From Historynet: Today in History February 19

1408          The revolt of 

Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland , against King Henry IV , ends with his defeat and death at Bramham Moor.

1701          Philip V of Spain  makes his ceremonial entry into Madrid.

1807          Vice President Aaron Burr  is arrested in Alabama for treason. He is later found innocent.

1847          Rescuers finally reach the ill-fated Donner Party in the Sierras.

1861          Russian Tsar Alexander II  abolishes serfdom.

1902          Smallpox vaccination becomes obligatory in France.

1903          The Austria-Hungary government decrees a mandatory two year military service.

1915          British and French warships begin their attacks on the Turkish forts at the mouth of the Dardenelles, in an abortive expedition to seize the straits of Gallipoli.

1917          American troops are recalled from the Mexican border.

1919          The First Pan African Congress meets in Paris, France.

1925          President Calvin Coolidge  proposes the phasing out of inheritance tax.

1926          Dr. Lane of Princeton estimates the earth's age at one billion years.

1942          Port Darwin, on the northern coast of Australia, is bombed by the Japanese.

1944          The U.S. Eighth Air Force and Royal Air Force begin "Big Week," a series of heavy bomber attacks against German aircraft production facilities.

1965          Fourteen Vietnam War protesters are arrested for blocking the United Nations' doors in New York.

1966          Robert F. Kennedy  suggests the United States offer the Vietcong a role in governing South Vietnam.

1976          Britain slashes welfare spending.

1981          The U.S. State Department calls El Salvador a "textbook case" of a Communist plot.

1987          New York Governor Mario Cuomo  declares that he will not run for president in the next election.