November 19

Historic Events

2023

The 2023 Cricket World Cup final takes place at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India, played between host nation India and Australia. ›

2022

A gunman kills five and injures 17 at Club Q, a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado. ›

2013

A double suicide bombing at the Iranian embassy in Beirut kills 23 people and injures 160 others. ›

2010

The first of four explosions takes place at the Pike River Mine in New Zealand. Twenty-nine people are killed in the nation's worst mining disaster since 1914. ›

2004

The worst brawl in NBA history results in several players being suspended. Several players and fans are charged with assault and battery. ›

2002

The Greek oil tanker Prestige splits in half and sinks off the coast of Galicia, releasing over 76,000 m3 (20 million US gal) of oil in the largest environmental disaster in Spanish and Portuguese history. ›

2001

The Aviation and Transportation Security Act is enacted by the 107th United States Congress in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Act created the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). ›

1999

Shenzhou 1: The People's Republic of China launches its first Shenzhou spacecraft. ›

1999

John Carpenter becomes the first person to win the top prize in the TV game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? ›

1998

Clinton–Lewinsky scandal: The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee begins impeachment hearings into U.S. President Bill Clinton. ›

1997

Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-87. ›

1996

Space Shuttle program: Columbia is launched on STS-80, which would become the longest mission in the program at 17 days. On this mission, astronaut Story Musgrave becomes the only astronaut to fly on all five space shuttles. ›

1996

A Beechcraft 1900 and a Beechcraft King Air collide at Quincy Regional Airport in Quincy, Illinois, killing 14. ›

1994

In the United Kingdom, the first National Lottery draw is held. A £1 ticket gave a one-in-14-million chance of correctly guessing the winning six out of 49 numbers. ›

1993

A factory fire killed 87 and injured 51 in Shenzhen, China. ›

1988

Serbian communist representative and future Serbian and Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević publicly declares that Serbia is under attack from Albanian separatists in Kosovo as well as internal treachery within Yugoslavia and a foreign conspiracy to destroy Serbia and Yugoslavia. ›

1985

Cold War: In Geneva, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time. ›

1985

Pennzoil wins a US$10.53 billion judgment against Texaco, in the largest civil verdict in the history of the United States, stemming from Texaco executing a contract to buy Getty Oil after Pennzoil had entered into an unsigned, yet still binding, buyout contract with Getty. ›

1985

Police in Baling, Malaysia, lay siege to houses occupied by an Islamic sect of about 400 people led by Ibrahim Mahmud. ›

1984

San Juanico disaster: A series of explosions at the Pemex petroleum storage facility at San Juan Ixhuatepec in Mexico City starts a major fire and kills about 500 people. ›

1979

Iran hostage crisis: Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini orders the release of 13 female and black American hostages being held at the US Embassy in Tehran. ›

1977

TAP Air Portugal Flight 425 crashes in the Madeira Islands, killing 131. ›

1969

Apollo program: Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum (the "Ocean of Storms") and become the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon. ›

1969

Association football player Pelé scores his 1,000th goal. ›

1967

The establishment of TVB, the first wireless commercial television station in Hong Kong. ›

1955

National Review publishes its first issue. ›

1954

Télé Monte Carlo, Europe's oldest private television channel, is launched by Prince Rainier III. ›

1952

Greek Field Marshal Alexander Papagos becomes the 152nd Prime Minister of Greece. ›

1950

US General Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes Supreme Commander of NATO-Europe. ›

1946

Afghanistan, Iceland and Sweden join the United Nations. ›

1944

World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces the sixth War Loan Drive, aimed at selling US$14 billion in war bonds to help pay for the war effort. ›

1944

World War II: Thirty members of the Luxembourgish resistance defend the town of Vianden against a larger Waffen-SS attack in the Battle of Vianden. ›

1944

The founding congress of the Communist Party of Transcarpathian Ukraine is held in Mukachevo. ›

1943

The Holocaust: Nazis liquidate Janowska concentration camp in Lemberg (Lviv), western Ukraine, murdering at least 6,000 Jews after a failed uprising and mass escape attempt. ›

1942

World War II: Battle of Stalingrad: Soviet Union forces under General Georgy Zhukov launch the Operation Uranus counterattacks at Stalingrad, turning the tide of the battle in the USSR's favor. ›

1942

Mutesa II is crowned the 35th and last Kabaka (king) of Buganda, prior to the restoration of the kingdom in 1993. ›

1941

World War II: Battle between HMAS Sydney and HSK Kormoran. The two ships sink each other off the coast of Western Australia, with the loss of 645 Australians and about 77 German seamen. ›

1916

Samuel Goldwyn and Edgar Selwyn establish Goldwyn Pictures. ›

1912

First Balkan War: The Serbian Army captures Bitola, ending the five-century-long Ottoman rule of Macedonia. ›

1911

The Doom Bar in Cornwall claims two ships, Island Maid and Angele, the latter killing the entire crew except the captain. ›

1885

Serbo-Bulgarian War: Bulgarian victory in the Battle of Slivnitsa solidifies the unification between the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia. ›

1881

A meteorite lands near the village of Grossliebenthal, southwest of Odesa, Ukraine. ›

1863

American Civil War: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address at the dedication ceremony for the military cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. ›

1847

The second Canadian railway line, the Montreal and Lachine Railroad, is opened. ›

1816

Warsaw University is established. ›

1808

Finnish War: The Convention of Olkijoki in Raahe ends hostilities in Finland. ›

1802

The Garinagu arrive at British Honduras (present-day Belize). ›

1794

The United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain sign Jay's Treaty, which attempts to resolve some of the lingering problems left over from the American Revolutionary War. ›

1646

The current Saint Peter's Basilica is consecrated in Rome, replacing an earlier basilica on the same site. ›

636

The Rashidun Caliphate defeats the Sasanian Empire at the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah in Iraq. ›

461

Libius Severus is declared emperor of the Western Roman Empire. The real power is in the hands of the magister militum Ricimer. ›