April 19

1529 At the 1529 Second Diet of Speyer the princes within the Holy Roman Empire were denied the right to choose which religious reforms would take effect in their individual states. Instead, everyone was told to return to the Catholic religion. On April 19, 1529, six of Germany's Lutheran princes and the burghers of 14 cities vigorously protested against the findings. As a result the word "Protestant" was first used for those who protested against the intolerant decisions of the Catholic majority there.

1541 On April 19, 1541, Ignatius of Loyola became the first Superior General of the Jesuits. As Superior General, he established many schools and colleges and sent missionaries to Brazil, India and Japan. The Jesuit order was organized in a military fashion. Its members looked upon themselves as "Knights in the Service of Jesus."

1622 Armand du Plessis, who was later known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a French clergyman and statesman who rose to prominence during the reign of King Louis XIII. He was appointed Bishop of Luçon in 1607 and was later made a cardinal by Pope Gregory XV on April 19, 1622, at the age of 38. Richelieu was a key figure in French politics, serving as chief minister to Louis XIII from 1624 until his death in 1642. 

Cardinal de Richelieu by Philippe de Champaigne (1642)

1770 Lieutenant James Cook sighted the south-eastern coast of what is now Australia on April 19, 1770. In doing so his expedition became the first recorded Europeans to have encountered its eastern coastline. Ten days later James Cook and his crew of HMS Endeavour arrived at and named Botany Bay, near present-day Sydney.

1775 The Siege of Boston was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War. New England militiamen prevented the movement by land of the British Army garrisoned in what was then the peninsular town of Boston. It started on April 19, 1775 after the Battles of Lexington and Concord, and ended on March 17, 1776 when British forces evacuated the city, after George Washington and Henry Knox placed artillery in positions overlooking Boston.

1808 Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, later known as Napoleon III, was born in Paris on the night of April 19-20, 1808. His father was Louis Bonaparte, the younger brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, who was Louis the King of Holland 1806 -1810. His mother was Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter by the first marriage of Napoleon's wife Joséphine de Beauharnais. Charles-Louis attended the gymnasium school at Augsburg, Bavaria. As a result, his French had a slight but noticeable German accent.

1810 The Venezuelan port Nueva Cádiz was the first Spanish town to be established in South America in 1528. Three hundred years later, Venezuela became the first country in the region to start the struggle against Spanish rule. A group of Caracas Creoles including Simón Bolívar deposed the Spanish colonial regime led by Captain General Vicente Emparán on April 19, 1810 and established the First Republic of Venezuela.

1824 The English Romantic Poet Lord Byron traveled to Greece intending to serve the cause of Greek independence.  However. he died in the evening of April 19, 1824 after days of rheumatic fever caught from Missolonghi marshes before he could achieve much. He passed away from a loss of blood due to Greek doctors attempting to cure his fits by leeches. The citizens of Missolonghi observed a mourning period of 21 days.

Lord Byron on His Deathbed, by Joseph Denis Odevaere (c. 1826)

1839 In 1831, the European powers agreed to fix the borders of the new country of Belgium, splitting it from Holland. Leopold I was inaugurated as the first King of the Belgians the same year. The Treaty of London of 1839, signed on April 19, 1839 was a direct follow-up to the 1831 Treaty of the XVIII Articles which the Netherlands had refused to sign. Under the treaty, the European powers recognized and guaranteed the independence and neutrality of Belgium.

1861 The first bloodshed of the American Civil War took place on April 19, 1861 when Confederate sympathizers in Baltimore, Maryland, attacked members of the Massachusetts militia on the route to Washington, D.C. Four soldiers (Corporal Sumner Henry Needham of Company I and privates Luther C. Ladd, Charles Taylor, and Addison Whitney of Company D) and twelve civilians were killed in the riot.

Baltimore Riot of 1861 engraving of F.F. Walker (1861)

1876 Sir William Wilde died on April 19, 1876. Ireland's leading ear and eye surgeon, he invented the "Ophtholmosope" an instrument for inspecting the interior of the eye especially for focusing on the retina. A renowned philanthropist, and his dispensary for the care of the city's poor, situated in Lincoln Place at the rear of Trinity College, Dublin was the forerunner of the Dublin Eye and Ear Hospital, now located at Adelaide Road. He was the father of Oscar Wilde.

1881 English Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli died on April 19, 1881 from bronchial asthma at 19 Curzon Street, London. Lying on his deathbed, Disraeli was asked if he would like Queen Victoria to visit him. "No, it is better not", he mumbled, "She would only ask me to take a message to Albert."

