Title: December 19 Content: == Events == === Up to 1900 === *324 – Licinius abdicates his position as Roman Emperor. *1154 - Henry II of England is crowned at Westminster Abbey. *1187 – Pope Clement III is elected. *1490 - Anne, Duchess of Brittany marries Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor by proxy. *1666 - Lund University in southern Sweden is founded. *1732 – Benjamin Franklin publishes Poor Richard's Almanack *1777 – George Washington's army goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. *1783 - At age 24, William Pitt the Younger becomes the youngest-ever Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. *1828 – John C. Calhoun pens South Carolina Exposition and Protest, protesting the Tariff of 1828. *1835 – The Toledo Blade newspaper begins publishing. *1842 – The United States recognizes the independence of Hawaii. === 1901 2000 === *1907 - 239 coal miners die in a mine explosion in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania. *1909 - The German football club Borussia Dortmund is founded. *1912 – William H. Van Schaick, captain of the steamship General Slocum which killed over 1,000 people was pardoned by President Taft after years in Sing Sing prison . *1916 – The Battle of Verdun ended during World War I. *1920 - King Constantine I of Greece is restored as King of the Hellenes after the death of his son, Alexander of Greece, and a vote. *1927 - Indian activists Ashfaqulla Khan, Ram Prasad Bismil and Roshan Singh are executed by British colonial authorities. *1928 – First autogiro flight in the United States. *1932 - The BBC World Service begins broadcasting, as the BBC Empire Service. *1941 - World War II: Limpet mines placed by Italian divers sink the HMS Valiant and HMS Elizabeth in Alexandria harbor. *1944 – The Soviet Union completely occupies Estonia (Ruhnu island). *1944 - French newspaper Le Monde is founded. *1945 – Austria becomes a republic for the second time, the first having been founded in 1918 and interrupted by the Austro-fascist dictatorship from 1934 onwards and the Nazi invasion of Austria in 1938. *1946 – Ho Chi Minh attacks French in Hanoi. *1956 - Irish-born physician John Bodkin Adams is arrested in connection with the suspicious deaths of over 160 patients. Eventually, he is only convicted of minor charges. *1961 – The Indian Army invades the Portuguese province of Estado da India Portuguesa (Portuguese State of India) which will become part of India. *1962 – Nyasaland secedes from Rhodesia and Nyasaland. *1963 – Zanzibar received its independence from the United Kingdom to become a constitutional monarchy under the sultan. *1964 - The South Vietnamese military junta of Nguyen Khanh dissolves the High National Council and arrest some of the members. *1965 – Prisoners Ronald Ryan and Peter Walker escape from HM Prison Pentridge, Melbourne. During the escape a guard is killed. Ryan would hang for his death, in 1967. *1967 – Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt is declared dead, two days after going missing. *1972 – Apollo 17, the last manned lunar flight, returns to Earth. *1974 – The Altair 8800, the first personal computer, goes on sale. *1975 - John Paul Stevens is appointed as a justice of the United States Supreme Court. *1980 – Anguilla is made a dependency of the United Kingdom separate from Saint Kitts and Nevis. *1982 - A tanker fire in Tacoa, Venezuela, kills 150 people. *1983 - The Jules Rimet FIFA World Cup trophy is stolen from the Headquarters of the Brazilian Football Federation in Rio de Janeiro and is never seen again. *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 - Ted Hughes becomes Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom. *1986 - Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev releases Andrei Sakharov and his wife, Yelena Bonner, from exile in Gorky. *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. *1998 – The U.S. House of Representatives passes articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton over the Lewinsky scandal. *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. === From 2001 === *2001 – The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the first movie in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, opens in theaters. *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 bursts into street riots after the announcement by the economy