History of the Day for:
January 19
- 1419: The French city of Rouen surrendered to Henry V in the Hundred Years War between England and France, completing Henry's conquest of Normandy.
- 1807: Robert E. Lee, commander of Confederate forces in the Civil War, was born.
- 1809: Writer Edgar Allan Poe was born.
- 1825: Ezra Daggett and nephew Thomas Kensett patented food storage in tin cans.
- 1839: French painter Paul Cezanne was born.
- 1840: Antarctica was discovered by Charles Wilkes expedition.
- 1861: Georgia became the fifth state to secede from the Union.
- 1903: The first regular transatlantic radio broadcast between the U.S. and England occurred.
- 1910: The National Institute of Arts and Letters was incorporated by an Act of Congress.
- 1915: A patent was issued to George Claude for a neon tube advertising sign.
- 1937: Millionaire Howard Hughes set a transcontinental air record by flying his monoplane from Los Angeles to Newark, N.J., in 7 hours, 28 minutes, 25 seconds.
- 1937: Nap Lajorie, Tris Speaker and Cy Young were elected to the Baseball Hall Of Fame in the second year of voting.
- 1938: GM began mass production of diesel engines.
- 1943: 1960s singer Janis Joplin was born.
- 1952: The PGA Tournament Committee voted to allow black golfers to compete in golf tournaments.
- 1955: "Scrabble" made its debut on the board game market.
- 1955: A presidential news conference was filmed for television for the first time, with the permission of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
- 1966: Indira Gandhi, the daughter of Nehru, was elected India's third prime minister.
- 1972: Sandy Koufax, Yogi Berra, and Early Wynn elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame; Koufax was the youngest player ever elected.
- 1977: In one of his last acts of office, President Ford pardoned Iva Toguri D'Aquino, an American who had made wartime broadcasts for Japan as "Tokyo Rose."
- 1979: Former Attorney General John N. Mitchell was released on parole after serving 19 months at a federal prison in Alabama.
- 1983: Klaus Barbie, notorious SS chief of Lyon in Nazi?occupied France, was arrested in Bolivia.
- 1985: "Born In The U.S.A." by Bruce Springsteen peaked at No. 9 on the pop singles chart.
- 1991: Gulf War: SCUD attack from Iraq causes 15 injuries in Israel.
- 1991: Eastern Airlines shut down operation.
- 1993: Israel recognized the PLO as no longer criminal.
- 1993: IBM announces a $4.97 billion loss for 1992, the largest single-year corporate loss in United States history.
- 1996: The barge North Cape oil spill occurred as an engine fire forced the tugboat Scandia ashore on Moonstone Beach in South Kingstown, Rhode Island.
- 1996: The NHL approved the move of the Winnipeg Jets to Phoenix.
- 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.
- 1999: British Aerospace agrees to acquire the defence subsidiary of the General Electric Company plc, forming BAE Systems in November 1999.
- 2006: A Slovak Air Force Antonov An-24 crashes in Hungary.
- 2006: The New Horizons probe is launched by NASA on the first mission to Pluto.
- 2007: Armenian Journalist Hrant Dink is assassinated in front of his newspaper's office by 17 year old Turkish ultranationalist Ogün Samast.