December 19

## Events 
### Up to 1900 
*324 &ndash; Licinius abdicates his position as Roman Emperor.
*1154 &ndash; Henry II of England is crowned at Westminster Abbey.
*1187 &ndash; Pope Clement III is elected.
*1490 &ndash; Anne, Duchess of Brittany marries Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor by proxy.
*1666 &ndash; Lund University in southern Sweden is founded.
*1732 &ndash; Benjamin Franklin publishes ''Poor Richard's Almanack''
*1777 &ndash; George Washington's army goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
*1783 &ndash; At age 24, William Pitt the Younger becomes the youngest–ever Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
*1828 &ndash; John C. Calhoun pens *South Carolina Exposition and Protest*, protesting the Tariff of 1828.
*1835 &ndash; The *Toledo Blade* newspaper begins publishing.
*1842 &ndash; The United States recognizes the independence of Hawaii.

### 1901 &ndash; 2000 
*1907 &ndash; 239 coal miners die in a mine explosion in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania.
*1909 &ndash; The German football club Borussia Dortmund is founded.
*1912 &ndash; 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 &ndash; The Battle of Verdun ended during World War I.
*1920 &ndash; 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 &ndash; Indian activists Ashfaqulla Khan, Ram Prasad Bismil and Roshan Singh are executed by British colonial authorities.
*1928 &ndash; First autogiro flight in the United States.
*1932 &ndash; The BBC World Service begins broadcasting, as the BBC Empire Service.
*1941 &ndash; World War II: Limpet mines placed by Italian divers sink the HMS *Valiant* and HMS *Elizabeth* in Alexandria harbor.
*1944 &ndash; The Soviet Union completely occupies Estonia (Ruhnu island).
*1944 &ndash; French newspaper *Le Monde* is founded.
*1945 &ndash; 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 &ndash; Ho Chi Minh attacks French in Hanoi.
*1956 &ndash; 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 &ndash; The Indian Army invades the Portuguese province of Estado da India Portuguesa (Portuguese State of India) which will become part of India.
*1962 &ndash; Nyasaland secedes from Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
*1963 &ndash; Zanzibar received its independence from the United Kingdom to become a constitutional monarchy under the sultan.
*1964 &ndash; The South Vietnamese military junta of Nguyen Khanh dissolves the High National Council and arrest some of the members.
*1965 &ndash; 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 &ndash; Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt is declared dead, two days after going missing.
*1972 &ndash; Apollo 17, the last manned lunar flight, returns to Earth.
*1974 &ndash; The Altair 8800, the first personal computer, goes on sale.
*1975 &ndash; John Paul Stevens is appointed as a justice of the United States Supreme Court.
*1980 &ndash; Anguilla is made a dependency of the United Kingdom separate from Saint Kitts and Nevis.
*1982 &ndash; A tanker fire in Tacoa, Venezuela, kills 150 people.
*1983 &ndash; 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 &ndash; 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 &ndash; Ted Hughes becomes Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom.
*1986 &ndash; Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev releases Andrei Sakharov and his wife, Yelena Bonner, from exile in Gorky.
*1997 &ndash; A Silkair Boeing 737–300 crashes into the Musi River, in Sumatra, Indonesia killing 104
*1997 &ndash; *Titanic* (the highest–grossing movie ever as of 2005) opens in U.S. theaters.
*1998 &ndash; The U.S. House of Representatives passes articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton over the Lewinsky scandal.
*2000 &ndash; 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 &ndash; *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 &ndash; A new world–record high barometric pressure of 1085.6 hPa (32.06 inHg) is set at Tosontsengel, Hövsgöl Aymag, Mongolia.
*2001 &ndash; 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 &ndash; Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon suffers a minor stroke.
*2007 &ndash; Marcus Stephen becomes President of Nauru.
*2007 &ndash; Lee Myung-bak is elected President of South Korea.
*2011 &ndash; 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 &ndash; Park Geunhye is elected President of South Korea, as the first woman elected to lead South Korea.
*2016 &ndash; Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov is assassinated at an art gallery in Ankara by an off–duty police officer.
*2016 &ndash; A lorry is driven into a crowd at a Christmas market in central Berlin, killing at least 12 people.

