History for February 19

History for February 19 - On-This-Day.com
Nicolas Copernicus (Mikolaj Kopernick) 1473 - Polish astronomer, known for the Copernican theory: the sun is the center of our universe , Carson McCullers 1917 - Author ("The Member of the Wedding", "Reflections in a Golden Eye"), Lee Marvin 1924 - Actor ("The Caine Mutiny", "The Dirty Dozen", "Delta Force") 


Smokey Robinson 1940 - Singer (Smokey Robinson & the Miracles), Lou Christie (Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco) 1943 - Singer, Jeff Daniels 1955 - Actor ("The Purple Rose of Cairo", "Terms of Endearment") 


1856 - The tintype camera was patented by Professor Hamilton L. Smith. 


1878 - Thomas Alva Edison patented a music player (the phonograph). 


1942 - U.S. President Roosevelt signed an executive order giving the military the authority to relocate and intern Japanese-Americans. 


1945 - During World War II, about 30,000 U.S. Marines landed on Iwo Jima. 


1985 - Cherry Coke was introduced by the Coca-Cola Company. 


1986 - The U.S. Senate approved a treaty outlawing genocide. The pact had been submitted 37 years earlier for ratification. 

 




1986 - The Soviet Union launched the Mir space station. 


1987 - A controversial, anti-smoking publice service announcement aired for the first time on television. Yul Brynner filmed the ad shortly before dying of lung cancer. Brynner made it clear in the ad that he would have died from cigarette smoking before ad aired. 


2004 - Former Enron Corp. chief executive Jeffrey Skilling was charged with fraud, insider trading and other crimes in connection with the energy trader's collapse. Skilling was later convicted and sentenced to more than 24 years in prison.