1 Esfand 1379 | Monday 19 February 2001

This day in four calendars

1937 (89 years ago) Yekatit 12: During a public ceremony at the Viceregal Palace (the former Imperial residence) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, two Ethiopian nationalists of Eritrean origin attempt to kill viceroy Rodolfo Graziani with a number of grenades.
1942 (84 years ago) World War II: Nearly 250 Japanese warplanes attack the northern Australian city of Darwin, killing 243 people.
1943 (83 years ago) World War II: Battle of Kasserine Pass in Tunisia begins.
1959 (67 years ago) The United Kingdom grants Cyprus independence, which is formally proclaimed on August 16, 1960.
1978 (48 years ago) Egyptian forces raid Larnaca International Airport in an attempt to intervene in a hijacking, without authorisation from the Republic of Cyprus authorities. The Cypriot National Guard and Police forces kill 15 Egyptian commandos and destroy the Egyptian C-130 transport plane in open combat.
1986 (40 years ago) Akkaraipattu massacre: the Sri Lankan Army massacres 80 Tamil farm workers in eastern Sri Lanka.
1989 (37 years ago) Flying Tiger Line Flight 066 crashes into a hill near Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Malaysia, killing four.
2011 (15 years ago) The debut exhibition of the Belitung shipwreck, containing the largest collection of Tang dynasty artifacts found in one location, begins in Singapore.

1473 (553 years ago) Nicolaus Copernicus, Prussian mathematician and astronomer (died 1543)
1859 (167 years ago) Svante Arrhenius, Swedish physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1927)
1896 (130 years ago) André Breton, French poet and author (died 1966)
1940 (86 years ago) Saparmyrat Nyýazow, Turkmen engineer and politician, 1st President of Turkmenistan (died 2006)
1941 (85 years ago) David Gross, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1953 (73 years ago) Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Argentine lawyer and politician, President of Argentina and Vice President of Argentina
1964 (62 years ago) Jennifer Doudna, American biochemist
2004 (22 years ago) Millie Bobby Brown, English actress, model and producer

1897 (129 years ago) Karl Weierstrass, German mathematician and academic (born 1815)
1916 (110 years ago) Ernst Mach, Austrian-Czech physicist and philosopher (born 1838)
1951 (75 years ago) André Gide, French novelist, essayist, and dramatist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1869)
1952 (74 years ago) Knut Hamsun, Norwegian novelist, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1859)
1997 (29 years ago) Deng Xiaoping, Chinese politician, paramount leader and 1st Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China (born 1904)
2016 (10 years ago) Umberto Eco, Italian novelist, literary critic, and philosopher (born 1932)
2016 (10 years ago) Harper Lee, American author (born 1926)
2019 (7 years ago) Karl Lagerfeld, German fashion designer (born 1933)