## Births 
### Up to 1900 
*1343 &ndash; William I, Margrave of Meissen (d. 1407)
*1498 &ndash; Andreas Osiander, German theologian (d. 1552)
*1554 &ndash; Philip William, Prince of Orange (d. 1618)
*1587 &ndash; Dorothea Sophia, Abbess of Quedlinburg (d. 1645)
*1594 &ndash; Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden (d. 1632)
*1683 &ndash; King Philip V of Spain (d. 1746)
*1699 &ndash; William Bowyer, printer (d. 1777)
*1714 &ndash; John Winthrop, American astronomer (d. 1779)
*1753 &ndash; John Taylor Gilman, Governor of New Hampshire (d. 1828)
*1778 &ndash; Marie Thérèse of France (d. 1851)
*1784 &ndash; Marcus Morton, 16th and 18th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1864)
*1790 &ndash; William Parry, English admiral and polar explorer (d. 1855)
*1796 &ndash; Manuel Breton de los Herreros, Spanish playwright (d. 1873)
*1813 &ndash; Thomas Andrews, chemist (d. 1885)
*1815 &ndash; Edwin M. Stanton, American politician (d. 1869)
*1816 &ndash; Franz Sacher, Austrian confectioner (d. 1907)
*1817 &ndash; James J. Archer, American lawyer and general (d. 1864)
*1819 &ndash; James Spriggs Payne, 4th and 8th President of Liberia (d. 1882)
*1820 &ndash; Mary Ashton Livermore, women's rights activist (d. 1905)
*1838 &ndash; Ghedrub Gyatso, 11th Dalai Lama (d. 1856)
*1845 &ndash; Henri Joseph Perrotin, French astronomer (d. 1904)
*1852 &ndash; Albert Abraham Michelson, Prussian–born physicist (d. 1931)
*1854 &ndash; Marcel Brillouin, French physicist (d. 1948)
*1861 &ndash; Italo Svevo, Italian writer (d. 1928)
*1865 &ndash; Minnie Maddern Fiske, stage actress (d. 1932)
*1875 &ndash; Mileva Maric, Serbian–Swiss scientist, was married to Albert Einstein (d. 1948)
*1875 &ndash; Carter G. Woodson, American historian, author and journalist (d. 1950)
*1876 &ndash; Enrique Pla y Deniel, Archbishop of Toledo, Spain (d. 1968)
*1879 &ndash; Beals Wright, American tennis player (d. 1961)
*1882 &ndash; Walter Braunfels, German composer (d. 1954)
*1884 &ndash; Antonin Zapotocky, Czech politician (d. 1957)
*1885 &ndash; Joe "King" Oliver, jazz musician (d. 1938)
*1888 &ndash; Fritz Reiner, Hungarian conductor (d. 1963)
*1891 &ndash; Edward Raczynski, Polish diplomat and politician (d. 1993)
*1894 &ndash; Ford Frick, American commissioner of baseball (d. 1978)
*1899 &ndash; Martin Luther King, Sr., father of Martin Luther King, Jr. (d. 1984)
*1900 &ndash; Géza von Cziffra, movie director (d. 1989)

