42)
1960 Feb 19, UC Regents retracted
the following question from an English aptitude test for high school
applicants: "What are the dangers to a democracy of a national police
organization, like the FBI, which operates secretly and is unresponsive
to public criticism." FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had organized a
covert public relations campaign and put pressure on Gov. Brown to
retract the question.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F3)
1960 Feb 19, Prince Andrew of
Britain, Albert Christian Edward, Duke of York was born.
(HN, 2/19/98)(MC, 2/19/02)
1963 Feb 19, The Soviet Union
informed President Kennedy it would withdraw "several thousand" of an
estimated 17,000 Soviet troops in Cuba.
(AP, 2/19/98)
1965 Feb 19, Fourteen Vietnam War
protesters were arrested for blocking U.N. doors in New York.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1966 Feb 19, Robert F. Kennedy
suggested the U.S. offer the Vietcong a role in governing South Vietnam.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1968 Feb 19, The children's
program Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, created by Fred Rogers
(1928-2003), premiered on NET (later PBS).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Rogers%27_Neighborhood)
1968 Feb 19, Mississippi state
troopers used tear gas to stop Alcorn A&M demonstrations.
(http://tinyurl.com/c5flal)
1969 Feb 19, Elvis Presley
recorded the Eddie Rabbit song "Kentucky Rain."
(www.anelvisfan2001.com/KentuckyRain.html)
1973 Feb 19, Joseph Szigeti
(b.1892), Hungarian-born US violinist, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Szigeti)
1976 Feb 19, Britain slashed
welfare spending.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1981 Feb 19, The U.S. State
Department called El Salvador a "textbook case" of a Communist plot.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1981 Feb 19, George Harrison was
ordered to pay ABKCO Music $587,000 for "subconscious plagiarism" in
"My Sweet Lord" with "He's So Fine." The word plagiarism derives from
Latin roots: plagiarius, an abductor; and plagiare, to steal. An
example of plagiarism would be copying this definition and pasting it
straight into a report. Plagiarism is a very ancient art. Shakespeare
stole most of his historical plots directly from Holinshed. Laurence
Sterne and Samuel Taylor Coleridge were both accused of plagiarism.
Oscar Wilde was repeatedly accused of plagiarism, hence the celebrated
exchange with Whistler: "I wish I'd said that, James." "Don't worry,
Oscar, you will."
(http://digital-law-online.info/cases/221PQ490.htm)(Nature News from
Jake Sigg, 9/10/09)
1983 Feb 19, A shooting at the Wah
Mee gambling parlor in Seattle, Wa., left 13 men dead. Kwan-Fai Mak and
Benjamin Ng were later found guilty on 13 murder counts.
(SFC, 7/6/98, p.A7)(SFC, 4/16/07, p.A8)
1985 Feb 19, William Schroeder
(d.1986) was the 1st artificial heart patient to leave hospital. He
spent 15 minutes outside Humana Hospital in Louisville, Ky.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._Schroeder)(http://tinyurl.com/yj2fc3)
1985 Feb 19, Mickey Mouse was
welcomed in China.
(www.440.com/twtd/archives/feb19.html)
1985 Feb 19, 150 were killed when
a Spanish jetliner crashed approaching Bilbao, Spain.
(http://tinyurl.com/ylaall)
1986 Feb 19, The U.S. Senate
approved a treaty outlawing genocide, 37 years after the pact had first
been submitted for ratification.
(AP, 2/19/98)
1986 Feb 19, Barry Seal (b.1939),
gunrunner, drug trafficker, and covert CIA operative extraordinaire,
was murdered in a hail of bullets by Medellin cartel hit men outside a
Salvation Army shelter in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He had testified in
federal court in Las Vegas, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami for the US
government against leaders of the Medellin drug cartel.
(www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/crimesOfMena.html)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Seal)
1986 Feb 19, In the SF Bay Area
water breached a levee on the 8,800 acre Tyler Island wiping out crops
and nearly destroying the Mello family’s farming business.
(SFC, 1/2/09, p.A1)
1986 Feb 19, The Soviet Union
launched the first component of its Mir space station. Mir meant peace.
(WSJ, 6/27/97, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/5/98, p.W14)(SFC,
8/26/99, p.A12)
1986 Feb 19, Adolfo Celi (b.1922),
Italian film actor and director (Thunderball), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolfo_Celi)
1987 Feb 19, An anti-smoking ad
aired for the 1st time on TV and featured Yul Brynner (1920-1985), who
had died of lung cancer.
(www.terramedia.co.uk/Chronomedia/years/1987.htm)
1987 Feb 19, Pres. Reagan lifted
remaining economic sanctions against Poland.
(www.eco.utexas.edu/~hmcleave/rieprop.html)
1987 Feb 19, New York Governor
Mario Cuomo declared that he would not run for president in the next
election.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1988 Feb 19, A group calling
itself the "Organization of the Oppressed on Earth" claimed
responsibility for the kidnapping in Lebanon of U.S. Marine Lt. Col.
William R. Higgins. Higgins was later slain by his captors.
(AP, 2/19/98)
1989 Feb 19, Iran's Ayatollah
Khomeini rejected the apology of "Satanic Verses" author Salman
Rushdie, exhorting Muslims to "send him to hell" for committing
blasphemy.
(AP, 2/19/99)
1990 Feb 19, US Defense Secretary
Dick Cheney, snubbed by Philippine President Corazon Aquino, met in
Manila with Defense Minister Fidel Ramos to discuss the future of U.S.
bases in the country.
(AP, 2/19/00)
1990 Feb 19, Michael Powell (84),
English director (Life & Death of Col Blimp), died.
