19 April History
- 1539 - Emperor Charles V reaches a truce with German Protestants at Frankfurt, Germany.
- 1689 - Residents of Boston oust their governor, Edmond Andros.
- 1764 - The English Parliament bans the American colonies from printing paper money.
- 1775 - The American Revolution begins as fighting breaks out at Lexington, Massachusetts.
- 1782 - The Netherlands recognizes the United States.
- 1794 - Tadeusz Kosciuszko forces the Russians out of Warsaw.
- 1802 - The Spanish reopen New Orleans port to American merchants.
- 1824 - English poet Lord Byron dies of malaria at age 36 while aiding Greek independence.
- 1861 - The Baltimore riots result in four Union soldiers and nine civilians killed.
- 1861 - President Lincoln orders a blockade of Confederate ports.
- 1880 - The Times war correspondent telephones a report of the Battle of Ahmed Khel, the first time news is sent from a field of battle in this manner.
- 1927 - In China, Hankow communists declare war on Chiang Kai-shek.
- 1934 - Shirley Temple appears in her first movie.
- 1938 - General Francisco Franco declares victory in the Spanish Civil War.
- 1939 - Connecticut finally approves the Bill of Rights.
- 1943 - The Warsaw Ghetto uprising against Nazi rule begins.
- 1960 - Baseball uniforms begin displaying player's names on their backs.
- 1971 - Russia launches its first Salyut space station.
- 1977 - Alex Haley receives a special Pulitzer Prize for his book Roots.
- 1982 - NASA names Sally Ride to be the first woman astronaut.
- 1989 - The battleship USS Iowa's number 2 turret explodes, killing sailors.
- 1993 - The FBI ends a 51-day siege by storming the Branch Dividian religious cult headquarters in Waco, Texas.
- 1995 - A truck bomb explodes in front of the federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people.
19 April Birthdays
- 1666 - Sarah Kembel Knight, diarist.
- 1721 - Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence.
- 1832 - Lucretia Rudolph, President Garfield's first lady.
- 1877 - Ole Evinrude, inventor of the first successful outboard motor.
- 1900 - Richard Hughes, English novelist and playwright (A High Wind in Jamaica).
- 1903 - Eliot Ness, Treasury agent during Prohibition.
- 1905 - Tom Hopkinson, British writer.
- 1912 - Glenn T. Seaborg, physicist.
- 1933 - Etheridge Knight, poet.