On This Day: January 19

This is the 19th day of the year.

Fact of the Day: U.S. states

The number of states in the United States could increase at any time from 50 to 54. The reason is that Texas could still exercise an option granted after it broke away from Mexico and became, in 1845, part of the United States. Congress decreed at the time that the new state could divide itself into as many as five states whenever it chose. So far, though, the Lone Star State has remained intact.

Holidays

Feast day of St. Canute IV of Denmark, Saints Abachum and Audifax, St. Fillan or Foelan, St. Albert of Cashel, St. Charles of Sezze, St. Germanicus, Saints Marius and Martha, St. Messalina, St. Henry of Uppsala, St. Nathalan, and St. Wulfstan.

Singapore: Singapore Kite Festival.

Texas: Confederate Heroes Day.

Ethiopia, Eritrea: Timket (sometimes on Jan. 20).

Philippines: Ati-Atihan Festival.

Events

1419 - Rouen surrendered to Henry V, completing his conquest of Normandy.

1783 - William Pitt became the youngest Prime Minister of England at age 24.

1793 - King Louis XVI was tried by the French Convention, found guilty of treason and sentenced to the guillotine.

1825 - Ezra Daggett and Thomas Kensett patented a process for canning food in tin containers.

1840 - During an expedition, Captain Charles Wilkes sighted the coast of eastern Antarctica and claimed it for the United States. In February 1821 the first landing on the Antarctic continent was made by American John Davis at Hughes Bay on the Antarctic Peninsula. In 1959, the Antarctic Treaty made Antarctica an international zone, set guidelines for scientific cooperation, and prohibited military operations, nuclear explosions, and the disposal of radioactive waste on the continent.

1861 - Georgia seceded from the Union.

1915 - During World War I, Britain was hit by an air attack when two German zeppelins drop bombs on Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn.

1918 - The Bolsheviks dissolved the Russian Constitutional Assembly.

1937 - Millionaire Howard Hughes set a transcontinental air record by flying his monoplane from Los Angeles, California to Newark, New Jersey, in seven hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.

1944 - The U.S. federal government relinquished control of the nation's railroads following settlement of a wage dispute.

1963 - The first disco, called "Whiskey-a-go-go," opened in Los Angeles.

1966 - Indira Gandhi was elected prime minister of India.

1981 - The United States and Iran signed an agreement for the release of 52 Americans held hostage for more than 14 months.

1983 - Klaus Barbie, the Nazi Gestapo chief of Lyons, France, during the German occupation, was arrested in Bolivia for his crimes against humanity.

2000 - Michael Skakel, a nephew of Robert F. Kennedy, surrendered to police in Greenwich, Connecticut, to face charges in the 1975 death of a 15-year-old girl.

Births

1736 - James Watt, Scottish inventor of the steam engine.

1807 - Robert E. Lee, American commander-in-chief of the Confederate armies.

1809 - Edgar Allan Poe, American poet, author.

1839 - Paul Cézanne, French painter.

1908 - Ish Kabibble (Merwyn Bogue), American comic singer.

1930 - Tippi Hedren, an American film actress.

1943 - Janis Joplin, American blues and pop singer.

1946 - Dolly Parton, American songwriter, singer.

1955 - Paul Rodriguez, Hispanic-American comedian.

1972 - Drea de Matteo, American actress.

1980 - Jenson Button, English Formula One driver.

Deaths

1990 - Bhagwam Shree Rajneesh, Indian guru.

1998 - Carl Perkins, American pioneer of rockabilly music, a mix of rhythm and blues and country western music.

2000 - Bettino Craxi, Prime Minister of Italy.

2000 - Hedy Lamarr, Austrian-born actress.

2006 - Wilson Pickett, American R&B and soul singer.

2007 - Denny Doherty, Canadian singer and songwriter, and a founding member of the 1960s musical group The Mamas and the Papas.