Events on December 19 41
Year 211
Publius Septimius Geta, co-emperor of Rome, is lured to come without his bodyguards to meet his brother Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Caracalla), to discuss a possible reconciliation. When he arrives, the Praetorian Guard murders him and he dies in the arms of his mother, Julia Domna.
Year 1490
Anne, Duchess of Brittany, is married to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor by proxy.
Year 1606
The Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery depart England carrying settlers who founded, at Jamestown, Virginia, the first of the thirteen colonies that became the United States.
Year 1675
The Great Swamp Fight, a pivotal battle in King Philip's War, gives the English settlers a bitterly won victory.
Year 1776
Thomas Paine publishes one of a series of pamphlets in The Pennsylvania Journal entitled "The American Crisis".
Year 1777
American Revolutionary War: George Washington's Continental Army goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
Year 1796
French Revolutionary Wars: Two British frigates under Commodore Horatio Nelson and two Spanish frigates under Commodore Don Jacobo Stuart engage in battle off the coast of Murcia.
Year 1828
Nullification Crisis: Vice President of the United States John C. Calhoun pens the South Carolina Exposition and Protest, protesting the Tariff of 1828.
Year 1900
Hopetoun Blunder: The first Governor-General of Australia John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun, appoints Sir William Lyne premier of the new state of New South Wales, but he is unable to persuade other colonial politicians to join his government and is forced to resign.
Year 1907
Two hundred thirty-nine coal miners die in the Darr Mine Disaster in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania.
Year 1912
William Van Schaick, captain of the steamship General Slocum which caught fire and killed over one thousand people, is pardoned by U.S. President William Howard Taft after three-and-a-half-years in Sing Sing prison.
Year 1920
King Constantine I is restored as King of the Hellenes after the death of his son Alexander of Greece and a plebiscite.
Year 1927
Three Indian revolutionaries, Ram Prasad Bismil, Roshan Singh and Ashfaqulla Khan, are executed by the British Empire.
Year 1941
World War II: Adolf Hitler appoints himself as head of the Oberkommando des Heeres.
Year 1941
World War II: Limpet mines placed by Italian divers heavily damage the HMS Valiant and HMS Queen Elizabeth in Alexandria harbour.
Year 1945
John Amery, British Fascist, at the age of 33 executed by the British Government for treason.
Year 1956
Irish-born physician John Bodkin Adams is arrested in connection with the suspicious deaths of more than 160 patients. Eventually he is convicted only of minor charges.
Year 1972
Apollo program: The last manned lunar flight, Apollo 17, crewed by Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Harrison Schmitt, returns to Earth.
Year 1974
Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as Vice President of the United States under President Gerald Ford under the provisions of the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Year 1981
Sixteen lives are lost when the Penlee lifeboat goes to the aid of the stricken coaster Union Star in heavy seas.
Year 1983
The original FIFA World Cup trophy, the Jules Rimet Trophy, is stolen from the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Year 1984
The Sino-British Joint Declaration, stating that China would resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong and the United Kingdom would restore Hong Kong to China with effect from July 1, 1997 is signed in Beijing, China by Deng Xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher.
Year 1986
Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union, releases Andrei Sakharov and his wife from exile in Gorky.
Year 1995
The United States Government restores federal recognition to the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Native American tribe.
Year 1997
SilkAir Flight 185 crashes into the Musi River, near Palembang in Indonesia, killing 104.
Year 1998
President Bill Clinton is impeached by the United States House of Representatives, becoming the second President of the United States to be impeached.
Year 2000
The Leninist Guerrilla Units wing of the Communist Labour Party of Turkey/Leninist attack a Nationalist Movement Party office in Istanbul, Turkey, killing one person and injuring three.
Year 2001
A record high barometric pressure of 1085.6 hPa (32.06 inHg) is recorded at Tosontsengel, Khövsgöl, Mongolia.
Year 2001
Argentine economic crisis: December riots: Riots erupt in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Year 2016
Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov is assassinated while at an art exhibition in Ankara. The assassin, Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş, is shot and killed by Turkish guards.
Year 2016
A vehicular attack in Berlin, Germany, kills and injures multiple people at a Christmas market.