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This day in history

This day in history: 19 April

Events, births and deaths on this date, ordered by how many people look them up.

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Born on this day · Died on this day120 · 89

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Key facts

258 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 19 April.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
2021: The Ingenuity helicopter becomes the first aircraft to achieve flight on another planet.

Holidays and observances

Christian feast day: Ælfheah of Canterbury (Anglican, Catholic, Orthodox)

Christian feast day: April 19 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Christian feast day: Conrad of Ascoli

Christian feast day: Emma of Lesum

Christian feast day: Expeditus

Christian feast day: George of Antioch

Christian feast day: Olaus and Laurentius Petri (Lutheran)

Christian feast day: Pope Leo IX

Christian feast day: Ursmar

Events

2021The Ingenuity helicopter becomes the first aircraft to achieve flight on another planet.

2020A killing spree in Nova Scotia, Canada, leaves 22 people and the perpetrator dead, making it the deadliest rampage in the country's history.

2013Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is killed in a shootout with police. His brother Dzhokhar is later captured hiding in a boat inside a backyard in the suburb of Watertown.

2011Fidel Castro resigns as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba after holding the title since July 1961.

2008The Quito Ultratumba nightclub fire in Quito, Ecuador, kills 19 people and injures at least 24 more.

2005Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected to the papacy and becomes Pope Benedict XVI.

2001Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on STS-100 carrying the Canadarm2 to the International Space Station.

2000Air Philippines Flight 541 crashes in Samal, Davao del Norte, killing all 131 people on board.

1999The German Bundestag returns to Berlin.

1995Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, US, is bombed, killing 168 people including 19 children under the age of six.

1993The 51-day FBI siege of the Branch Davidian building in Waco, Texas, US, ends when a fire breaks out. Seventy-six Davidians, including 18 children under age 10, died in the fire.

1989A gun turret explodes on the USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors.

1985Two hundred ATF and FBI agents lay siege to the compound of the white supremacist survivalist group The Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord in Arkansas; the CSA surrenders two days later.

1976A violent F5 tornado strikes around Brownwood, Texas, injuring 11 people. Two people were thrown at least 1,000 yards (910 m) by the tornado and survived uninjured.

1975India's first satellite Aryabhata launched in orbit from Kapustin Yar, Russia.

1975South Vietnamese forces withdraw from the town of Xuan Loc in the last major battle of the Vietnam War.

1973The Portuguese Socialist Party is founded in the German town of Bad Münstereifel.

1971Charles Manson is sentenced to death (later commuted to life imprisonment) for conspiracy in the Tate–LaBianca murders.

1971Launch of Salyut 1, the first space station.

1971Sierra Leone becomes a republic, and Siaka Stevens the president.

1960Students in South Korea hold a nationwide pro-democracy protest against president Syngman Rhee, eventually forcing him to resign.

1956Actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco.

1943World War II: In German-occupied Poland, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins, after German troops enter the Warsaw Ghetto to round up the remaining Jews.

1942World War II: In German-occupied Poland, the Majdan-Tatarski ghetto is established, situated between the Lublin Ghetto and a Majdanek subcamp.

1936The Jaffa riots commence, initiating the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine.

1927Mae West is sentenced to ten days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.

1925Colo-Colo, the most successful and popular soccer football team in the South American nation of Chile, was founded at the El Llano Stadium in San Miguel, Santiago, by footballer David Arellano and some of his teammates who had also left the

1903The Kishinev pogrom in Kishinev (Bessarabia) begins, forcing tens of thousands of Jews to later seek refuge in Palestine and the Western world.

1861American Civil War: Baltimore riot of 1861: A pro-Secession mob in Baltimore attacks United States Army troops marching through the city.

1839The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom and guarantees its neutrality.

1818French physicist Augustin Fresnel signs his preliminary "Note on the Theory of Diffraction" (deposited on the following day). The document ends with what we now call the Fresnel integrals.

1810Venezuela achieves home rule: Vicente Emparán, Governor of the Captaincy General is removed by the people of Caracas and a junta is installed.

1809An Austrian corps is defeated by the forces of the Duchy of Warsaw in the Battle of Raszyn, part of the struggles of the Fifth Coalition. On the same day the Austrian main army is defeated by a First French Empire Corps led by Louis-Nicolas

1782John Adams secures Dutch recognition of the United States as an independent government. The house which he had purchased in The Hague becomes the first American embassy.

1775American Revolutionary War: Following the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the Siege of Boston begins with American militias blocking land access to the British-held city.

1775American Revolutionary War: The war begins during the Battles of Lexington and Concord with a victory of American minutemen and other militia over British forces, later referred to as the "shot heard round the world".

1770Captain James Cook, still holding the rank of lieutenant, sights the eastern coast of what is now Australia.