(www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/447167/index.html)
1991 Feb 19, President Bush told
reporters a Soviet proposal to end the Persian Gulf War fell “well
short of what would be required.” Russian Federation President Boris
Yeltsin delivered an unprecedented public appeal for Soviet President
Mikhail S. Gorbachev to resign.
(AP, 2/19/01)
1992 Feb 19, "Crazy For You"
opened at Shubert Theater in NYC for 1622 performances.
(http://www.musicals101.com/1990s.htm)
1992 Feb 19, The US Labor
Department reported consumer prices rose by just 0.1 percent in January.
(AP, 2/19/02)
1992 Feb 19, Peter Collins of
Boulder, Colo., discovered Nova Cygni 1992.
(www.aavso.org/vstar/vsots/v1974cyg.shtml)
1992 Feb 19, Former Irish
Republican Army member Joseph Doherty was deported from the United
States to Northern Ireland following a 10-year battle for political
asylum.
(AP, 2/19/02)
1993 Feb 19, President Clinton's
economic plan won praise from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.
The president, visiting Hyde Park, N.Y., suggested the United States
might have to consider a national sales tax "not too long in the
future," then said he'd meant in 10 years or so.
(AP, 2/19/98)
1993 Feb 19, Gerhard Gesell (82),
judge (Pentagon Papers), died of liver cancer.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1994 Feb 19, American speedskater
Bonnie Blair won the fourth Olympic gold medal of her career as she won
the 500-meter race in Lillehammer, Norway.
(AP, 2/19/99)
1994 Feb 19, With Bosnian Serbs
facing a NATO deadline to withdraw heavy weapons encircling Sarajevo or
face air strikes, President Clinton delivered an address from the Oval
Office reaffirming the ultimatum.
(AP, 2/19/99)
1995 Feb 19, A day after being
named the new chairwoman of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People, Myrlie Evers-Williams outlined her plans
for revitalizing the civil rights organization, saying she intended to
take the group back to its roots.
(AP, 2/19/00)
1995 Feb 19, Calder Willingham
(b.1922), novelist, scriptwriter (The Graduate), died of lung cancer in
New Hampshire.
(www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-1244)
1996 Feb 19, Pres. Clinton told
Monica Lewinsky that their relationship must end. It was later resumed.
(SFC, 9/12/98, p.A13)
1996 Feb 19, Republican
presidential hopefuls argued taxes, trade and negative ads in a final
burst of contentious campaigning on the eve of New Hampshire’s leadoff
primary, with Bob Dole the principal target.
(AP, 2/19/01)
1996 Feb 19, Charlie O. Finley
(77), baseball showman, died in Chicago.
(AP, 2/19/07)
1997 Feb 19, The US FCC made
available 311 for non-emergency calls & 711 for hearing or
speech-impaired emergency calls.
(http://tinyurl.com/8xhja)
1997 Feb 19, Detroit's daily
newspapers accepted a back-to-work offer from employees who'd been on
strike for 19 months, but the strikers charged the conditions for
return amounted to a lockout.
(AP, 2/19/98)
1997 Feb 19, In southwestern
Alaska Evan Ramsey (16) opened fire with a 12-gauge shotgun as students
assembled in a high school lobby, killing a principal and 16-year-old
classmate in Bethel, a town of 6,000. Ramsey was sentenced to a
198-year prison term.
(AP,
4/25/06)(www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/weird/kids1/index_1.html)
1997 Feb 19, Larry Singleton
murdered Roxanne Hayes, a prostitute, in Tampa, Fla. He had served 8
years of a 14-year sentence for the 1978 rape and maiming of
15-year-old Mary Vincent in Ca. A trial in Dec ended in a mistrial and
another was set for 1998. He was sentenced to death in 1998 but died of
cancer in a prison hospital in 2001.
(SFC,12/11/97, p.A3)(SFC, 4/15/98, p.A3)(SFC,
1/1/02, p.A13)
1997 Feb 19, Prof. James J.
Parsons, authority on the historical geography of Latin America, died.
He authored 5 books and 150 articles.
(SFC, 2/27/97, p.A16)
1997 Feb 19, Leo Rosten (88),
writer, humorist (Joys of Yiddish), died.
(www.nndb.com/people/842/000048698/)
1997 Feb 19, Deng Xiaoping (92),
the last of China's major Communist revolutionaries, died from
Parkinson’s disease. He smoked heavily and Panda was his brand./
(AP, 2/19/98)(WSJ, 5/26/04, p.A1)
1998 Feb 19, At the Nagano
Olympics, Austrian Hermann Maier won the men's giant slalom while Hilde
Gerg of Germany won the women's slalom.
(AP, 2/19/99)
1998 Feb 19, Federal officials in
Henderson, Nevada, arrested Larry Wayne Harris and William Job Leavitt
for possession of suspected anthrax bacterium. Harris had earlier
published the 131-page book: "Bacteriological Warfare: A Major Threat
to North America." The substance turned out to be a harmless veterinary
vaccine. Harris was later sentenced to 6 months probation.
(SFC, 2/20/98, p.A1,8)(SFEC, 2/22/98, p.A11)(SFC,
3/25/98, p.A3)
1998 Feb 19, Scientists reported
the discovery of the brain’s hunger hormone. It was named “orexin”
after the Greek word “orexis” meaning hunger.
(SFC, 2/20/98, p.A11)
1998 Feb 19, In Columbia Jose
Nelson Urrego, aka “El Loco” and the purported head of the so-called
Cartel del Norte del Valle, was arrested.
