19 February in Indian History

OV Digital Desk
6 Min Read

19 February in Indian history is celebrated, observed, and remembered for various reasons. Today is the birth anniversary of Shivaji Maharaj, Madhavrao Sadashivrao Golwalkar, Dharampal, Kasinadhuni Viswanath, and Altamas Kabir. Today, 19 February, is also observed as the death anniversary of Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Nirad Narayan Mohapatra.

Birth Anniversary

Today, 19 February, in Indian history is celebrated as the birth anniversary of the following personalities:

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj (19 February  1630 – April 3, 1680), Indian warrior-king. He was an Indian ruler and a part of the Bhonsle Maratha clan. Shivaji carved out an enclave from the declining Adilshahi sultanate of Bijapur that formed the genesis of the Maratha Empire. In 1674, he was formally crowned as the Chhatrapati (emperor) of his realm at Raigad. He was born on 19 February 1630.

Madhavrao Sadashivrao Golwalkar (19 February 1906 – 5 June 1973), second chief of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He has been widely noted to be the most prominent ideologue of Hindutva. He was known for his intellectual comments on Indian politics and religious aspects. He was born on19 February 1906.

Dharampal (19 February 1922 – 24 October 2006), an Indian Gandhian thinker. He authored The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century (1983), Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century (1971), and Civil Disobedience and Indian Tradition (1971). His work led to a radical reappraisal of conventional views of the cultural, scientific, and technological achievements of Indian society at the eve of the British conquest. He was born on 19 February 1922.


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Kasinadhuni Viswanath, an Indian audiographer turned film director, screenwriter, and actor known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema. In 1992, he received the Andhra Pradesh state Raghupathi Venkaiah Award, and the civilian honor Padma Shri for his contribution to the field of arts. He was awarded the 2017 Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest award in Indian cinema, at the 64th National Film Awards. He was born on 19 February 1930.

Altamas Kabir (19 July 1948 – 19 February 2017), an Indian lawyer and judge, who served as the 39th Chief Justice of India. During his tenure as a Supreme Court judge, Justice Kabir delivered several important judgments, particularly relating to human rights and election laws. One of the most important cases he presided over was that of Sandhya Manoj Wankhede of Amravati district in 2011. In this case, the Supreme Court bench, composed of Justices Kabir and Cyriac Joseph, ruled that female relatives of a husband can also be booked under the Domestic Violence Act. Kabir also presided over the contempt case against prominent advocate and the  Team Anna member Prashant Bhushan after he alleged that half out of the last 16 CJIs had been corrupt. He was born on 19 July 1948.


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Death Anniversary

Today, 19 February, in Indian history is remembered as death anniversary of following personalities:

Gopal Krishna Gokhale (9 May 1866 – 19 February 1915), an Indian liberal political leader and a social reformer during the Indian Independence Movement. Gokhale became a member of the Indian National Congress in 1889, as a protégé of social reformer Mahadev Govind Ranade. He also founded the Servants of India Society. Gokhale campaigned for Indian self-rule and for social reforms.

Nirad Narayan Mohapatra (12 November 1947 – 19 February 2015), an Indian film director. He directed the Oriya language film Maya Miriga, television soap operas, and documentaries.

Notable events on 19 February in Indian and World history

On 19 February 1878, Thomas Edison received a patent for a gramophone. It was called the phonograph. Technology that has made modern music available to the public. It was the first device to record and play sound. He was awarded U.S. Patent No. 200,521 for his invention—the phonograph—on February 19, 1878.

The Bombing of Darwin, also known as the Battle of Darwin, on 19 February 1942 was the largest single attack ever mounted by a foreign power on Australia. On that day, 242 Japanese aircraft, in two separate raids, attacked the town, ships in Darwin’s harbor, and the town’s two airfields in an attempt to prevent the Allies from using them as bases to contest the invasion of Timor and Java during World War II.

The Battle of Iwo Jima (19 February – 26 March 1945) was a major battle in which the United States Marine Corps and Navy landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) during World War II. Lying roughly halfway between American Army Airforce bases in the Mariana Islands and the Japanese islands, the military base on Iwo Jima gave the Japanese an ability to send early air raid warnings to the Japanese mainland and launch fighters from its airfields to intercept raids. 

19 February 1949 is also known for mass arrests of communists in India.

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