December 19


December 19 is the 353rd day of the year (354th in leap years) in the
Gregorian calendar. There are 12 days remaining.

Events

   * 1732 - Benjamin Franklin publishes Poor Richard's Almanack
   * 1777 - George Washington's army goes into winter quarters at Valley
     Forge, Pennsylvania
   * 1842 - United States recognizes the independence of Hawaii
   * 1928 - First autogiro flight in the United States
   * 1945 - Austria becomes a republic
   * 1946 - Ho Chi Minh attacks French in Hanoi
   * 1962 - Nyasaland secedes from Rhodesia and Nyasaland
   * 1972 - Apollo 17, the last manned lunar flight, returns to Earth.
   * 1974 - The Altair 8800, the first personal computer, goes on sale
   * 1978 - John Wayne Gacy is arrested for the killings of 33 boys and
     young men
   * 1980 - Anguilla is made a dependency of the United Kingdom separate
     from St. Kitt's
   * 1984 - Great Britain and China sign accord that will return Hong Kong
     to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.
   * 1998 - President Bill Clinton is impeached.

Births

   * 1813 - Thomas Andrews, chemist (+ 1885)
   * 1820 - Mary Ashton Livermore, suffragist, women's rights activits (+
     1905)
   * 1894 - Ford Frick, commissioner of baseball
   * 1900 - GŽza von Cziffra, film director (+ 1989)
   * 1901 - Rudolf Hell, inventor
   * 1906 - Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet politician (+ 1982)
   * 1910 - Jean Genet, novelist (+ 1986)
   * 1915 - Edith Piaf, singer, actress (+ 1963)
   * 1916 - Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, publicist
   * 1918 - Professor Longhair, musician
   * 1920 - David Sussking, movie, stage and television producer (+ 1987)
   * 1925 - Tankred Dorst, dramatist
   * 1933 - Cicely Tyson, actress
   * 1934 - Al Kaline, Baseball Hall of Famer
   * 1940 - Phil Ochs, singer, songwriter
   * 1941 - Maurice White, musician
   * 1944 - Richard Leakey, anthropologist
   * 1944 - Alvin Lee, musician
   * 1946 - Robert Urich, actor (+ 2000)
   * 1946 - Stan Smith, tennis player
   * 1949 - Claudia Kolb, swimming star

Deaths

   * 401 - St. Anastasius I, Pope
   * 1737 - James Sobieski, Crown Prince of Poland
   * 1848 - Emily Bronte, author
   * 1996 - Marcello Mastroianni, actor
   * 1999 - Desmond Llewelyn, actor

Holidays and observances

   * Feast of Saint Boniface