January 19

Historic Events

2025

Bytedance and sister companies are banned from the United States for "security concerns". ›

2024

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's probe lands on the moon, making Japan the 5th country to land a spacecraft on the moon. ›

2014

A bomb attack on an army convoy in the city of Bannu kills at least 26 Pakistani soldiers and injures 38 others. ›

2012

The Hong Kong-based file-sharing website Megaupload is shut down by the FBI. ›

2007

Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink is assassinated in front of his newspaper's Istanbul office by 17-year-old Turkish ultra-nationalist Ogün Samast. ›

2007

Four-man Team N2i, using only skis and kites, completes a 1,093-mile (1,759 km) trek to reach the Antarctic pole of inaccessibility for the first time since 1965 and for the first time ever without mechanical assistance. ›

2006

A Slovak Air Force Antonov An-24 crashes near Hejce, Hungary, killing 42. ›

1999

British Aerospace agrees to acquire the defence subsidiary of the General Electric Company, forming BAE Systems in November 1999. ›

1997

Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron after more than 30 years and joins celebrations over the handover of the last Israeli-controlled West Bank city. ›

1996

The barge North Cape oil spill occurs as an engine fire forces the tugboat Scandia ashore on Moonstone Beach in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. ›

1995

After being struck by lightning the crew of Bristow Helicopters Flight 56C are forced to ditch. All 18 aboard are later rescued. ›

1993

Czech Republic and Slovakia join the United Nations. ›

1991

Gulf War: Iraq fires a second Scud missile into Israel, causing 15 injuries. ›

1990

Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir Valley in Indian-administered Kashmir due to an insurgency. ›

1988

Trans-Colorado Airlines Flight 2286 crashes in Bayfield, Colorado, killing nine. ›

1981

Iran hostage crisis: United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity. ›

1978

The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW's plant in Emden. Beetle production in Latin America continues until 2003. ›

1977

President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino (a.k.a. "Tokyo Rose"). ›

1969

Student Jan Palach dies after setting himself on fire three days earlier in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest about the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968. His funeral turns into another major protest. ›

1966

Indira Gandhi becomes India's first female prime minister. ›

1960

Japan and the United States sign the US–Japan Mutual Security Treaty ›

1960

Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 871 crashes near Ankara Esenboğa Airport in Turkey, killing all 42 aboard. ›

1953

Almost 72 percent of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth. ›

1946

General Douglas MacArthur establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo to try Japanese war criminals. ›

1945

World War II: Soviet forces liberate the Łódź Ghetto. Of more than 200,000 inhabitants in 1940, fewer than 900 had survived the Nazi occupation. ›

1942

World War II: The Japanese conquest of Burma begins. ›

1941

World War II: HMS Greyhound and other escorts of convoy AS-12 sink Italian submarine Neghelli with all hands 64 kilometres (40 mi) northeast of Falkonera. ›

1937

Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in seven hours, 28 minutes, 25 seconds. ›

1920

The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations. ›

1920

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is founded. ›

1917

Silvertown explosion: A blast at a munitions factory in London kills 73 and injures over 400. The resulting fire causes over £2,000,000 worth of damage. ›

1915

Georges Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising. ›

1915

German strategic bombing during World War I: German zeppelins bomb the towns of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in the United Kingdom killing at least 20 people, in the first major aerial bombardment of a civilian target. ›

1901

Queen Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom, is stricken with paralysis. She dies three days later at the age of 81. ›

1899

Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is formed. ›

1883

The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey. ›

1871

Franco-Prussian War: In the Siege of Paris, Prussia wins the Battle of St. Quentin. Meanwhile, the French attempt to break the siege in the Battle of Buzenval will end unsuccessfully the following day. ›

1862

American Civil War: Battle of Mill Springs: The Confederacy suffers its first significant defeat in the conflict. ›

1861

American Civil War: Georgia joins South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama in declaring secession from the United States. ›

1853

Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il trovatore receives its premiere performance in Rome. ›

1839

The British East India Company captures Aden. ›

1829

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust: The First Part of the Tragedy receives its premiere performance. ›

1817

An army of 5,423 soldiers, led by General José de San Martín, crosses the Andes from Argentina to liberate Chile and then Peru. ›

1795

The Batavian Republic is proclaimed in the Netherlands, replacing the Dutch Republic. ›

1788

The second group of ships of the First Fleet arrive at Botany Bay. ›

1764

John Wilkes is expelled from the British House of Commons for seditious libel. ›

1764

Bolle Willum Luxdorph records in his diary that a mail bomb, possibly the world's first, has severely injured the Danish Colonel Poulsen, residing at Børglum Abbey. ›

1639

Hämeenlinna (Swedish: Tavastehus) is granted privileges after it separated from the Vanaja parish as its own city in Tavastia. ›

1607

San Agustin Church in Manila is officially completed; it is the oldest church still standing in the Philippines. ›

1520

Sten Sture the Younger, the Regent of Sweden, is mortally wounded at the Battle of Bogesund and dies on February 3. ›

1511

The Italian Duchy of Mirandola surrenders to the Pope. ›

1421

John VIII Palaiologos marries Sophia of Montferrat and is then crowned Byzantine co-emperor to his father Manuel II Palaiologos. ›

1419

Hundred Years' War: Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England, completing his reconquest of Normandy. ›

649

Conquest of Kucha: The forces of Kucha surrender after a forty-day siege led by Tang dynasty general Ashina She'er, establishing Tang control over the northern Tarim Basin in Xinjiang. ›

379

Emperor Gratian elevates Flavius Theodosius at Sirmium to Augustus, and gives him authority over all the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. ›