Years Ago

Today is Saturday, Feb. 19, the 50th day of 2011. There are 315 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1473: Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus is born in Torun, Poland.

1803: Congress votes to accept Ohio’s borders and constitution.

1846: The Texas state government is formally installed in Austin, with J. Pinckney Henderson taking the oath of office as governor.

1881: Kansas prohibits the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages.

1911: Actress Merle Oberon is born in Bombay, India.

1942: President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorizes the military to relocate and intern U.S. residents, including native-born Americans, of Japanese ancestry.

Japanese warplanes raid the Australian city of Darwin; at least 243 people are killed.

1945: During World War II, some 30,000 U.S. Marines begin landing on Iwo Jima, where they commence a successful month-long battle to seize control of the island from Japanese forces.

1959: An agreement is signed by Britain, Turkey and Greece granting Cyprus its independence.

1983: Thirteen people are found shot to death at a gambling club in Seattle’s Chinatown in what becomes known as the “Wah Mee Massacre.” (Two Chinese immigrants are convicted of the killings and sentenced to life in prison.)

1997: Deng Xiaoping, the last of China’s major Communist revolutionaries, dies at age 92.

2008: An ailing Fidel Castro resigns the Cuban presidency after nearly a half-century in power; his brother Raul is later named to succeed him.

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