January 19

January 19 in recent years

2024 (Friday)

2023 (Thursday)

2022 (Wednesday)

2021 (Tuesday)

2020 (Sunday)

2019 (Saturday)

2018 (Friday)

2017 (Thursday)

2016 (Tuesday)

2015 (Monday)

January 19 is the 19th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 346 days remain until the end of the year (347 in leap years).

Events

• 379 – Emperor Gratian elevates Flavius Theodosius at Sirmium to Augustus, and gives him power over all the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire.
• 1419 – Hundred Years' War: Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England completing his reconquest of Normandy.
• 1511 – Mirandola surrenders to the French.
• 1520 – Sten Sture the Younger, the Regent of Sweden, is mortally wounded at the Battle of Bogesund.
• 1607 – San Agustin Church in Manila is officially completed; it is the oldest church still standing in the Philippines.
• 1661 – Thomas Venner is hanged, drawn and quartered in London.
• 1764 – John Wilkes is expelled from the British House of Commons for seditious libel.
• 1788 – The second group of ships of the First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay.
• 1795 – The Batavian Republic is proclaimed in the Netherlands bringing to an end the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands.
• 1806 – The United Kingdom occupies the Cape of Good Hope.
• 1812 – Peninsular War: After a ten day siege, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, orders British soldiers of the Light and third divisions to storm Ciudad Rodrigo.
• 1817 – An army of 5,423 soldiers, led by General José de San Martín, crosses the Andes from Argentina to liberate Chile and then Peru.
• 1829 – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust Part 1 receives its premiere performance.
• 1839 – The British East India Company captures Aden.
• 1840 – Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigates Antarctica, claiming what became known as Wilkes Land for the United States.
• 1853 – Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore receives its premiere performance in Rome.
• 1861 – American Civil War: Georgia joins South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama in seceding from the United States.
• 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Mill Springs – The Confederacy suffers its first significant defeat in the conflict.
• 1871 – Franco-Prussian War: In the Siege of Paris, Prussia wins the Battle of St. Quentin. Meanwhile, the French attempt to break the siege in the Battle of Buzenval will end unsuccessfully the following day.
• 1883 – The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey.
• 1893 – Henrik Ibsen's play The Master Builder receives its premiere performance in Berlin.
• 1899 – Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is formed.
• 1915 – Georges Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.
• 1915 – World War I: German zeppelins bomb the towns of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in the United Kingdom killing more than 20, in the first major aerial bombardment of a civilian target.
• 1917 – Silvertown explosion: 73 are killed and 400 injured in an explosion in a munitions plant in London.
• 1920 – The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.
• 1935 – Coopers Inc. sells the world's first briefs.
• 1937 – Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles, California to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes, 25 seconds.
• 1942 – World War II: Japanese forces invade Burma
• 1945 – World War II: Soviet forces liberate the Łódź ghetto. Out more than 200,000 inhabitants in 1940, less than 900 had survived the Nazi occupation.
• 1946 – General Douglas MacArthur establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo to try Japanese war criminals.
• 1949 – Cuba recognizes Israel.
• 1953 – 68% of all television sets in the United States are tuned in to I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.
• 1960 – Japan and the United States sign the US-Japan Mutual Security Treaty
• 1969 – Student Jan Palach dies after setting himself on fire 3 days earlier in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968. His funeral turned into another major protest.
• 1975 – An earthquake strikes Himachal Pradesh, India
• 1977 – President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino (a.k.a. "Tokyo Rose").
• 1977 – Snow falls in Miami, Florida. This is the only time in the history of the city that snow has fallen. It also fell in the Bahamas.
• 1978 – The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW's plant in Emden. Beetle production in Latin America continues until 2003.
• 1981 – Iran Hostage Crisis: United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity.
• 1983 – Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia.
• 1983 – The Apple Lisa, the first commercial personal computer from Apple Inc. to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, is announced.
• 1986 – The first computer virus is released into the wild. A boot sector virus dubbed (c)Brain, it was created by the Farooq Alvi Brothers in Lahore, Pakistan, reportedly to deter piracy of the software they had written.
• 1991 – Gulf War: Iraq fires a second Scud missile into Israel, causing 15 injuries.
• 1993 – Czech Republic and Slovakia join the United Nations.
• 1996 – The barge North Cape oil spill occurs as an engine fire forces the tugboat Scandia ashore on Moonstone Beach in South Kingstown, Rhode Island.
• 1997 – Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron after more than 30 years and joins celebrations over the handover of the last Israeli-controlled West Bank city.
• 1999 – British Aerospace agrees to acquire the defence subsidiary of the General Electric Company plc, forming BAE Systems in November 1999.
• 2006 – A Slovak Air Force Antonov An-24 crashes in Hungary.
• 2006 – The New Horizons probe is launched by NASA on the first mission to Pluto.
• 2007 – Turkish Journalist Hrant Dink is assassinated in front of his newspaper's office by 17 year old Turkish ultra-nationalist Ogün Samast.

