Daily Calendar for Wednesday, February 19, 2025

Nicolaus Copernicus (astronomer) – 1473
Luigi Boccherini (composer) – 1743
Adelina Patti (opera singer; namesake of the song You’re the Flower of My Heart Sweet Adeline) – 1843
Eddie Arcaro (jockey) – 1916
John Frankenheimer (director of film) – 1930
Smokey Robinson (singer) – 1940
Jeff Daniels (actor) – 1955
Seal (singer) – 1963
Justine Bateman (actress) – 1966
Haylie Duff (actress) – 1985
Nikola Jokic (basketball player) – 1995

Grandpa Jones (country musician) – 1998
Jose Lopez Portillo (as president of Mexico from 1976-1982, brought the nation to the brink of economic collapse) – 2004
Richard Belzer (actor) – 2023

USS Constitution captured British brig HMS Catherine– 1814
First practical U.S. coal-burning locomotive (York) tested, York, Pennsylvania– 1831
The first rescuers reached the Donner Party in the Sierra Nevada mountains, California– 1847
Knights of Pythias founded– 1864
First official U.S. government weather predictions published– 1871
Patent for the first gramophone awarded to Thomas Edison– 1878
Kansas approved an act to prohibit alcohol– 1881
Prizes are included in Cracker Jack boxes for the first time– 1912
U.S. Marines invaded Iwo Jima (WW II)– 1945
U.S. Senator Carl Hayden was honored for completing 50 years of Congressional service– 1962
The world’s largest snowman was completed in Bethel, Maine. He stood 113 feet, 7.5 inches tall and weighed about nine million pounds. In 2008, Bethel, Maine, also created the largest snowwoman (122 feet, 1 inch tall).– 1999

The first official U.S. government weather predictions (called probabilities) were published– 1871
Mt. Shasta, California, saw the end of a five-day storm with a total accumulation of 189 inches of snow– 1959
25 inches of snow fell in 24 hours in Dover, Delaware– 1979
Fort Valley, Arizona, received 17 inches of snow– 1990