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Today April 19th 2009 this day in history Read more below to view events, deaths, births, Holidays observances and video clips. Last database updated: Jan 17th, 2009
Events
1012 – Martyrdom of Alphege in Greenwich, London.
1529 – At the Second Diet of Speyer, a group of rulers (German: Fürst) and independent cities (German: Reichsstadt) protests the reinstatement of the Edict of Worms, beginning the Protestant Reformation.
1587 – Francis Drake sinks the Spanish fleet in Cádiz harbor.
1713 – With no living male heirs, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to ensure that Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would be inherited by his daughter, Maria Theresa of Austria (not actually born until 1717).
1770 – Captain James Cook sights Australia.
1770 – Marie Antoinette marries Louis XVI by Proxy marriage.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Lexington and Concord which began the American Revolutionary War.
1782 – John Adams secured the Dutch Republic s recognition of the United States as an independent government and the house that he purchased in The Hague, Netherlands became the first American embassy.
1809 – The army of Austria attacks and is defeated by the forces of the Duchy of Warsaw in the Battle of Raszyn, part of the struggles of the Fifth Coalition.
1810 – Venezuela achieves home rule: Vicente Emparan, Governor of the Captaincy General is removed by the people of Caracas and a Junta is installed.
1839 – The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom.
1861 – American Civil War: Baltimore riot of 1861, a pro-Secession mob in Baltimore, Maryland, attacks United States Army troops marching through the city.
1892 – Charles Duryea claims to have driven the first automobile in the United States, in Springfield, Massachusetts.
1904 – Much of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is destroyed by fire.
1909 – Joan of Arc receives beatification.
1919 – Leslie Irvin of the United States makes the first successful voluntary free-fall parachute jump using a new kind of self-contained parachute.
1927 – Mae West is sentenced to 10 days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.
1928 – The 125th and final fascicle of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.
1934 – Shirley Temple debuts in Stand Up and Cheer.
1936 – First day of the Great Uprising in Palestine.
1942 – World War II: In Poland, the Majdan-Tatarski ghetto is established, situated between the Lublin ghetto and a Majdanek subcamp.
1943 – World War II: In Poland, German troops enter the Warsaw ghetto to round up the remaining Jews, beginning the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
1943 – Bicycle Day – Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann deliberately takes LSD for the first time.
1945 – The diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Guatemala are established.
1950 – Argentina becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1951 – General Douglas MacArthur retires from the military.
1954 – Constituent Assembly of Pakistan decides Urdu and Bengali to be national languages of Pakistan.
1955 – The German automaker Volkswagen, after six years of selling cars in the United States, founds Volkswagen of America in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey to standardize its dealer and service network.
1956 – Actress Grace Kelly marries Rainier III of Monaco.
1960 – Students in South Korea hold a nationwide pro-democracy protest against their president Syngman Rhee, eventually forcing him to resign.
1961 – The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba ends in success for the defenders.
1971 – Sierra Leone becomes a republic, and Siaka Stevens the president.
1971 – Vietnam War: Vietnam Veterans Against the War begin a five-day demonstration in Washington, DC.
1971 – Launch of Salyut 1, first human-made space station.
1971 – Charles Manson is sentenced to death for the Sharon Tate murders.
1975 – India s first satellite Aryabhata is launched.
1976 – Executive Order 9066 is rescinded.
1985 – Advance Australia Fair is proclaimed as Australia s national anthem, and green and gold as the national colours.
1985 – U.S.S.R performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalatinsk U.S.S.R.
Births
1989 – A gun turret explodes on the USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors.
1993 – The 51-day siege of the Branch Davidian building outside Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. Eighty-one people die.
1993 – South Dakota governor George Mickelson and seven others are killed when a state-owned aircraft crashed lands in Iowa.
1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is bombed, killing 168. That same day convicted murderer Richard Wayne Snell, who had ties to bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh, is executed in Arkansas.
1999 – The German Bundestag returns to Berlin.
2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger elected Pope Benedict XVI on the second day of the Papal conclave.
2008 – Bowie Seamount on the coast of British Columbia, Canada becomes a Marine Protected Area.