1881 April 19th is traditionally Primrose Day, marking the death of British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli on April 19, 1881. Every year on April 19 primroses are placed by Disraeli’s statue outside Westminster Abbey. The Queen’s primrose wreath bore a note saying "his favorite flower" but it has never been clear whether she meant Disraeli’s favorite flower or her late husband Prince Albert’s.

 The Primrose Tomb This is the tomb of Benjamin Disraeli. Rob Farrow

1882 Charles Darwin had a heart attack whilst calling upon a friend in 1881. This was followed by a series more of them and he died aged 73 at Down House on April 19, 1882. His last words were "I am not in the least afraid to die". Darwin had a state funeral accompanied by Beethoven's Funeral March watched by representatives from all over the world.

1897 The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon always held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. It was first run on April 19, 1897, inspired by the success of the first modern-day marathon competition in the 1896 Summer Olympics. The inaugural winner was John J. "JJ" McDermott, who ran the 24.5 mile course in 2:55:10, leading a field of 15. It is the world's oldest annual marathon and the second longest continuously running footrace in North America, after the Buffalo Turkey Trot.

Boston Marathon 1910 

1897 Japanese man Jiroemon Kimura was born on April 19, 1897. He died 116 years and 54 days later, having become the first man to indisputably reach 116 years of age. Kimura worked as a postal worker for most of his life and attributed his longevity to eating small portions of food, taking regular walks, and keeping a positive outlook on life. 

1906 Pierre Curie, the French physicist and husband of Marie Curie, was killed in a street accident on April 19, 1906.  He was crossing the Rue Dauphine in Paris where it turns into the Quai Conti on a wet day. As he left the pavement to cross the street a cab/long load pulled by two Percherons came trotting smartly around the corner. In attempting to get out of the way Pierre slipped on the roadway and fell under the wheels of a heavy van coming in the opposite direction.

Pierre and Marie Curie

1951 The first Miss World beauty contest took place at the Lyceum Ballroom in London on April 19, 1951. It actually was originally called Festive Bikini Contest, but the media panned it as Miss World, and it retained that name from then on. The competition was won by Sweden’s Kiki Hakansson.

1956 Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier married on April 19, 1956 in a large formal ceremony at Monaco's Cathedral of St. Nicholas. The three-hour public event was televised and was watched by thirty million people, a huge amount of viewers for the time. Grace Kelly wore an elaborate ivory dress created by Hollywood designer Helen Rose. Four hundred fifty yards of silk and lace were used to make the bride's wedding gown.

1971 Salyut 1 was the first space station launched into orbit by the Soviet Union, and it was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on April 19, 1971. The space station was designed to study the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the human body, as well as to conduct experiments in materials science, astronomy, and other fields.

1984 "Advance Australia Fair," written by Scottish-born composer Peter Dodds McCormick, was proclaimed as Australia's national anthem by the Governor-General of Australia on April 19, 1984. It  replaced "God Save the Queen" which had been used as the national anthem since Australia became a federation in 1901. "Advance Australia Fair" had been widely used and accepted as Australia's unofficial national anthem for many years before it was officially adopted.

1984 He Zizhen, Mao Zedong's third wife, died on April 19, 1984. They were married 1928 to 1939. A lifelong Communist and expert guerrilla fighter, she completed the Long March with Mao, she bore him three sons and three daughters, but except for their daughter Li Min ll their children died young or were separated from their family.

1987 The Simpsons is an American adult animated sitcom, created by cartoonist Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The Simpsons started life as short gags on The Tracy Ullman Show beginning on April 19, 1987. At first Groening submitted only basic sketches to the animators and assumed that the figures would be cleaned up in production. However, the animators merely re-traced his drawings, which led to the crude appearance of the characters in the initial shorts.

1993 The 51-day FBI siege of the Branch Davidian building in Waco, Texas, ended on April 19, 1993. As FBI agents mounted a final assault, the compound broke out in flames, killing 86 people inside. It was claimed that David Koresh had the compound booby-trapped so that it would go up in a fireball.

2011 Fidel Castro resigned from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba on April 19, 2011 after 50 years of holding the title of First Secretary. This marked the end of an era in Cuban politics, as Castro had been a dominant figure in the country's political landscape for decades.

2017 Patrick the Wombat who made his home at Ballarat Wildlife Park in southeastern Australia, was for several years the world's oldest wombat at 32 years. He was also one of the biggest, weighing in at 88 pounds. Patrick the Wombat died a virgin on April 19, 2017. He had a Tinder profile and rode around in a wheelbarrow.

2018 On April 19, 2018, the King of Swaziland Mswati III announced that the Kingdom of Swaziland had renamed itself the Kingdom of eSwatini. The new name, meaning "land of the Swazis" in Swazi, was partially intended to prevent confusion with the similarly named Switzerland. However, the country's common name in English remains Swaziland.