Historical Events on March 19

On This Day

Here are some historical events that took place on March 19:

1687 - French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was murdered by his own men near the Brazos River in Texas while searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River.

1812 - The Caracas earthquake in Venezuela, with an estimated magnitude of 7.7, caused significant damage and killed approximately 15,000 people.

1863 - The Confederate cruiser CSS Georgiana was destroyed on her maiden voyage in Charleston, South Carolina. The wreck was discovered in 1965.

1918 - The United States Congress established time zones and approved daylight saving time.

1920 - The United States Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles for the second time, ensuring that the U.S. would not join the League of Nations.

1931 - The state of Nevada legalized gambling.

1945 - Adolf Hitler issued his "Nero Decree," ordering the destruction of German infrastructure to prevent their use by Allied forces as they advanced into Germany.

1965 - The wreck of the SS Georgiana, a Confederate cruiser sunk in 1863, was discovered by E. Lee Spence.

1979 - The United States House of Representatives began broadcasting its day-to-day business on TV via the C-SPAN network.

2003 - The United States and three other countries began the invasion of Iraq, marking the start of the Iraq War.

2011 - The Syrian Civil War begins as the Assad government cracks down on protesters.

2018 - The world's last male northern white rhinoceros, named Sudan, dies in Kenya, leaving only two females of the subspecies alive.

These are just a few events from history that occurred on March 19th!