February 19 in History

February 19 is the 50th day of the year. There are 316 days remaining until the end of the year.

• 1674 - A provision of the Treaty of Westminster transferred the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam to England, and it was renamed New York.
• 1807 – In Alabama, former US Vice President Aaron Burr was arrested for treason.
• 1846 – In Austin, Texas, the newly formed Texas state government was officially installed. 
• 1847 – The first group of rescuers reached the Donner Party, which had become snow bound in the Sierra Nevada mountains in November. There were only seven survivors from the original 87 members of the wagon train, and they had resorted to cannibalism to stay alive.
• 1859 – The defense of temporary insanity was successfully used in the United States for the first time.
• 1861 – Serfdom was abolished in Russia.
• 1963 – The publication of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique reawakened the feminist movement in the United States.
• 2002 – NASA’s Mars Odyssey space probe began mapping the surface of Mars using a thermal emission imaging system.