Births

• 399 – Pulcheria, Byzantine empress (d. 453)
• 1544 – King Francis II of France (d. 1560)
• 1736 – James Watt, Scottish inventor (d. 1819)
• 1739 – Joseph Bonomi the Elder, Italian architect (d. 1808)
• 1752 – James Morris III, American army officer (d. 1820)
• 1757 – Augusta Reuss-Ebersdorf, German Princess (d. 1831)
• 1798 – Auguste Comte, French philosopher (d. 1857)
• 1807 – Robert E. Lee, American Confederate general (d. 1870)
• 1808 – Lysander Spooner, American philosopher (d. 1887)
• 1809 – Edgar Allan Poe, American writer and poet (d. 1849)
• 1813 – Sir Henry Bessemer, English inventor (d. 1898)
• 1832 – Ferdinand Laub, Czech violinist (d. 1875)
• 1833 – Alfred Clebsch, German mathematician (d. 1872)
• 1839 – Paul Cézanne, French painter (d. 1906)
• 1848 – John F. Stairs, Canadian businessman (d. 1904)
• 1848 – Matthew Webb, English swimmer/diver (d. 1883)
• 1851 – Jacobus Kapteyn, Dutch astronomer (d. 1922)
• 1863 – Werner Sombart, German sociologist (d. 1941)
• 1871 – Dame Gruev, Bulgarian revolutionary (d. 1906)
• 1874 – Hitachiyama Taniemon, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 19th Yokozuna (d. 1922)
• 1876 – Wakashima Gonshirō, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 21st Yokozuna (d. 1943)
• 1876 – Dragotin Kette, Slovenian poet (d. 1899)
• 1878 – Herbert Chapman, English football player and manager (d. 1934)
• 1879 – Boris Savinkov, Russian writer (d. 1925)
• 1887 – Alexander Woollcott, American intellectual (d. 1943)
• 1889 – Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Swiss painter and sculptor (d. 1943)
• 1892 – Ólafur Thors, Icelandic politician (d. 1964)
• 1893 – Magda Tagliaferro, Brazilian classical pianist (d. 1986)
• 1905 – Stanley Hawes, British-born Australian film producer, director and administrator (d. 1991)
• 1908 – Aleksandr Gennadievich Kurosh, Russian mathematician (d. 1971)
• 1909 – Hans Hotter, German bass-baritone (d. 2003)
• 1911 – Choor Singh, Singaporean judge (d. 2009)
• 1912 – Leonid Kantorovich, Russian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986)
• 1913 – Rex Ingamells, Australian poet (d. 1955)
• 1914 – Bob Gerard, British racing driver (d. 1990)
• 1917 – John Raitt, American singer and actor (d. 2005)
• 1918 – John H. Johnson, American publisher (d. 2005)
• 1920 – Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Peruvian United Nations Secretary General
• 1921 – Patricia Highsmith, American author (d. 1995)
• 1922 – Guy Madison, American actor (d. 1996)
• 1923 – Jean Stapleton, American actress
• 1923 – Markus Wolf, German spy (d. 2006)
• 1924 – Nicholas Colasanto, American actor (d. 1985)
• 1924 – Jean-François Revel, French author (d. 2006)
• 1925 – Nina Bawden, English author
• 1926 – Fritz Weaver, American actor
• 1930 – Tippi Hedren, American actress
• 1931 – Robert MacNeil, Canadian journalist
• 1932 – Richard Lester, British director
• 1932 – Russ Hamilton, British singer (d. 2008)
• 1933 – George Coyne, American theologian
• 1934 – Lloyd Robertson, Canadian journalist
• 1935 – Soumitra Chatterjee, Indian actor
• 1935 – Johnny O'Keefe, Australian singer (d. 1978)
• 1936 – Ziaur Rahman, Seventh President of Bangladesh (d. 1981)
• 1937 – John Lions, Australian computer scientist (d. 1998)
• 1937 – Giovanna Marini, Italian singer-songwriter
• 1939 – Phil Everly, American musician
• 1940 – Paolo Borsellino, Italian magistrate (d. 1992)
• 1940 – Mike Reid, English comedian (d. 2007)
• 1941 – Tony Anholt, British actor (d. 2002)
• 1941 – Colin Gunton, British theologian (d. 2003)
• 1941 – Pat Patterson, Canadian wrestler
• 1942 – Michael Crawford, British singer and actor
• 1942 – Thom Mayne, American Architect
• 1943 – Petchara Chaowarat, Thai film actress
• 1943 – Janis Joplin, American singer (d. 1970)
• 1943 – Princess Margriet of the Netherlands
• 1944 – Shelley Fabares, American actress
• 1944 – Laurie London, English singer
• 1944 – Peter Lynch, American investor
• 1944 – Dan Reeves, American football coach
• 1945 – Trevor Williams, English Bass Guitarist
• 1946 – Julian Barnes, English author
• 1946 – Dolly Parton, American singer and actress
• 1947 – Ann Compton, American news reporter
• 1947 – Paula Deen, American chef and restaurateur
• 1947 – Rod Evans, British musician (Deep Purple)
• 1948 – Frank McKenna, Canadian politician
• 1949 – Robert Palmer, English singer and guitarist (d. 2003)