1770Marie Antoinette marries Louis XVI in a proxy wedding.

1713With no living male heirs, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to ensure that Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would be inheritable by a female; his daughter and successor, Maria Theresa, was not born

1677The French army captures the town of Cambrai held by Spanish troops.

Born on this day

2016The Rizzler, American internet personality

2007Ben Kindel, Canadian ice hockey player

2003Jackson Merrill, American baseball player

2002Loren Gray, American singer and internet personality

2001Dalton Knecht, American basketball player

2001PinkPantheress, British singer-songwriter and record producer

1999Sebastian Kris, Australian-NewZealand rugby league player

1991Kelly Olynyk, Canadian basketball player

1990Jackie Bradley Jr., American baseball player

1990Kim Chiu, Filipino actress, singer, and dancer

1989Simu Liu, Canadian actor

1987Joe Hart, English footballer

1987Maria Sharapova, Russian tennis player

1986Candace Parker, American basketball player

1983Joe Mauer, American baseball player

1982Ali Wong, American comedian and actress

1982Samuel C. Morrison, Jr., Liberian-American journalist, producer, and screenwriter

1981Hayden Christensen, Canadian actor

1981Lise Klaveness, Norwegian footballer and lawyer, president of the Norwegian Football Federation

1981Troy Polamalu, American football player

1979Kate Hudson, American actress

1978Amanda Sage, American-Austrian painter and educator

1978James Franco, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter

1976Michelle Feldman, American bowler

1975Jason Gillespie, Australian cricketer and coach

1974Madeleine Peyroux, American French jazz and blues singer-songwriter

1972Rivaldo Vitor Borba Ferreira, Brazilian footballer

1970Kelly Holmes, English athlete and double Olympic champion

1968Ashley Judd, American actress

1968Mswati III, King (Ngwenyama) of Eswatini (Swaziland)

1966Paul Reiffel, Australian cricketer and umpire

1966Véronique Gens, French soprano and actress

1965Suge Knight, American record executive

1960Frank Viola, American baseball player and coach

1960Gustavo Petro, Colombian politician, 34th and current President of Colombia

1957Mukesh Ambani, Indian businessman, chairman of Reliance Industries

1956Anne Glover, Scottish biologist and academic

1954Trevor Francis, English footballer and manager (died 2023)

1952Simon Cowell, English conservationist and author (died 2024)

1951Jóannes Eidesgaard, Faroese educator and politician, Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands

Died on this day

2026George Ariyoshi, American lawyer and politician, 3rd Governor of Hawaii (born 1926)

2024Daniel Dennett, American philosopher and author (born 1942)

2023Moonbin, South Korean singer and actor (born 1998)

2023Ron Hamilton, American musician (born 1950)

2022Kane Tanaka, Japanese supercentenarian (born 1903)

2021Jim Steinman, American composer, lyricist (born 1947)

2021Walter Mondale, American politician, 42nd Vice President of the United States (born 1928)

2020Ian Whitcomb, English singer-songwriter (born 1941)

2017Lu Chao-Hsuan, Taiwanese guitarist, performer and educator. (born 1929)

2016Patricio Aylwin, Chilean politician (born 1918)

2015Raymond Carr, English historian and academic (born 1919)

2015Roy Mason, English miner and politician, Secretary of State for Defence (born 1924)

2013Al Neuharth, American journalist, author, and publisher, founded USA Today (born 1924)

2013François Jacob, French biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1920)

2012Levon Helm, American musician and actor (born 1940)

2011Elisabeth Sladen, English actress (born 1946)

2009J. G. Ballard, English novelist, short story writer, and essayist (born 1930)

2007Jean-Pierre Cassel, French actor (born 1932)

2006Albert Scott Crossfield, American engineer, pilot, and astronaut (born 1921)

2004Jenny Pike, Canadian WWII servicewoman and photographer (born 1922)

2004John Maynard Smith, English biologist and geneticist (born 1920)

2004Norris McWhirter, English author and activist co-founded the Guinness World Records (born 1925)

2002Reginald Rose, American writer (born 1920)

2000Louis Applebaum, Canadian composer and conductor (born 1918)

1999Hermine Braunsteiner, Austrian-German SS officer (born 1919)

1998Octavio Paz, Mexican poet, philosopher, and academic Nobel Prize laureate (born 1914)

1993David Koresh, American cult leader (born 1959)

1993George S. Mickelson, American captain, lawyer, and politician, 28th Governor of South Dakota (born 1941)

1992Frankie Howerd, English actor and screenwriter (born 1917)

1991Stanley Hawes, English-Australian director and producer (born 1905)

Quote of the day

“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive, to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.”

Marcus Aurelius

Questions people ask

Where do the entries come from?

From Wikipedia’s on-this-day pages for this language, updated once a day and ordered by how often each article is read.

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