TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – FEB 19 2019
0607 Boniface III begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1807 Vice President Aaron Burr is arrested in Alabama for treason. He is later found innocent.
1831 1st practical US coal-burning locomotive makes 1st trial run, Pennsylvania
1847 Rescuers finally reach the ill-fated Donner Party in the Sierras.
1859 Dan Sickles is acquitted of murder on grounds of temporary insanity 1st time this defense is successfully used
1861 Russian Tsar Alexander II abolishes serfdom.
1878 Thomas Edison patents the phonograph
1902 Smallpox vaccination becomes obligatory in France.
1906 W K Kellogg & Charles D Bolin incorporate Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, Battle Creek MI
1917 American troops are recalled from the Mexican border.
1925 President Calvin Coolidge proposes the phasing out of inheritance tax.
1926 Dr. Lane of Princeton estimates the earth’s age at one billion years.
1942 President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, a controversial World War II policy with lasting consequences for Japanese Americans. The document ordered the “removal of resident enemy aliens” from parts of the West Coast vaguely identified as “military areas.”
1953 Georgia approves US 1st literature censorship board
1954 The Ford T-Bird appears as a prototype but did not selling until late in 1954 costing $2,900
1960 Bil Keane’s “Family Circus” cartoon strip debuts
1966 Robert F. Kennedy suggests the United States offer the Vietcong a role in governing South Vietnam.
1976 Britain slashes welfare spending.
1981 The U.S. State Department calls El Salvador a “textbook case” of a Communist plot.
1986 The “Mir” Space Station is launched
1987 Anti-smoking ad airs for 1st time on TV, featuring Yul Brynner
1997 FCC makes available 311 for non-emergency calls & 711 for hearing or speech-impaired emergency calls
2004 Former Enron Corp. chief executive Jeffrey Skilling is charged with fraud, insider trading and other crimes in connection with the energy trader’s collapse.
He was convicted in 2006 of multiple federal felony charges relating to Enron’s financial collapse
2008 Fidel Castro steps down as Cuba’s president
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
