Monday, February 19 1674 - The signing of the treaty of Westminster ended the Anglo-Dutch war, under which the Dutch colony of New Netherland (including present-day New York and New Jersey) became British.

1797 - Pope Pius VI signed the treaty of Tolentino with Napoleon by which Bologna, Romagna and Ferrara were ceded to France.

1800 - Napoleon Bonaparte established himself as first consul in France.

1807 - Aaron Burr became the first vice president of the United States to be arrested; he was charged with treason for planning an expedition to invade Mexico.

1837 - Georg Buechner, German playwright and poet, died.

1878 - Thomas Edison patented his phonograph, securing patent No. 200,521.

1918 - In Russia, the Soviet Central Executive Committee issued a decree abolishing all private ownership of land, water and natural resources.

1942 - Japanese forces invaded Bali and made a first raid on the Australian mainland, bombing port Darwin.

1945 - The U.S. Fifth Fleet launched the invasion of Iwo Jima against the Japanese; the island was eventually taken on March 26 at the cost of 6,821 U.S. killed.

1951 - Andre Gide, French novelist, died; he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1947.

1952 - Norwegian author Knut Hamsun (Pedersen), died; he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1920 and was famed for his "Growth of the Soil" and "Hunger".

1959 - The prime ministers of Britain, Turkey and Greece signed an agreement in London for the independence of Cyprus.

1963 - The Soviet Union told the United States that it would withdraw several thousand troops from Cuba by March 15.

1976 - Iceland broke off diplomatic relations with Britain after the two countries failed to agree over fishing rights in disputed waters and launched the so-called "Cod Wars".

1997 - Chinese paramount leader Deng Xiaoping died at 93. He ruled China from 1978 until retiring from his last official post in 1990, but his influence remained supreme until his death.

1999 - Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr, a leading Iraqi Shi'ite Muslim cleric, and his two sons were assassinated.

2000 - President Hosni Mubarak made a landmark visit to Beirut to demonstrate Egypt's support in the face of Israel's threat that it would bomb more civilian targets in Lebanon.