• 1949 – Dennis Taylor, Northern Irish snooker player
• 1950 – Sébastien Dhavernas, Canadian actor
• 1950 – Grant Nordman, Canadian politician
• 1953 – Desi Arnaz, Jr., American actor
• 1953 – Linda Hayden, English actress
• 1953 – Richard Legendre, Canadian politician
• 1954 – Katey Sagal, American actress
• 1954 – Cindy Sherman, American photographer
• 1954 – Katharina Thalbach, German actress and film director
• 1955 – Simon Rattle, English conductor
• 1955 – Paul Rodriguez, Mexican/American actor and comedian
• 1956 – Carman Licciardello, American singer
• 1957 – Ottis Anderson, former American football player
• 1957 – Kenneth McClintock, Puerto Rican politician
• 1959 – Jeff Pilson, American bass guitarist
• 1961 – William Ragsdale, American actor
• 1962 – Hans Daams, Dutch cyclist
• 1962 – Jeff Van Gundy, American basketball coach
• 1962 – Chris Sabo, American baseball player
• 1963 – Michael Adams, American basketball player
• 1963 – Martin Bashir, Pakistani-born reporter
• 1963 – Caron Wheeler, British singer (Soul II Soul)
• 1964 – Janine Antoni, Bahamian artist
• 1964 – Ricardo Arjona, Guatemalan singer
• 1966 – Floris Jan Bovelander, Dutch field hockey player
• 1966 – Sylvain Côté, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1966 – Stefan Edberg, Swedish tennis player
• 1966 – Lena Philipsson, Swedish singer
• 1967 – Javier Cámara, Spanish actor
• 1968 – Whitfield Crane, American musician (Ugly Kid Joe)
• 1969 – Edwidge Danticat, Haitian/American author
• 1969 – Luc Longley, Australian basketball player
• 1969 – Predrag Mijatović, Yugoslavian footballer
• 1969 – Junior Seau, American football player
• 1969 – Casey Sherman, American author
• 1969 – Steve Staunton, Irish footballer
• 1970 – Kathleen Smet, Belgian triathlete
• 1970 – Udo Suzuki, Japanese comedian
• 1971 – Shawn Wayans, American actor
• 1971 – John Wozniak, American singer and songwriter (Marcy Playground)
• 1972 – Angham, Egyptian singer, record producer and actress
• 1972 – Joana Benedek, Mexican actress
• 1972 – Jon Fisher, American entrepreneur
• 1972 – Princess Kalina of Bulgaria
• 1972 – Elena Kaliská, Slovak slalom canoer
• 1972 – Ron Killings, American professional wrestler
• 1972 – Drea de Matteo, American actress
• 1972 – Troy Wilson, Australian racing driver and AFL player
• 1973 – Antero Manninen, Finnish cellist
• 1973 – Yevgeny Sadovyi, Russian swimmer
• 1973 – Aaron Yonda, YouTube celebrity
• 1974 – Frank Caliendo, American comedian
• 1974 – Ian Laperrière, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1974 – Jaime Moreno, Bolivian footballer
• 1975 – Noah Georgeson, American musician
• 1976 – Natale Gonnella, Italian footballer
• 1976 – Tarso Marques, Brazilian racing driver
• 1977 – Benjamin Ayres, Canadian actor
• 1977 – Lauren Etame Mayer, Cameroonian footballer
• 1977 – Nicole, Chilean singer
• 1977 – Cocco, Japanese singer
• 1979 – Svetlana Khorkina, Russian gymnast
• 1979 – Josu Sarriegi, Spanish/Basque footballer
• 1979 – Wiley, English rapper
• 1980 – Jenson Button, English Formula One driver
• 1980 – Kotoko, Japanese singer
• 1980 – Luke Macfarlane, Canadian actor
• 1981 – Kerby Raymundo, Filipino basketball player
• 1981 – Asier Del Horno, Spanish footballer
• 1981 – Lucho González, Argentine footballer
• 1981 – Dimosthenis Manousakis, Greek footballer
• 1981 – Bitsie Tulloch, American actress
• 1982 – Angela Chang, Taiwanese singer and actress
• 1982 – Mike Komisarek, American ice hockey player
• 1982 – Jodie Sweetin, American actress
• 1983 – Hikaru Utada, American/Japanese singer and songwriter
• 1984 – Fabio Catacchini, Italian footballer
• 1984 – Karun Chandhok, Indian racing driver
• 1984 – Jimmy Kebe, Malian footballer
• 1984 – Thomas Vanek, Austrian ice hockey player
• 1985 – Jake Allen, American football player
• 1985 – Benny Feilhaber, American soccer player
• 1985 – Esteban Guerrieri, Argentine racing driver
• 1985 – Rika Ishikawa, Japanese singer (Morning Musume)
• 1986 – Claudio Marchisio, Italian footballer
• 1986 – Loren Galler-Rabinowitz, American ice dancer
• 1987 – Edgar Manucharyan, Armenian footballer
• 1987 – Angus Monfries, Australian league footballer
• 1988 – JaVale McGee, American Basketball Player
• 1991 – Erin Sanders, American actress
• 1992 – Logan Lerman, American actor
• 1992 – Shawn Johnson, American gymnast
• 1992 – Mac Miller, American rapper
• 1993 – Gus Lewis, English actor

