Today in History – December 19 in History
What happened on this day in history – December 19 in History around the world
1154 | Henry II is crowned king of England. | |
1562 | The French Wars of Religion between the Huguenots and the Catholics begins with the Battle of Dreux. | |
1793 | French troops recapture Toulon from the British. | |
1862 | Confederate General Nathan B. Forrest begins tearing up the railroads in Union generals Grant and Rosecrans rear, causing considerable delays in the movement of Union supplies. | |
1900 | The French Parliament votes amnesty for everyone involved in the Dreyfus Affair. | |
1909 | American socialist women denounce suffrage as a movement of the middle class. | |
1941 | Japanese land on Hong Kong and clash with British troops. | |
1941 | Adolf Hitler assumes the position of commander in chief of the German army. | |
1942 | The British advance 40 miles into Burma in a drive to oust the Japanese from the colony. | |
1944 | During the Battle of the Bulge, American troops begin pulling back from the twin Belgian cities of Krinkelt and Rocherath in front of the advancing German Army. | |
1945 | Congress confirms Eleanor Roosevelt as U.S. delegate to the United Nations. | |
1950 | The North Atlantic Council names General Dwight D. Eisenhower as supreme commander of Western European defense forces. | |
1959 | Reputed to be the last civil war veteran, Walter Williams, dies at 117 in Houston. | |
1974 | Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as vice president of the United states after a House of Representatives vote. | |
1982 | Four bombs explode at South Africa’s only nuclear power station in Johannesburg. | |
1984 | British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang sign an agreement that committed Britain to return Hong Kong to China in 1997 in return for terms guaranteeing a 50-year extension of its capitalist system. Hong Kong was leased by China to Great Britain in 1898 for 99 years. | |
1998 | President Bill Clinton is impeached. The House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment against President Clinton, charging him with lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice. Clinton was the second president in American history to be impeached. | |
2001 | The highest barometric pressure ever recorded (1085.6 hPa, 32.06 inHg) occurs at Tosontsengel, Khovsgol, Mongolia. | |
2001 | Rioting begins in Buenos Aires, Argentina, during the country’s economic crisis. | |
2012 | Park Geun-hye elected President of South Korea, the nation’s first female chief executive. | |
Born on December 19 | ||
1683 | Philip V, the first Bourbon King of Spain. | |
1820 | Mary Ashton Livermore, a temperance worker, women’s rights activist, lecturer, and writer. Founded her own suffrage paper, the Agitator, in 1869. | |
1906 | Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet General Secretary of the Communist party and President of the Supreme Soviet from 1964 until 1982. | |
1915 | Edith Piaf, internationally famous French cabaret singer, best remembered for her songs “La Vie en rose” and “Non, je ne regrette rein.” | |
1933 | Cicely Tyson, actress, best remembered for her role in The Autobiography of Ms. Jane Pittman. | |
1940 | Phil Ochs, singer, songwriter, producer; best known for his protest songs of the 1960s. | |
1941 | Maurice White, singer, songwriter, musician, producer; founder of the band Earth, Wind & Fire; member of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Songwriters Hall of Fame and Vocal Group Hall of Fame. | |
1943 | US Marine Corps four-star general James L. Jones Jr.; Supreme Allied Commander in Europe (2003–2006); Commandant of the Marine Corps (1999–2003); National Security Advisor (2009–2010). |