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

   * 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.
   * 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
   * 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 the first regular television broadcasts
   * 1943 - World War II: German troops enter the Warsaw ghetto to round up
     the remaining Jews, starting the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
   * 1946 - The League of Nations dissolves itself transferring its powers
     to the United Nations.
   * 1951 - General Douglas MacArthur retires from the military
   * 1956 - Actress Grace Kelly marries Rainier III of Monaco
   * 1961 - The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba ends in failure
   * 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.
   * 1987 - The Simpsons make their first appearance on television, on the
     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.

Births

   * 1320 - King Peter I of Portugal
   * 1721 - Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence (+
     1793)
   * 1721 - Thomas McKean, signer of the Declaration of Independence (+
     1817)
   * 1883 - Richard von Mises, mathematician (+ 1953)
   * 1892 - Germaine Tailleferre, composer (+ 1983)
   * 1897 - Constance Talmadge, actress (+ 1973)
   * 1900 - Richard Hughes, novelist (+ 1976)
   * 1903 - Eliot Ness (+ 1957)
   * 1912 - Glenn Seaborg (+ 1999)
   * 1927 - Erma Bombeck, humorist (+ 1996)
   * 1928 - Alexis Korner, rock musician (+ 1984)
   * 1930 - Dick Sargent, actor (+ 1994)
   * 1933 - Jayne Mansfield, actress (+ 1967)
   * 1933 - Dickie Bird, cricket umpire
   * 1935 - Dudley Moore, actor, musician, comedian, composer (+ 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
   * 1965 - Suge Knight, record producer
   * 1968 - Ashley Judd, actress
   * 1979 - Kate Hudson, actress
   * 1981 - Hayden Christensen, actor

Deaths

   * 1054 - Pope Leo IX
   * 1390 - King Robert II of Scotland
   * 1689 - Queen Christina of Sweden
   * 1813 - Benjamin Rush, physician, activist
   * 1824 - Lord Byron, author, poet
   * 1881 - Benjamin Disraeli, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
   * 1882 - Charles Darwin, biologist, author
   * 1906 - Pierre Curie, physicist
   * 1919 - Emiliano Zapata, revolutionary
   * 1930 - Georges-Casimir Dessaulles, Canadian Senator, dies at 102
   * 1958 - Robert Bentley, humorist, actor
   * 1967 - Konrad Adenauer, former Bundeskanzler of West Germany
   * 1975 - Percy L. Julian, chemist (* 1899)
   * 1980 - Alfred Hitchcock, director
   * 1987 - Maxwell Taylor, general
   * 1989 - Daphne du Maurier, author
   * 1992 - Frankie Howerd, comedian, actor
   * 1993 - David Koresh, cult leader

   * 1998 - Octavio Paz, writer, diplomat
   * 2002 - Layne Staley, musician ("Alice in Chains")

Holidays and Observances

   * Patriot's Day (Massachusetts)
   * Declaration of Independence Day (Venezuela)
   * Republic Day (Sierra Leone)
   * Landing of the 33 (Uruguay)
   * Primrose Day (England)
   * The Roman holiday of Cerealia ends. (Roman Empire)