On This Day — 19 November

2023

The 2023 Cricket World Cup final takes place at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India, played between host nation India and Australia.

2023 Cricket World Cup final

2022

A gunman kills five and injures 17 at Club Q, a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

2022 Colorado Springs nightclub shooting

2013

A double suicide bombing at the Iranian embassy in Beirut kills 23 people and injures 160 others.

2013 Iranian embassy bombing in Beirut

2010

The first of four explosions takes place at the Pike River Mine in New Zealand. Twenty-nine people are killed in the nation's worst mining disaster since 1914.

Pike River Mine disaster

2004

The worst brawl in NBA history results in several players being suspended. Several players and fans are charged with assault and battery.

Malice at the Palace

2002

The Greek oil tanker Prestige splits in half and sinks off the coast of Galicia, releasing over 76,000 m3 (20 million US gal) of oil in the largest environmental disaster in Spanish and Portuguese history.

Oil tanker

2001

The Aviation and Transportation Security Act is enacted by the 107th United States Congress in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Act created the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

Aviation and Transportation Security Act

1999

Shenzhou 1: The People's Republic of China launches its first Shenzhou spacecraft.

Shenzhou 1

1999

John Carpenter becomes the first person to win the top prize in the TV game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

John Carpenter (game show contestant)

1998

Clinton–Lewinsky scandal: The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee begins impeachment hearings into U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Clinton–Lewinsky scandal

1997

Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-87.

STS-87

1996

Space Shuttle program: Columbia is launched on STS-80, which would become the longest mission in the program at 17 days. On this mission, astronaut Story Musgrave becomes the only astronaut to fly on all five space shuttles.

Space Shuttle program

1996

A Beechcraft 1900 and a Beechcraft King Air collide at Quincy Regional Airport in Quincy, Illinois, killing 14.

Beechcraft 1900

1994

In the United Kingdom, the first National Lottery draw is held. A £1 ticket gave a one-in-14-million chance of correctly guessing the winning six out of 49 numbers.

National Lottery (United Kingdom)

1993

A factory fire killed 87 and injured 51 in Shenzhen, China.

1993 Zhili toy factory fire

1988

Serbian communist representative and future Serbian and Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević publicly declares that Serbia is under attack from Albanian separatists in Kosovo as well as internal treachery within Yugoslavia and a foreign conspiracy to destroy Serbia and Yugoslavia.

Serbia

1985

Cold War: In Geneva, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time.

Cold War

1985

Pennzoil wins a US$10.53 billion judgment against Texaco, in the largest civil verdict in the history of the United States, stemming from Texaco executing a contract to buy Getty Oil after Pennzoil had entered into an unsigned, yet still binding, buyout contract with Getty.

Pennzoil

1985

Police in Baling, Malaysia, lay siege to houses occupied by an Islamic sect of about 400 people led by Ibrahim Mahmud.

Baling District

1984

San Juanico disaster: A series of explosions at the Pemex petroleum storage facility at San Juan Ixhuatepec in Mexico City starts a major fire and kills about 500 people.

San Juanico disaster

1979

Iran hostage crisis: Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini orders the release of 13 female and black American hostages being held at the US Embassy in Tehran.

Iran hostage crisis

1977

TAP Air Portugal Flight 425 crashes in the Madeira Islands, killing 131.

TAP Flight 425

1969

Apollo program: Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum (the "Ocean of Storms") and become the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon.

Apollo program

1969

Association football player Pelé scores his 1,000th goal.

Association football

1967

The establishment of TVB, the first wireless commercial television station in Hong Kong.

TVB

1955

National Review publishes its first issue.

National Review

1954

Télé Monte Carlo, Europe's oldest private television channel, is launched by Prince Rainier III.

TMC (TV channel)

1952

Greek Field Marshal Alexander Papagos becomes the 152nd Prime Minister of Greece.

Alexandros Papagos

1950

US General Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes Supreme Commander of NATO-Europe.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

1946

Afghanistan, Iceland and Sweden join the United Nations.

Afghanistan

1944

World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces the sixth War Loan Drive, aimed at selling US$14 billion in war bonds to help pay for the war effort.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

1944

World War II: Thirty members of the Luxembourgish resistance defend the town of Vianden against a larger Waffen-SS attack in the Battle of Vianden.

German occupation of Luxembourg during World War II

1944

The founding congress of the Communist Party of Transcarpathian Ukraine is held in Mukachevo.

Communist Party of Transcarpathian Ukraine

1943

The Holocaust: Nazis liquidate Janowska concentration camp in Lemberg (Lviv), western Ukraine, murdering at least 6,000 Jews after a failed uprising and mass escape attempt.

The Holocaust

1942

World War II: Battle of Stalingrad: Soviet Union forces under General Georgy Zhukov launch the Operation Uranus counterattacks at Stalingrad, turning the tide of the battle in the USSR's favor.

Battle of Stalingrad

1942

Mutesa II is crowned the 35th and last Kabaka (king) of Buganda, prior to the restoration of the kingdom in 1993.

Mutesa II of Buganda

1941

World War II: Battle between HMAS Sydney and HSK Kormoran. The two ships sink each other off the coast of Western Australia, with the loss of 645 Australians and about 77 German seamen.

World War II

1916

Samuel Goldwyn and Edgar Selwyn establish Goldwyn Pictures.

Samuel Goldwyn

1912

First Balkan War: The Serbian Army captures Bitola, ending the five-century-long Ottoman rule of Macedonia.

First Balkan War

1911

The Doom Bar in Cornwall claims two ships, Island Maid and Angele, the latter killing the entire crew except the captain.

Doom Bar

1885

Serbo-Bulgarian War: Bulgarian victory in the Battle of Slivnitsa solidifies the unification between the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia.

Serbo-Bulgarian War

1881

A meteorite lands near the village of Grossliebenthal, southwest of Odesa, Ukraine.

Meteorite fall

1863

American Civil War: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address at the dedication ceremony for the military cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

American Civil War

1847

The second Canadian railway line, the Montreal and Lachine Railroad, is opened.

Montreal and Lachine Railroad

1816

Warsaw University is established.

University of Warsaw

1808

Finnish War: The Convention of Olkijoki in Raahe ends hostilities in Finland.

Finnish War

1802

The Garinagu arrive at British Honduras (present-day Belize).

Garifuna

1794

The United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain sign Jay's Treaty, which attempts to resolve some of the lingering problems left over from the American Revolutionary War.

Jay Treaty

1646

The current Saint Peter's Basilica is consecrated in Rome, replacing an earlier basilica on the same site.

St. Peter's Basilica

636

The Rashidun Caliphate defeats the Sasanian Empire at the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah in Iraq.

Rashidun Caliphate

461

Libius Severus is declared emperor of the Western Roman Empire. The real power is in the hands of the magister militum Ricimer.

Libius Severus