February 19
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Featured Event
From The Expedition of the Donner Party by Eliza P. Donner Houghton, The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1920
On this day in 1847, the first of four rescue parties arrived to save members of the Donner-Reed party from where they were stranded in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The westward-bound party, which had started with almost 90 pioneers (more than half of whom were children), had taken a supposed shortcut through Utah that had put them far behind schedule. Facing heavy snowfall and supply shortages, the group became stranded in the mountains in October 1846. When the situation became more dire, members of the party allegedly resorted to cannibalism. In all, 42 people died. Today, the Donner Pass stands as a reminder of the family’s unlucky fate. [Read today’s edition of Today in History > >]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
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I know the thoughts of a philosopher do not depend on the judgment of the many, yet when I considered how absurd my doctrine would appear, I long hesitated whether I should publish my book.
Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, born this day in 1473, reintroduced the heliocentric system, proposing that Earth, like the other planets, revolves around the Sun and that it turns once daily on its axis.
Famous Birthdays
More on February 19
© Fairchild Archive—Penske Media/Getty Images
2019
Fashion designer and photographer Karl Lagerfeld died in Paris. He was the creative power behind the modern revival of Chanel, the legendary French fashion house founded by Coco Chanel in the early 20th century. [How much do you know about fashion?]
© Terrence Antonio James—Tribune Content Agency LLC/Alamy
2016
Author Harper Lee died at age 89. Her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), explored racial prejudice in the South from a child’s perspective.. [Read about the 1962 film inspired by the novel.]
Jose Goitia/AP Images
2008
Fidel Castro, after being out of the public eye for 19 months, formally resigned as president of Cuba. He was succeeded by his brother Raúl. [Discover six interesting facts about Fidel Castro.]
AP Images
1997
Deng Xiaoping died at age 92. A powerful figure, Xiaoping attempted to incorporate free-enterprise principles into China’s staunchly communist economy and introduced the controversial one-child policy.[Read about the effects of China’s one-child policy.]
Smithsonian Institution
1963
Author and activist Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, a landmark work that was a catalyst for the second-wave feminist movement. [Test your knowledge of notable books.]
Joe Rosenthal/AP
1945
During the final phases of World War II, U.S. Marines invaded Iwo Jima to wrest control of the strategically important island from Japan, which put up fierce resistance in the ensuing battle.
National Archives, Washington, D.C.
1942
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which forced Japanese Americans into detention camps during World War II. The policy, a culmination of the federal government’s history of racism and discrimination against Asian immigrants and their descendants, was formally repealed in 1976. [Learn about one family’s experience surviving incarceration during World War II.]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-USZ62-96025)
1881
Kansas became the first U.S. state to include the prohibition of alcoholic beverages in its state constitution. [Read more about Prohibition in the United States.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1878
American inventor Thomas Edison patented the phonograph, a device used to reproduce sound through a needle’s vibration. [Watch a video about Edison’s laboratory and learn about some of his experiments.]