Born on this day 19th February
1895 Louis Calhern
1912 Stan Kenton
1924 Lee Marvin
1915 John Freeman
1940 Smokey Robinson
1939 Gwen Taylor
1960 HRH The Duke of York
1960 Lesley Ash
1960 Holly Johnson

Died on this day
1980 Bon Scott
2001 Stanley Kramer

Music

1878 Inventor Thomas Edison was granted a patent for the phonograph.

1955 Ruby Murray reached No.1 in the UK singles chart with ‘Softly Softly’.

1958 The Miracles released their first US single, ‘Got A Job’.

1972 Harry Nilsson reached the top of the US singles chart with ‘Without You’.

1983 Kajagoogoo reached the top of the charts in the UK with ‘Too Shy’.

Sport

1985 Liverpool and Scotland striker Kenny Dalglish received his MBE from the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Also at the palace was former England cricket captain Keith Fletcher to receive his OBE.

1988 Champion National Hunt jockey Peter Scudamore was banned from riding for 21 days following a barging incident caught on camera in a race at Newbury.

1995 A cricket pitch at Sheffield Park in West Sussex, which hosted the opening matches against the Australians in the 1880’s, was being restored with the help of The National Trust.

People & Showbiz

1931 Charlie Chaplin arrived on a visit to the UK.

1964 Popular British actor Peter Sellars married Hollywood actress Britt Ekland.

1970 Buckingham Palace announced that Prince Charles was to join the Navy.

1992 The Princess of Wales met Mother Theresa at a retreat for the Missionaries of Charity in Rome.

General Events

1906 William S. Kellog formed the Battle Creek Toasted Cornflake Company to make the breakfast cereal which he originally invented for patients suffering from mental disorders.

1949 American poet Ezra Pound, spending time in a mental hospital and indicted for treason, won the first Bollingen Poetry Prize.

1959 Cyprus was granted independence in an agreement signed by Greece, Turkey and Great Britain.

1991 In the Gulf war, the Iraqi foreign minister, Tariq Aziz, said Baghdad was serious in seeking negotiations on withdrawing from Kuwait unconditionally with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

1994 Ellington colliery near Ashington, Northumberland, which was the last coal mine in the North East was closed with the loss of £1,160.

1997 In a significant reversal for the IRA, the Bill Clinton administration denied Jerry Adams a visa to visit to America.