minister of the measures of holding back the bank deposits. *2005 – Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon suffers a minor stroke. *2007 – Marcus Stephen becomes President of Nauru. *2007 - Lee Myung-bak is elected President of South Korea. *2011 – North Korean state television announces that Kim Jong-il died two days earlier. His son Kim Jong-un has been named as his successor, as North Korea's leader. *2012 - Park Geunhye is elected President of South Korea, as the first woman elected to lead South Korea. *2016 - Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov is assassinated at an art gallery in Ankara by an off-duty police officer. *2016 - A lorry is driven into a crowd at a Christmas market in central Berlin, killing at least 12 people. == Births == === Up to 1900 === *1343 - William I, Margrave of Meissen (d. 1407) *1498 - Andreas Osiander, German theologian (d. 1552) *1554 - Philip William, Prince of Orange (d. 1618) *1587 - Dorothea Sophia, Abbess of Quedlinburg (d. 1645) *1594 - Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden (d. 1632) *1683 – King Philip V of Spain (d. 1746) *1699 – William Bowyer, printer (d. 1777) *1714 - John Winthrop, American astronomer (d. 1779) *1753 - John Taylor Gilman, Governor of New Hampshire (d. 1828) *1778 - Marie Thérèse of France (d. 1851) *1784 - Marcus Morton, 16th and 18th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1864) *1790 - William Parry, English admiral and polar explorer (d. 1855) *1796 - Manuel Breton de los Herreros, Spanish playwright (d. 1873) *1813 – Thomas Andrews, chemist (d. 1885) *1815 - Edwin M. Stanton, American politician (d. 1869) *1816 - Franz Sacher, Austrian confectioner (d. 1907) *1817 - James J. Archer, American lawyer and general (d. 1864) *1819 – James Spriggs Payne, 4th and 8th President of Liberia (d. 1882) *1820 – Mary Ashton Livermore, women's rights activist (d. 1905) *1838 - Ghedrub Gyatso, 11th Dalai Lama (d. 1856) *1845 - Henri Joseph Perrotin, French astronomer (d. 1904) *1852 – Albert Abraham Michelson, Prussian-born physicist (d. 1931) *1854 - Marcel Brillouin, French physicist (d. 1948) *1861 – Italo Svevo, Italian writer (d. 1928) *1865 – Minnie Maddern Fiske, stage actress (d. 1932) *1875 – Mileva Maric, Serbian-Swiss scientist, was married to Albert Einstein (d. 1948) *1875 - Carter G. Woodson, American historian, author and journalist (d. 1950) *1876 - Enrique Pla y Deniel, Archbishop of Toledo, Spain (d. 1968) *1879 - Beals Wright, American tennis player (d. 1961) *1882 - Walter Braunfels, German composer (d. 1954) *1884 - Antonin Zapotocky, Czech politician (d. 1957) *1885 – Joe "King" Oliver, jazz musician (d. 1938) *1888 – Fritz Reiner, Hungarian conductor (d. 1963) *1891 – Edward Raczynski, Polish diplomat and politician (d. 1993) *1894 – Ford Frick, American commissioner of baseball (d. 1978) *1899 - Martin Luther King, Sr., father of Martin Luther King, Jr. (d. 1984) *1900 – Géza von Cziffra, movie director (d. 1989) === 1901 1950 === *1901 – Rudolf Hell, German inventor (d. 2002) *1902 - Ralph Richardson, English actor (d. 1983) *1903 – George Davis Snell, American geneticist (d. 1996) *1905 - Irving Kahn, American businessman (d. 2015) *1906 – Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet politician (d. 1982) *1910 – Jean Genet, French writer (d. 1986) *1913 - Juan Landazuri Ricketts, Archbishop of Lima (d. 1997) *1915 - Claudia Testoni, Italian athlete (d. 1998) *1915 – Édith Piaf, French singer and actress (d. 1963) *1916 - Manoel de Barros, Brazilian poet (d. 2014) *1916 – Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, German publicist (d. 2010) *1918 – Professor Longhair, American musician (d. 1980) *1920 - Little Jimmy Dickens, American country music singer (d. 2015) *1920 - Alexander McAllister, Scottish cricketer *1920 – David Susskind, movie, stage, and television producer (d. 1987) *1922 - Eamonn Andrews, Irish radio and television host (d. 1987) *1923 – Gordon Jackson, Scottish movie, stage and television actor (d. 1990) *1924 - Michel Tournier, French writer (d. 2016) *1925 – Tankred Dorst, German dramatist (d. 2017) *1925 - Robert B. Sherman, American songwriter (d. 2012) *1925 - Rabah Bitat, President of Algeria (d. 2000) *1926 - Fikret Otyam, Turkish painter and journalist (d. 2015) *1927 - Remo Capitani, Italian actor (d. 2014) *1929 - Lorenzo Buffon, Italian footballer *1929 – Bob Brookmeyer, American musician (d. 2011) *1930 - Georg Stollenwerk, German footballer (d. 2014) *1932 - Thomas Hunter, American actor (d. 2017) *1932 - Bernhard Vogel, German politician *1933 – Cicely Tyson, American actress *1934 – Rudi Carrell, Dutch entertainer (d. 2006) *1934 – Al Kaline, American Baseball Hall of Famer *1934 – Pratibha Patil, former President of India *1935 – Bobby Timmons, American jazz pianist (d. 1974) *1936 - Marian McKnight, American model *1938 – Karel Svoboda, Czech composer (d. 2007) *1940 – Phil Ochs, singer, songwriter (d. 1976) *1941 – Maurice White, American musician (d. 2016) *1941 – Lee Myung-bak, former President of South Korea *1942 – Cornell Dupree, American musician (d. 2011) *1943 - Sam Kelly, English actor (d. 2014) *1944 – Richard Leakey, Kenyan anthropologist (d. 2022) *1944 – Alvin Lee, British musician (d. 2013) *1946 – Robert Urich, American actor (d. 2002) *1947 - Jimmy Bain, Scottish musician (d. 2016) *1949 – Jupp Kapellmann, German footballer *1949 – Nasser Hejazi, Iranian footballer (d. 2011) *1949 – Claudia Kolb, swimmer *1949 - Carlos Gomes Junior, former Prime Minister of Guinea- Bissau *1950 - Walter Frosch, German footballer (d. 2013) === 1951 1975 === *1951 - Mohammed Reza Aref, 2nd Vice President of Iran *1952 - Walter Murphy, American songwriter and musician *1955 - Rob Portman, American politician *1956 – Jens Fink-Jensen, Danish writer *1957 – Kevin McHale, American basketball player *1957 - Cyril Collard, French actor, director and composer (d. 1993) *1957 - Michael E. Fossum, American astronaut *1957 - John Gulager, American actor, cinematographer and director *1958 - José Aguilar, Cuban boxer (d. 2014) *1959 - Ivan Vallejo, Ecuadorean footballer *1960 – Mike Lookinland, actor *1961 - Eric Allin Cornell, American physicist *1961 – Reggie White, American football player (d. 2004) *1963 - Til Schweiger, German actor *1963 - Jennifer Beals, American actress *1964 – Arvydas Sabonis, Lithuanian basketball player *1964 - Béatrice Dalle, French actress *1965 - Jessica Steen, Canadian actress *1965 – Chito Martinez, Belizean baseball player *1966 - Alberto Tomba, Italian skier *1967 – Criss Angel, American illusionist *1968 - Ken Marino, American actor and comedian *1968 - Kristina Keneally, 42nd Premier of New South Wales *1969 – Aziza Mustafa Zadeh, Azerbaijani composer, pianist and singer *1969 – Kristy Swanson, American actress *1969 – Richard Hammond, British television presenter *1971 – Tiffany Towers, American actress *1972 – Alyssa Milano, American actress *1972 – Warren Sapp, American football player *1974 – Jake Plummer, American football player *1974 – Ricky Ponting, Australian cricketer === From 1976 === *1978 - Patrick Casey, American screenwriter and actor *1979 – Gareth Williams, Welsh rugby player *1980 – Jake Gyllenhaal, American actor *1980 - Billy O'Sullivan, American actor *1980 – Marla Sokoloff, actress *1982 - Tero Pitkamaki, Finnish javelin thrower *1983 – Matt Stajan, Canadian ice hockey player *1985 - Neil Kilkenny, Australian footballer *1985 – Gary Cahill, English footballer *1985 – Lady Sovereign, English musician *1985 - Dan Logan, English bass player *1986 – Ryan Babel, Dutch footballer *1987 – Karim Benzema, French footballer *1988 – Alexis Sanchez, Chilean footballer *1989 - Yong Jun-hyung, South Korean singer, rapper and actor *1991 – Declan Galbraith, English singer *1991 - Edwin Jackson, American football player (d. 2018) *1991 - Jorge Blanco, Mexican actor and singer *1992 - Iker Muniain, Spanish footballer *1993 - Leonardo Bittencourt, German footballer *1994 - Michele Bravi, Italian singer *1994 - Estelle Balet, Swiss snowboarder (d. 2016) *1995 - Brandur Olsen, Faroese footballer *1998 - Frans Jeppsson Wall, Swedish singer == Deaths == === Up to 1900 === *211 - Geta, Roman Emperor *401 – Pope Anastasius I *1075 – Edith of Wessex, queen of Edward the Confessor of England *1111 - Al-Ghazali, Persian theologian and philosopher *1123 - Saint Berardo, Italian bishop *1327 – Agnes of France, Duchess of Burgundy *1370 – Pope Urban V (b. 1310) *1475 - Louis de Luxembourg, Count of Saint-Pol (b. 1418) *1737 – James Sobieski, Crown Prince of Poland (b. 1667) *1741 – Vitus Bering, Danish-born explorer (b. 1681) *1745 – Jean-Baptiste van Loo, French painter (b. 1684) *1749 – Francesco Antonio Bonporti, Italian priest and composer (b. 