Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/February 19

This is a list of selected February 19 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.

Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.

To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.

← February 18	February 20 →

Staging area

Images

Use only ONE image at a time

• 
  Mir
• 
  The Soviet/Russian space station Mir
• 
  Changsha bowls from the Belitung shipwreck
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  Édouard Mortier
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  The simulated Nazi invasion of Winnipeg
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  Henry Ossian Flipper
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  Dust storm at Manzanar
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  Rodolfo Graziani
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  Old Trafford
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  Bombing of Darwin

Ineligible

Blurb	Reason
Armed Forces Day in Mexico	refimprove
197 – Septimius Severus defeated usurper Clodius Albinus at the Battle of Lugdunum in present-day Lyon, France, securing full control over the Roman Empire.	unreferenced section
1674 – King Charles II of England signed the Treaty of Westminster to end the Third Anglo-Dutch War, confirming English and Dutch sovereignty over New Netherland and Surinam, respectively.	Date not cited, main text states 17 February
1807 – Former U.S. vice president Aaron Burr was arrested for treason after having raised a private army to allegedly create an independent nation in Spanish Texas.	lots of CN tags, original research
1819 – English explorer William Smith sighted Livingston Island in the South Shetland archipelago, a group of Antarctic islands more than 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) south of the Falkland Islands.	refimprove
1884 – More than sixty tornadoes struck across the Southern United States, believed to be among the largest and most widespread tornado outbreaks in American history.	refimprove section
1954 – The Soviet Union transferred the administration of the Crimean Oblast from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR, an act that remains controversial today.	Multiple banners
1972 – Asama-Sansō incident	Save for February 28
1978 – Attempting to intervene in a hijacking situation at Larnaca International Airport without authorisation from Cyprus authorities, Egyptian commando forces ended up exchanging gunfire with the Cypriot National Guard.	unreferenced section, refimprove section
1985 – The first episode of the British soap opera EastEnders was first broadcast on BBC1, eventually becoming one of the most watched television shows in the United Kingdom.	outdated
1999 – U.S. president Bill Clinton issued a posthumous pardon to Henry Ossian Flipper, the first African American graduate of West Point, who had been accused of embezzlement in 1881.	Better sources needed orange banner
Sócrates |b|1954|	Birthday not cited
Joseph Szigeti |d|1973	7 {cn} tags
Sylvia Rivera d|2002	original research, quote synth

Eligible

• 1600 – Huaynaputina, a stratovolcano in present-day Peru, produced the largest recorded volcanic explosion in South America.
• 1910 – Old Trafford, a football stadium in Greater Manchester, England, hosted its inaugural match, between Manchester United and Liverpool.
• 1937 – Italian forces began a brutal crackdown on Ethiopians following an attempted assassination of Rodolfo Graziani, the viceroy of Italian East Africa, in Addis Ababa.
• 1942 – A book-burning was held and politicians were arrested in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, as part of a simulated Nazi invasion.
• 1942 – Second World War: In the largest attack mounted by a foreign power against Australia, more than 240 Japanese aircraft bombed the city of Darwin (pictured).
• 1954 – The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency planted a cache of Soviet-made weapons on a beach in Nicaragua, as part of an effort to portray Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz as a Soviet puppet.
• 1963 – Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, a non-fiction book credited with sparking the beginning of second-wave feminism in the United States, was first published.
• 1965 – Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, along with Generals Lâm Văn Phát and Trần Thiện Khiêm attempted a coup against the military junta of Nguyễn Khánh.
• 1986 – The first module of the Soviet space station Mir was launched, establishing the first long-term research station in space.
• 2006 – A methane explosion in a coal mine in Nueva Rosita, Mexico, trapped and killed 65 miners.
• 2011 – Items from the Belitung shipwreck, the largest single collection of Tang-dynasty artefacts found in one location, were first exhibited in Singapore.
• 2012 – Mexican drug war: Forty-four inmates died in a prison riot in Apodaca, Mexico, between members of Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel.
• Born/died this day: | Thomas Arundel |d|1414| Dorothe Engelbretsdatter |d|1716| Thomas de Mahy, Marquis de Favras |d|1790| Émilie Gamelin |b|1800| Lydia Thompson |b|1838| Mary Dilys Glynne |b|1895| Tim Shadbolt |b|1947|

Notes

• Munich air disaster (1958) appears on February 6, so Old Trafford should not appear in the same year

February 19: Family Day in Canada (2024); Presidents' Day in the United States (2024)

A depiction of the Venezuelan crisis of 1902–1903

• 1811 – Peninsular War: Outnumbered French forces under Édouard Mortier routed and nearly destroyed Spanish troops at the Battle of the Gebora near Badajoz, Spain.
• 1903 – A blockade against Venezuela (depicted), caused by President Cipriano Castro's refusal to pay foreign debts, was lifted.
• 1942 – World War II: U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the forcible relocation of over 112,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps.
• 1948 – The Southeast Asian Youth Conference, which is believed to have inspired armed communist rebellions in different Asian countries, opened in Calcutta, India.

• Nicolaus Copernicus (b. 1473)
• Choekyi Gyaltsen, 10th Panchen Lama (b. 1938)
• Jennifer Doudna (b. 1964)
• Harper Lee (d. 2016)

More anniversaries:

• February 18
• February 19
• February 20