Events on April 19 40
Year 531
Battle of Callinicum: A Byzantine army under Belisarius is defeated by the Persians at Raqqa (northern Syria).
Year 797
Empress Irene organizes a conspiracy against her son, the Byzantine emperor Constantine VI. He is deposed and blinded. Shortly after, Constantine dies of his wounds; Irene proclaims herself basileus.
Year 1506
The Lisbon Massacre begins, in which accused Jews are being slaughtered by Portuguese Catholics.
Year 1529
Beginning of the Protestant Reformation: After the Second Diet of Speyer bans Lutheranism, a group of rulers (German: Fürst) and independent cities protests the reinstatement of the Edict of Worms.
Year 1713
With no living male heirs, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to ensure that Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would be inherited by his daughter, Maria Theresa (not actually born until 1717).
Year 1770
Captain James Cook, still holding the rank of lieutenant, sights the eastern coast of what is now Australia.
Year 1775
American Revolutionary War: The war begins with an American victory in Concord during the battles of Lexington and Concord.
Year 1782
John Adams secures the Dutch Republic's recognition of the United States as an independent government. The house which he had purchased in The Hague, Netherlands becomes the first American embassy.
Year 1809
An Austrian corps is defeated by the forces of the Duchy of Warsaw in the Battle of Raszyn, part of the struggles of the Fifth Coalition. On the same day the Austrian main army is defeated by a First French Empire Corps led by Louis-Nicolas Davout at the Battle of Teugen-Hausen in Bavaria, part of a four-day campaign that ended in a French victory.
Year 1810
Venezuela achieves home rule: Vicente Emparán, Governor of the Captaincy General is removed by the people of Caracas and a junta is installed.
Year 1839
The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom and guarantees its neutrality.
Year 1861
American Civil War: Baltimore riot of 1861: A pro-Secession mob in Baltimore attacks United States Army troops marching through the city.
Year 1903
The Kishinev pogrom in Kishinev (Bessarabia) begins, forcing tens of thousands of Jews to later seek refuge in Palestine and the Western world.
Year 1942
World War II: In Poland, the Majdan-Tatarski ghetto is established, situated between the Lublin Ghetto and a Majdanek subcamp.
Year 1943
World War II: In Poland, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins, after German troops enter the Warsaw Ghetto to round up the remaining Jews.
Year 1960
Students in South Korea hold a nationwide pro-democracy protest against president Syngman Rhee, eventually forcing him to resign.
Year 1971
Charles Manson is sentenced to death (later commuted to life imprisonment) for conspiracy in the Tate-LaBianca murders.
Year 1973
The Portuguese Socialist Party is founded in the German town of Bad Münstereifel.
Year 1984
Advance Australia Fair is proclaimed as Australia's national anthem, and green and gold as the national colours.
Year 1985
Two hundred ATF and FBI agents lay siege to the compound of the white supremacist survivalist group The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord in Arkansas; the CSA surrenders two days later.
Year 1987
The Simpsons first appear as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, first starting with Good Night.
Year 1993
The 51-day FBI siege of the Branch Davidian building in Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. 76 Davidians including 18 children under the age of 10 died in the fire.
Year 1995
Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, USA, is bombed, killing 168 people including 19 children under the age of 6.
Year 1997
The 1997 Red River flood overwhelms the city of Grand Forks, North Dakota. Fire breaks out and spreads in downtown Grand Forks, but high water levels hamper efforts to reach the fire, leading to the destruction of 11 buildings.
Year 2005
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected to the papacy and becomes Pope Benedict XVI.
Year 2011
Fidel Castro resigns as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba after holding the title since July 1961.
Year 2013
Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is killed in a shootout with police. His brother Dzhokhar is later captured hiding in a boat inside a backyard in the suburb of Watertown.
Year ?
The freedman Milichus betrays Piso's plot to kill the Emperor Nero and all the conspirators are arrested.