1672) *1751 – Louise of Great Britain, queen of Frederick V of Denmark (b. 1724) *1807 – Friedrich Melchior, baron von Grimm, German writer (b. 1723) *1813 - James McGill, Scottish-Canadian businessman and philanthropist (b. 1744) *1814 - Joseph Bramah, English inventor and locksmith (b. 1748) *1819 – Sir Thomas Fremantle, English naval officer and politician (b. 1765) *1848 – Emily Brontë, English writer (b. 1818) *1851 – J. M. W. Turner, English painter (b. 1775) *1859 - Mirabeau B. Lamar, American politician and President of Texas (b. 1798) *1860 - Konstantin Aksakov, Russian writer (b. 1817) *1899 - Henry Ware Lawton, American Civil War general (b. 1843) === 1901 2000 === *1915 – Alois Alzheimer, German neuroscientist (b. 1864) *1916 - Thibaw Min, King of Burma (b. 1859) *1927 - Ashfaqulla Khan, Indian activist (b. 1900) *1927 - Ram Prasad Bismil, Indian activist (b. 1897) *1927 - Roshan Singh, Indian activist (b. 1892) *1932 – Yoon Bong-Gil, Korean resister against Japanese occupation (executed) (b. 1908) *1933 - George Jackson Churchward, English engineer (b. 1857) *1939 – Hans Langsdorff, German naval officer (b. 1894) *1944 - Abbas II of Egypt (b. 1874) *1944 - Rudolph Karstadt, German entrepreneur (b. 1856) *1946 - Paul Langevin, French physicist (b. 1872) *1953 – Robert Millikan, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1868) *1967 – Harold Holt, seventeenth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1908) *1968 – Norman Thomas, American socialist (b. 1884) *1976 – Giuseppe Caselli, Italian painter (b. 1893) *1977 – Nellie Tayloe Ross, Governor of Wyoming (b. 1876) *1982 - Dwight Macdonald, American philosopher, author and critic (b. 1906) *1988 - Robert Bernstein, American author and playwright (b. 1919) *1989 – Stella Gibbons, English writer (b. 1902) *1993 - Michael Clarke, American drummer (b. 1946) *1996 – Marcello Mastroianni, Italian actor (b. 1924) *1997 - Masaru Ibuka, Japanese industrialist (b. 1908) *1998 - Mel Fisher, American treasure hunter (b. 1922) *1999 – Desmond Llewelyn, Welsh actor (b. 1914) *2000 - Pops Staples, American singer (b. 1915) *2000 - John Lindsay, 103rd Mayor of New York City (b. 1921) *2000 - Rob Buck, American guitarist and songwriter (b. 1958) === From 2001 === *2003 – Peter Carter-Ruck, British lawyer (b. 1914) *2003 – Hope Lange, American actress (b. 1941) *2004 – Herbert C. Brown, English-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1912) *2004 – Renata Tebaldi, Italian soprano (b. 1922) *2008 - Carol Chomsky, American linguist and educator (b. 1930) *2009 – Hossein-Ali Montazeri, Iranian cleric (b. 1922) *2009 – Kim Peek, American megasavant, inspiration for the movie Rain Man (b. 1951) *2012 - Peter Struck, German politician (b. 1943) *2012 - Robert Bork, American judge and scholar (b. 1927) *2013 - Herb Geller, American-German saxophonist and composer (b. 1928) *2013 - Ned Vizzini, American writer (b. 1981) *2014 - Igor Rodionov, Russian general and politician (b. 1936) *2014 - Philip Bradbourn, English politician (b. 1951) *2014 - Arthur Gardner, American movie and television producer (b. 1910) *2015 - Jimmy Hill, English footballer and pundit (b. 1928) *2015 - Kurt Masur, German conductor (b. 1927) *2015 - Greville Janner, British politician (b. 1928) *2015 - Karin Söder, Swedish politician (b. 1928) *2015 - Dickie Moore, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1931) *2015 - Selma Reis, Brazilian actress and singer (b. 1960) *2016 - Andrei Karlov, Russian diplomat, Ambassador to Turkey (b. 1954) *2017 - Lito Cruz, Argentine actor (b. 1941) *2017 - Clifford Irving, American author (b. 1930) *2017 - Hiep Thi Le, Vietnamese-American actress (b. 1971) *2018 - Tömür Dawamat, Chinese Uighur politician; b. '27 *2018 - Mel Hutchins, American basketball player; b. '28 *2018 - Geetha Salam, Indian actor; b. '48 *Twenty- nineteen **Ricardo de Aparici, Argentine lawyer and politician; b. '40 **Francisco Brennand, Brazilian sculptor; b. '27 **Jules Deelder, Dutch poet; b. '44 **Jan de Laval, Swedish actor; b. '48 **Ward Just, American journalist and writer; b. '35 **George Metallinos, Greek priest; b. '40 **Yoshio Mochizuki, Japanese politician; b. '47 **Shahdon Winchester, Trinidadian footballer **Alba Zaluar, Brazilian anthropologist; b. '42 == Observances == * Liberation Day (Goa) * National Heroes and Heroines Day (Anguilla) Category:Days of the year