(SFC, 2/20/98, p.A14)
1998 Feb 19, In Georgia gunmen
kidnapped 4 UN observers and 6 civilians and demanded the release of 7
suspects held for last week’s assassination attempt on Pres.
Shevardnadze.
(WSJ, 2/20/98, p.A1)
1998 Feb 19, In Indonesia 3
Chinese tycoons led by Liem Sioe Liong, the No. 1 individual taxpayer,
started a huge food giveaway to the poor. In Kendari mobs attacked
Chinese-owned shops and homes. In Jakarta some 600 students demanded
that the government quit.
(SFC, 2/20/98, p.A12)(WSJ, 2/20/98, p.A1)
1998 Feb 19, U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan set out for Iraq on a last-chance peace
mission, saying he was "reasonably optimistic" about ending the
standoff over weapons inspections without the use of force.
(AP, 2/19/99)
1998 Feb 19, North Korean
officials sent letters to South Korea offering talks between political
parties and civic groups.
(SFC, 2/20/98, p.A12)
1998 Feb 19, In Pakistan Kanwar
Ahson was arrested in Karachi, a Mohajir-dominated city of 14 million,
for having sex outside of marriage with his lover Riffat Afridi, who
was in hiding. The couple were of rival ethnic groups and the Afridi’s
father refused to allow them to marry. They married last week and set
off a riot where 2 people were killed and 8 injured.
(SFC, 2/20/98, p.A14)
1998 Feb 19, In Switzerland police
arrested 3 Israeli Mossad agents for spying on diplomats in Bern.
(SFC, 2/26/98, p.A9)
1999 Feb 19, President Clinton
posthumously pardoned Henry O. Flipper, the first black graduate of
West Point, whose military career was tarnished by a racially motivated
discharge.
(AP, 2/19/00)
1999 Feb 19, The US Commerce Dept.
reported that the 1998 trade deficit soared to $168.8 billion.
(SFC, 2/19/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 19, OSHA proposed an
ergonomics standard after 8 years of study.
(SFC, 2/19/99, p.A6)
1999 Feb 19, Ohio inmate Wilford
Berry, "The Volunteer", became the first inmate to be executed in Ohio
since 1963.
(www.drc.state.oh.us/Public/capital.htm)
1999 Feb 19, It was reported that
Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon helped reduce the risk of cancer due to its
high content of flavonols.
(SFC, 2/19/99, p.A12)
1999 Feb 19, In Allentown, Pa., An
explosion at a chemical processing plant in the Lehigh Valley
Industrial Park killed 5 people and injured 14.
(SFEC, 2/21/99, p.A7)(WSJ, 2/22/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 19, In Sylacauga,
Alabama, Billy Jack Gaither (39), a textile warehouse worker, was
abducted, beaten to death with an ax handle and burned on a pyre of
tires due to a sexual advance. Steven Eric Mullins (25) and Charles
Monroe Butler Jr. (21) were later arrested and charged with murder.
Butler was convicted in 1999 and sentenced to life in prison without
parole.
(SFC, 3/5/99, p.A1)(SFC, 6/25/99, p.A3)(SFC, 8/6/99,
p.A3)
1999 Feb 19, In Najaf, Iraq,
Shiite Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sader was killed with his 2
sons in a drive-by shooting. Dissidents blamed the government and said
riots followed the killings. The government denied any disturbances.
(SFEC, 2/20/99, p.A23)
1999 Feb 19, In Japan the lower
house passed a record $682.5 billion budget with huge spending
increases and tax cuts.
(SFC, 2/20/99, p.B1)
2000 Feb 19, George W. Bush beat
Sen. John McCain in the South Carolina Republican primary 53% to 42%.
(SFEC, 2/20/00, p.A1,6)
2000 Feb 19, It was reported that
physicists from Italy and China had described the possible detection of
a neutralino particle, also called a weakly interacting massive
particle (WIMP). Such particles were suspected to make up the
mysterious dark matter and the vast majority of all matter in the
universe. On Feb 25 physicists from Stanford reported evidence that
seemed to contradict the Italian and Chinese findings.
(SFC, 2/19/00, p.A1,13)(SFC, 2/26/00, p.A3)
2000 Feb 19, It was reported that
some 200 people had died in East Timor, mostly women and children, in
the last week due to illnesses attributed to sanitation problems caused
by recent flooding.
(SFC, 2/19/00, p.C1)
2000 Feb 19, In Mexico people in
Tepatepec, Hidalgo, captured at least 65 policemen after state police
raided the El Mexe Rural Teachers College. The police were later
freed after the release of hundreds of students and supporters.
(SFC, 2/21/00, p.A10)
2001 Feb 19, President George W.
Bush opened a museum commemorating the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
(AP, 2/19/02)
2001 Feb 19, Stanley Kramer
(b.1913), Hollywood film producer and director, died in Woodland Hills,
Ca., at age 87. His work included 35 films.
(SFC, 2/21/01, p.A18)(AP, 2/19/02)(NW, 12/31/01,
p.107)
2001 Feb 19, In Britain an
outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease was found in 27 pigs at an
slaughterhouse in Essex. The last outbreak was in 1981. The outbreak
was 1st identified in pigs at Heddon-on-the-Wall.
(SFC, 2/21/01, p.A12)(SFC, 3/31/01, p.D8)
2001 Feb 19, In Burma a helicopter
crash killed junta Lt. Gen. Tin Oo (67) and left 14 missing.
(SFC, 2/20/01, p.A10)
2001 Feb 19, In the West Bank
Mahmoud Madani (25), a Hamas activist, was shot to death from long
range.
