NOW & THEN
FEBRUARY 19
1600: The Peruvian volcano Huaynaputina exploded in the most violent eruption in the recorded history of South America.
1797: Pope Pius VI, by Treaty of Tolentino, ceded the Romagna, Bologna and Ferrara to France, as Napoleon Bonaparte advanced through Tyrol to Vienna.
1807: British fleet forced way through Dardanelles to support Russia in war against Turkey.
1819: British explorer William Smith discovered the South Shetland islands and claimed them for King George III.
1843: In the middle of a performance of Norma at the Royal Opera House, Madrid, the leading lady rushed off stage to give birth to a daughter, who later became opera singer Adelina Patti. Her father was a Sicilian tenor.
1861: Russian Tsar Alexander II abolished serfdom.
1878: Thomas Edison patented the gramophone.
1901: The Mercedes car, a 35 horsepower model, was named after Mercedes Jellinck, the daughter of a director of the Daimler Company.
1906: In the United States, William S Kellogg formed the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company (now Kellogg’s) to make the cereal he invented as therapy for mental patients.
1910: Manchester United played their first match on their new ground – Old Trafford. They were beaten 4-3 by Liverpool.
1915: The British fleet opened fire on the Dardanelles coast during the First World War.
1916: National Savings were introduced in Britain.
1957: Emergency Ward 10, the first continuous television series, began on ITV – it was shown twice-weekly for ten years.
1959: Agreement was signed in London by Greece, Turkey and Britain for independence of Cyprus.
1976: Iceland broke off diplomatic relations with Britain after the two countries failed to agree on limits in the “Cod War” fishing dispute.
1982: John de Lorean’s sports car firm went into receivership with an estimated loss of at least £17.8 million of taxpayers’ money.
1989: Norway banned the killing of seal pups for a year after British-swedish documentary on its sealing methods.
1991: Snow fell on the Algerian Sahara Desert for the first time for 30 years.
1991: Boris Yeltsin called for the resignation of Russian premier Mikhail Gorbachev, saying Gorbachev was sacrificing reform for increased personal power.
1992: Sara Keays, former mistress of Cecil (now Lord) Parkinson, won £105,000 libel damages against New Woman magazine.
1994: Four climbers died in a spate of accidents in the Highlands.
2001: The Oklahoma City bombing museum was dedicated at the Oklahoma City National Memorial.
2004: Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal was awarded an honorary knighthood in recognition of “a lifetime’s service to humanity.”
2006: A methane explosion in a Mexican coal mine killed 65 men.