On this day in History - Dec. 19

• 0324 - Licinius abdicates his position as Roman Emperor.
• 0401 - St. Anastasius I dies. Pope (309-401).
• 1075 - Edith of Wessex dies. Queen of Edward the Confessor of England
• 1154 - Henrique II is crowned King of England.
• 1187 - Pope Clement III elected
• 1327 - Agnes of France dies. Duchess of Burgundy
• 1370 - Pope Urban V dies (b. 1310)
• 1554 - Philip William, Prince of Orange was born (d. 1618)
• 1606 - The Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery depart England carrying settlers who, at Jamestown, Virginia, would found the first of the thirteen colonies that became the United States.
• 1683 - King Philip V of Spain was born (d. 1746)
• 1699 - William Bowyer was born (d. 1777). English printer.
• 1714 - John Winthrop was born (d. 1779).American astronomer.
• 1732 - Benjamin Franklin under the name of Richard Saunders began publishing Poor Richard's Almanac.
• 1737 - James Sobieski dies (b. 1667). Crown Prince of Poland.
• 1741 - Vitus Bering dies (b. 1681). Danish-born explorer.
• 1745 - Jean-Baptiste van Loo dies (b. 1684). French painter.
• 1749 - Francesco Antonio Bonporti dies (b. 1672). Italian priest and composer
• 1751 - Louise of Great Britain dies (b. 1724). Queen of Frederick V of Denmark
• 1776 -Thomas Paine published his first American Crisis essay, in which he wrote, "These are the times hat try men's souls."
• 1777 - George Washington's army goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
• 1778 - Princess Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte was born (d. 1851). Eldest child of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI
• 1790 - William Edward Parry was born at Bath, England (d. 1885). British naval officer, explorer.
• 1795 - 1st state appropriation of money for road building, Kentucky.
• 1807 - Friedrich Melchior, baron von Grimm dies (b. 1723). German writer.
• 1813 - Thomas Andrews was born (d. 1885). Irish chemist.
• 1813 - James McGill dies (b. 1744). Scottish-Canadian businessman and philanthropist
• 1817 - James Archer was born. Confederate general
• 1819 - Sir Thomas Fremantle dies (b. 1765). English naval officer and politician.
• 1828 - Nullification Crisis: Vice President of the United States John C. Calhoun pens the South Carolina Exposition and Protest, protesting the Tariff of 1828.
• 1831 - Bernice Pauahi Bishop was born. Hawaiian lady
• 1835 - The first issue of The Blade newspaper is published in Toledo, Ohio.
• 1842 - United States recognizes the independence of Hawaii
• 1843 - Charles Dickens published "A Christmas Carol" .
• 1848 - Emily Brontë dies (b. 1818). English author.
• 1852 - Albert Abraham Michelson was born (d. 1931). German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1853 - Charles Fitzpatrick was born (d. 1942). Canadian politician, lieutenant-governor of Quebec.
• 1861 - The Battle of Black Water took place.
• 1865 - Minnie Maddern Fiske was born (d. 1932). American actress.
• 1885 - Joe "King" Oliver was born (d. 1938). American musician.
• 1888 - Fritz Reiner was born (d. 1963). Hungarian conductor.
• 1894 - Ford Frick was born (d. 1978). American baseball commissioner.
• 1894 - Isoya Yoshuda was born in Tokyo (d. 1974). Japanese architect
• 1897 - El presidente estadounidense, William MacKinley, anuncia la intervención de su país en la guerra de Cuba contra España.
• 1901 - Vitorino Nemésio was born in Praia da Vitória, Terceira Island, Azores [d. 20 Feb 1978]. Portuguese teacher and writer.
• 1901 - Rudolf Hell was born (d. 2002). German inventor.
• 1902 - Sir Ralph Richardson was born (d. 1983). British actor
• 1903 - George Davis Snell was born (d. 1996). American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• 1906 - Leonid Brezhnev was born (d. 1982). Political leader - 1st Secretary of USSR (1964-82)
• 1907 - Gas explosion at Jacobs Creek Pa, coal mine kills 239.
• 1907 - Jimmy McLarnin was born (d. 2004). Irish boxer, Welterweight Champion.
• 1910 - Edward Douglass White is sworn in as the 9th Chief Justice of the United States.
• 1910 - Jean Genet was born (d. 1986). French playwright.
• 1912 - William H. Van Schaick, captain of the steamship General Slocum, that killed over 1,000 people on June 15, 1904, the worst disaster in New York City before 9/11, was pardoned after 3 1/2 years in Sing Sing prison by President Taft.
• 1915 - Edith Piaf (Edith Giovanna Gassion) was born (d. 1963). Cabaret singer, actress.
• 1915 - Alois Alzheimer dies at 51. German neurologist (Alzheimer Disease)
• 1916 - The Battle of Verdun ended. On the Western Front, the French Army successfully holds off the German Army and drives it back to its starting position.
• 1918 - Professor Longhair was born (d. 1980). American musician.
• 1920 - King Constantine I restored as King of the Hellenes after the death of his son Alexander I of Greece and a plebescite.
