This is a list of selected December 19 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
Images
Use only ONE image at a time
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Bill Clinton -
John C. Calhoun -
Thomas Paine -
Charles Dickens -
Andrei Karlov
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Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| Liberation Day in Goa (1961) | Goa: refimprove; Annexation of Goa: unreferenced/refimprove sections |
| 1920 – Constantine I returned as King of the Hellenes after the death of his son Alexander I and a referendum. | refimprove section |
| 1932 – The BBC launched its World Service, now the world's largest international broadcaster, as BBC Empire Service. | refimprove section |
| 1941 – Second World War: Six Italian Royal Navy divers on manned torpedoes detonated limpet mines, disabling four vessels, including two Royal Navy battleships. | primary sources |
| 1946 – The First Indochina War began when Viet Minh operatives attacked French military positions and homes in Hanoi. | War: refimprove section; Battle: short |
| 1981 – Sixteen people died when a lifeboat went to the aid of a stricken coaster in heavy seas off the south-west coast of England and was also lost. | refimprove section |
| 1986 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev released dissident Andrei Sakharov after six years of internal exile in Gorky. | refimprove section |
| 1998 – The U.S. House of Representatives issued articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton following the Lewinsky scandal. | refimprove section |
Eligible
- 1154 – Henry II was crowned king of England in Westminster Abbey, London.
- 1675 – King Philip's War: In the Great Swamp Fight, the colonial militia of New England and their Pequot allies attacked a Narragansett fort in Rhode Island, killing many warriors and hundreds of non-combatants.
- 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."
- 1956 – British physician and suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams was arrested in connection with the death of Edith Alice Morrell.
- 1964 – The ruling junta of South Vietnam, led by Nguyễn Khánh, initiated a coup, dissolving the High National Council, a civilian advisory body.
- 1984 – China and the United Kingdom signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration, agreeing to the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong to China on 1 July 1997.
- 1985 – Aeroflot Flight 101/435 was hijacked by the co-pilot and landed in a cow pasture in China, where he was apprehended.
- 1997 – Titanic, the third-highest-grossing film of all time, with a worldwide total of more than US$1.8 billion, was released in the United States.
- 2016 – Andrei Karlov (pictured), Russia's ambassador to Turkey, was assassinated at an art gallery in Ankara.
- 2022 – Argentina won the 2022 World Cup.
- Born/died: | Pope Urban V |d|1370| Vitus Bering |d|1741| Mary Livermore |b|1820| J. M. W. Turner |d|1851| Mileva Marić |b|1875| Grace Marie Bareis |b|1875| Ann Bishop |b|1899| Ashfaqulla Khan |d|1927 Phil Ochs |b|1940| Jake Gyllenhaal |b|1980| Stella Gibbons |d|1989
- 1828 – Nullification crisis: American vice president John C. Calhoun's South Carolina Exposition and Protest, written to protest the Tariff of Abominations, was presented to the South Carolina House of Representatives.
- 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.
- 1983 – The Jules Rimet Trophy, awarded to the winner of the FIFA World Cup, was stolen from the offices of the Brazilian Football Confederation.
- 1997 – SilkAir Flight 185 crashed into the Musi River in Indonesia, killing 104 people.
- 2013 – The European Space Agency's spacecraft Gaia was launched with the goal of constructing the largest and most precise star catalogue ever made.
- Adelaide of Susa (d. 1091)
- Sakakibara Kenkichi (b. 1830)
- Kristina Keneally (b. 1968)
- Ahmet Emin Yalman (d. 1972)