April 19
April 19 is the 109th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (110th in leap years). There are 256 days remaining.
Events
- 1012 - Martyrdom of St Alphege in Greenwich, London.
- 1529 - At the Diet of Speyer a group of rulers (German: Fürst) and independent cities (German: Reichsstadt) protested the reinstatement of the Edict of Worms. This movement was later called Protestantism.
- 1539 - The Treaty of Frankfurt is signed.
- 1587 - Sir Francis Drake sinks the Spanish fleet in Cadiz Harbor.
- 1770 - Captain James Cook first spots Australia.
- 1775 - American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Lexington and Concord - British General Thomas Gage attempts to confiscate American colonists' firearms. The British are driven back to Boston, Massachusetts. The American Revolutionary War begins.
- 1809 - Battle of Raszyn happenned between armies of Austria (attackers) and Duchy of Warsaw (defenders) as a part of struggles of the Fifth Coalition (1809). Austrian army was defeated.
- 1810 - Venezuela achieves home rule: Emparan, Governor of the Captaincy General is removed by the people of Caracas and a Junta is installed.
- 1839 - The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom.
- 1861 - American Civil War: A pro-Secession mob in Baltimore, Maryland attacks United States Army troops marching through the city.
- 1892 - Charles Duryea claims to have driven the first automobile in the United States, in Springfield, Massachusetts.
- 1904 - Much of Toronto, Ontario, Canada is destroyed by fire.
- 1909 - Joan of Arc is declared a saint.
- 1919 - Leslie Irvin of the United States makes the first successful parachute jump and free fall.
- 1927 - Mae West is sentenced to 10 days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.
- 1928 - The final volume of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.
- 1933 - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt announces that the United States will be leaving the gold standard.
- 1934 - Shirley Temple debuts in Stand Up and Cheer.
- 1938 - RCA-NBC begins regular television broadcasts.
- 1943 - World War II: German troops enter the Warsaw ghetto to round up the remaining Jews, starting the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
- 1943 - Bicycle Day - Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann deliberately takes LSD for the first time.
- 1951 - General Douglas MacArthur retires from the military.
- 1956 - Actress Grace Kelly marries Rainier III of Monaco.
- 1960 - The students in South Korea made a nationwide pro-democracy protest against their president Syngman Rhee, which eventually made him to resign.
- 1961 - The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba ends in failure.
- 1964 - The Ford Mustang is introduced to the general public.
- 1971 - Sierra Leone becomes a republic.
- 1971 - Vietnam War: Vietnam Veterans Against the War begin a five-day demonstration in Washington, DC.
- 1971 - Charles Manson is sentenced to life in prison for the Sharon Tate murders.
- 1971 - Launch of Salyut 1, first human-made space station.
- 1978 - Lagumot Harris is elected President of Nauru.
- 1987 - The Simpsons make their first appearance on television, on The Tracey Ullman Show, in the short episode called "Good Night".
- 1989 - A gun turret explodes on the USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors.
- 1989 - Trisha Meili, the "Central Park Jogger" is raped.
- 1993 - The 50-day siege of the Branch Davidian complex outside Waco, Texas ends when a fire breaks out. Eighty-one people die.
- 1995 - Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma is bombed, killing 168.
- 1999 - The German Parliament returns to Berlin.
- 2000 - An Air Philippines Boeing 737-200 crashes nearby Davao airport killing 131.
Births
- 1320 - King Peter I of Portugal (d. 1367)
- 1721 - Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1793)
- 1721 - Thomas McKean, signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1817)
- 1772 - David Ricardo, economist (d. 1823)
- 1883 - Richard von Mises, mathematician (d. 1953)
- 1892 - Germaine Tailleferre, composer (d. 1983)
- 1897 - Constance Talmadge, actress (d. 1973)
- 1900 - Richard Hughes, novelist (d. 1976)
- 1903 - Eliot Ness (d. 1957)
- 1912 - Glenn Seaborg (d. 1999)
- 1928 - Alexis Korner, rock musician (d. 1984)
- 1930 - Dick Sargent, actor (d. 1994)
- 1933 - Jayne Mansfield, actress (d. 1967)
- 1933 - Dickie Bird, cricket umpire
- 1935 - Dudley Moore, actor, musician, comedian, composer (d. 2002)
- 1942 - Frank Elstner, television producer
- 1944 - Bernie Worrell, keyboardist (originally with P Funk)
- 1946 - Tim Curry, actor
- 1949 - Paloma Picasso, painter
- 1952 - Alexis Arguello, boxer
- 1953 - Ruby Wax, television personality
- 1962 - Al Unser, Jr., automobile racer, two-time Indianapolis 500 winner
- 1965 - Suge Knight, record producer
- 1968 - Ashley Judd, actress
- 1970 - Kelly Holmes, Olympian,double gold medalist
- 1979 - Kate Hudson, actress (Almost Famous, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days)
- 1981 - Hayden Christensen, actor
- 1987 - Maria Sharapova, tennis player
Deaths
- 1054 - Pope Leo IX (b. 1002)
- 1390 - King Robert II of Scotland (b. 1316)
- 1632 - Sigismund, king of Sweden and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (b. 1561)
- 1689 - Queen Christina of Sweden (b. 1626)
- 1813 - Benjamin Rush, physician, activist (b. 1745)
- 1824 - Lord Byron, author, poet (b. 1788)
- 1881 - Benjamin Disraeli, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1804)
- 1882 - Charles Darwin, biologist, author (b. 1809)
- 1906 - Pierre Curie, physicist (b. 1859)
- 1914 - Charles Sanders Peirce, pragmatic semiologist (b. 1839)
- 1930 - Georges-Casimir Dessaulles, Canadian Senator (b. 1827)
- 1937 - William Martin Conway, British art critic and mountaineer (b. 1856)
- 1949 - Ulrich Salchow, Swedish figure skater (b. 1877)
- 1958 - Robert Bentley, humorist, actor
- 1967 - Konrad Adenauer, former Bundeskanzler of West Germany (b. 1876)
- 1971 - Earl Thomson, Canadian athlete (b. 1895)
- 1974 - Ayub Khan, former President of Pakistan (b. 1907)
- 1975 - Percy L. Julian, chemist (b. 1899)
- 1987 - Maxwell Taylor, general (b. 1901)
- 1989 - Daphne du Maurier, author (b. 1907)
- 1992 - Frankie Howerd, comedian, actor (b. 1917)
- 1993 - David Koresh, cult leader (b. 1959)
- 1998 - Octavio Paz, writer, diplomat (b. 1914)
Holidays and observances
April 18 - April 20 - March 19 - May 19 -- listing of all days
