On this day: Kellogs | Cyprus independence | Mars Odyssey

HISTORICAL events from 19 February.

1797: Pope Pius VI, by Treaty of Tolentino, ceded the Romagna, Bologna and Ferrara to France, as Napoleon Bonaparte advanced through Tyrol to Vienna.

1807: British fleet forced way through Dardanelles to support Russia in war against Turkey.

1843: In the middle of a performance of Norma at the Royal Opera House, Madrid, the leading lady rushed off stage to give birth to a daughter, who grew up to become opera singer Adelina Patti. Her father was a Sicilian tenor.

1901: The Mercedes car, a 35 horsepower model, was named after Mercedes Jellinck, the daughter of a director of the Daimler Company.

1906: In the United States, William S Kellogg formed the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company to make the cereal he invented as therapy for mentally-ill patients.

1910: Manchester United played their first match on their new ground – Old Trafford. They were beaten 4-3 by Liverpool.

1916: National Savings were introduced in Britain.

1927: Chinese Nationalists extracted from Britain a reduction of concessions at Hankow and Kiukiang.

1945: Iwo Jima was invaded by United States Marines. The island was conquered on 16 March with the loss of 4,590 lives.

1957: Emergency Ward 10, the first continuous television series, began on ITV – it was shown twice-weekly for ten years.

1959: Agreement was signed in London by Greece, Turkey and Britain for independence of Cyprus.

1976: Iceland broke off diplomatic relations with Britain after the two failed to agree on limits in the “Cod War” fishing dispute.

1982: John de Lorean’s sports car firm went into receivership with an estimated loss of at least £17.8 million of taxpayers’ money.

1985: EastEnders began on BBC television.

1989: Norway banned the killing of seal pups for a year after British-Swedish documentary on its sealing methods.

1991: Snow fell on the Algerian Sahara Desert for the first time for 30 years.

1994: Four climbers died in a spate of accidents in the Highlands.

2002: Nasa’s Mars Odyssey space probe began to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.

2006: A methane explosion in a coal mine near Nueva Rosita, Mexico, killed 65 miners.

2010: Golfer Tiger Woods made a televised statement in which he apologised after admitting he had cheated on his wife.