On This Day

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What Happened on April 19

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Historical Events

  • 1770 British explorer Captain James Cook first sights Australia. Writes in his log book that “what we have as yet seen of this land appears rather low, and not very hilly, the face of the Country green and Woody, but the Sea shore is all a white Sand.”
  • 1775 American Revolution begins in Lexington, Massachusetts. The "Shot Heard Round the World" takes place later that day in Concord
  • 1995 Oklahoma City bombing: Timothy McVeigh sets a truck bomb at Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168. including 19 children, and injuring 500
  • 2011 Fidel Castro resigns his position of First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba after 45 years of holding the title [1]
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Apr 19 in Film & TV

Apr 19 in Music

  • 1774 CW Glucks opera "Iphigenia in Aulis" premieres in Paris

Apr 19 in Sport

  • 1897 1st Boston Marathon (B.A.A. Road Race), won by John J. McDermott in 2:55:10; the world's oldest annual marathon inspired by success of the first marathon at the 1896 Summer Olympics

Did You Know?

Bicycle Day - Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann deliberately takes LSD for the first time

On April 19, 1943

Famous Birthdays

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Would You Believe?

The Beatles sign a contract agreeing to stay together for 10 years (they don't)

On April 19, 1967

Famous Weddings

  • 1941 Youngest Mitford sister Deborah Mitford marries Andrew Cavendish, son of the Duke of Devonshire in London
  • 1956 American film actress Grace Kelly (26) weds Monaco's Prince Rainier III (33) in a religious ceremony at Saint Nicholas Cathedral in Monaco-Ville, Monaco
  • 1997 Actor Chris O'Donnell (26) weds high school sweetheart Caroline Fentress (24)

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Famous Deaths

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April in History

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