February 19th
Today in America's Present Past
1672 | Harvard President Charles Chauncy died.
1803 | Statehood: Ohio was admitted to the Union.
1807 | POTUS: Vice-President Aaron Burr was arrested for treason.
1852 | The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity was founded at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania.
1864 | The Knights of Pythias form in Washington, D.C.
1878 | Thomas Edison is granted a patent for a cylinder phonograph.
1881 | Civil Rights: Kansas becomes the first state to outlaw alcoholic beverages.
1906 | Entrepreneur Will Kellogg co-founded the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company (now Kellogg’s).
1910 | Start of the Philadelphia General Strike.
1913 | Snack brand Cracker Jack starts inserting prizes into its packaging.
1914: The parents of a four-year-old child mailed him to his grandparents 73 miles away because it was more affordable.
1915 | WWI: Germany sinks American merchant ship Evelyn.
1917 | Author Caron McCullers was born.
1919 | Civil Rights: The Pan-African Congress is formed by W.E.B. Du Bois.
1922 | Ed Wynn became the first talent signed as a professional radio entertainer.
1924 | Actor Lee Marvin was born.
1940 | Musician Smokey Robinson was born in Detroit, Michigan.
1942 | Civil Rights: Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the detention and internment of all west-coast Japanese Americans.
1945 | WWII: US forces raise a flag atop Mount Sribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima.
1949 | Comic William Messner-Loebs was born in Ferndale, Michigan.
1953 | Civil Rights: Georgia creates a literature censorship board.
1955 | Actor Jeff Daniels was born.
1963 | Civil Rights: Betty Friedan publishes “The Feminine Mystique.”
1963 | Poet Robert Frost wins the Bolligen Prize.
1963 | POTUS: The Soviets inform Democrat President John F. Kennedy of intentions to withdraw troops from Cuba.
1983 | Was Mee massacre in Seatle, Washington.
1987 | POTUS: Republican President Ronald Reagan announced lifting the trade boycott on Poland.
2016 | Novelist Harper Lee died.