### 1901 &ndash; 1950 
*1901 &ndash; Rudolf Hell, German inventor (d. 2002)
*1902 &ndash; Ralph Richardson, English actor (d. 1983)
*1903 &ndash; George Davis Snell, American geneticist (d. 1996)
*1905 &ndash; Irving Kahn, American businessman (d. 2015)
*1906 &ndash; Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet politician (d. 1982)
*1910 &ndash; Jean Genet, French writer (d. 1986)
*1913 &ndash; Juan Landazuri Ricketts, Archbishop of Lima (d. 1997)
*1915 &ndash; Claudia Testoni, Italian athlete (d. 1998)
*1915 &ndash; Édith Piaf, French singer and actress (d. 1963)
*1916 &ndash; Manoel de Barros, Brazilian poet (d. 2014)
*1916 &ndash; Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, German publicist (d. 2010)
*1918 &ndash; Professor Longhair, American musician (d. 1980)
*1920 &ndash; Little Jimmy Dickens, American country music singer (d. 2015)
*1920 &ndash; Alexander McAllister, Scottish cricketer
*1920 &ndash; David Susskind, movie, stage, and television producer (d. 1987)
*1922 &ndash; Eamonn Andrews, Irish radio and television host (d. 1987)
*1923 &ndash; Gordon Jackson, Scottish movie, stage and television actor (d. 1990)
*1924 &ndash; Michel Tournier, French writer (d. 2016)
*1925 &ndash; Tankred Dorst, German dramatist (d. 2017)
*1925 &ndash; Robert B. Sherman, American songwriter (d. 2012)
*1925 &ndash; Rabah Bitat, President of Algeria (d. 2000)
*1926 &ndash; Fikret Otyam, Turkish painter and journalist (d. 2015)
*1927 &ndash; Remo Capitani, Italian actor (d. 2014)
*1929 &ndash; Lorenzo Buffon, Italian footballer
*1929 &ndash; Bob Brookmeyer, American musician (d. 2011)
*1930 &ndash; Georg Stollenwerk, German footballer (d. 2014)
*1932 &ndash; Thomas Hunter, American actor (d. 2017)
*1932 &ndash; Bernhard Vogel, German politician
*1933 &ndash; Cicely Tyson, American actress
*1934 &ndash; Rudi Carrell, Dutch entertainer (d. 2006)
*1934 &ndash; Al Kaline, American Baseball Hall of Famer
*1934 &ndash; Pratibha Patil, former President of India
*1935 &ndash; Bobby Timmons, American jazz pianist (d. 1974)
*1936 &ndash; Marian McKnight, American model
*1938 &ndash; Karel Svoboda, Czech composer (d. 2007)
*1940 &ndash; Phil Ochs, singer, songwriter (d. 1976)
*1941 &ndash; Maurice White, American musician (d. 2016)
*1941 &ndash; Lee Myung-bak, former President of South Korea
*1942 &ndash; Cornell Dupree, American musician (d. 2011)
*1943 &ndash; Sam Kelly, English actor (d. 2014)
*1944 &ndash; Richard Leakey, Kenyan anthropologist (d. 2022)
*1944 &ndash; Alvin Lee, British musician (d. 2013)
*1946 &ndash; Robert Urich, American actor (d. 2002)
*1947 &ndash; Jimmy Bain, Scottish musician (d. 2016)
*1949 &ndash; Jupp Kapellmann, German footballer
*1949 &ndash; Nasser Hejazi, Iranian footballer (d. 2011)
*1949 &ndash; Claudia Kolb, swimmer
*1949 &ndash; Carlos Gomes Junior, former Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau
*1950 &ndash; Walter Frosch, German footballer (d. 2013)

### 1951 &ndash; 1975 
*1951 &ndash; Mohammed Reza Aref, 2nd Vice President of Iran
*1952 &ndash; Walter Murphy, American songwriter and musician
*1955 &ndash; Rob Portman, American politician
*1956 &ndash; Jens Fink-Jensen, Danish writer
*1957 &ndash; Kevin McHale, American basketball player
*1957 &ndash; Cyril Collard, French actor, director and composer (d. 1993)
*1957 &ndash; Michael E. Fossum, American astronaut
*1957 &ndash; John Gulager, American actor, cinematographer and director
*1958 &ndash; José Aguilar, Cuban boxer (d. 2014)
*1959 &ndash; Ivan Vallejo, Ecuadorean footballer
*1960 &ndash; Mike Lookinland, actor
*1961 &ndash; Eric Allin Cornell, American physicist
*1961 &ndash; Reggie White, American football player (d. 2004)
*1963 &ndash; Til Schweiger, German actor
*1963 &ndash; Jennifer Beals, American actress
*1964 &ndash; Arvydas Sabonis, Lithuanian basketball player
*1964 &ndash; Béatrice Dalle, French actress
*1965 &ndash; Jessica Steen, Canadian actress
*1965 &ndash; Chito Martinez, Belizean baseball player
*1966 &ndash; Alberto Tomba, Italian skier
*1967 &ndash; Criss Angel, American illusionist
*1968 &ndash; Ken Marino, American actor and comedian
*1968 &ndash; Kristina Keneally, 42nd Premier of New South Wales
*1969 &ndash; Aziza Mustafa Zadeh, Azerbaijani composer, pianist and singer
*1969 &ndash; Kristy Swanson, American actress
*1969 &ndash; Richard Hammond, British television presenter
*1971 &ndash; Tiffany Towers, American actress
*1972 &ndash; Alyssa Milano, American actress
*1972 &ndash; Warren Sapp, American football player
*1974 &ndash; Jake Plummer, American football player
*1974 &ndash; Ricky Ponting, Australian cricketer