(SFC, 2/20/01, p.A9)
2001 Feb 19, In the Philippines
Pres. Arroyo announced a cease-fire with southern separatists. She
hoped Mindanao rebels would reciprocate. Separately 10 people drowned
and a dozen were missing when their illegal ferry capsized as they
tried to reach Malaysia for work.
(SFC, 2/20/01, p.A9)
2002 Feb 19, President Bush opened
a two-day visit to South Korea. Bush urged the “despotic regime” in
North Korea to reunite with the free South.
(SFC, 2/20/02, p.A14)(AP, 2/19/07)
2002 Feb 19, The US Supreme Court
ok’d peer grading in schools.
(SFC, 2/20/02, p.A3)
2002 Feb 19, In Salt Lake City, a
win by bobsledders Jill Bakken and Vonetta Flowers gave the United
States 21 medals in the Winter Games; Flowers became the first black
athlete ever to strike gold at the Winter Olympics.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2002 Feb 19, A suit was filed on
behalf of 3 detainees, one Australian and 2 British citizens, held at
Guantanamo, Cuba.
(SFC, 2/19/02, p.A10)
2002 Feb 19, In Bolivia a flash
flood in La Paz killed at least 22 people. The death toll later climbed
to 52.
(SFC, 2/20/02, p.A11)(SFC, 2/21/02, p.A13)
2002 Feb 19, In Cairo, Egypt, an
overcrowded train en route from Cairo to the southern city of Luxor
burst into flames from a gas cannister. It then traveled 2 1/2 miles
before the driver stopped. 361 people were killed.
(SFC, 2/20/02, p.A9)(SFC, 2/21/02, p.A8)(AFP,
5/27/04)
2002 Feb 19, In Germany a man, who
recently lost his job, killed 2 ex-bosses and the principal of his
former high school in Freising.
(WSJ, 2/20/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 19, Israeli-Palestinian
fighting left 15 people dead. 6 Israeli soldiers died at a checkpoint.
(SFC, 2/20/02, p.A8)(SFC, 2/21/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 19, Italian authorities
arrested 4 Moroccans in Rome, members of the Salafist Group for Call
and Combat. Maps were found of the US Embassy, small quantities of
cyanide, and a map of the city’s water system.
(SFC, 2/21/02, p.A16)
2002 Feb 19, In Jordan a military
prosecutor froze the assets of some prominent businessmen and former
intelligence officials. Fraudulent loans were reported to be as much as
$85 million.
(WSJ, 2/20/02, p.A18)
2002 Feb 19, In Liberia rebels
were repelled at Heindi and Bong Mines, 20 miles northeast of Monrovia,
as some 15,000 civilians fled.
(SFC, 2/21/02, p.A13)
2002 Feb 19, It was reported that
Pakistan had begun disbanding the Afghan and Kashmir units of its
Inter-Services Intelligence agency.
(SFC, 2/20/02, p.A14)
2002 Feb 19, Peru's justice
minister ruled out a presidential pardon for Lori Berenson after the
Supreme Court confirmed the American woman's 20-year sentence for
aiding leftist rebels.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2002 Feb 19, In Saudi Arabia some
2 million Muslims gathered in Mecca for the annual hajj.
(SFC, 2/20/02, p.A11)
2003 Feb 19, Missouri Rep. Dick
Gephardt announced his second candidacy for president with a pledge to
repeal most of President Bush's tax cuts.
(AP, 2/19/04)
2003 Feb 19, In San Francisco
Armando Arce (26) was gunned down as he walked at Willow and Polk
streets. In 2009 Joeven Bowen was charged with Arce’s murder. Bowen was
alleged to have accompanied members of Oakland’s Nut Case gang, which
was involved with 2 murders earlier in the day.
(SFC, 9/9/09, p.D1)
2003 Feb 19, Armenia held
national elections. Pres. Kocharian was being challenged by 8
contenders who criticized his failure to secure a final deal with
Azerbaijan over the Armenian-populated enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. He
also faced accusations over about 30 unresolved political killings in
recent years and the widening gap between rich and poor in this nation
of 3.3 million people. Kocharian failed to win the necessary 50 % of
votes for re-election, forcing a runoff in balloting that the
opposition complained was rigged.
(AP, 2/19/03)(AP, 2/20/03)
2003 Feb 19, In Bolivia
Pres. de Lozada announced a new Cabinet, replacing eight ministers and
eliminating six ministries.
(AP, 2/20/03)
2003 Feb 19, China outlined
plans for an enormous, 30-50 year project to carry water from the
country’s water-saturated south to its arid north. The project was 1st
conceived by Mao Zedong in the 1950s.
(AP, 2/19/03)(SSFC, 9/5/04, p.A16)
2003 Feb 19, In Germany
Mounir el Motassadeq (28) was sentenced to the maximum 15 years in
prison for helping the Hamburg-based al-Qaida terror cell in the 9/11
attacks on the US.
(AP, 2/19/03)
2003 Feb 19, An Iranian
military plane carrying 275 members of the elite Revolutionary Guards
crashed in southeastern Iran, killing all on board.
(WSJ, 2/20/03, p.A1)(AP, 2/19/08)
2003 Feb 19, Israeli tanks
and soldiers battled Palestinian militants in the streets of Gaza City
before dawn in violence that left 11 Palestinians dead, including a
suicide bomber who tried to blow up a tank. Hamas fired 4 Qassam
rockets into Sderot in retaliation.
(AP, 2/19/03)(SFC, 2/20/03, A6)
2003 Feb 19, NATO approved
the deployment of defense equipment to Turkey in the event of a war in
Iraq. Turkey and the US failed again to agree on the size of an
economic aid package.
