April 19th in History

Michael Dobson | April 19

Mae West in Go West, Young Man

Today in History

  • Marie Antoinette marries Louis XVI by proxy (1770)
  • American Colonial forces defeat the British at the Battles of Lexington and Concord (1775)
  • Mae West is sentenced to ten days in jail for obscenity (1927)
  • The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins (1943)
  • General Douglas MacArthur retires from the military (1951)
  • Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco (1956)
  • The Soviets launch Salyut 1 (Салют-1), the first space station (1971)
  • Charles Manson is sentenced to death (1971)
  • India launches its first satellite, Aryabhata (1975)
  • The Simpsons premiers as a short cartoon on The Tracy Ullman Show (1987)
  • The Branch Davidian siege ends with a fire that kills 81 (1993)
  • Domestic terrorists bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 (1995)
  • Fidel Castro resigns from the central committee of the Communist Part of Cuba (2011)
  • One of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects is killed and his brother arrested (2013)

Birthdays

  • Roger Sherman, US founding father (1721)
  • Deaf Smith, frontiersman (1787)
  • Ole Evinrude, outboard motor inventor (1877)
  • Eliot Ness, untouchable lawman (1903)
  • Erich Hartmann, most successful fighter ace in history (1922)
  • Hugh O’Brian, actor (1925)
  • Dick Sargent, second Darrin (1930)
  • Jayne Mansfield, sex symbol (1933)
  • Dudley Moore, comic and pianist (1935)
  • Elinor Donahue, actress (1937)
  • Tim Curry, sweet transvestite from Transylvania (1946)
  • Paloma Picasso, fashion designer (1949)
  • Suge Knight, rap producer (1965)
  • Ashley Judd, actress (1968)
  • Jesse James, motorcycle builder (1969)
  • James Franco, filmmaker (1978)
  • Kate Hudson, actress and singer (1979)
  • Hayden Christensen, actor (1981)

Deaths

  • Thomas Bastard, unfortunately named clergyman and epigrammatist (1618)
  • Canaletto, painter (1768)
  • Benjamin Rush, US founding father (1813)
  • Lord Byron, poet (1824)
  • Benjamin Disraeli, prime minister (1881)
  • Charles Darwin, evolutionary biologist (1882)
  • Pierre Curie, physicist and Marie’s husband (1906)
  • Konrad Adenauer, German chancellor (1967)
  • Daphne DuMaurier, author (1989)
  • David Koresh, cult leader (1993)
  • Octavio Pax, Nobel Prize winning poet (1998)
  • Norris McWhirter, co-founder of the Guinness Book of World Records (2004)
  • Ruth Hussey, actress (2005)
  • J. G. Ballard, author (2009)
  • Levon Helm, Band leader (2012)
  • Alan Arbus, M*A*S*H psychiatrist (2013)
  • E. L. Konigsburg, children’s author (2013)
  • Al Neuharth, newspaper publisher (2013)

Holidays and Celebrations

  • Bicycle Day (marking the first use of LSD by pharmaceutical researcher Albert Hofmann, who took some before riding his bicycle home on April 19, 1943)
  • Diez y nueve de abril (Beginning of the Independence Movement Day) (Venezuela)
  • Dutch-American Friendship Day (US, recognizing the day the Netherlands became the first nation to recognize the fledgling United States of America)
  • Indian Day (Brazil, celebrating indigenous peoples)
  • King Mswati III’s Birthday (Swaziland)
  • National Amaretto Day (US food holidays)
  • National Garlic Day (US food holidays)
  • National Health Day (Kiribati)
  • Patriot’s Day (Massachusetts, Maine, Wisconsin)
  • Primrose Day (UK, anniversary of the death of Benjamin Disraeli, whose favorite flower was the primrose)
  • Treinta y Tres Orientales (Landing of the 33) (Uruguay, celebrating a key movement in Uruguay’s fight for independence from Brazil)
Informal and made-up holidays include Auctioneers Day, Husband Appreciation Day, John Parker Day, and National Hanging Out Day. (John Parker gave the “stand your ground” order during the Battle of Lexington.)
• • •
April 19 is the 109th day of the year (110th in leap years). There are 256 days remaining until the end of the year.