Deaths

• 639 – Dagobert I, King of the Franks (b. c. 603)
• 1526 – Isabella of Burgundy, wife of Christian II of Denmark (b. 1501)
• 1547 – Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, English poet (b. 1517)
• 1576 – Hans Sachs, German Meistersinger (b. 1494)
• 1597 – Maharana Pratap, Indian Ruler (b. 1540)
• 1661 – Thomas Venner, Fifth Monarchist (executed) (b. 1599)
• 1729 – William Congreve, English playwright (b. 1670)
• 1757 – Thomas Ruddiman, Scottish classical scholar (b. 1674)
• 1766 – Giovanni Niccolò Servandoni, Italian-born French architect and painter (b. 1695)
• 1785 – Jonathan Toup, English classical scholar and critic (b. 1713)
• 1833 – Louis Joseph Ferdinand Herold, French composer (b. 1791)
• 1847 – Charles Bent, New Mexico pioneer (assassinated) (b. 1799)
• 1851 – Esteban Echeverría, Argentine writer (b. 1805)
• 1865 – Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, French philosopher and anarchist (b. 1809)
• 1869 – Carl Reichenbach, German chemist and philosopher (b. 1788)
• 1874 – August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, German poet (b. 1798)
• 1878 – Henri Victor Regnault French physicist and chemist (b. 1810)
• 1905 – Debendranath Tagore, Indian philosopher (b. 1817)
• 1906 – Bartolomé Mitre, Argentine historian and politician, president of the country (b. 1821)
• 1915 – Thomas Herbst, German painter (b. 1848)
• 1925 – Queen Maria Sophia of Two Sicilies (b.1841)
• 1927 – Charlotte of Belgium (b. 1840)
• 1929 – Liang Qichao, Chinese scholar (b. 1873)
• 1939 – Branislav Nušić, Serbian novelist, playwright, satirist, essayist and journalist (b. 1864)
• 1939 – Cliff Heathcote, American baseball player (b. 1898)
• 1948 – Tony Garnier, French architect (b. 1869)
• 1954 – Theodor Kaluza, German mathematician and physicist (b. 1885)
• 1957 – József Dudás, Romanian/Hungarian resistance fighter (b. 1912)
• 1964 – Firmin Lambot, Belgian cyclist (b. 1886)
• 1965 – Arnold Luhaäär, Estonian weightlifter and Olympic medalist (b. 1905)
• 1968 – Ray Harroun, American race car driver (b. 1879)
• 1969 – Jan Palach, Czech student and political activist (suicide) (b. 1948)
• 1971 – Harry Shields, American musician (b. 1899)
• 1972 – Michael Rabin, American violinist (b. 1936)
• 1973 – Max Adrian, Northern Irish actor (b. 1903)
• 1975 – Thomas Hart Benton, American painter (b. 1889)
• 1976 – Hidetsugu Yagi, Japanese electrical engineer (b. 1886)
• 1980 – William O. Douglas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1898)
• 1982 – Elis Regina, Brazilian singer (b. 1945)
• 1983 – Ham the Chimp, First hominid launched into outer space (b. 1956)
• 1984 – Max Bentley, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1920)
• 1987 – Lawrence Kohlberg, American psychologist (b. 1927)
• 1990 – Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Indian religious leader (b. 1931)
• 1990 – Semprini, English musician (b. 1908)
• 1990 – Herbert Wehner, German politician (b. 1906)