• 1920 - David Susskind was born (d. 1987). American TV talk show host.
• 1923 - Gordon Jackson was born (d. 1990). Scottish actor.
• 1924 - Alexandre O'Neil was born (d.1986). Portuguese poet.
• 1924 - Edmund Purdom was born. English actor.
• 1924 - Doug Harvey was born (d. 1989). National Hockey League defenceman.
• 1925 - Robert B. Sherman was born. American songwriter.
• 1925 - Tankred Dorst was born. German dramatist.
• 1927 - James Booth was born. English actor and writer.
• 1929 - Bob Brookmeyer was born. American musician.
• 1929 - Howard Sackler was born (d. 1982). American screenwriter.
• 1932 - Yoon Bong-Gil dies executed (b. 1908). Korean resister against Japanese occupation.
• 1933 - Cicely Tyson was born. American actress.
• 1934 - Al Kaline was born. Baseball player.
• 1934 - Rudi Carrell was born. Dutch singer
• 1935 - Barbara Bostock was born. American actress
• 1935 - Bobby Timmons was born (d. 1974). American jazz pianist.
• 1938 - Stephen Warfield Gambrill dies (b. 1873). U.S. Congressman for Maryland's 5th District.
• 1939 - Hans Langsdorff dies (b. 1894). German naval officer.
• 1940 - Tomás Carrasquilla dies. Colombian writer.
• 1940 - Phil Ochs was born (d. 1976). American singer and songwriter.
• 1941 - Maurice White was born. American musician
• 1941 - II Guerra Mundial, Hitler takes complete command of German Army
• 1943 - Military coup in Bolivia.
• 1943 - Ross M. Lence was born (d. 2006). American political scientist.
• 1944 - Mitchell Feigenbaum was born. American mathematical physicist
• 1944 - Zal Yanovsky was born. Canadian guitarist (The Lovin' Spoonful)
• 1944 - William Christie was born. American-born director of Les Arts Florissants
• 1944 - Alvin Lee was born. English musician (Ten Years After)
• 1944 - Richard Leakey was born. Kenyan paleoanthropologist, conservationist, and government official.
• 1944 - Khedive Abbas II of Egypt dies (b. 1874).
• 1944 - Rudolph Karstadt dies (b. 1856). German entrepreneur.
• 1945 - Austria becomes a republic for the second time, the first having been interupted by the Nazi invasion of Austria in the mid 1930s.
• 1946 - Ho Chi Minh attacks French in Hanoi
• 1946 - Stan Smith was born. American tennis player.
• 1946 - Robert Urich was born (d. 2002). American actor.
• 1946 - Paul Langevin dies (b. 1872). French physicist.
• 1949 - Sebastian was born. Danish musician
• 1950 - Gen Eisenhower named NATO commander.
• 1950 - Tibet's Dalai Lama flees Chinese invasion.
• 1953 - Robert Millikan dies (b. 1868). American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate in 1923.
• 1956 - Tom Lawless was born. Baseball player.
• 1957 - Kevin McHale was born. American basketball player
• 1957 - John Gulager was born. American film director
• 1957 - Cyril Collard was born (d. 1993). French film director.
• 1958 - Limahl, British singer (Kajagoogoo)
• 1960 - Mike Lookinland was born. American actor
• 1961 - Eric Allin Cornell was born. American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1961 - Matthew Waterhouse was born. British actor
• 1961 - Reggie White was born (d. 2004). American football player.
• 1961 - British government begins decimal coin system
• 1961 - India annexes Daman and Diu, part of Portuguese India.
• 1961 - Indonesian President Sukarno proclaims general mobilization
• 1962 - Nyasaland secedes from Rhodesia and Nyasaland
• 1963 - Zanzibar received its independence from the United Kingdom to become a constitutional monarchy under the sultan.
• 1963 - Jennifer Beals was born. American actress
• 1964 - Arvydas Sabonis was born in Kaunas, Lithuania. Basketball player.
• 1965 - Prisoners Ronald Ryan and Peter Walker escape from Pentridge Prison, Melbourne. During the escape a guard, George Hodson, is killed. Ryan would hang for his death in 1967.
• 1965 - French, Charles de Gaulle is re-elected presidente (Mitterrand gets 45%).
• 1965 - Chito Martinez was born. Belizean baseball player.
• 1966 - Eric Weinrich was born. American ice hockey player.
• 1966 - Alberto Tomba was born. Italian skyer.
• 1967 - Harold Holt is officially presumed dead (b. 1908). Seventeenth Prime Minister of Australia
• 1967 - Criss Angel was born. American illusionist and escapist.
• 1968 - Norman Thomas dies (b. 1884). American socialist.
• 1969 - Ugandan premier Apollo Milton Obote is shot in the head by a gunman.
• 1969 - Kristy Swanson was born. American actress.
• 1969 - Richard Hammond was born. British television presenter
• 1970 - Tyson Beckford was born. American model
• 1971 - Amy Locane was born. American actress
• 1971 - Tiffany Towers was born. Canadian actress.
• 1972 - Alyssa Milano was born in Brooklin, NY. American actress (see wallpaper)
• 1972 - Warren Sapp was born. American football player.