(AP, 2/19/03)
2003 Feb 19, In Pakistan
heavy rains fell for a 5th day and left over 26 people dead. The
country had experienced 5 years of drought.
(SFC, 2/20/03, A9)
2003 Feb 19, In the
southern Philippines suspected separatist rebels attacked Poblacion.
They rounded up some villagers and gunned down 14 people.
(AP, 2/20/03)
2003 Feb 19, In Venezuela
the secret police (DISIP) arrested Carlos Fernandez, head of the
largest business federation, for his role in the general strike.
(SFC, 2/21/03, A10)
2004 Feb 19, The AFL-CIO endorsed
Democrat John Kerry for president.
(AP, 2/19/05)
2004 Feb 19, After sanctioning
more than 2,800 gay marriages, the city of San Francisco sued the state
of California, challenging its ban on same-sex marriages.
(AP, 2/19/05)
2004 Feb 19, Jeffrey Skilling,
former CEO of Enron, pleaded not guilty to 35 felony charges and was
released after posting a $5 million bail.
(SFC, 2/20/04, p.B1)
2004 Feb 19, It was announced that
Philip Anschutz (64), Denver billionaire and founder of Qwest
Communications, purchased the Fang newspapers including the SF Examiner
for $20 million.
(SFC, 2/21/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 19, In Canada bird flu
was detected at a chicken producer in the Fraser Valley near Vancouver.
By the end of April some 19 million birds were culled, But the disease
continued to spread.
(ST, 4/30/04, p.A3)
2004 Feb 19, In Iraq an explosion
ripped through an infantry patrol in an insurgent center west of
Baghdad, killing two U.S. soldiers and injuring another.
(AP, 2/19/04)
2004 Feb 19, In Kenya a fire raced
through a Nairobi slum, destroying hundreds of ramshackle tin and
timber houses and leaving 4,500 families homeless.
(AP, 2/20/04)
2004 Feb 19, A Japanese consortium
announced it will develop an Iranian oil field with reserves of up to
26 billion barrels. The deal was opposed by the United States because
of fears the money could go to nuclear proliferation.
(AP, 2/19/04)
2005 Feb 19, The $3.2 billion USS
Jimmy Carter entered the Navy's fleet as the most heavily armed
submarine ever built, and as the last of the Seawolf class of attack
subs that the Pentagon ordered during the Cold War's final years.
(AP, 2/19/05)
2005 Feb 19, In Arkansas a train
slammed into an ambulance that apparently tried to get out of its path,
but stopped at a rail crossing, killing all three paramedics on board.
The patient in the vehicle survived.
(AP, 2/20/05)
2005 Feb 19, In Bangladesh a
double-decker passenger ferry capsized and sank during a tropical
storm, leaving at least 151 people dead. The MV Maharaj was carrying
about 200 people when it capsized on the Buriganga River just outside
Dhaka.
(AP, 2/21/05)(AP, 2/22/05)
2005 Feb 19, China's state news
said North Korea no longer wants to negotiate with the US and 4 other
nations in an effort to ease the standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear
program.
(AP, 2/19/05)
2005 Feb 19, About half a million
hunters and supporters rallied across England and Wales in a massive
display of force against a new fox hunting ban.
(AP, 2/19/05)
2005 Feb 19, In Haiti heavily
armed gunmen attacked the national penitentiary, killing one guard in a
shootout that allowed some 500 prisoners to escape.
(AP, 2/21/05)
2005 Feb 19, Eight suicide
bombings in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq killed over 50 people,
including a US soldier, and injured 150 as Shiite Muslim worshippers
around the country celebrated Ashura, their holiest day of the year.
(AP, 2/19/05)(SSFC, 2/20/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 19, Libyan leader Moamer
Kadhafi and Egyptian Pres. Hosni Mubarak backed an African solution to
the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region during 2 rounds of talks in Cairo.
(AFP, 2/19/05)
2005 Feb 19, Nigerian soldiers,
sailors and police descended on Odioma to hunt down a local militia
leader and black magic guru who was accused of murdering 12 people from
Obiaku. 28 people killed and Odioma was burned down by government
troops.
(AP, 3/21/05)
2005 Feb 19, Former Presidents
George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton visited a Thai fishing village that
had been devastated by the December 2005 tsunami.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2005 Feb 19, In Trinidad security
chiefs from 34 countries in the Americas outlined broad strategies for
fighting money laundering, passport fraud and drug smuggling, warning
that Islamic terrorists could exploit lawlessness in the region to
raise money and slip through borders.
(AP, 2/19/05)
2006 Feb 19, Jimmie Johnson won
the Daytona 500.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2006 Feb 19, The East rallied from
21 points down for a 122-120 victory over the West in the NBA All-Star
Game.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2006 Feb 19, In southern
Afghanistan Taliban rebels attacked a police checkpost in
insurgency-hit, killing three policemen.
(AFP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, Almost five months
after publishing 12 cartoons of the prophet to highlight what it
described as self-censorship, Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten newspaper
printed a full-page apology in a Saudi-owned pan-Arab newspaper.
(AFP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, French President
Jacques Chirac arrived in India for a whistle-stop visit aimed at
bolstering trade and civilian nuclear cooperation with the emerging
economic powerhouse.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, Jacques Bernard, the
head of Haiti's electoral council, fled the country after opponents
threatened his life and burned down his farmhouse nearly two weeks
after disputed elections.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 19, India and France both
confirmed their first outbreak of the deadly strain of bird flu among
fowl. Health officials and farm workers in western India began
slaughtering a half-million birds to check the spread of the disease.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, India's private
Kingfisher Airlines signed a deal to purchase 15 French ATR 72-500
aircraft for 270 million dollars, with the option to buy another 20.