### From 1976 
*1978 &ndash; Patrick Casey, American screenwriter and actor
*1979 &ndash; Gareth Williams, Welsh rugby player
*1980 &ndash; Jake Gyllenhaal, American actor
*1980 &ndash; Billy O'Sullivan, American actor
*1980 &ndash; Marla Sokoloff, actress
*1982 &ndash; Tero Pitkamaki, Finnish javelin thrower
*1983 &ndash; Matt Stajan, Canadian ice hockey player
*1985 &ndash; Neil Kilkenny, Australian footballer
*1985 &ndash; Gary Cahill, English footballer
*1985 &ndash; Lady Sovereign, English musician
*1985 &ndash; Dan Logan, English bass player
*1986 &ndash; Ryan Babel, Dutch footballer
*1987 &ndash; Karim Benzema, French footballer
*1988 &ndash; Alexis Sanchez, Chilean footballer
*1989 &ndash; Yong Jun-hyung, South Korean singer, rapper and actor
*1991 &ndash; Declan Galbraith, English singer
*1991 &ndash; Edwin Jackson, American football player (d. 2018)
*1991 &ndash; Jorge Blanco, Mexican actor and singer
*1992 &ndash; Iker Muniain, Spanish footballer
*1993 &ndash; Leonardo Bittencourt, German footballer
*1994 &ndash; Michele Bravi, Italian singer
*1994 &ndash; Estelle Balet, Swiss snowboarder (d. 2016)
*1995 &ndash; Brandur Olsen, Faroese footballer
*1998 &ndash; Frans Jeppsson Wall, Swedish singer

## Deaths 
### Up to 1900 
*211 &ndash; Geta, Roman Emperor
*401 &ndash; Pope Anastasius I
*1075 &ndash; Edith of Wessex, queen of Edward the Confessor of England
*1111 &ndash; Al-Ghazali, Persian theologian and philosopher
*1123 &ndash; Saint Berardo, Italian bishop
*1327 &ndash; Agnes of France, Duchess of Burgundy
*1370 &ndash; Pope Urban V (b. 1310)
*1475 &ndash; Louis de Luxembourg, Count of Saint-Pol (b. 1418)
*1737 &ndash; James Sobieski, Crown Prince of Poland (b. 1667)
*1741 &ndash; Vitus Bering, Danish–born explorer (b. 1681)
*1745 &ndash; Jean-Baptiste van Loo, French painter (b. 1684)
*1749 &ndash; Francesco Antonio Bonporti, Italian priest and composer (b. 1672)
*1751 &ndash; Louise of Great Britain, queen of Frederick V of Denmark (b. 1724)
*1807 &ndash; Friedrich Melchior, baron von Grimm, German writer (b. 1723)
*1813 &ndash; James McGill, Scottish–Canadian businessman and philanthropist (b. 1744)
*1814 &ndash; Joseph Bramah, English inventor and locksmith (b. 1748)
*1819 &ndash; Sir Thomas Fremantle, English naval officer and politician (b. 1765)
*1848 &ndash; Emily Brontë, English writer (b. 1818)
*1851 &ndash; J. M. W. Turner, English painter (b. 1775)
*1859 &ndash; Mirabeau B. Lamar, American politician and President of Texas (b. 1798)
*1860 &ndash; Konstantin Aksakov, Russian writer (b. 1817)
*1899 &ndash; Henry Ware Lawton, American Civil War general (b. 1843)

