On this day...

1686 Robinson Crusoe leaves his island after 28 years (as per Defoe)
1732 Benjamin Franklin begins publication of "Poor Richard's Almanac"
1776 Thomas Paine publishes his first "American Crisis" essay
1777 Washington settles his troops at Valley Forge for the winter
1795 First state appropriation of money for road building, Kentucky
1823 Georgia passes first US state birth registration law
1828 South Carolina declares the right of states to nullify federal laws
1842 US recognizes independence of Hawaii
1843 Charles Dickens publishes "A Christmas Carol," in England
1854 Allen Wilson patents sewing machine to sew curving seams
1867 Victims of "Angola Horror" burned to death (Angola NY)
1871 Albert Jones patents corrugated paper
1887 Jake Kilrain & Jem Smith fight 106 round bare knuckle draw
1889 Bishop Museum founded in Hawaii
1891 First Negro Catholic priest ordained in US, Charles Uncles, Baltimore
1903 Williamsburg suspension bridge opens between Brooklyn & Manhattan
1907 Explosion at Jacobs Creek PA, coal mine kills 239
1910 First city ordinance requiring white & black residential areas (Baltimore)
1910 Rayon first commercially produced, Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania
1917 First NHL game played on artificial ice (Toronto)
1919 American Meteorological Society found
1922 Mrs. Theres Vaughn, 24, confessed in court to being married 62 times
1928 First autogiro (predecessor of helicopter) flight in US
1930 James Weldon Johnson resigns as executive secretary of NAACP
1932 British Broadcasting Corp begins transmitting overseas
1933 Electric Home & Farm Authority Inc, authorized
1945 Austrian Republic re-established
1946 War breaks out in Indochina as Ho Chi Minh attacks French in Hanoi
1948 Philadelphia Eagles shutout Chicago Cards 7-0 in NFL championship game
1950 General Eisenhower named NATO commander
1957 "The Music Man," starring Robert Preston, opens on Broadway
1959 First Liberty Bowl game-Penn State beats Alabama 7-0
1960 Fire aboard USS Constellation, under construction at Brooklyn (50 die)
1960 Mercury-Redstone 1A reaches 210 km in test flight
1962 Transit 5A1, First operational navigational satellite, launched
1974 Nelson A. Rockefeller sworn-in as Vice President
1975 John Paul Stevens becomes a Supreme Court Justice
1980 Anguilla becomes a British dependency separate from St. Kitts
1980 Iran requests $24 billion in US guarantees to free hostages
1984 Fire at the Wilberg Mine in central Utah killed 27 people
1984 Scotty Bowman becomes NHL's all time winningest coach
1986 USSR frees dissident Andrei Sakharov from internal exile
1988 NASA unveils plans for lunar colony & manned missions to Mars
1988 Oklahoma's football team gets three-year probation
1988 Unexploded WW II bomb found in Frankfurt, Germany-5,000 evacuated
1989 American Airlines purchases Eastern Airline's Latin American route
1989 Larry Bird begins NBA free throw streak of 71 games
1991 6,000th episode of One Life To Live
1991 Boris Yeltsin takes control of Kremlin
1991 NY Yankee pitcher Steve Howe arrested for cocaine possession

Birthdays which occurred on December 19th:

1036 Su Tung-p'o, China, poet/essayist/painter/official
1683 Phillip V, first Bourbon King of Spain (1700-46)
1790 Sir William Parry, England, Arctic explorer
1821 Mary Ashton Livermore, American reformer/women's suffrage leader
1849 Henry Clay Frick, industrialist; worked for Carnegie
1852 Albert A. Michelson, established c as universal constant (Nobel '07)
1861 Italo Svevo, Trieste, novelist (La Coscienza di Zeno)
1865 Minnie Maddern Fiske, US, stage actress (Hedy Gabler)
1875 Carter G. Woodson, Virginia, African American
1888 Fritz Reiner, Budapest Hungary, conductor (Pittsburgh Symphony 1938-48)
1894 Ford Frick, baseball commissioner (1951-65)
1901 Oliver Lafarge, novelist (Laughing Boy)
1902 Sir Ralph Richardson, actor (David Copperfield, Dr Zhivago)
1906 H. Allen Smith, US, humorist/author (Low Man on the Totem Pole)
1906 Leonid Brezhnev, Ukraine, First Secretary/Dictator of USSR (1964-82)
1907 H. Allen Smith, Illinois, TV host (Armchair Detective)
1910 Jean Genet, France, novelist/playwright (The Blacks)
1915 Edith Piaf, Paris France, chanteuse (Little Sparrow)
1916 Hal Hastings, New York, orchestra leader (Chevrolet on Broadway)
1920 David Susskind, New York, TV host (Open End, David Susskind Show)
1924 Edmund Purdom, England, actor (Asissi Underground, Pieces)
1925 "Littls" Jimmy Dickens, Bolt WV, country singer (Grand Ole Opry)
1926 Bobby Layne, NFL QB (Detroit Lions)
1928 Galt MacDermot, Canada, composer (Letting Down My Hair)
1933 Cecily Tyson, Harlem NYC, actress (Roots, Miss Jane Pittman)
1934 Al Kaline, Detroit Tigers (AL batting champ 1955)
1938 Barbara Steele, Trenton Wirrall England, actress (Came from Within)
1943 William De Vries, Brooklyn, surgeon-inventor (Symbion artifical heart)
1944 Tim Reid, Norfolk VA, comedian (Venus Flytrap-WKRP, Frank's Place)
1944 Zal Yanovsky, rock guitarist (Lovin' Spoonful-Do You Believe in Magic)
1945 Elaine Joyce, Cleveland Ohio, actress (City of Angels, Mr Merlin)
1946 Marianne Faithfull, Hampstead England, singer (Money, As Tears Go By)
1946 Robert Urich, Toronto Ohio, actor (SWAT, Spenser for Hire, Vega$)
1947 Janie Fricke, country singer (Country Music Best Female 1982, 83)
1949 Claudia A.. Kolb,US, 200m breast stroke swimmer (Olympic silver-1964)
1956 Alice Barrett, New York, actress (Frankie Frame-Another World)
1957 Doug Johnson, rock keyboardist (Loverboy)
1957 Kevin McHale, NBA forward (Boston Celtics)
1958 Limahl, British rocker (Kajagoogoo-Too Shy)
1963 Jennifer Beals, Chicago, actress (Flashdance, The Bride)
1964 Beatrice Dalle, France, actress (Betty Blue, Sabbath)
1966 Robert MacNaughton, New York, actor (ET)
1969 Kristy Swanson, actress (Knots Landing)
1972 Alyssa Milano, Brooklyn NY, actress (Samantha-Who's the Boss)

Deaths which occurred on December 19th:

1741 Vitus Bering, Dutch navigator & explorer
1915 Alois Alzheimer, German psychiatrist
1951 Barton Yarbrough, actor (Dragnet), dies at 51
1959 Walter Williams, claimed to be last survivor of Civil War, dies at 117
1968 Norman Thomas, a founder of the ACLU, dies at 84
1977 Nellie Tayloe Ross, first female governor dies at 101
1983 Raymond Massey, actor (Dr. Gillespie-Dr. Kildaire), dies at 87