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On this day in history - April 19

What Happened On This Day – April 19

  • 1995 168 die in the Oklahoma City bombing

    Timothy McVeigh, the mastermind behind the attack, was executed on June 11, 2001. The motives for the bombing, which also killed 19 babies and children, remain somewhat unclear.

  • 1987 The first installment of The Simpsons is aired

    The hugely popular animated sitcom debuted on the Tracey Ullman Show in the form of one-minute shorts.

  • 1971 The Soviet Union launches the world's first manned space station

    Salyut 1 was 23 meters long and offered 100 cubic meters of pressurized space.

  • 1919 Leslie Irvin makes the world's first free-fall parachute jump

    The jump was executed to test a new kind of parachute, which was also the first featuring a ripcord. The Hollywood stuntman broke a leg on landing.

  • 1775 The American Revolutionary War begins

    The Battles of Lexington and Concord marked the beginning of the armed conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and 13 colonies of British North America. The war resulted in U.S. independence.

Illustration of stork, signifying birth

Births On This Day,
April 19

  • 1987 Maria Sharapova

    Russian tennis player

  • 1978 James Franco

    American actor, director, producer, screenwriter

  • 1952 Alexis Argüello

    Nicaraguan boxer, politician

  • 1937 Joseph Estrada

    Filipino actor, producer, politician, 13th President of the Philippines

  • 1933 Jayne Mansfield

    American model, actress, singer

Illustration of tombstone, signifying death

Deaths On This Day,
April 19

  • 2004 John Maynard Smith

    English biologist

  • 1967 Konrad Adenauer

    German politician, Chancellor of West Germany

  • 1914 Charles Sanders Peirce

    American philosopher, mathematician, scientist

  • 1882 Charles Darwin

    English scientist, theorist

  • 1824 Lord Byron

    English poet