### 1901 &ndash; 2000 
*1915 &ndash; Alois Alzheimer, German neuroscientist (b. 1864)
*1916 &ndash; Thibaw Min, King of Burma (b. 1859)
*1927 &ndash; Ashfaqulla Khan, Indian activist (b. 1900)
*1927 &ndash; Ram Prasad Bismil, Indian activist (b. 1897)
*1927 &ndash; Roshan Singh, Indian activist (b. 1892)
*1932 &ndash; Yoon Bong-Gil, Korean resister against Japanese occupation (executed) (b. 1908)
*1933 &ndash; George Jackson Churchward, English engineer (b. 1857)
*1939 &ndash; Hans Langsdorff, German naval officer (b. 1894)
*1944 &ndash; Abbas II of Egypt (b. 1874)
*1944 &ndash; Rudolph Karstadt, German entrepreneur (b. 1856)
*1946 &ndash; Paul Langevin, French physicist (b. 1872)
*1953 &ndash; Robert Millikan, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1868)
*1967 &ndash; Harold Holt, seventeenth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1908)
*1968 &ndash; Norman Thomas, American socialist (b. 1884)
*1976 &ndash; Giuseppe Caselli, Italian painter (b. 1893)
*1977 &ndash; Nellie Tayloe Ross, Governor of Wyoming (b. 1876)
*1982 &ndash; Dwight Macdonald, American philosopher, author and critic (b. 1906)
*1988 &ndash; Robert Bernstein, American author and playwright (b. 1919)
*1989 &ndash; Stella Gibbons, English writer (b. 1902)
*1993 &ndash; Michael Clarke, American drummer (b. 1946)
*1996 &ndash; Marcello Mastroianni, Italian actor (b. 1924)
*1997 &ndash; Masaru Ibuka, Japanese industrialist (b. 1908)
*1998 &ndash; Mel Fisher, American treasure hunter (b. 1922)
*1999 &ndash; Desmond Llewelyn, Welsh actor (b. 1914)
*2000 &ndash; Pops Staples, American singer (b. 1915)
*2000 &ndash; John Lindsay, 103rd Mayor of New York City (b. 1921)
*2000 &ndash; Rob Buck, American guitarist and songwriter (b. 1958)

### From 2001 
*2003 &ndash; Peter Carter-Ruck, British lawyer (b. 1914)
*2003 &ndash; Hope Lange, American actress (b. 1941)
*2004 &ndash; Herbert C. Brown, English–born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1912)
*2004 &ndash; Renata Tebaldi, Italian soprano (b. 1922)
*2008 &ndash; Carol Chomsky, American linguist and educator (b. 1930)
*2009 &ndash; Hossein-Ali Montazeri, Iranian cleric (b. 1922)
*2009 &ndash; Kim Peek, American megasavant, inspiration for the movie Rain Man (b. 1951)
*2012 &ndash; Peter Struck, German politician (b. 1943)
*2012 &ndash; Robert Bork, American judge and scholar (b. 1927)
*2013 &ndash; Herb Geller, American–German saxophonist and composer (b. 1928)
*2013 &ndash; Ned Vizzini, American writer (b. 1981)
*2014 &ndash; Igor Rodionov, Russian general and politician (b. 1936)
*2014 &ndash; Philip Bradbourn, English politician (b. 1951)
*2014 &ndash; Arthur Gardner, American movie and television producer (b. 1910)
*2015 &ndash; Jimmy Hill, English footballer and pundit (b. 1928)
*2015 &ndash; Kurt Masur, German conductor (b. 1927)
*2015 &ndash; Greville Janner, British politician (b. 1928)
*2015 &ndash; Karin Söder, Swedish politician (b. 1928)
*2015 &ndash; Dickie Moore, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1931)
*2015 &ndash; Selma Reis, Brazilian actress and singer (b. 1960)
*2016 &ndash; Andrei Karlov, Russian diplomat, Ambassador to Turkey (b. 1954)
*2017 &ndash; Lito Cruz, Argentine actor (b. 1941)
*2017 &ndash; Clifford Irving, American author (b. 1930)
*2017 &ndash; Hiep Thi Le, Vietnamese–American actress (b. 1971)
*2018 &ndash; Tömür Dawamat, Chinese Uighur politician; (b. 1927)
*2018 &ndash; Mel Hutchins, American basketball player; (b. 1928)
*2018 &ndash; Geetha Salam, Indian actor; (b. 1948)
*2019 &ndash; Ricardo de Aparici, Argentine lawyer and politician; (b. 1940)
*2019 &ndash; Francisco Brennand, Brazilian sculptor; (b. 1927)
*2019 &ndash; Jules Deelder, Dutch poet; (b. 1944)
*2019 &ndash; Jan de Laval, Swedish actor; (b. 1948)
*2019 &ndash; Ward Just, American journalist and writer; (b. 1935)
*2019 &ndash; George Metallinos, Greek priest; (b. 1940)
*2019 &ndash; Yoshio Mochizuki, Japanese politician; (b. 1947)
*2019 &ndash; Shahdon Winchester, Trinidadian footballer
*2019 &ndash; Alba Zaluar, Brazilian anthropologist; (b. 1942)

## Observances 
* Liberation Day (Goa)
* National Heroes and Heroines Day (Anguilla)