DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Sunday, Feb. 19, the 50th day of 2023. There are 315 days left in the year. On this date in:
1473: Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Torun, Poland.
1807: Former Vice President Aaron Burr, accused of treason, was arrested in the Mississippi Territory, in present-day Alabama. (Burr was acquitted at trial.)
1878: Thomas Edison received a U.S. patent for “an improvement in phonograph or speaking machines.”
1942: During World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which paved the way for the relocation and internment of people of Japanese ancestry, including U.s.-born citizens.
1945: Operation Detachment began during World War II as some 30,000 U.S. Marines began landing on Iwo Jima, where they commenced a successful month-long battle to seize control of the island from Japanese forces.
1959: An agreement was signed by Britain, Turkey and Greece granting Cyprus its independence.
1976: President Gerald R. Ford, calling the issuing of the internment order for people of Japanese ancestry in 1942 “a sad day in American history,” signed a proclamation formally confirming its termination.
1985: The British soap opera “Eastenders” debuted on BBC Television.
1986: The U.S. Senate approved, 83-11, the Genocide Convention, an international treaty outlawing “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,” nearly 37 years after the pact was first submitted for ratification.
1997: Deng Xiaoping, the last of China’s major Communist revolutionaries, died at age 92.
2003: An Iranian military plane carrying 275 members of the elite Revolutionary Guards crashed in southeastern Iran, killing all on board.
2008: An ailing Fidel Castro resigned the Cuban presidency after nearly a halfcentury in power; his brother Raul was later named to succeed him.
2017: Three former elite U.S. gymnasts, including 2000 Olympian Jamie Dantzscher, appeared on CBS’ “60 Minutes” to say they were sexually abused by Dr. Larry Nassar, a volunteer team physician for USA Gymnastics. (Nassar would be sentenced to decades in prison after hundreds of girls and women said he sexually abused them under the guise of medical treatment.)
Actor Carlin Glynn is 83. Singer Smokey Robinson is 83. Singer Lou Christie is 80. Guitarist Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath is 75. Actor Stephen Nichols is 72. Actor Jeff Daniels is 68. Singer-guitarist Dave Wakeling is 67. Talk show host Lorianne Crook is 66. Actor Leslie David Baker is 65. Singer Seal is 60. Actor Jessica Tuck is 60. Drummer Jon Fishman of Phish is 58. Actor Justine Bateman is 57. Actor Benicio Del Toro is 56. Actor Bellamy Young is 53. Drummer Daniel Adair is 48. Singer-actor Haylie Duff is 38. Guitarist Seth Morrison of Skillet is 35. Actor Victoria Justice is 30. Actor David Mazouz is 22. Actor Millie Bobby Brown (“Stranger Things”) is 19.