Deaths
1603 – Michel le Tellier, French statesman (d. 1685)
1658 – Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine (d. 1716)
1665 – Jacques Lelong, French bibliographer (d. 1721)
1686 – Vasily Tatishchev, Russian statesman (d. 1750)
1721 – Roger Sherman, signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence (d. 1793)
1785 – Alexandre Pierre François Boëly, French composer (d. 1858)
1787 – Deaf Smith, American frontiersman and revolutionary (d. 1837)
1793 – Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria (d. 1875)
1814 – Louis Amédée Achard, French novelist (d. 1875)
1832 – José Echegaray y Eizaguirre, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1916)
1874 – Ernst Rüdin, Swiss psychiatrist, geneticist, and eugenicist (d. 1952)
1877 – Ole Evinrude, Norwegian-American inventor (d. 1934)
1882 – Getúlio Vargas, President of Brazil (d. 1954)
1883 – Richard von Mises, Austrian-born mathematician (d. 1953)
1889 – Otto Georg Thierack, German jurist and politician (d. 1946)
1892 – Germaine Tailleferre, French composer (d. 1983)
1897 – Peter de Noronha, Indian businessman and philanthropist (d. 1970)
1897 – Constance Talmadge, American actress (d. 1973)
1899 – George O Brien, American actor (d. 1985)
1900 – Richard Hughes, English novelist (d. 1976)
1900 – Roland Michener, Governor General of Canada (d. 1991)
1903 – Eliot Ness, American lawman (d. 1957)
1912 – Glenn Seaborg, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
1922 – Erich Hartmann, German fighter pilot (d. 1993)
1925 – Hugh O Brian, American actor
1928 – Alexis Korner, English musician (d. 1984)
1930 – Dick Sargent, American actor (d. 1994)
1931 – Garfield Morgan, English actor
1931 – Walter Stewart, Canadian journalist (d. 2004)
1933 – Dickie Bird, English cricket umpire
1933 – Jayne Mansfield, American actress (d. 1967)
1934 – Dickie Goodman, American producer of novelty songs (d. 1989)
1935 – Dudley Moore, English actor, comedian and composer (d. 2002)
1936 – Wilfried Martens, Prime Minister of Belgium
1937 – Elinor Donahue, American actress
1937 – Joseph Estrada, actor and 13th President of the Philippines
1940 – Dougal Haston, Scottish mountaineer (d. 1977)
1940 – Genya Ravan, American vocalist (Goldie & the Gingerbreads, Ten Wheel Drive)
1941 – Roberto Carlos, Brazilian singer
1941 – Bobby Russell, American songwriter (d. 1992)
1941 – Alan Price, English musician (The Animals, The Alan Price Set)
1942 – Bas Jan Ader, Dutch artist (disappeared 1975).
1942 – Jack Roush, American racing entrepreneur
1943 – Eve Graham, Scottish singer (The New Seekers)
1944 – James Heckman, American economist, Bank of Sweden Prize
1944 – Bernie Worrell, American keyboardist (P Funk)
1944 – Keith Erickson, American basketball player
1946 – Tim Curry, British actor
1946 – Mary Jo Slater, American casting director
1947 – Murray Perahia, American pianist
1947 – Mark Volman, American musician (The Turtles)
1948 – Rick Miller, American baseball player
1949 – Paloma Picasso daughter of artist Pablo Picasso
1949 – Larry Walters, American lawn chair pilot (d. 1993)
1951 – Barry Brown, American actor and writer (d. 1978)
1951 – Jóannes Eidesgaard, Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands
1952 – Alexis Arguello, Nicaraguan boxer
1953 – Rod Morgenstein, American musician (Winger)
1953 – Ruby Wax, British television personality
1954 – Trevor Francis, English footballer
1954 – Bob Rock, Canadian record producer & musician (The Payolas)
1957 – Mukesh Ambani, Indian businessman
1960 – Roger Merrett, Australian footballer
1960 – John Schweitz, American basketball player and coach
1960 – Frank Viola, American baseball player
1961 – Spike Owen, American baseball player
1962 – Al Unser, Jr., American race car driver
1963 – Valerie Plame Wilson, former C.I.A. agent
1965 – Natalie Dessay, French soprano
1965 – Suge Knight, American record producer
1966 – Véronique Gens, French soprano
1966 – Julia Neigel, female german singer, songwriter, producer, author and entertainer
1966 – David La Haye, Canadian actor
1966 – Osamu Matsuda, Japanese professional wrestler
1967 – Steven H Silver, American science fiction editor
1967 – Dar Williams, American musician and songwriter
1968 – Ashley Judd, American actress
1968 – Craig McNeil, American writer, lawyer, and military officer
1968 – Mswati III, King of Swaziland
1968 – Pascal Kleiman, Spanish DJ, producer, musician
1968 – Arshad Warsi, Indian actor
1969 – Jesse James, American television personality and motorcycle builder
1969 – Susan Polgar, Hungarian-born American chess player
1970 – Kelly Holmes, English athlete
1970 – Luis Miguel, Mexican pop-singer
1972 – Rivaldo, Brazilian footballer
1972 – Jeff Wilkins, American Football Player
1974 – Akara Amarttayakul, Thai actor
1975 – Jason Gillespie, Australian cricketer
1975 – Jussi Jääskeläinen, Finnish footballer
1976 – Ruud Jolie, Dutch guitarist (Within Temptation)
1976 – Scott Padgett, American basketball player
1977 – Joe Beimel, American baseball player
1977 – Lucien Mettomo, Cameroonian footballer
1977 – Dennys Reyes, Mexican baseball player
1978 – James Franco, American actor
1978 – Gabriel Heinze, Argentinian footballer
1978 – Amanda Sage, American born visionary artist
1979 – Kate Hudson, American actress
1980 – Alexis Thorpe, American actress
1981 – Hayden Christensen, Canadian actor
1981 – Martin Havlat, Czech hockey player
1981 – Kasie Head, American actress and model
1981 – Troy Polamalu, American football player
1981 – Catalina Sandino Moreno, Colombian actress
1983 – Alberto Callaspo, Venezuelan baseball player
1983 – Zack Duke, American baseball player
1983 – Joe Mauer, American baseball player
1983 – Curtis Thigpen, American baseball player
1984 – Lee Da Hae, South Korean actress
1985 – Valon Behrami, Swiss Footballer
1986 – Candace Parker, American basketball player
1987 – Joe Hart, English Under-21 footballer
1987 – Maria Sharapova, Professional Tennis Player
1987 – Oksana Akinshina, Russian actress
1987 – Courtland Mead, American actor
Holidays and observances
1989 – Fiona MacGillivray, Canadian vocalist (The Cottars)
1990 – Kim Chiu, Filipino actress
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