History of the Day for:
March 19
- 1831: The City Bank of New York City reported the first bank robbery, losing $245,000 in the heist.
- 1859: The opera "Faust" by Charles Gounod premiered in Paris.
- 1917: The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the eight-hour workday for railroads as it ruled the Adamson Act constitutional.
- 1918: Congress authorized the standard time zones and approved Daylight Saving Time to save fuel in a country at war.
- 1920: The U.S. Senate rejected for the second time the Treaty of Versailles.
- 1928: "Amos & Andy" made its debut on radio.
- 1931: Nevada legalized gambling.
- 1932: The Sydney Harbour Bridge is opened.
- 1941: World War II: The 99th Pursuit Squadron also known as the Tuskegee Airmen, the first all-black unit of the Army Air Corp, is activated.
- 1943: Frank Nitti, the Chicago Outfit Boss after Al Capone, commits suicide at the Chicago Central Railyard.
- 1944: World War II: Nazi forces occupy Hungary.
- 1945: World War II: Off the coast of Japan, a dive bomber hits the aircraft carrier USS Franklin (CV-13), killing 724 of her crew. Badly damaged, the ship is able to return to the U.S. under her own power.
- 1945: World War II: Adolf Hitler issues his "Nero Decree" ordering all industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany to be destroyed.
- 1945: About 800 people were killed as Kamikaze planes attacked the carrier USS Franklin off the shore of Japan. Heavily damaged, "The Ship That Wouldn't Sink" made the 12,000-mile trip home to Brooklyn; Adolf Hitler issued his so?called Nero Decree, ordering the destruction of German facilities that could fall into Allied hands.
- 1949: The first museum devoted exclusively to atomic energy opened in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
- 1951: Herman Wouk's Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Caine Mutiny" was published.
- 1953: The Academy Awards ceremony was televised for the first time.
- 1954: The first rocket-driven sled on rails was tested in Alamogordo, N.M.
- 1977: The last episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" was broadcast.
- 1979: The U.S. House of Representatives began regular television broadcasts of its day-to-day business via C-SPAN.
- 1985: In a legislative victory for President Reagan, the Senate voted, 55-45, to authorize production of the MX missile.
- 1987: Televangelist Jim Bakker resigned as chairman of his PTL ministry organization amid a scandal involving Jessica Hahn, a former secretary.
- 1993: Supreme Court Justice Byron R. White announced plans to retire, paving the way for Ruth Bader Ginsburg to become the court's second female justice.
- 2002: U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda ends (started on March 2) after killing 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters with 11 allied troop fatalities.
- 2004: Äänekoski bus disaster: A semi-trailer truck and a bus crash head-on in Äänekoski, Finland. 24 people are killed and 13 injured.
- 2004: A Swedish DC-3 shot down by a Russian MiG-15 in 1952 over the Baltic Sea is finally recovered after years of work. The remains of the three crewmen are left in place, pending further investigations.
- 2004: 3-19 Shooting Incident: Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian is shot just before the country's presidential election on March 20.
- 2008: GRB 080319B: A cosmic burst that is the farthest object visible to the naked eye is briefly observed on this day.