On This Day
What Happened on December 19 in History
9 events that happened on December 19, oldest first. Every entry is written in our own words and links to its source.
Colonial America and the Revolution
1777
George Washington led the Continental Army into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
The British had just occupied Philadelphia, and Washington's exhausted, poorly supplied troops needed to rebuild. The camp on a defensible plateau gave the army a place to recover and train through the winter.
Source: history.com; nps.gov
The Young Republic and the Civil War Era
1843
Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol.
Dickens knew poverty firsthand: his father was sent to debtors' prison and 12-year-old Charles was put to work in a factory. The miserable treatment of poor children became a theme of his fiction.
Source: history.com
The Early 1900s and the World Wars
1907
An explosion at the Darr Mine in western Pennsylvania killed 239 coal miners.
About 240 men had gone to work in the Westmoreland County mine that day, and only one survived. It remains the deadliest mining disaster in Pennsylvania history and helped spur new mine safety rules.
Source: pbs.org
The Cold War
1946
Viet Minh forces attacked French positions in Hanoi, starting the First Indochina War.
Talks between France and the Vietnamese communists had collapsed, and French warships had bombarded the port of Haiphong. The war lasted until 1954, when a French defeat at Dien Bien Phu led to peace talks in Geneva and the division of Vietnam.
Source: history.com
1972
Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, ending the last crewed mission to the Moon.
During the mission Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent a record 75 hours on the lunar surface and collected 243 pounds of rock and soil samples.
Source: history.com; nasa.gov
1984
Britain and China signed the Joint Declaration on the return of Hong Kong.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Premier Zhao Ziyang signed the deal in Beijing. Britain agreed to hand Hong Kong to China in 1997, and China promised to keep its capitalist system for 50 years.
Source: history.com
The Modern Era
1997
James Cameron's film Titanic opened in American theaters.
The epic about the doomed 1912 ocean liner made stars of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. It went on to win 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Source: history.com
1998
The House of Representatives impeached President Bill Clinton.
After about 14 hours of debate, the House approved two articles charging him with perjury before a grand jury and obstruction of justice. Clinton was the second president to be impeached, and the Senate acquitted him in February 1999.
Source: history.com; history.house.gov
1999
Space Shuttle Discovery launched on STS-103, a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
The telescope had stopped observing in November 1999 after the fourth of its six gyroscopes failed. The crew serviced Hubble during three spacewalks and landed at Kennedy Space Center on December 27.
Source: nasa.gov; science.nasa.gov