• 1972 - Apollo 17, the last manned lunar flight, returns to Earth.
• 1973 - Grenada adopts constitution
• 1973 - Zulfiya Zabirova was born. Russian cyclist
• 1974 - The Altair 8800, the first personal computer, goes on sale
• 1974 - Jake Plummer was born. American football player
• 1974 - Ricky Ponting was born. Australian cricketer
• 1975 - A bomb explodes in the centre of Dundalk, Ireland, killing two people.
• 1975 - Olivier Tebily was born. Ivory Coast football player.
• 1977 - Maria Joana Parizotto was born. Miss Universe-Brazil (1996).
• 1977 - Jorge Garbajosa was born. Spanish basketball player
• 1978 - John Wayne Gacy is arrested for the killings of 33 boys and young men
• 1979 - Kramer vs. Kramer opens in theaters, starring Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep.
• 1980 - Anguilla is made a dependency of the United Kingdom separate from St. Kitt's
• 1980 - Marla Sokoloff was born. American actress (Full House, The Practice)
• 1980 - Jake Gyllenhaal was born. American actor
• 1981 - Sixteen lives are lost when the Penlee lifeboat goes to the aid of the stricken coaster Union Star in heavy seas.
• 1982 - South Africa's only nuclear power plant, Koeberg, is bombed by the MK (Umkhonto we Sizwe, the Spear of the Nation) causing extensive damage.
• 1982 - In Venezuela, the storage tanks of an oil-fired power plant catches fire killing 154 people.
• 1984 - The United Kingdom and People's Republic of China sign the Sino-British Joint Declaration, which handed Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.
• 1984 - Britain and China signed an accord returning Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty on July 1, 1997.
• 1986 - USSR frees dissident Andrei Sakharov from internal exile
• 1987 - Gari Kasparov becomes world chess champion.
• 1988 - Lawn darts are banned from sale in the United States.
• 1988 - Paulina Gretzky was born. American model, daughter of Wayne Gretzky
• 1989 - Stella Gibbons was born (d. 1902). English author.
• 1989 - Paraná Clube (Brazil) is formed with the fusion of Esporte Club Pinheiros and Colorado Esporte Clube
• 1990 - Fútbol, Emilio Butragueño se convierte en el máximo goleador de la historia de la selección española, con 26 tantos (goals)
• 1990 - Megan Jones was born. Australian equestrian
• 1990 - Rubem Braga dies (b. 1913). Brazilian writer.
• 1990 - Xavier Benguerel ( Daniel Rovira) dies. Spanish writer dies
• 1991 - Boris Yeltsin takes control of Kremlin
• 1991 - Joe Cole (roadie) dies (b. 1961). Actor, author and film-maker.
• 1993 - Michael Clarke dies (b. 1946). American drummer (The Byrds).
• 1994 - Fernanda de Castro dies. Portuguese writer and poet.
• 1996 - Marcello Mastroianni dies (b. 1924). Italian actor.
• 1997 - El Gobierno irlandés libera a nueve presos del IRA, en un gesto de gracia del Gobierno de Dublín. Este indulto colectivo se interpreta como una muestra de apoyo al proceso de paz.
• 1997 - A Silkair Boeing 737-300 crashes into the Musi River, in Sumatra, Indonesia killing 104
• 1997 - Titanic (the highest-grossing movie ever as of 2005) opens in U.S. theaters.
• 1997 - Masaru Ibuka dies (b. 1908). Japanese industrialist (Sony)
• 1997 - Jimmy Rogers dies (b. 1924). American blues guitarist.
• 1998 - President Bill Clinton impeached on two counts by the House of Representatives.
• 1998 - The U.S. House of Representatives pass articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton over the Lewinsky scandal.
• 1999 - Desmond Llewelyn dies (b. 1914). Welsh actor.
• 2000 - The Leninist Guerrilla Units attack a party office of the far-right MHP in Istanbul, Turkey. One MHP member is killed and several wounded.
• 2000 - Milt Hinton dies (b. 1910). American jazz double bassist.
• 2000 - Pops Staples dies (b. 1915). American singer (The Staple Singers).
• 2001 - A new world-record high barometric pressure of 1085.6 hPa (32.06 inHg) is set at Tosontsengel, Hövsgöl Aymag, Mongolia.
• 2001 - The Argentine economic crisis burst into street riots after the announcement by the economy minister of the measures of holding back the bank deposits.
• 2001 - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is the first Lord of the Rings movie to open in theaters.
• 2001 - Marcel Mule dies (b. 1901). French saxophonist.
• 2003 - Muammar al-Qaddafi of Libya announced that his country would discontinue development of weapons of mass destruction.
• 2003 - Hope Lange dies (b. 1941). American actress.
• 2003 - Peter Carter-Ruck dies (b. 1914). British lawyer.
  2004 - Herbert C. Brown dies (b. 1912). English-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 2004 - Renata Tebaldi dies (b. 1922). Italian soprano.
• 2005 - Vincent Gigante dies (b. 1927). American mafioso.
• Roman festivals - Opalia
• R.C. Saints – O Radix