Kingfisher began operations in May and has a 7.6 percent share of the
domestic market.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, In western India a
bomb exploded at a railway station in Ahmadabad, injuring at least 13
people.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, Gunmen ambushed a
convoy of trucks carrying construction material to US military north of
Baghdad, killing four Iraqi drivers. A police general also died in a
roadside bombing in northern Iraq.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, Israel's Cabinet
approved an immediate freeze on the transfer of hundreds of millions of
dollars in tax money to the Palestinians in its first response to the
takeover of the Palestinian parliament by the militant group Hamas.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, Amr Moussa, the head
of the Arab League, said that members would meet this week to hammer
out a plan for sending millions of dollars a month to the Palestinian
Authority, despite US attempts to stop the flow of money to the new
Hamas-led government.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, An Israeli aircraft
attacked two Palestinians laying a bomb near the Gaza-Israel border
fence. Palestinians said two militants were killed.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, A gas explosion in a
northern Mexico coal mine trapped 65 miners some 600 feet below ground
with a limited supply of oxygen. In 2007 a judge ordered the arrest of
5 mine managers and inspectors on charges of negligent homicide in the
deaths of the miners.
(AP, 2/19/06)(WSJ, 2/21/06, p.A1)(AP, 3/20/07)
2006 Feb 19, Ismail Haniyeh (46),
a Gaza lawmaker seen as a leader of Hamas' pragmatic wing, was
nominated to be Palestinian prime minister.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, Pakistani security
forces arrested hundreds of Islamic hard-liners, virtually sealed off
the capital and used gunfire and tear gas to quell protests against
caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 19, Pakistani President
Pervez Musharraf arrived in China on a visit that analysts said would
focus on anti-terrorism cooperation, trade and technological assistance.
(AFP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, In Peru Hector
Aponte, a Shining Path guerrilla commander believed responsible for an
ambush that killed eight policemen in December, was killed in a
shootout with authorities in the Huallaga Valley. Aponte was a top
commander under Comrade Artemio, one of the last original Shining Path
leaders still at large.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2007 Feb 19, New Jersey became the
3rd US state to offer civil unions for gay couples.
(SFC, 2/20/07, p.A3)
2007 Feb 19, XM Satellite Radio
Holdings and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. announced an agreement to
merge as equals. Sirius planned to XM shareholders $4.57 billion in
stock.
(SFC, 2/20/07, p.C1)
2007 Feb 19, Actress Janet Blair
(85) died in Santa Monica, Calif.
(AP, 2/19/08)
2007 Feb 19, In Afghanistan
suspected Taliban insurgents briefly captured Bakwa, a small town in
Farah province after police abandoned their posts.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 19, An official said
Algeria has translated the Koran into the Berber language, Tamazight,
for the first time, to promote Islam among a community that has long
campaigned for more language and cultural rights.
(Reuters, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 19, British police
arrested a man near Cambridge in connection with a series of letter
bombs sent to offices linked to traffic enforcement. On Feb 22 Miles
Cooper (22), a primary school caretaker, was charged with 12 offences
under the Explosive Substances Act and the Offences Against the Person
Act.
(AP, 2/19/07)(AFP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 19, Canada unexpectedly
granted permanent resident status to Amir Kazemian (41), an Iranian,
man who spent nearly three years in sanctuary in a Vancouver church
before being arrested over the weekend. The Citizenship and Immigration
officials granted him residency on humanitarian and compassionate
grounds.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 19, Maria Consuelo
Araujo, Colombia’s foreign minister, resigned as a growing scandal
linking the political establishment and far-right paramilitaries
claimed its first member of President Alvaro Uribe's Cabinet. 4 days
earlier her brother, a senator, was jailed on charges of colluding with
the paramilitaries and the kidnapping of a potential political rival. 2
clowns were shot and killed by an unidentified gunman during their
performance of Circo del Sol de Cali, a traveling circus, in the
eastern town of Cucuta.
(AP, 2/19/07)(Reuters, 2/22/07)
2007 Feb 19, Police found the
charred bodies of three Salvadoran representatives to the Central
American Parliament and their driver on a rural road outside Guatemala
City.
(AP, 2/20/07)
2007 Feb 19, In Iraq gunmen
ambushed a minivan on the main highway from Baghdad to Anbar. The
attackers accused the 13 aboard of opposing al-Qaida in Iraq. All 13
were executed, including an elderly woman and two boys. A string of car
bombings and other attacks claimed more than 40 civilian lives in
Baghdad and elsewhere. Insurgents launched a brazen coordinated attack
on a US combat post near Tarmiyah, sending in a suicide bomber and
clashing with American troops. Six US service members were killed.
(AP, 2/19/07)(AP, 2/20/07)(AP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 19, Three-way talks
between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli and Palestinian
leaders, initially billed as a new US push to restart peace efforts,
ended with little progress other than a commitment to meet again.
(AP, 2/19/08)
2007 Feb 19, Mexican President
Felipe Calderon announced that soldiers waging an offensive against
drug traffickers will get a pay hike of 45 percent this year in a bid
to insulate them from corruption. This coincided with a decision to
lower his own pay by 10% and abolish pensions for Mexican presidents.
(AP, 2/19/07)(SSFC, 7/8/07, p.A7)
2007 Feb 19, In Pakistan suspected
Islamic militants killed an Afghan refugee they accused of spying for
the US and dumped his beheaded body by a road in North Waziristan.
