Today in History: December 19 What Happened This Day In History.

Today in History
December 19

1154		Henry II is crowned King of England.
1562		The French Wars of Religion between the Huguenots and the Catholics begin with the Battle of Dreux.
1793		French troops recapture Toulon from the British.
1862		Confederate General Nathan B. Forrest begins tearing up the railroads in Union generals Grant and Rosecrans rear, causing considerable delays in the movement of Union supplies.
1900		The French Parliament votes amnesty for everyone involved in the Dreyfus Affair.
1909		American socialist women denounce suffrage as a movement of the middle class.
1941		The Japanese land on Hong Kong and clash with British troops.
1941		Adolf Hitler assumes the position of commander-in-chief of the German army.
1942		The British advance 40 miles into Burma in a drive to oust the Japanese from the colony.
1944		During the Battle of the Bulge, American troops begin pulling back from the twin Belgian cities of Krinkelt and Rocherath in front of the advancing German Army.
1945		Congress confirms Eleanor Roosevelt as the U.S. delegate to the United Nations.
1950		The North Atlantic Council names General Dwight D. Eisenhower as supreme commander of Western European defense forces.
1959		Reputed to be the last civil war veteran, Walter Williams, dies at 117 in Houston.
1974		Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as vice president of the United states after a House of Representatives vote.
1982		Four bombs explode at South Africa’s only nuclear power station in Johannesburg.
1984		British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang sign an agreement that commits Britain to return Hong Kong to China in 1997 in return for terms guaranteeing a 50-year extension of its capitalist system. Hong Kong was leased by China to Great Britain in 1898 for 99 years.
1998		President Bill Clinton is impeached. The House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment against President Clinton, charging him with lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice. Clinton was the second president in American history to be impeached.
2001		The highest barometric pressure ever recorded (1085.6 hPa, 32.06 inHg) occurs at Tosontsengel, Khovsgol, Mongolia.
2001		Rioting begins in Buenos Aires, Argentina, during the country’s economic crisis.
2012		Park Geun-hye is elected President of South Korea, the nation’s first female chief executive.
Born on December 19
1683		Philip V, the first Bourbon King of Spain.
1820		Mary Ashton Livermore, a temperance worker, women’s rights activist, lecturer, and writer; founded her own suffrage paper, The Agitator, in 1869.
1906		Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet General Secretary of the Communist party and President of the Supreme Soviet from 1964 until 1982.
1915		Edith Piaf, internationally famous French cabaret singer, best remembered for her songs “La Vie en rose” and “Non, je ne regrette rein.”
1933		Cicely Tyson, actress, best remembered for her role in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.
1940		Phil Ochs, singer, songwriter, producer; best known for his protest songs of the 1960s.
1941		Maurice White, singer, songwriter, musician, producer; founder of the band Earth, Wind & Fire; a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.
1943		US Marine Corps four-star general James L. Jones Jr.; Supreme Allied Commander in Europe (2003–2006); Commandant of the Marine Corps (1999–2003); National Security Advisor (2009–2010).