1. On February 19, 1789, the Maryland State House in Annapolis became the nation's capital as the Continental Congress met there for the first time. This came after a temporary relocation from New York City due to ongoing construction of the new federal capital in Washington D.C.

2. In 1807, the Chesapeake Bay incident occurred on February 19th, when the British warship HMS Leopard fired on the U.S.S. Chesapeake, causing injuries and sparking tensions between the two nations. This event contributed to the build-up to the War of 1812.

3. The Maryland State Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution was founded on February 19, 1896, in Baltimore, becoming the first State Society to receive a charter from the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

4. On February 19, 1968, Baltimore-born astronaut Major Robert H. Lawrence Jr. was selected by the Air Force for the Manned Orbiting Laboratory Program, making him the first African American astronaut in history. Unfortunately, his life was tragically cut short in a plane crash two years later.

5. In 1993, on February 19, Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court Justice and a Maryland native, was honored with a statue outside the Maryland State House in Annapolis. The statue depicts Marshall as a civil rights lawyer, pointing to a schoolhouse, representing his work on the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case.