Events for January 19
1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Mill Springs: The Confederacy suffers its first significant defeat in the conflict.
1788 – The second group of ships of the First Fleet arrive at Botany Bay.
1839 – The British East India Company captures Aden.
1915 – German strategic bombing during World War I: German zeppelins bomb the towns of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in the United Kingdom killing at least 20 people, in the first major aerial bombardment of a civilian target.
1764 – John Wilkes is expelled from the British House of Commons for seditious libel.
1969 – Student Jan Palach dies after setting himself on fire three days earlier in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest about the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968. His funeral turns into another major protest.
1953 – Almost 72 percent of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.
1993 – Czech Republic and Slovakia join the United Nations.
1946 – General Douglas MacArthur establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo to try Japanese war criminals.
2007 – Four-man Team N2i, using only skis and kites, completes a 1,093-mile (1,759 km) trek to reach the Antarctic pole of inaccessibility for the first time since 1965 and for the first time ever without mechanical assistance.
649 – Conquest of Kucha: The forces of Kucha surrender after a forty-day siege led by Tang dynasty general Ashina She'er, establishing Tang control over the northern Tarim Basin in Xinjiang.
1981 – Iran hostage crisis: United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity.
1983 – The Apple Lisa, the first commercial personal computer from Apple Inc. to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, is announced.
379 – Emperor Gratian elevates Flavius Theodosius at Sirmium to Augustus, and gives him authority over all the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire.
1977 – President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino (a.k.a. "Tokyo Rose").
1942 – World War II: The Japanese conquest of Burma begins.
1996 – The barge North Cape oil spill occurs as an engine fire forces the tugboat Scandia ashore on Moonstone Beach in South Kingstown, Rhode Island.
2007 – Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink is assassinated in front of his newspaper's Istanbul office by 17-year-old Turkish ultra-nationalist Ogün Samast.
1764 – Bolle Willum Luxdorph records in his diary that a mail bomb, possibly the world's first, has severely injured the Danish Colonel Poulsen, residing at Børglum Abbey.
1511 – The Italian Duchy of Mirandola surrenders to the Pope.
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.
2014 – A bomb attack on an army convoy in the city of Bannu kills at least 26 Pakistani soldiers and injures 38 others.
1853 – Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il trovatore receives its premiere performance in Rome.
Notable Births & Deaths for January 19
2015 – Justin Capră, Romanian engineer and academic (b. 1933)
1993 – Erick Torres Padilla, Mexican footballer
1985 – Pascal Behrenbruch, German decathlete
1984 – Thomas Vanek, Austrian ice hockey player
1987 – Edgar Manucharyan, Armenian footballer
1990 – Tatiana Búa, Argentine tennis player
2007 – Murat Nasyrov, Russian singer-songwriter (b. 1969)
1992 – Shawn Johnson, American gymnast
1986 – Oleksandr Miroshnychenko, Ukrainian footballer
1985 – Benny Feilhaber, American soccer player
1994 – Alfie Mawson, English footballer
2014 – Christopher Chataway, English runner, journalist, and politician (b. 1931)
2014 – Azaria Alon, Ukrainian-Israeli environmentalist, co-founded the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (b. 1918)
1985 – Jake Allen, American football player
1985 – Aleksandr Yevgenyevich Nikulin, Russian footballer
2008 – Suzanne Pleshette, American actress (b. 1937)
2015 – Ward Swingle, American-French singer-songwriter and conductor (b. 1927)
1985 – Esteban Guerrieri, Argentinian race car driver
1986 – Claudio Marchisio, Italian footballer
2013 – Frank Pooler, American conductor and composer (b. 1926)
2016 – Richard Levins, American ecologist and geneticist (b. 1930)
1991 – Erin Sanders, American actress
2013 – Stan Musial, American baseball player and manager (b. 1920)
2012 – Rudi van Dantzig, Dutch ballet dancer and choreographer (b. 1933)
2012 – Sarah Burke, Canadian skier (b. 1982)
1986 – Moussa Sow, Senegalese footballer
1992 – Mac Miller, American rapper (d. 2018)
2016 – Ettore Scola, Italian director and screenwriter (b. 1931)
1984 – Karun Chandhok, Indian race car driver
2012 – Peter Åslin, Swedish ice hockey player (b. 1962)
2013 – Earl Weaver, American baseball player and manager (b. 1930)
1984 – Jimmy Kébé, Malian footballer
1994 – Matthias Ginter, German footballer
2017 – Miguel Ferrer, American actor (b. 1955)
2013 – Toktamış Ateş, Turkish academician, political commentator, columnist and writer (b. 1944)
2010 – Bill McLaren, Scottish rugby player and sportscaster (b. 1923)
2008 – Don Wittman, Canadian sportscaster (b. 1936)
2015 – Michel Guimond, Canadian lawyer and politician (b. 1953)
1988 – Tyler Breeze, Canadian wrestler
1991 – Petra Martić, Croatian tennis player
2008 – John Stewart, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1939)
1985 – Elliott Ward, English footballer
2016 – Sheila Sim (Lady Attenborough), English actress (b. 1922)
2012 – Winston Riley, Jamaican singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1943)
2013 – Taihō Kōki, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 48th Yokozuna (b. 1940)
1988 – JaVale McGee, American basketball player
2007 – Denny Doherty, Canadian singer-songwriter (b. 1940)
1985 – Rika Ishikawa, Japanese singer and actress
Quick Start
Our API is incredibly easy to use, check out the code samples below to get started:
Fetch Historical Events
All you need to do is send a request to https://today.zenquotes.io/api/[month]/[day]/[key] in order to generate a JSON array of historical events, including notable births and deaths. API data pulled from WikiPedia.
*[key] not required but recommended.
Sample Requests
https://today.zenquotes.io/api/1/1 - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for January 1.
https://today.zenquotes.io/api/5/5 - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for May 5.
https://today.zenquotes.io/api/12/25 - Generate notable events, births, and deaths for December 25.
Response
The result data is formatted as a JSON array, grouped by event type.
{ "info":"OnThisDay API", "date":"April_20", "updated":"1615972324",
"data":{
"Events":[ { "text":"1303 – The Sapienza University of Rome is instituted by a bull of Pope Boniface VIII.[1]", "html":"<a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/1303\" title=\"1303\">1303</a> – The <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapienza_University_of_Rome\" title=\"Sapienza University of Rome\">Sapienza University of Rome</a> is instituted by a <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_bull\" title=\"Papal bull\">bull</a> of <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Boniface_VIII\" title=\"Pope Boniface VIII\">Pope Boniface VIII</a>." },
//.. MORE DATA ..//
"Births":[ { "text":"1494 – Johannes Agricola, German theologian and reformer (d. 1566)[8]", "html":"<a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/1494\" title=\"1494\">1494</a> – <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Agricola\" title=\"Johannes Agricola\">Johannes Agricola</a>, German theologian and reformer (d. 1566)" },
//.. MORE DATA ..//
"Deaths":[ { "text":"689 – Cædwalla, king of Wessex (b. 659)[21]", "html":"<a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/689\" title=\"689\">689</a> – <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A6dwalla_of_Wessex\" title=\"Cædwalla of Wessex\">Cædwalla</a>, king of <a href=\"https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Wessex\" title=\"Wessex\">Wessex</a> (b. 659)" },
//.. MORE DATA ..//
} }Usage Limits and Attribution
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Historical event data provided by <a href="https://today.zenquotes.io/" target="_blank">ZenQuotes.io</a>