December 19Birthdays & History

On this day: December 19 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 653Pope Martin I, having been abducted by Byzantine authorities from Rome for his opposition to Monothelitism, is tried in Constantinople.EuropeMiddle East
2. 1154Henry II of England is crowned at Westminster Abbey.Europe
3. 1187Pope Clement III is elected.Europe
4. 1490Anne, Duchess of Brittany, is married to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor by proxy.Europe
5. 1562The Battle of Dreux takes place during the French Wars of Religion.Europe
6. 1606The ships Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery depart England carrying settlers who founded, at Jamestown, Virginia, the first of the thirteen colonies that became the United States.EuropeNorth America
7. 1675The Great Swamp Fight, a pivotal battle in King Philip's War, gives the English settlers a bitterly won victory.Europe
8. 1688Glorious Revolution: Williamite forces defeat Jacobites at Battle of Reading, forcing James II to flee England.Europe
9. 1776Thomas Paine publishes one of a series of pamphlets in The Pennsylvania Journal entitled "The American Crisis".North America
10. 1777American Revolutionary War: George Washington's Continental Army goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.North America
11. 1783William Pitt the Younger becomes the youngest Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at 24.Europe
12. 1793War of the First Coalition: The Siege of Toulon ends when Napoleon's French artillery forces the British to abandon the city, securing southern France from invasion.Europe
13. 1796French Revolutionary Wars: Two British frigates under Commodore Horatio Nelson and two Spanish frigates under Commodore Don Jacobo Stuart engage in battle off the coast of Murcia.Europe
14. 1828Vice President of the United States John C. Calhoun sparks the Nullification Crisis when he anonymously publishes the South Carolina Exposition and Protest, protesting the Tariff of 1828.North America
15. 1900French parliament votes amnesty for all involved in scandalous army treason trial known as Dreyfus affair.Europe
16. 1900Hopetoun Blunder: The first Governor-General of Australia John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun, appoints Sir William Lyne premier of the new state of New South Wales, but he is unable to persuade other colonial politicians to join his government and is forced to resign.OceaniaEurope
17. 1907Two hundred thirty-nine coal miners die in the Darr Mine Disaster in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania.North America
18. 1912William Van Schaick, captain of the steamship General Slocum which caught fire and killed over one thousand people, is pardoned by U.S. President William Howard Taft after 3+1⁄2 years in Sing Sing prison.North America
19. 1920King Constantine I is restored as King of the Hellenes after the death of his son Alexander of Greece and a plebiscite.Europe
20. 1924German serial killer Fritz Haarmann is sentenced to death for a series of murders.Europe
21. 1924The last Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost is sold in London, England.Europe
22. 1927Three Indian revolutionaries, Ram Prasad Bismil, Roshan Singh and Ashfaqulla Khan, are executed by the British Raj for participation in the Kakori conspiracy.AsiaEurope
23. 1929The Indian National Congress promulgates the Purna Swaraj (the Declaration of the Independence of India).AsiaNorth America
24. 1932BBC World Service begins broadcasting as the BBC Empire Service.Europe
25. 1940Risto Ryti, the Prime Minister of Finland, is elected President of the Republic of Finland in a presidential election, which is exceptionally held by the 1937 electoral college.Europe
26. 1941World War II: Limpet mines placed by Italian divers heavily damage HMS Valiant and HMS Queen Elizabeth in Alexandria harbour.EuropeMiddle East
27. 1941World War II: Adolf Hitler appoints himself as head of the Oberkommando des Heeres.Europe
28. 1945John Amery, British Fascist, is executed at the age of 33 by the British Government for treason.Europe
29. 1946Start of the First Indochina War.Asia
30. 1956Irish-born physician John Bodkin Adams is arrested in connection with the suspicious deaths of more than 160 patients. Eventually he is convicted only of minor charges.Europe
31. 1961India annexes Daman and Diu, part of Portuguese India.AsiaEurope
32. 1967Harold Holt, the Prime Minister of Australia, is officially presumed dead.Oceania
33. 1972Apollo program: The last crewed lunar flight, Apollo 17, carrying Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Harrison Schmitt, returns to Earth.World
34. 1974Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as Vice President of the United States under President Gerald Ford under the provisions of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.North America
35. 1977The Ms 5.8 Bob–Tangol earthquake strikes Kerman Province in Iran, destroying villages and killing 665 people.Middle East
36. 1981Sixteen lives are lost when the Penlee lifeboat goes to the aid of the stricken coaster Union Star in heavy seas.Europe
37. 1983The original FIFA World Cup trophy, the Jules Rimet Trophy, is stolen from the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.Latin America
38. 1984The Sino-British Joint Declaration, stating that China would resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong and the United Kingdom would restore Hong Kong to China with effect from July 1, 1997, is signed in Beijing by Deng Xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher.EuropeAsia
39. 1985Aeroflot Flight 101/435 is hijacked to China by its first officer.Asia
40. 1986Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union, releases Andrei Sakharov and his wife from exile in Gorky.Europe
41. 1995The United States Government restores federal recognition to the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Native American tribe.North America
42. 1997SilkAir Flight 185 crashes into the Musi River, near Palembang in Indonesia, killing 104.Asia
43. 1998President Bill Clinton is impeached by the United States House of Representatives, becoming the second president of the United States to be impeached.North America
44. 1999Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-103, the third Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission.World
45. 2001Argentine economic crisis: December riots: Riots erupt in Buenos Aires, Argentina.Latin America
46. 2005A passenger train from Sucha Beskidzka to Żywiec in Poland loses its brakes while on a steep downhill part of the route. It is stopped in a controlled collision in Świnna by a train travelling in opposite direction. 2 drivers and 6 passengers are injured.Europe
47. 2005Chalk's Ocean Airways Flight 101 crashes into the Government Cut channel immediately after takeoff from Miami Seaplane Base, killing 20.North America
48. 2012Park Geun-hye is elected the first female president of South Korea.Asia
49. 2013Spacecraft Gaia is launched by the European Space Agency.Europe
50. 2016A vehicular attack in Berlin, Germany, kills 12 and injures 56 people at a Christmas market.Europe
51. 2016Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov is assassinated while at an art exhibition in Ankara. The assassin, Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş, is shot and killed by a Turkish guard.EuropeMiddle East

Source: Wikipedia "December 19" / CC BY-SA 4.0