Today’s Highlights

On Feb. 19, 1942, during World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which paved the way for the internment of 125,000 people of Japanese ancestry, including U.S.-born citizens.

On this date

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

1847: The first rescuers reached members of the Donner Party, who had been snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountains near the California-Nevada border for nearly four months.

1878: Inventor Thomas Edison was issued a patent for the phonograph.

1945: Operation Detachment began during World War II as the first wave of U.S. Marines landed at Iwo Jima.

1976: President Gerald R. Ford, calling the issuing of the 1942 internment order for people of Japanese ancestry “a sad day in American history,” signed a proclamation formally confirming its termination.

2003: An Iranian military plane carrying members of the elite Revolutionary Guards crashed in southeastern Iran, killing all 275 people on board.

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

Today’s birthdays

Singer Smokey Robinson is 85. Rock musician Tony Iommi is 77. Author Amy Tan is 73. Actor Jeff Daniels is 70. Actor Ray Winstone is 68. Actor Leslie David Baker is 67. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is 66. inger Seal is 62.