December 19

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, Hovsgol 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 Therese 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 - Geza 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 - Edith 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 - Jose 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 - Beatrice 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 Bronte, 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 Soder, 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 - Tomur 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)
Days of the year