19 November

Events

• 461 - St. Hilarius becomes Pope.
• 1493 - Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to go ashore on an island he only saw for the first time the day before. He names it San Juan Bautista (later renamed Puerto Rico).
• 1794 - The United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain sign Jay's Treaty, which attempts to clear up some of the lingering problems left over from the American Revolutionary War.
• 1863 - American Civil War: Union President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address at the military cemetery dedication ceremony in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
• 1916 - Samuel Goldfish (later renamed Samuel Goldwyn) and Edgar Selwyn establish Goldwyn Company (the company later became one of the most successful independent filmmakers).
• 1924 - In Los Angeles, California, famous silent film director Thomas Ince ("The Father of the Western") dies of a heart attack in his bed (rumors soon surface that he was shot dead by publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst).
• 1941 - World War II: The Australian war cruiser HMAS Sydney sinks off the coast of Western Australia, killing 645 sailors.
• 1942 - World War II: Battle of Stalingrad - Soviet Union forces under General Georgi Zhukov launch the Operation Uranus counterattacks at Stalingrad, turning the tide of the battle in the USSR's favor.
• 1944 - World War II: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces the 6th War Loan Drive, aimed at selling US$14 billion in war bonds to help pay for the war effort.
• 1946 - Afghanistan, Iceland and Sweden join the United Nations.
• 1959 - Ford Motor Company announces the discontinuation of the unpopular Edsel.
• 1969 - Apollo program: Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum ("Ocean of Storms") and become the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon.
• 1977 - Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel when he meets with Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and speaks before the Knesset in Jerusalem, seeking a permanent peace settlement (much of the Arab world was outraged by the visit).
• 1977 - Transportes Aereos Portugueses Boeing 727 crashes in Madeira islands killing 130
• 1984 - A series of explosions at the PEMEX petroleum storage facility at San Juan Ixhuatepec in Mexico City ignites a major fire and kills about 500 people.
• 1985 - Cold War: In Geneva, US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time.
• 1985 - Pennzoil wins a US$10.53 billion verdict from Texaco in the largest civil verdict in US history (Texaco established a signed contract to buy Getty Oil after Pennzoil entered into an unsigned, yet still binding, buyout contract with Getty).
• 1997 - In Carlisle, Iowa, Bobbi McCaughey gives birth to septuplets in the second known case where all seven babies were born alive.
• 1998 - Lewinsky scandal: The United States House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee begins impeachment hearings against US President Bill Clinton.
• 1998 - Vincent van Gogh's "Portrait of the Artist Without Beard" sells at auction for US$71.5 million.
• 1999 - In Istanbul, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) ends a two-day summit by calling for a political settlement in Chechnya and adopting a Charter for European Security.

Births

• 1600 - King Charles I of England (d. 1649)
• 1711 - Mikhail Lomonosov, Russian writer and polymath (d. 1765)
• 1805 - Ferdinand de Lesseps, French diplomat and Suez Canal engineer (d. 1894)
• 1831 - James A. Garfield, 20th President of the United States (d. 1881)
• 1833 - Wilhelm Dilthey, philosopher (d. 1911)
• 1843 - Richard Avenarius, German philosopher (d. 1896)
• 1862 - Billy Sunday, American evangelist (d. 1935)
• 1865 - Otto Eckmann, painter, interior designer (d. 1902)
• 1875 - Mikhail I. Kalinin, Russian metal worker and head of state (d. 1946)
• 1883 - D M Nazarian, actor (d. 1957)
• 1884 - José Raúl Capablanca, Cuban chess player (d. 1942).
• 1899 - Allen Tate, poet and critic (d. 1979)
• 1900 - Anna Seghers, writer (d. 1983)
• 1900 - Mikhail Lavrentyev, Russian scientist (d. 1980)
• 1905 - Tommy Dorsey, bandleader (d. 1956)
• 1907 - Jack Schaefer, author (d. 1991)
• 1908 - Luke Short, actor (d. 1975)
• 1917 - Indira Gandhi, prime minister of India (d. 1984)
• 1920 - Gene Tierney, actress (d. 1991)
• 1921 - Roy Campanella, American baseball player (d. 1993)
• 1926 - Jeane Kirkpatrick, former United States ambassador to the United Nations
• 1929 - Slavko Avsenik, Slovene musician
• 1933 - Larry King, television interviewer
• 1935 - Bob Gibson, Baseball Hall of Famer
• 1936 - Dick Cavett, talk show host
• 1938 - Ted Turner, American businessman
• 1939 - Tom Harkin, United States Senator
• 1941 - Dan Haggerty, actor
• 1942 - Calvin Klein, clothing designer
• 1947 - Bob Boone, baseball player and manager
• 1951 - Lord Falconer, British lawyer and politician
• 1960 - Allison Janney, actress
• 1961 - Meg Ryan, American actress
• 1962 - Jodie Foster, American actress
• 1966 - Gail Devers, American athlete
• 1966 - Jason Scott Lee, actor
• 1973 - Savion Glover, choreographer, actor, dancer

Deaths

• 498 - Pope Anastasius II
• 1665 - Nicolas Poussin, French painter
• 1828 - Franz Schubert, Austrian composer
• 1850 - Richard Mentor Johnson, American politician
• 1924 - Thomas Ince, film director
• 1967 - Charles Watters, US Army chaplain
• 1976 - Sir Basil Spence, architect
• 1985 - Stepin Fetchit, actor, dancer
• 2002 - Otto Maychrzak, handball player

Holidays and Observances

• Mali - Liberation Day
• Monaco - Monegasque National Day
• Oman - Birthday of Sultan Qaboos bin Said
• Puerto Rico - Discovery of Puerto Rico (1493)
• United States - Equal Opportunity Day
• United States - National Children's Book Week Begins
• United Arab Emirates - Pilgrimage

See also

November 18 - November 20 - October 19 - December 19 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Referenced By