On This Day — 19 January

2025

Bytedance and sister companies are banned from the United States for "security concerns".

ByteDance

2024

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's probe lands on the moon, making Japan the 5th country to land a spacecraft on the moon.

JAXA

2014

A bomb attack on an army convoy in the city of Bannu kills at least 26 Pakistani soldiers and injures 38 others.

2014 Bannu bombing

2012

The Hong Kong-based file-sharing website Megaupload is shut down by the FBI.

Megaupload

2007

Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink is assassinated in front of his newspaper's Istanbul office by 17-year-old Turkish ultra-nationalist Ogün Samast.

Hrant Dink

2007

Four-man Team N2i, using only skis and kites, completes a 1,093-mile (1,759 km) trek to reach the Antarctic pole of inaccessibility for the first time since 1965 and for the first time ever without mechanical assistance.

Henry Cookson

2006

A Slovak Air Force Antonov An-24 crashes near Hejce, Hungary, killing 42.

Slovak Air Force

1999

British Aerospace agrees to acquire the defence subsidiary of the General Electric Company, forming BAE Systems in November 1999.

British Aerospace

1997

Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron after more than 30 years and joins celebrations over the handover of the last Israeli-controlled West Bank city.

Yasser Arafat

1996

The barge North Cape oil spill occurs as an engine fire forces the tugboat Scandia ashore on Moonstone Beach in South Kingstown, Rhode Island.

North Cape oil spill

1995

After being struck by lightning the crew of Bristow Helicopters Flight 56C are forced to ditch. All 18 aboard are later rescued.

Bristow Helicopters Flight 56C

1993

Czech Republic and Slovakia join the United Nations.

Czech Republic

1991

Gulf War: Iraq fires a second Scud missile into Israel, causing 15 injuries.

Gulf War

1990

Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir Valley in Indian-administered Kashmir due to an insurgency.

Exodus of Kashmiri Hindus

1988

Trans-Colorado Airlines Flight 2286 crashes in Bayfield, Colorado, killing nine.

Trans-Colorado Airlines Flight 2286

1981

Iran hostage crisis: United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity.

Iran hostage crisis

1978

The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW's plant in Emden. Beetle production in Latin America continues until 2003.

Volkswagen Beetle

1977

President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino (a.k.a. "Tokyo Rose").

Gerald Ford

1969

Student Jan Palach dies after setting himself on fire three days earlier in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest about the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968. His funeral turns into another major protest.

Jan Palach

1966

Indira Gandhi becomes India's first female prime minister.

Indira Gandhi

1960

Japan and the United States sign the US–Japan Mutual Security Treaty

Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan

1960

Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 871 crashes near Ankara Esenboğa Airport in Turkey, killing all 42 aboard.

Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 871

1953

Almost 72 percent of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.

I Love Lucy

1946

General Douglas MacArthur establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo to try Japanese war criminals.

Douglas MacArthur

1945

World War II: Soviet forces liberate the Łódź Ghetto. Of more than 200,000 inhabitants in 1940, fewer than 900 had survived the Nazi occupation.

Red Army

1942

World War II: The Japanese conquest of Burma begins.

Japanese invasion of Burma

1941

World War II: HMS Greyhound and other escorts of convoy AS-12 sink Italian submarine Neghelli with all hands 64 kilometres (40 mi) northeast of Falkonera.

World War II

1937

Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in seven hours, 28 minutes, 25 seconds.

Howard Hughes

1920

The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.

United States Senate

1920

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is founded.

American Civil Liberties Union

1917

Silvertown explosion: A blast at a munitions factory in London kills 73 and injures over 400. The resulting fire causes over £2,000,000 worth of damage.

Silvertown explosion

1915

Georges Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.

Georges Claude

1915

German strategic bombing during World War I: German zeppelins bomb the towns of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in the United Kingdom killing at least 20 people, in the first major aerial bombardment of a civilian target.

German bombing of Britain, 1914–1918

1901

Queen Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom, is stricken with paralysis. She dies three days later at the age of 81.

Queen Victoria

1899

Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is formed.

Anglo-Egyptian Sudan

1883

The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey.

Thomas Edison

1871

Franco-Prussian War: In the Siege of Paris, Prussia wins the Battle of St. Quentin. Meanwhile, the French attempt to break the siege in the Battle of Buzenval will end unsuccessfully the following day.

Franco-Prussian War

1862

American Civil War: Battle of Mill Springs: The Confederacy suffers its first significant defeat in the conflict.

Battle of Mill Springs

1861

American Civil War: Georgia joins South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama in declaring secession from the United States.

American Civil War

1853

Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il trovatore receives its premiere performance in Rome.

Giuseppe Verdi

1839

The British East India Company captures Aden.

East India Company

1829

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust: The First Part of the Tragedy receives its premiere performance.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

1817

An army of 5,423 soldiers, led by General José de San Martín, crosses the Andes from Argentina to liberate Chile and then Peru.

José de San Martín

1795

The Batavian Republic is proclaimed in the Netherlands, replacing the Dutch Republic.

Batavian Republic

1788

The second group of ships of the First Fleet arrive at Botany Bay.

First Fleet

1764

John Wilkes is expelled from the British House of Commons for seditious libel.

John Wilkes

1764

Bolle Willum Luxdorph records in his diary that a mail bomb, possibly the world's first, has severely injured the Danish Colonel Poulsen, residing at Børglum Abbey.

Bolle Willum Luxdorph

1639

Hämeenlinna (Swedish: Tavastehus) is granted privileges after it separated from the Vanaja parish as its own city in Tavastia.

Hämeenlinna

1607

San Agustin Church in Manila is officially completed; it is the oldest church still standing in the Philippines.

San Agustin Church (Manila)

1520

Sten Sture the Younger, the Regent of Sweden, is mortally wounded at the Battle of Bogesund and dies on February 3.

Sten Sture the Younger

1511

The Italian Duchy of Mirandola surrenders to the Pope.

Siege of Mirandola (1511)

1421

John VIII Palaiologos marries Sophia of Montferrat and is then crowned Byzantine co-emperor to his father Manuel II Palaiologos.

John VIII Palaiologos

1419

Hundred Years' War: Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England, completing his reconquest of Normandy.

Hundred Years' War

649

Conquest of Kucha: The forces of Kucha surrender after a forty-day siege led by Tang dynasty general Ashina She'er, establishing Tang control over the northern Tarim Basin in Xinjiang.

Tang campaign against Kucha

379

Emperor Gratian elevates Flavius Theodosius at Sirmium to Augustus, and gives him authority over all the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire.

Gratian