120 things happened on 19 December, from AD 401 to 2021. UK stories come first, then the rest of the world.
1154 · 872 years ago
Henry II was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey in London. He reigned until his death in 1189. As well as England, he controlled parts of Wales and Ireland and much of France, an area later called the Angevin Empire. For a time he also held power ov…
UK history first: stories from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
UK story
Henry II was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey in London. He reigned until his death in 1189. As well as England, he controlled parts of Wales and Ireland and much of France, an area later called the Angevin Empire. For a time he also held power over Scotland.
UK story
William Pitt became Prime Minister at the age of 24, the youngest person ever to hold the job. He is called 'Pitt the Younger' because his father, William Pitt the Elder, had also been Prime Minister. In 1801 he became the first official Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He was also Chancellor of the Exchequer, in charge of the nation's money.
UK story
Charles Dickens's short novel A Christmas Carol was published in London. Its main character, Ebenezer Scrooge, is an old miser, a person who hates spending money. He is visited by the ghost of his old business partner, Jacob Marley, and then by three Christmas spirits. In the end, Scrooge becomes a kinder, gentler man.
UK story
The last Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost car was sold in London. The model, first called the '40/50 h.p.', was built in Manchester, then Derby, and later also in the United States. The name came from one particular car, registered AX 201, which was called the 'Silver Ghost'. Newspapers used the name so much that soon all these cars were called Silver Ghosts.
UK story
The BBC began broadcasting its Empire Service to listeners in other countries. It is now called the BBC World Service. It broadcasts news and discussions in more than 40 languages to many parts of the world. In 2024 it reached an average of 450 million people every week.
UK story
The governments of the United Kingdom and China signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration. It set out how Hong Kong would pass to China on 1 July 1997, and how it would be run. Britain had ruled Hong Kong since 1841. The handover took place at midnight on that date, ending 156 years of British rule.
UK story
The ships Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery depart England carrying settlers who founded, at Jamestown, Virginia, the first of the thirteen colonies that became the United States.
UK story
The Great Swamp Fight, a pivotal battle in King Philip's War, gives the English settlers a bitterly won victory.
UK story
Glorious Revolution: Williamite forces defeat Jacobites at Battle of Reading, forcing James II to flee England.
UK story
War of the First Coalition: The Siege of Toulon ends when Napoleon's French artillery forces the British to abandon the city, securing southern France from invasion.
UK story
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.
UK story
World War II: Limpet mines placed by Italian divers heavily damage HMS Valiant and HMS Queen Elizabeth in Alexandria harbour.
Thomas Paine published the first of his pamphlets called The American Crisis, in The Pennsylvania Journal. It begins with the famous line: 'These are the times that try men's souls.' Paine was born in England, but his writing helped inspire American colonists to declare independence from Great Britain. He signed the pamphlets 'Common Sense', the title of his earlier pamphlet.
The Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans and Harrison Schmitt returned to Earth. Theirs was the last crewed flight to the Moon. The mission carried many science experiments, including five mice that orbited the Moon with Evans. The Apollo program had landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969.
Space Shuttle Discovery was launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the third mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. The launch had been delayed by 13 days because of technical problems and bad weather. It was the only Shuttle mission to be in space over Christmas. Discovery landed back on Earth on 27 December.
The European Space Agency launched the Gaia spacecraft, which worked until 2025. Its job was to measure the positions, distances and movements of stars more precisely than ever before. Its data is being used to build the largest, most precise 3D map of space ever made. The map will include about a billion objects, mostly stars.
Pope Clement III is elected.
Anne, Duchess of Brittany, is married to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor by proxy.
The Battle of Dreux takes place during the French Wars of Religion.
American Revolutionary War: George Washington's Continental Army goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
Nullification crisis: American vice president John C. Calhoun's South Carolina Exposition and Protest, written to protest the Tariff of Abominations, was presented to the South Carolina House of Representatives.
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.
The Indian National Congress promulgates the Purna Swaraj (the Declaration of the Independence of India).
Risto Ryti, the Prime Minister of Finland, is elected President of the Republic of Finland in a presidential election, which is exceptionally held by the 1937 electoral college.
Start of the First Indochina War.
India annexes Daman and Diu, part of Portuguese India.
The ruling junta of South Vietnam, led by Nguyễn Khánh, initiated a coup, dissolving the High National Council, a civilian advisory body.
Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as Vice President of the United States under President Gerald Ford under the provisions of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union, releases Andrei Sakharov and his wife from exile in Gorky.
The United States Government restores federal recognition to the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Native American tribe.
Titanic, the fourth-highest-grossing film of all time with a worldwide total of more than US$2.2 billion, was released in the United States.
President Bill Clinton is impeached by the United States House of Representatives, becoming the second president of the United States to be impeached.
Park Geun-hye is elected the first female president of South Korea.
Every answer is somewhere on this page. Have a go, then check!
In which year did this happen: “Henry II is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey”?
C: 1154. 1154 — that’s 872 years ago. Find it on the page
In which year did this happen: “Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol is published”?
C: 1843. 1843 — that’s 183 years ago. Find it on the page
Which of these happened first?
B: Henry II is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey. 1984: Britain and China agree the future of Hong Kong · 1154: Henry II is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey · 1843: Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol is published Find it on the page
“Britain and China agree the future of Hong Kong” happened in 1984. How many years ago was that?
B: 42 years. 2026 − 1984 = 42. Find it on the page
Famous people whose birthday is 19 December.
Well-known people who died on 19 December.
Festivals, holidays and saints’ days celebrated on 19 December somewhere in the world.
Content note: these entries mention things like war, violence, deaths, disasters or crime. They are part of history, but they can be upsetting. Grown-ups and teachers: you may want to read them first. They come straight from Wikipedia and have not been rewritten for children.
Stories with a heading have been written for young readers by A Day in the Past, using the linked articles as sources. Other entries show text from Wikipedia’s “December 19” page and its “On this day” feed, written by Wikipedia contributors and shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. Each “Read more” link goes to the article an entry is based on. Photos are credited under each picture. Spotted a mistake? Please tell us.