This Day That Year

February 19

in History

Battle of Lugdunum — Rome's bloodiest battle between its own armies
Lugdunum (Lyon), GaulClassical
197

Battle of Lugdunum

Rome's bloodiest battle between its own armies

Near the city of Lugdunum, modern-day Lyon, Emperor Septimius Severus clashed with the usurper Clodius Albinus in the bloodiest battle ever fought between Roman armies. Tens of thousands of soldiers fell on both sides before Severus emerged victorious. The defeat of Albinus secured Severus's grip on the empire but left a trail of devastation across Gaul, demonstrating the terrifying cost of Rome's internal power struggles.

197 AD
Kay Boyle Was Born — An expatriate voice of literary Paris
Saint Paul, Minnesota, United StatesEarly 20th Century
1902

Kay Boyle Was Born

An expatriate voice of literary Paris

Kay Boyle was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, a future novelist, short story writer, and educator who would become a leading figure in the American expatriate literary scene in Paris. Her fiction, noted for its lyrical prose and social consciousness, explored themes of love, politics, and displacement. Boyle's life was as adventurous as her writing, spanning decades of literary and political engagement on both sides of the Atlantic.

1902 AD
T-7 — China successfully launches the T-7, its first sounding rocket.
Late 20th Century
1960

T-7

China successfully launches the T-7, its first sounding rocket.

China successfully launches the T-7, its first sounding rocket.

1960 AD