(AP, 2/20/07)
2007 Feb 19, Daniel Petru
Corogeanu, a Romanian priest, was sentenced to 14 years in prison. In
2005 he had led a dayslong exorcism ritual with 4 nuns for Maricica
Irina Cornici (23), a young nun, that ended with the woman's death. One
of the nuns, Nicoleta Arcalianu, was sentenced to eight years in
prison, and the other three, Adina Cepraga, Elena Otel and Simona
Bardanas, received five-year sentences.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 19, Gen. Nikolai
Solovtsov, a top Russian general, warned that Poland and the Czech
Republic risk being targeted by Russian missiles if they agree to host
a proposed US missile defense system.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 19, Rwanda released 8,000
prisoners accused of involvement in the country's 1994 genocide,
prompting anger from survivors of the slaughter who fear new ethnic
killings.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 19, A Saudi court ordered
the bodies of four Sri Lankans to be displayed in a public square after
being beheaded for armed robbery.
(AP, 2/21/07)
2007 Feb 19, Anglican leaders in
Tanzania demanded that the US Episcopal Church unequivocally bar
official prayers for gay couples and the consecration of more gay
bishops to undo the damage that North Americans have caused the
Anglican family.
(AP, 2/20/07)
2007 Feb 19, In Thailand violence
continued as bombs exploded at four locations in the south, killing an
army major and wounding two soldiers, three policemen and 13 civilians.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 19, Military officials
said ongoing clashes between the Yemeni army and followers of a Shiite
rebel leader in the north of the country have killed more than 100
people in the past five days.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 19, The EU extended
sanctions on Zimbabwe for another year including an arms embargo,
travel ban and asset freeze on President Robert Mugabe and other top
officials.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2008 Feb 19, President George W.
Bush paid somber homage to the estimated 800,000 killed in Rwanda's
1994 genocide and urged global action to end the bloodshed in Sudan's
Darfur region "once and for all."
(AP, 2/19/08)
2008 Feb 19, Barack Obama won
Wisconsin (58%) and Hawaii (76%) adding to a primary season winning
streak that now totals 10. This put Hillary Rodham Clinton into a
virtual must-win scenario in Democratic contests coming early next
month in Texas and Ohio.
(AP, 2/20/08)(SFC, 2/21/08, p.A10)
2008 Feb 19, The SF-based Sharper
Image retailer filed for bankruptcy protection. The 184-store chain
planned to close 96 stores nationwide. The Sharper Image brand name was
later sold to Hilco Organization and Gordon Brothers Group LLC for $33
million in partnership with Windsong Brands LLC and Bluestar Alliance.
(SFC, 3/8/08, p.C1)(SSFC, 6/29/08, p.C5)
2008 Feb 19, In southwestern
Minnesota a driving a van crashed into a school bus, killing four
students. Olga Marino Franco del Cid (24) of Minneota, was later
charged in state court with four counts of criminal vehicular homicide.
Federal prosecutors later filed identity theft charges against the
woman, who had identified herself as Alianiss Nunez-Morales.
Immigration investigators said they found the real Nunez-Morales in
Connecticut.
(AP, 3/1/08)
2008 Feb 19, In southern
Afghanistan a car bomb exploded near a police compound, killing at
least one person and wounding four.
(AP, 2/19/08)
2008 Feb 19, The African Union
extended by two months sanctions slapped on the rebellious Comoran isle
of Anjouan in the Indian Ocean.
(AFP, 2/19/08)
2008 Feb 19, Armenians voted for a
new president. PM Serzh Sarkisian (Sargsyan), given credit for rising
living standards, won with 53% of the vote, enough to avert a runoff
with rival Levon Ter-Petrosian (21%).
(Reuters, 2/19/08)(Econ, 2/23/08, p.70)(Econ,
10/18/08, p.38)
2008 Feb 19, In England Karen
Matthews reported that her daughter was missing in the Yorkshire town
of Dewsbury. Shannon (9) was found safely 24 days later in the base of
a divan bed at the flat of Michael Donovan. On Dec 4 Karen Matthews
(33) and Michael Donovan (40) were found guilty of kidnapping. The
mother allegedly hoped to scoop the reward money when the girl was
found.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Feb 19, An ailing,
81-year-old Fidel Castro resigned as Cuba's president after nearly a
half-century in power, saying he will not accept a new term when
parliament meets Feb 24.
(AP, 2/19/08)
2008 Feb 19, A Japanese navy
destroyer equipped with advanced radar plowed into a fishing boat off
the Pacific coast, splitting the boat in two and plunging two fishermen
into the chilly waters. The men remained missing.
(AP, 2/19/08)
2008 Feb 19, Japan’s Toshiba Corp.
announced it would no longer develop, make or market high-definition HD
DVD players and recorders, conceding defeat to the competing Blu-Ray
technology backed by Sony Corp.
(AP, 2/19/08)
2008 Feb 19, Myanmar's ruling
junta said the country's new draft constitution, which will replace one
scrapped in 1988, has been completed.
(AP, 2/19/08)
2008 Feb 19, Pakistan's ruling
party conceded defeat after opposition parties routed allies of
President Pervez Musharraf in parliamentary elections.
(AP, 2/19/08)
2008 Feb 19, Serbs set off
sporadic explosions and torched checkpoints between Serbia and Kosovo
to protest Kosovo's declaration of independence and international
recognition of the new nation.
