April 19 is the 109th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (110th in leap years). There are 256 days remaining.
Events:
- 1539 - The Treaty of Frankfurt was signed.
- 1587 - Sir Francis Drake sank the Spanish fleet in Cadiz Harbor.
- 1770 - Captain James Cook first spots Australia.
- 1775 - General Thomas Gage attempts to confiscate American colonists' firearms. However, a system of signals and word-of-mouth communication forewarns American militias of the approach of the British troops, and they are met first by 77 Minute Men at Lexington Green, whom the British drove off, and then by 300 to 400 colonists at the North Bridge in Concord, who drove the British back to Boston. The American Revolutionary War begins.
- 1839 - Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom.
- 1904 - much of Toronto, Canada was destroyed by fire.
- 1909 - Joan of Arc was declared a saint.
- 1919 - Leslie Irvin of the United States made the first successful parachute jump and free fall.
- 1933 - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt announced the US would be leaving the gold standard.
- 1934 - Shirley Temple debuts in Stand Up and Cheer.
- 1938 - RCA-NBC begins first regular TV broadcasts.
- 1943 - German troops during World War II entered the Warsaw ghetto to round up the remaining Jews, starting the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
- 1951 - General Douglas MacArthur retires from the military.
- 1956 - Actress Grace Kelly married Prince Ranier of Monaco.
- 1961 - Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba ends in failure
- 1971 - Sierra Leone becomes a republic.
- 1971 - Charles Manson was sentence to life in prison for the Sharon Tate murders.
- 1987 - The Simpsons made their first appearance on TV, in the short episode called "Good Night"
- 1989 - a gun turret exploded on the U.S.S. Iowa, killing 47 sailors.
- 1993 - the 50-day siege of the Branch Davidian complex outside Waco, Texas ended when a fire broke out. Eighty-one people died in the fire.
- 1995 - Timothy McVeigh killed 168 people in the largest terrorist attack to that time on American soil when he blew up a car bomb outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
- 1999 - German Parliament returns to Berlin.
Births:
- 1320 - King Pedro I of Portugal
- 1721 - Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence
- 1721 - Thomas McKean, signer of the Declaration of Independence
- 1752 - Friederike Brion, gril-friend of Goethe (+ 1813)
- 1892 - Germaine Tailleferre, composer (+ 1983)
- 1900 - Richard Hughes, novelist (+ 1976)
- 1903 - Eliot Ness
- 1912 - Glenn Seaborg
- 1927 - Erma Bombeck
- 1928 - Alexis Korner, rock musician (+ 1984)
- 1930 - Dick Sargent
- 1933 - Jayne Mansfield
- 1935 - Dudley Moore
- 1942 - Frank Elstner, showmaster
- 1944 - Bernie Worrell, keyboardist (originally with P Funk)
- 1946 - Tim Curry, actor
- 1949 - Paloma Picasso, painter
- 1962 - Al Unser, Jr.
- 1968 - Ashley Judd, actor
- 1969 - Danielle Folta
- 1979 - Kate Hudson, actor
- 1981 - Hayden Christensen
Deaths:
- 1054 - Pope Leo IX
- 1390 - King Robert II of Scotland
- 1689 - Christina of Sweden
- 1813 - Benjamin Rush
- 1824 - Lord Byron
- 1881 - Benjamin Disraeli
- 1882 - Charles Darwin
- 1906 - Pierre Curie
- 1919 - Emiliano Zapata
- 1958 - Robert Bentley
- 1967 - Konrad Adenauer
- 1980 - Alfred Hitchcock
- 1989 - Daphne Du Maurier
- 1992 - Frankie Howerd
- 1998 - Octavio Paz
Holidays and Observances:
- Patriot's Day (Massachusetts)
- Declaration of Independence Day (Venezuela)
- Republic Day (Sierra Leone)
- Landing of the 33 (Uruguay)
- Primrose Day (England)
- Cerealia (Roman Empire)
See Also:
April 18 - April 20 - March 19 - May 19 -- listing of all days
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December