April 19 in history — What Happened Today in History

Two hundred ATF and FBI agents lay siege to the compound of the white supremacist survivalist group The Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord in Arkansas; the CSA surrenders two days later.

A violent F5 tornado strikes around Brownwood, Texas, injuring 11 people. Two people were thrown at least 1,000 yards (910 m) by the tornado and survived uninjured.

India's first satellite Aryabhata launched in orbit from Kapustin Yar, Russia.

South Vietnamese forces withdraw from the town of Xuan Loc in the last major battle of the Vietnam War.

The Portuguese Socialist Party is founded in the German town of Bad Münstereifel.

Sierra Leone becomes a republic, and Siaka Stevens the president.

Launch of Salyut 1, the first space station.

Charles Manson is sentenced to death (later commuted to life imprisonment) for conspiracy in the Tate–LaBianca murders.

Students in South Korea hold a nationwide pro-democracy protest against president Syngman Rhee, eventually forcing him to resign.

Actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco.

World War II: In German-occupied Poland, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins, after German troops enter the Warsaw Ghetto to round up the remaining Jews.

World War II: In German-occupied Poland, the Majdan-Tatarski ghetto is established, situated between the Lublin Ghetto and a Majdanek subcamp.

The Jaffa riots commence, initiating the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine.

Mae West is sentenced to ten days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.

Colo-Colo, the most successful and popular soccer football team in the South American nation of Chile, was founded at the El Llano Stadium in San Miguel, Santiago, by footballer David Arellano and some of his teammates who had also left the Deportes Magallanes club.

The Kishinev pogrom in Kishinev (Bessarabia) begins, forcing tens of thousands of Jews to later seek refuge in Palestine and the Western world.

American Civil War: Baltimore riot of 1861: A pro-Secession mob in Baltimore attacks United States Army troops marching through the city.

The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom and guarantees its neutrality.

French physicist Augustin Fresnel signs his preliminary "Note on the Theory of Diffraction" (deposited on the following day). The document ends with what we now call the Fresnel integrals.

Venezuela achieves home rule: Vicente Emparán, Governor of the Captaincy General is removed by the people of Caracas and a junta is installed.

An Austrian corps is defeated by the forces of the Duchy of Warsaw in the Battle of Raszyn, part of the struggles of the Fifth Coalition. On the same day the Austrian main army is defeated by a First French Empire Corps led by Louis-Nicolas Davout at the Battle of Teugen-Hausen in Bavaria, part of a four-day campaign that ended in a French victory.

John Adams secures Dutch recognition of the United States as an independent government. The house which he had purchased in The Hague becomes the first American embassy.

American Revolutionary War: The war begins during the Battles of Lexington and Concord with a victory of American minutemen and other militia over British forces, later referred to as the "shot heard round the world".

American Revolutionary War: Following the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the Siege of Boston begins with American militias blocking land access to the British-held city.

Captain James Cook, still holding the rank of lieutenant, sights the eastern coast of what is now Australia.

Marie Antoinette marries Louis XVI in a proxy wedding.

With no living male heirs, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to ensure that Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would be inheritable by a female; his daughter and successor, Maria Theresa, was not born until 1717.

The French army captures the town of Cambrai held by Spanish troops.

Maria Sharapova, Russian tennis player

Candace Parker, American basketball player

Joe Mauer, American baseball player

Samuel C. Morrison, Jr., Liberian-American journalist, producer, and screenwriter

Ali Wong, American comedian and actress

Hayden Christensen, Canadian actor

Lise Klaveness, Norwegian footballer and lawyer, president of the Norwegian Football Federation

Troy Polamalu, American football player

Kate Hudson, American actress

James Franco, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter

Amanda Sage, American-Austrian painter and educator

Michelle Feldman, American bowler

Jason Gillespie, Australian cricketer and coach

François Jacob, French biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1920)

Al Neuharth, American journalist, author, and publisher, founded USA Today (born 1924)

Levon Helm, American musician and actor (born 1940)

Elisabeth Sladen, English actress (born 1946)

J. G. Ballard, English novelist, short story writer, and essayist (born 1930)

Jean-Pierre Cassel, French actor (born 1932)

Albert Scott Crossfield, American engineer, pilot, and astronaut (born 1921)

Norris McWhirter, English author and activist co-founded the Guinness World Records (born 1925)

John Maynard Smith, English biologist and geneticist (born 1920)

Jenny Pike, Canadian WWII servicewoman and photographer (born 1922)

Reginald Rose, American writer (born 1920)

Louis Applebaum, Canadian composer and conductor (born 1918)

Hermine Braunsteiner, Austrian-German SS officer (born 1919)