(AP, 2/19/08)
2008 Feb 19, In Thailand Glenn
Richard Allen (61), an American man was sentenced, to 16 years in
prison for raping a 13-year-old girl and sexually abusing a second
teenager in Pattaya, a Thai seaside resort town notorious for its sex
industry.
(AP, 2/19/08)
2008 Feb 19, The body of a teenage
girl was found hanging in the woods of a Welsh village, and authorities
said it was the 17th young suicide in just over a year near one town in
South Wales.
(AP, 2/20/08)
2009 Feb 19, Barack Obama made his
first foreign trip as president to Canada where he sought to quell
Canadian concerns about US protectionism.
(AP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 19, The DJIA fell 89.68
to 7465.95, a new 6-year low.
(WSJ, 2/20/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 19, The California state
Senate approved a long-awaited budget intended to wipe out a $42
billion deficit, possibly steering the state clear of a fiscal disaster.
(AP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 19, Banking giant UBS
said it has agreed to pay $780 million and turn over once-secret Swiss
banking records to settle allegations it conspired to defraud the US
government of taxes owed by thousands of American clients.
(AP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 19, In Daly City, Ca., a
car with 4 friends was sprayed by gun fire on John Daly Blvd., near the
BART station. Moises Frias Jr. (21), a student at City College, was
killed. Two men in a sedan escaped. The 4 friends had no known gang
affiliations. Police later arrested Luis Herrera (18) and Danilo
Velasquez (28), members of the MS-13 gang, for their participation in
the murder. Jaime Balam (20), a 3rd gang member was being sought. He
was deported to Mexico 8 days after the shooting, but before being
identified as a suspect.
(SFC, 2/25/09, p.B2)(SFC, 7/10/09, p.D1)
2009 Feb 19, In Pennsylvania Roger
Leon Barlow (19) was charged with setting 9 fires in arson-prone
Coatesville, 35 miles west of Philadelphia.
(SFC, 2/20/09, p.A10)
2009 Feb 19, Virginia’s House of
Delegates voted 60-39 on a partial ban on smoking in bars and
restaurants. The Senate had voted 27-13 earlier on the bill, which was
supported by Gov. Timothy Kaine.
(WSJ, 2/20/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 19, Thomas E. Bolger
(b.1927), former head of Bell Atlantic (1983-1988), died.
(WSJ, 2/21/09, p.A5)
2009 Feb 19, In southern
Bangladesh 13 people died and scores were missing after a ferry
carrying more than 100 passengers collided with a cargo boat and
capsized.
(AFP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 19, Belgium took Senegal
to the International Court of Justice over the African nation's failure
to prosecute a former Chad president for crimes against humanity and
torture.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 19, Europe's highest
human rights court has awarded Abu Qatada, an extremist Muslim preacher
euro2,800 ($3,550), for being held unlawfully by British authorities
during an anti-terrorist probe. A day earlier Britain's highest court
ruled that Abu Qatada could be deported to Jordan despite fears he
could face torture there. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that
Qatada and 10 other detainees had their right to liberty violated when
they were held in high-security conditions.
(AP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 19, France bowed to
demands for wage increases in Guadeloupe in the hope of ending a
month-long strike that has plunged the French Caribbean island into
rioting.
(AP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 19, In southern India
lawyers sympathetic to Sri Lankan rebels set fire to a police station
in Chennai and clashed with police leaving 20 police injured.
(WSJ, 2/20/09, p.A12)
2009 Feb 19, In Israel far-right
politician Avigdor Lieberman endorsed Benjamin Netanyahu for Israeli
prime minister, all but guaranteeing that Netanyahu will be the
country's next leader.
(AP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 19, Kyrgyzstan's
parliament voted to close a key US air base in the country, a move that
could hamper Pres. Obama's efforts to increase the number of US forces
in Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 19, About 12 pirates
armed with guns attacked the tug and barge in the Malacca Strait and
kidnapped two crew members as the vessel was en route to Singapore.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 19, US Sen. John Kerry as
well as 2 other congressional Democrats came to the Gaza Strip, the
highest-level visit by a US official since the Hamas militant group
seized power in the territory nearly two years ago. Kerry said he was
in Gaza to view the aftermath of Israel's recent military offensive
against Hamas.
(AP, 2/19/09)(SFC, 2/20/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 19, US Defense Sec.
Robert Gates, in Europe for NATO talks, signed a new military
cooperation agreement with Poland.
(WSJ, 2/20/09, p.A12)
2009 Feb 19, A Moscow court
acquitted three men accused of helping murder Kremlin critic and
journalist Anna Politkovskaya, leaving Russia's most politically
charged killing in years still unsolved. This decision was overturned
in June.
(Reuters, 2/19/09)(AP, 6/25/09)
2009 Feb 19, In Spain the mobile
phone industry's biggest trade show wrapped up after four days that
delivered exciting news for technophiles, average phone users and even
environmentalists. During the show leading manufacturers announced an
initiative to produce a standard charger that would fit all phones by
2012 in a step set to reduce waste and increase convenience.
(AFP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 19, The International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said samples taken from a Syrian site
suspected of being a secretly built reactor have revealed new traces of
processed uranium.
(AP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 19, Naser Abdel Karim
al-Wahishi, Yemen's most wanted fugitive and leader of al-Qaida in the
Arabian Peninsula, used an audio recording to urge Yemenis to rise up
against the government and called on Arabs in Saudi Arabia and Gulf
countries to help their brothers in Yemen.
(AP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 19, Trading resumed at
the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) after a three-month suspension but
transactions were carried out only in US dollars, the first time in
President Robert Mugabe's 29-year rule.
(AFP, 2/19/09)
Go to
http://www.timelinesdb.com
Go to February 20