Right this moment is Thursday, Feb. 19, the fiftieth day of 2026. There are 315 days left within the 12 months.
Right this moment in historical past:
On Feb. 19, 1878, inventor Thomas Edison was issued a patent for the phonograph.
Additionally on this date:
In 1473, astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Torun, Poland.
In 1847, the primary rescuers reached members of the Donner Occasion, who had been snowbound within the Sierra Nevada close to the California-Nevada border for practically 4 months.
In 1942, throughout World Battle II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Govt Order 9066, which paved the way in which for the internment of 125,000 individuals of Japanese ancestry, together with U.S.-born residents.
In 1945, Operation Detachment started throughout World Battle II as the primary wave of U.S. Marines landed at Iwo Jima, the place they commenced a profitable monthlong battle to grab management of the island from Japanese forces.
In 1976, President Gerald R. Ford, calling the issuing of the 1942 internment order for individuals of Japanese ancestry “a tragic day in American historical past,” signed a proclamation formally confirming its termination.
In 2003, an Iranian navy airplane carrying members of the elite Revolutionary Guards crashed in southeastern Iran, killing all 275 individuals on board.
In 2008, an ailing Fidel Castro resigned the Cuban presidency after practically a half-century in energy; his brother Raúl was later named to succeed him. Fidel Castro died in 2016 on the age of 90.
In 2025, the ocean liner SS United States, which shattered the transatlantic pace document on its maiden voyage in 1952, departed Philadelphia’s Delaware River waterfront underneath tow for Cellular, Alabama, for prep work earlier than officers sink it off Florida’s Gulf Coast to create the world’s largest synthetic reef.
Right this moment’s birthdays:
- Singer Smokey Robinson is 86.
- Rock musician Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath) is 78.
- Writer Amy Tan is 74.
- Actor Jeff Daniels is 71.
- Actor Ray Winstone is 69.
- Actor Leslie David Baker is 68.
- NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is 67.
- Tennis Corridor of Famer Hana Mandlíková is 64.
- Singer Seal is 63. Actor Benicio Del Toro is 59.
- Writer-cartoonist Jeff Kinney is 55.
- NBA middle Nikola Jokić is 31.
- Singer-songwriter Chappell Roan is 28.
- Actor David Mazouz is 25.
- Actor Millie Bobby Brown is 22.