January 19 - Definition and Overview

January 19 is the 19th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 346 days remaining (347 in leap years)

Events

• 1419 - Hundred Years' War: Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England which makes Normandy a part of England.
• 1520 - Sten Sture the Younger, the Regent of Sweden, was mortally wounded at the Battle of Bogesund
• 1764 - John Wilkes is expelled from the British House of Commons for seditious libel.
• 1806 - The United Kingdom occupies the Cape of Good Hope.
• 1829 - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust premieres.
• 1839 - 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 premieres in Rome.
• 1883 - The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires begins service (Roselle, New Jersey) It was built by Thomas Edison.
• 1899 - Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is formed.
• 1915 - George Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.
• 1915 - German zeppelins bomb the cities 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.
• 1918 - Finnish Civil War: The first serious battles between the Red Guards and the White Guard.
• 1920 - The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.
• 1935 - Coopers Inc. sold the world's first briefs.
• 1937 - Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.
• 1941 - World War II: British troops attack Italian-held Eritrea.
• 1942 - World War II: Japanese forces invade Burma.
• 1946 - General Douglas MacArthur establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo to try Japanese war criminals.
• 1949 - Cuba recognises Israel.
• 1953 - 68% of all United States television sets were tuned in to I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.
• 1955 - The Scrabble board game debuts.
• 1966 - Indira Gandhi is elected Prime Minister of India.
• 1969 - Student Jan Palach died after setting himself on fire 3 days ago in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968. His funeral turned into another major protest.
• 1971 - Revival of No, No, Nanette premieres (46th Street Theatre, New York City).
• 1974 - The UCLA men's basketball team sees its 88-game winning streak end at the hands of Notre Dame.
• 1975 - Double Jay began broadcasting in Sydney, Australia.
• 1977 - President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino (aka Tokyo Rose).
• 1977 - Snow falls in Miami, Florida. This is the only time in the history of the city that this occurs.
• 1981 - United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity.
• 1983 - Klaus Barbie, Nazi war criminal, is arrested in Bolivia.
• 1983 - The Apple Lisa, the first commercial personal computer from Apple Computer, Inc. to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, is announced.
• 1993 - IBM announces a $4.97 billion loss for 1992 which is the largest single-year corporate loss in United States history.
• 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.
• 2002 - Michael Jordan, formerly of the Washington Wizards, plays his first game in Chicago since rejoining the NBA.

Births

• 399 - Pulcheria, Byzantine empress (d. 453)
• 1544 - Francis II of France
• 1736 - James Watt, builder of steam engines (d. 1819)
• 1739 - Joseph Bonomi the Elder, architect (d. 1808)
• 1807 - Robert E. Lee, Confederate general (d. 1870)
• 1808 - Lysander Spooner, individualist anarchist (d. 1887)
• 1809 - Edgar Allan Poe, poet, short story author (d. 1849)
• 1813 - Sir Henry Bessemer, inventor (d. 1898)
• 1839 - Paul Cézanne, painter (d. 1906)
• 1848 - John F. Stairs, businessman, statesman (d. 1904)
• 1851 - Jacobus Kapteyn, Dutch astronomer (d. 1922)
• 1887 - Alexander Woollcott, intellectual (d. 1943)
• 1907 - Lilian Harvey, actress (d. 1968)
• 1908 - Ish Kabibble, American musician, comedian (d. 1994)
• 1909 - Hans Hotter, German bass-baritone (d. 2003)
• 1913 - Minnesota Fats, American billiards player (d. 1996)
• 1917 - John Raitt, American singer, actor
• 1919 - Anthony Giacalone, gangster (d. 2001)
• 1920 - Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, United Nations Secretary General
• 1921 - Patricia Highsmith, author (d. 1995)
• 1922 - Guy Madison, American actor (d. 1996)
• 1923 - Jean Stapleton, actress
• 1923 - Markus Wolf, German spy
• 1924 - Nicholas Colasanto, American actor (d. 1985)
• 1926 - Fritz Weaver, actor
• 1927 - Nancy Dickerson, journalist (d. 1997)
• 1931 - Tippi Hedren, actress
• 1931 - Robert MacNeil, journalist
• 1932 - Richard Lester, British director
• 1939 - Phil Everly, musician
• 1942 - Michael Crawford, singer, actor
• 1943 - Janis Joplin, singer (d. 1970)
• 1943 - Princess Margriet of the Netherlands
• 1944 - Shelley Fabares, American actress
• 1944 - Dan Reeves, American football coach
• 1944 - Peter Lynch, American investor
• 1945 - Maria Jespen, theologian
• 1946 - Dolly Parton, singer, actress
• 1946 - Julian Barnes, author
• 1946 - Susan Vreeland, author
• 1949 - Robert Palmer, singer, guitarist (d. 2003)
• 1949 - Dennis Taylor, North Irish snooker player
• 1953 - Desi Arnaz Jr., actor
• 1954 - Katey Sagal, American actress
• 1955 - Simon Rattle, English conductor
• 1955 - Paul Rodriguez, Mexican-American actor, comedian
• 1957 - Katey Sagal, actress, singer & writer
• 1966 - Stefan Edberg, tennis player
• 1968 - Kimberly Bergalis, HIV pioneer (d. 1991)
• 1971 - Shawn Wayans, actor, writer, producer
• 1971 - John Wozniak, singer, songwriter of Marcy Playground
• 1973 - Drea de Matteo, actress
• 1974 - Jaime Moreno, D.C. United striker
• 1982 - Jodie Sweetin, actress
• 1983 - Utada Hikaru, singer/composer/songwriter
• 1985 - Rika Ishikawa, Morning Musume Member, Singer
• 1992 - Logan Lerman, Americn actor

Deaths

• 1847 - Charles Bent, New Mexico pioneer
• 1878 - Henri Victor Regnault physcisist and chemist (b. 1810)
• 1905 - Debendranath Tagore, philosopher (b. 1817)
• 1968 - Ray Harroun, first winner of the Indianapolis 500 (b. 1879)
• 1969 - Jan Palach, student, political activist (b. 1948)
• 1971 - Harry Shields, jazz musician (b. 1899)
• 1972 - Michael Rabin, concert violinist
• 1975 - Thomas Hart Benton, muralist (b. 1889)
• 1980 - William O. Douglas, United States Supreme Court Associate Justice
• 1990 - Herbert Wehner, German politician (b. 1906)
• 1990 - Rajneesh, religious leader
• 1991 - John Russell, American actor
• 1995 - Ron Luciano, American baseball player
• 1996 - Don Simpson, American film producer
• 1997 - James Dickey, poet, novelist (b. 1923)
• 1998 - Carl Perkins, guitarist (b. 1932)
• 2000 - Bettino Craxi, Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1934)
• 2000 - Hedy Lamarr, actress (b. 1913)
• 2004 - David Hookes, Australian cricketer and coach (b. 1955)

Holidays and observances

• Eastern Orthodoxy — Julian Calendar Theophany (Epiphany)
• Bahá'í Faith — Feast of Sultán (Sovereignty) — First day of the 17th month of the Bahá'í Calendar
• Confederate Heroes Day in Texas

January 18 - January 20 - December 19 - February 19 -- listing of all days