12 History Lessons + 7 Births & 7 Deaths for December 19, 2025
Today’s History:
- 1777 – George Washington leads the Continental Army into winter quarters at Valley Forge, beginning a brutal season that tests the Revolution’s survival.
- 1843 – Charles Dickens publishes A Christmas Carol, a story that helps redefine modern Christmas culture and social conscience.
- 1972 – Apollo 17 splashes down in the Pacific, ending the last crewed mission to the Moon (and the Apollo era).
- 1984 – The United Kingdom and China sign the Sino-British Joint Declaration, laying the framework for Hong Kong’s 1997 handover.
- 1986 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev releases dissident Andrei Sakharov from internal exile in Gorky, signaling a shift under glasnost reforms.
- 1997 – SilkAir Flight 185 crashes into the Musi River near Palembang, Indonesia, killing all 104 on board.
- 1998 – The U.S. House impeaches President Bill Clinton on perjury and obstruction of justice charges, making him the second U.S. president impeached.
- 1999 – Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-103, a major servicing mission to upgrade and repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
- 2001 – Argentina’s economic crisis erupts into mass unrest, with riots breaking out in Buenos Aires.
- 2012 – Park Geun-hye is elected South Korea’s first female president.
- 2013 – The European Space Agency launches Gaia, the spacecraft that revolutionizes precision mapping of the Milky Way.
- 2016 – A truck attack at Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz Christmas market kills and injures dozens, becoming one of Europe’s most searing recent terror attacks.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1944 – Tim Reid – American actor/director known for WKRP in Cincinnati, Sister, Sister, and a long career in television comedy and drama. (81)
- 1957 – Kevin McHale – NBA Hall of Famer and Boston Celtics legend, famed for elite post play and three championships in the 1980s. (68)
- 1963 – Jennifer Beals – American actor best known for Flashdance and later acclaimed TV roles including The L Word. (62)
- 1972 – Alyssa Milano – American actor/activist known for Who’s the Boss? and Charmed, and later public advocacy work. (53)
- 1980 – Jake Gyllenhaal – American actor known for roles in Donnie Darko, Brokeback Mountain, Nightcrawler, and major stage/film work. (45)
- 1987 – Karim Benzema – French football star and prolific striker, long-time Real Madrid icon and Ballon d’Or winner. (38)
- 1998 – King Princess – American singer-songwriter (Mikaela Straus) known for modern pop/indie hits and a distinctive, genre-blending sound. (27)
Today’s Deaths:
- 1848 – Emily Brontë – English novelist and poet, author of Wuthering Heights, whose singular voice reshaped literary romanticism. (30)
- 1851 – J. M. W. Turner – English Romantic painter whose atmospheric landscapes and seascapes transformed the possibilities of light and color. (76)
- 1915 – Alois Alzheimer – German physician whose work gave name and early definition to Alzheimer’s disease. (51)
- 1953 – Robert A. Millikan – American physicist and Nobel laureate, known for measuring the electron’s charge and advancing experimental physics. (85)
- 1977 – Nellie Tayloe Ross – Trailblazing American politician, first woman elected governor in the U.S. and later Director of the U.S. Mint. (101)
- 1999 – Desmond Llewelyn – Welsh actor beloved as “Q” in the James Bond films across nearly four decades. (85)
- 1996 – Marcello Mastroianni – Italian film icon of La Dolce Vita and 8½, a defining face of postwar European cinema. (72)
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