December 19 in history — What Happened Today in History

Aeroflot Flight 101/435 is hijacked to China by its first officer.

The Sino-British Joint Declaration, stating that China would resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong and the United Kingdom would restore Hong Kong to China with effect from July 1, 1997, is signed in Beijing by Deng Xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher.

The original FIFA World Cup trophy, the Jules Rimet Trophy, is stolen from the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Sixteen lives are lost when the Penlee lifeboat goes to the aid of the stricken coaster Union Star in heavy seas.

The Ms 5.8 Bob–Tangol earthquake strikes Kerman Province in Iran, destroying villages and killing 665 people.

Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as Vice President of the United States under President Gerald Ford under the provisions of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Apollo program: The last crewed lunar flight, Apollo 17, carrying Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Harrison Schmitt, returns to Earth.

Harold Holt, the Prime Minister of Australia, is officially presumed dead.

India annexes Daman and Diu, part of Portuguese India.

Irish-born physician John Bodkin Adams is arrested in connection with the suspicious deaths of more than 160 patients. Eventually he is convicted only of minor charges.

Start of the First Indochina War.

John Amery, British Fascist, is executed at the age of 33 by the British Government for treason.

World War II: Adolf Hitler appoints himself as head of the Oberkommando des Heeres.

World War II: Limpet mines placed by Italian divers heavily damage HMS Valiant and HMS Queen Elizabeth in Alexandria harbour.

Risto Ryti, the Prime Minister of Finland, is elected President of the Republic of Finland in a presidential election, which is exceptionally held by the 1937 electoral college.

BBC World Service begins broadcasting as the BBC Empire Service.

The Indian National Congress promulgates the Purna Swaraj (the Declaration of the Independence of India).

Three Indian revolutionaries, Ram Prasad Bismil, Roshan Singh and Ashfaqulla Khan, are executed by the British Raj for participation in the Kakori conspiracy.

The last Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost is sold in London, England.

German serial killer Fritz Haarmann is sentenced to death for a series of murders.

King Constantine I is restored as King of the Hellenes after the death of his son Alexander of Greece and a plebiscite.

William Van Schaick, captain of the steamship General Slocum which caught fire and killed over one thousand people, is pardoned by U.S. President William Howard Taft after 3+1⁄2 years in Sing Sing prison.

Two hundred thirty-nine coal miners die in the Darr Mine Disaster in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania.

Hopetoun Blunder: The first Governor-General of Australia John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun, appoints Sir William Lyne premier of the new state of New South Wales, but he is unable to persuade other colonial politicians to join his government and is forced to resign.

French parliament votes amnesty for all involved in scandalous army treason trial known as Dreyfus affair.

Vice President of the United States John C. Calhoun sparks the Nullification Crisis when he anonymously publishes the South Carolina Exposition and Protest, protesting the Tariff of 1828.

French Revolutionary Wars: Two British frigates under Commodore Horatio Nelson and two Spanish frigates under Commodore Don Jacobo Stuart engage in battle off the coast of Murcia.

War of the First Coalition: The Siege of Toulon ends when Napoleon's French artillery forces the British to abandon the city, securing southern France from invasion.

Josh Huestis, American basketball player

Keiynan Lonsdale, Australian actor, singer-songwriter, and dancer

Sumire Uesaka, Japanese voice actress and singer

Greg Bretz, American snowboarder

Torrey Craig, American basketball player

Yong Jun-hyung, South Korean singer-songwriter, rapper and producer

Michał Masłowski, Polish footballer

Kousei Miura, Japanese jockey

Hamza Riazuddin, English cricketer

Alexis Sánchez, Chilean footballer

Peter Winn, English footballer

Cédric Baseya, French-Congolese footballer

Karim Benzema, French footballer

Igor Rodionov, Russian general and politician, 3rd Russian Minister of Defence (born 1936)

Dick Thornton, American-Canadian football player and coach (born 1939)

Roberta Leigh (Rita Shulman Lewin), British writer, artist and TV producer (born 1926).

Winton Dean, English musicologist and author (born 1916)

Al Goldstein, American publisher and pornographer (born 1936)

Ned Vizzini, American author and screenwriter (born 1981)

Robert Bork, American lawyer, judge, and scholar, United States Attorney General (born 1927)

Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, Israeli general and politician, 22nd Transportation Minister of Israel (born 1944)

Larry Morris, American football player (born 1933)

Peter Struck, German lawyer and politician, 13th German Federal Minister of Defence (born 1943)

Anthony Howard, English journalist and author (born 1934)

Kim Peek, American megasavant (born 1951)

James Bevel, American minister and activist (born 1936)