What Happened on December 19th in History
30 historical events on this date
Three Indian revolutionaries, Ram Prasad Bismil, Roshan Singh and Ashfaqulla Khan, are executed by the British Raj for participation in the Kakori conspiracy.
Ram Prasad Bismil was an Indian poet, writer, and revolutionary who fought against British Raj, participating in the Mainpuri Conspiracy of 1918, and the Kakori Conspiracy of 1925. He composed in...
The Indian National Congress promulgates the Purna Swaraj (the Declaration of the Independence of India).
The Indian National Congress (INC), also known as the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a big tent political party in India. It is Indiaâs oldest political party and is widely regarded as...
BBC World Service begins broadcasting as the BBC Empire Service.
The BBC World Service is a British public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and...
Risto Ryti, the Prime Minister of Finland, is elected President of the Republic of Finland in a presidential election, which is exceptionally held by the 1937 electoral college.
Risto Heikki Ryti was a Finnish politician who served as the president of Finland from 1940 to 1944. Ryti started his career as a politician in the field of economics and as a political background...
World War II: Adolf Hitler appoints himself as head of the Oberkommando des Heeres.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major...
World War II: Limpet mines placed by Italian divers heavily damage HMSÂ Valiant and HMSÂ Queen Elizabeth in Alexandria harbour.
A limpet mine is a type of naval mine attached to a target by magnets. It is so named because of its superficial similarity to the shape of the limpet, a type of sea snail that clings tightly to...
John Amery, British Fascist, is executed at the age of 33 by the British Government for treason.
John Amery was a British fascist and Nazi collaborator during World War II. He was the originator of the British Free Corps, a volunteer Waffen-SS unit composed of former British and Dominion...
Start of the First Indochina War.
The First Indochina War, known alternatively internationally as the French Indochina War, was fought in French Indochina between France and the Viet Minh and their respective allies, from 19...
Irish-born physician John Bodkin Adams is arrested in connection with the suspicious deaths of more than 160 patients. Eventually he is convicted only of minor charges.
John Bodkin Adams was a British general practitioner, convicted fraudster, and suspected serial killer. Between 1946 and 1956, 163 of his patients died while in comas, which was deemed to be worthy...
India annexes Daman and Diu, part of Portuguese India.
The Indian annexation of Goa was the process in which the Republic of India annexed the Portuguese State of India, the then Portuguese Indian territories of Goa, Daman and Diu, starting with the...
Harold Holt, the Prime Minister of Australia, is officially presumed dead.
Harold Edward Holt was an Australian politician who served as the 17th prime minister of Australia from 1966 until his disappearance and presumed death in 1967. He held office as leader of the...
Apollo program: The last crewed lunar flight, Apollo 17, carrying Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Harrison Schmitt, returns to Earth.
The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program led by NASA, which landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Apollo was conceived in 1960 in the...
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.
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st vice president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford. A member of the Republican Party and the wealthy Rockefeller...
The Ms⯠5.8 BobâTangol earthquake strikes Kerman Province in Iran, destroying villages and killing 665 people.
The 1977 BobâTangol earthquake struck Kerman province of Iran on December 20, 1977, at 03:04 Iran Standard Time. The earthquake measured Mw 5.9 and struck at a depth of 22.7Â km (14.1Â mi). A maximum...
Sixteen lives are lost when the Penlee lifeboat goes to the aid of the stricken coaster Union Star in heavy seas.
The Penlee lifeboat disaster occurred on 19 December 1981 off the coast of Cornwall, England. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) lifeboat Solomon Browne, based at the Penlee Lifeboat...
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.
The FIFA World Cup is an international association football competition among the senior men's national teams of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the...
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.
The Sino-British Joint Declaration was a treaty signed in 1984 between the governments of China and the United Kingdom which set the conditions in which Hong Kong was transferred to Chinese control...
Aeroflot Flight 101/435 is hijacked to China by its first officer.
Aeroflot Flight 101/435 was a Soviet domestic passenger flight that was hijacked by its co-pilot, Shamil Alimuradov, on 19 December 1985, en route from Takhtamygda to Chita. Armed with a hatchet,...
Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union, releases Andrei Sakharov and his wife from exile in Gorky.
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was a Soviet and Russian politician who was the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the...
The United States Government restores federal recognition to the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Native American tribe.
The Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi (NHBP) is a federally-recognized tribe of Potawatomi in the United States. The tribe achieved federal recognition on December 19, 1995, and currently has...
SilkAir Flight 185 crashes into the Musi River, near Palembang in Indonesia, killing 104.
SilkAir Flight 185 was a scheduled international passenger flight operated by a Boeing 737-300 from SoekarnoâHatta International Airport in Jakarta, Indonesia to Changi Airport in Singapore that...
President Bill Clinton is impeached by the United States House of Representatives, becoming the second president of the United States to be impeached.
William Jefferson Clinton is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the...
Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-103, the third Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission.
Space Shuttle Discovery is a retired American Space Shuttle orbiter. The spaceplane was one of the orbiters from NASA's Space Shuttle program and the third of five fully operational orbiters to be...
Argentine economic crisis: December riots: Riots erupt in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The 1998â2002 Argentine great depression was an economic depression in Argentina, which began in the third quarter of 1998 and lasted until the second quarter of 2002. It followed fifteen years of...
Chalk's Ocean Airways Flight 101 crashes into the Government Cut channel immediately after takeoff from Miami Seaplane Base, killing 20.
Chalk's Ocean Airways Flight 101 was an aircraft that crashed off Miami Beach, Florida, in the United States on December 19, 2005. All 18 passengers and both of the crew members on board the 1947...
A passenger train from Sucha Beskidzka to Ć»ywiec in Poland loses its brakes while on a steep downhill part of the route. It is stopped in a controlled collision in Ćwinna by a train travelling in opposite direction. 2 drivers and 6 passengers are injured.
Sucha Beskidzka, known simply as Sucha before 1964, is a town in the ƻywiec Beskids mountain range in southern Poland, on the Skawa river. It is the county seat of Sucha County. Sucha Beskidzka has...
Park Geun-hye is elected the first female president of South Korea.
Park Geun-hye is a South Korean politician who served as the 11th president of South Korea from 2013 until her removal from office in 2017. A member of then Saenuri Party and the eldest daughter of...
Spacecraft Gaia is launched by the European Space Agency.
Gaia is a retired space observatory of the European Space Agency (ESA) that was launched in 2013 and operated until March 2025. The spacecraft was designed for astrometry: measuring the positions,...
Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov is assassinated while at an art exhibition in Ankara. The assassin, MevlĂŒt Mert AltıntaĆ, is shot and killed by a Turkish guard.
Andrei Gennadyevich Karlov was a Russian diplomat who served as the Russian ambassador to Turkey and earlier as the Russian ambassador to North Korea.
A vehicular attack in Berlin, Germany, kills 12 and injures 56 people at a Christmas market.
On 19 December 2016, a truck was deliberately driven into the Christmas market next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church at Breitscheidplatz in Berlin, leaving 12 people dead and 56 others injured....