• 1991 – Marcel Chaput, French-Canadian politician (b. 1918)
• 1991 – John Russell, American actor (b. 1921)
• 1995 – Gene MacLellan, Canadian composer and singer (b. 1938)
• 1996 – Don Simpson, American film producer (b. 1943)
• 1997 – Adriana Caselotti, American actress (b. 1916)
• 1997 – James Dickey, American writer (b. 1923)
• 1998 – Carl Perkins, American guitarist (b. 1932)
• 1999 – Ivan Francescato, Italian rugby union footballer (b. 1967)
• 2000 – Bettino Craxi, Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1934)
• 2000 – Hedy Lamarr, Austrian-born actress and inventor (b. 1913)
• 2001 – Dario Vittori, Argentine actor (b. 1921)
• 2003 – Françoise Giroud, French writer and journalist (b. 1916)
• 2004 – Harry E. Claiborne, American judge (suicide) (b. 1917)
• 2004 – David Hookes, Australian cricketer and coach (b. 1955)
• 2005 – Bill Andersen, New Zealand communist and trade union leader (b. 1924)
• 2005 – K. Sello Duiker, South African novelist (b. 1974)
• 2005 – Anita Kulcsár, Hungarian handball player (b. 1976)
• 2006 – Anthony Franciosa, American actor (b. 1928)
• 2006 – Wilson Pickett, American singer (b. 1941)
• 2006 – Aoun Al-Sharif Qasim, Sudanese writer and Islamic scholar (b. 1933)
• 2006 – Geoff Rabone, New Zealand cricketer (b. 1921)
• 2007 – Scott "Bam Bam" Bigelow, American professional wrestler (b. 1961)
• 2007 – Hrant Dink, Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor (b. 1954)
• 2007 – Denny Doherty, Canadian singer (The Mamas & the Papas) (b. 1940)
• 2007 – Murat Nasyrov, Russian singer and composer (b. 1969)
• 2008 – Suzanne Pleshette, American actress (b. 1937)
• 2008 – John Stewart, American musician (The Kingston Trio) (b. 1939)
• 2008 – Don Wittman, Canadian sportscaster for CBC (b. 1936)
• 2010 – Jennifer Lyon, American reality television personality (Survivor) (b. 1972)
• 2010 – Bill McLaren, Scottish rugby commentator (b. 1923)
• 2011 – Ernest McCulloch, Canadian stem cell research pioneer (b. 1926)

Holidays and observances

• Birthday of Edgar Allan Poe (commemorated by the Poe Toaster at his grave in Baltimore)
• Christian Feast Day:
  • Henry of Uppsala
  • Maris, Martha, Abachum and Audifax
  • Mark of Ephesus
  • Pontianus
  • Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester
  • January 19 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Confederate Heroes Day (Texas)
• Robert E. Lee Day (Florida on the 19th of January) and (Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Georgia on or around the 19th of January)
• Feast of Sultán (Sovereignty), first day of the 17th month of the Bahá'í calendar (Bahá'í Faith)
• Theophany / Epiphany (Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy), and its related observances:
  • Timkat, or 20 during Leap Year (Ethiopian Orthodox)
• Vodici or Baptism of Jesus (Republic of Macedonia)
  • You Wish Day in the United States

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada

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