On this day: December 19

Events on December 19

• 653 Pope Martin I, having been abducted by Byzantine authorities from Rome for his opposition to Monothelitism, is tried in Constantinople. Wikipedia
• 1776 Thomas Paine published the first in a series of pamphlets entitled The American Crisis, opening with the line: "These are the times that try men's souls." Wikipedia
• 1776 Thomas Paine publishes one of a series of pamphlets in The Pennsylvania Journal entitled "The American Crisis". Wikipedia
• 1777 American Revolutionary War: George Washington's Continental Army goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Wikipedia
• 1793 War of the First Coalition: The Siege of Toulon ends when Napoleon's French artillery forces the British to abandon the city, securing southern France from invasion. Wikipedia
• 1843 A Christmas Carol (illustration pictured), a novella by Charles Dickens about the miser Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation after being visited by ghosts, was published. Wikipedia
• 1900 Hopetoun Blunder: The first Governor-General of Australia John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun, appoints Sir William Lyne premier of the new state of New South Wales, but he is unable to persuade other colonial politicians to join his government and is forced to resign. Wikipedia
• 1912 William Van Schaick, captain of the steamship General Slocum which caught fire and killed over one thousand people, is pardoned by U.S. President William Howard Taft after 3+1⁄2 years in Sing Sing prison. Wikipedia
• 1920 King Constantine I is restored as King of the Hellenes after the death of his son Alexander of Greece and a plebiscite. Wikipedia
• 1941 World War II: Adolf Hitler appoints himself as head of the Oberkommando des Heeres. Wikipedia
• 1945 John Amery, British Fascist, is executed at the age of 33 by the British Government for treason. Wikipedia
• 1972 Apollo program: The last crewed lunar flight, Apollo 17, carrying Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Harrison Schmitt, returns to Earth. Wikipedia
• 1974 Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as Vice President of the United States under President Gerald Ford under the provisions of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Wikipedia
• 1983 The original FIFA World Cup trophy, the Jules Rimet Trophy, is stolen from the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Wikipedia
• 1983 The Jules Rimet Trophy, awarded to the winner of the FIFA World Cup, was stolen from the offices of the Brazilian Football Confederation. Wikipedia
• 1984 The Sino-British Joint Declaration, stating that China would resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong and the United Kingdom would restore Hong Kong to China with effect from July 1, 1997, is signed in Beijing by Deng Xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher. Wikipedia
• 1986 Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union, releases Andrei Sakharov and his wife from exile in Gorky. Wikipedia
• 1997 SilkAir Flight 185 crashes into the Musi River, near Palembang in Indonesia, killing 104. Wikipedia
• 1997 Titanic, the fourth-highest-grossing film of all time with a worldwide total of more than US$2.2 billion, was released in the United States. Wikipedia
• 1998 President Bill Clinton is impeached by the United States House of Representatives, becoming the second president of the United States to be impeached. Wikipedia
• 2001 Argentine economic crisis: December riots: Riots erupt in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Wikipedia
• 2005 A passenger train from Sucha Beskidzka to Żywiec in Poland loses its brakes while on a steep downhill part of the route. It is stopped in a controlled collision in Świnna by a train travelling in opposite direction. 2 drivers and 6 passengers are injured. Wikipedia
• 2013 The European Space Agency's spacecraft Gaia was launched with the goal of constructing the largest and most precise star catalogue ever made. Wikipedia
• 2013 Spacecraft Gaia is launched by the European Space Agency. Wikipedia
• 2016 Andrei Karlov, Russia's ambassador to Turkey, was assassinated at an art gallery in Ankara. Wikipedia
• 2016 Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov is assassinated while at an art exhibition in Ankara. The assassin, Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş, is shot and killed by a Turkish guard. Wikipedia

Born on December 19

• 1683 Philip V of Spain (died 1746) Wikipedia
• 1852 Albert Abraham Michelson, Prussian-American physicist, chemist, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1931) Wikipedia
• 1861 Italo Svevo, Italian author and playwright (died 1928) Wikipedia
• 1875 Mileva Marić, Serbian physicist (died 1948) Wikipedia
• 1903 George Davis Snell, American geneticist and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1996) Wikipedia
• 1906 Leonid Brezhnev, Ukrainian-Russian marshal, engineer, and politician, 4th Head of State of the Soviet Union (died 1982) Wikipedia
• 1910 Jean Genet, French novelist, playwright, and poet (died 1986) Wikipedia
• 1915 Édith Piaf, French singer-songwriter and actress (died 1963) Wikipedia
• 1924 Cicely Tyson, American actress (died 2021) Wikipedia
• 1934 Pratibha Patil, Indian lawyer and politician, 12th President of India Wikipedia
• 1941 Lee Myung-bak, South Korean businessman and politician, 10th President of South Korea Wikipedia
• 1944 William Christie, American-French harpsichord player and conductor Wikipedia
• 1961 Eric Allin Cornell, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1963 Til Schweiger, German actor, director, and producer Wikipedia
• 1964 Arvydas Sabonis, Lithuanian basketball player Wikipedia
• 1972 Alyssa Milano, American actress, television personality, and activist Wikipedia
• 1974 Mige (musician), Finnish musician, bassist and founding member of the gothic rock band HIM Wikipedia
• 1980 Jake Gyllenhaal, American actor and producer Wikipedia
• 1985 Gary Cahill, English footballer Wikipedia
• 1986 Ryan Babel, Dutch footballer Wikipedia
• 1987 Karim Benzema, French footballer Wikipedia
• 1988 Alexis Sánchez, Chilean footballer Wikipedia

Died on December 19

• 401 Pope Anastasius I Wikipedia
• 966 Sancho I, king of León Wikipedia
• 1111 Al-Ghazali, Persian jurist, philosopher, theologian, and mystic (born 1058) Wikipedia
• 1370 Pope Urban V (born 1310) Wikipedia
• 1385 Bernabò Visconti, Lord of Milan (born 1319) Wikipedia
• 1741 Vitus Bering, Danish-born Russian explorer (born 1681) Wikipedia
• 1813 James McGill, Scottish-Canadian businessman and philanthropist, founded McGill University (born 1744) Wikipedia
• 1848 Emily Brontë, English novelist and poet (born 1818) Wikipedia
• 1851 Joseph Mallord William Turner, English painter (born 1775) Wikipedia
• 1953 Robert Andrews Millikan, American physicist and eugenicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1868) Wikipedia
• 1989 Kirill Mazurov, Belarusian Soviet politician (born 1914) Wikipedia
• 1996 Marcello Mastroianni, Italian-French actor and singer (born 1924) Wikipedia
• 1997 Masaru Ibuka, Japanese businessman, co-founded Sony (born 1908) Wikipedia
• 2004 Herbert C. Brown, English-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1912) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Lillian Trasher (Episcopal Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: O Radix Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Pope Anastasius I Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Pope Urban V Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: December 19 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Saint Nicholas Day Wikipedia
• Goa Liberation Day (Goa, India) Wikipedia
• National Heroes and Heroines Day (Anguilla) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “December 19” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.