April 19th is 109th day of the Gregorian calendar (the 110th in leap years). There are 256 days left until the end of the year.
Saint of the day: Saint Elfego of Canterbury, bishop.
April Proverb
Whoever thinks it’s April will laugh about it all year round
It happened today
1775 – Beginning of the American Revolutionary War with the Battle of Lexington and Concord
1820 – On the island of Milos, in Greece, Jules Dumont d’Urville sees the upper part of the statue known as Venus de Milo in the hut of a local farmer: the farmer will say that he found it three weeks earlier while digging in the remains of a temple, and that he left the lower part and arms of the statue there; all these pieces are sent to the Louvre Museum, in France, where however they get lost in the warehouses, leaving only the armless bust of Venus
1909 – Joan of Arc is beatified
1937 – Fascist Italy passes the first law for the protection of the race, the Royal Decree-Law n. 880/37; the ordinance prohibited madamate (the purchase of a concubine) and marriage to black women from the African colonies
1948 – The results of the Italian political votes of the previous day are announced: the Christian Democrats obtain 48.5% of the votes and 305 seats, clearly establishing themselves on the second list, that of the Popular Democratic Front
1956 – The actress Grace Kelly marries Rainier III of Monaco
1961 – The Bay of Pigs invasion of the Caribbean island of Cuba fails
1987 – The Simpsons family makes its first appearance with an animated short film entitled Good Night and broadcast on the Tracey Ullman Show
1999 – The seat of the German parliament returns to Berlin
2005 – After the conclave, the German cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected pope with the name of Benedict XVI; the white smoke is at 5.50pm, followed at 6.04pm by the ringing of the bells and the Habemus Papam announcement at 6.41pm
Birthdays
Fernando Botero – Colombian artist (1932 – 15 September 1923)
Caludio Cecchetto – Record producer and talent scout (1952)
Calcutta – Italian singer (1989)
Karl Drais – German, inventor of the bicycle (1785 – 10 December 1851)
Lilli Gruber – Italian journalist (1957)
Maria Sharapova – Russian tennis player (1987)
Sara Simeoni – Italian athlete, Olympic high jump champion (1953)
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