February 19: Fat Thursday (2009) * 1594 – King Sigismund III Vasa of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was crowned King of Sweden, succeeding his father John III. * 1811 – Peninsular War: An outnumbered French force under Édouard Mortier routed and nearly destroyed the Spanish at the Battle of the Gebora near Badajoz, Spain. * 1819 – English explorer William Smith sighted Livingston Island in the South Shetland archipelago, a group of Antarctic islands about more than 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) south of the Falkland Islands. * 1942 – World War II: In the largest attacks mounted by a foreign power against Australia, more than 240 bombers and fighters of the Imperial Japanese Navy bombed Darwin, Northern Territory. * 1986 – The space station Mir of the Soviet space program