What happened on December 19 ?

324 - Licinius abdicates his position as Roman Emperor.

1187 - Pope Clement III is elected.

1777 - American Revolutionary War: George Washington's Continental Army goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

1828 - Nullification Crisis: Vice President of the United States John C. Calhoun pens the South Carolina Exposition and Protest, protesting the Tariff of 1828.

1835 - The first issue of The Blade newspaper is published in Toledo, Ohio.

1910 - Edward Douglass White is sworn in as the 9th Chief Justice of the United States.

1912 - William H. Van Schaick, captain of the steamship General Slocum which caught fire and killed over 1,000 people, is pardoned by President Taft after 3-and-a-half-years in Sing Sing prison .

1916 - World War I: Battle of Verdun - On the Western Front, the French Army successfully holds off the German Army and drives it back to its starting position.

1941 - Hitler becomes Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the German Army

1961 - India annexes Daman and Diu, part of Portuguese India.

1963 - Zanzibar receives its independence from the United Kingdom, to become a constitutional monarchy under Sultan Hamoud bin Mohammed.

1965 - Prison guard George Hodson is killed during Ronald Ryan and Peter Walker's escape from HM Prison Pentridge in Coburg, Victoria.

1967 - Prime Minister of Australia Harold Holt is officially presumed dead.

1972 - Project Apollo: The last manned lunar flight, Apollo 17, crewed by Eugene Cernan, Ron Evans and Harrison Schmitt, returns to Earth.

1974 - The Altair 8800 microcomputer kit goes on sale.

1974 - Nelson A. Rockefeller is sworn is as the 41st Vice President of the United States under President Gerald Ford.

1984 - The Sino-British Joint Declaration, stating that China would resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong and the United Kingdom would restore Hong Kong to China with effect from July 1, 1997, is signed in Beijing by Deng Xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher.

1988 - Lawn darts are banned from sale in the United States by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

1997 - Silkair Flight 185 crashes into the Musi River, near Palembang in Indonesia, killing 104.

1997 - The film Titanic is released.

1998 - Lewinsky scandal: The United States House of Representatives forwards articles I and III of impeachment against President Bill Clinton to the Senate.

1999 - Portugal transferred sovereignty of Macau to the People's Republic of China.

2000 - The Leninist Guerrilla Units wing of the Communist Labour Party of Turkey/Leninist attack a Nationalist Movement Party office in Istanbul, killing one person and injuring three.

2001 - A record high barometric pressure of 1085.6 hPa (32.06 inHg) is recorded at Tosontsengel, Hövsgöl in Mongolia.

2001 - Argentine economic crisis: December 2001 riots - Riots erupt in Buenos Aires after Domingo Cavallo's corralito measures restrict the withdrawal of cash from bank deposits. The film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is released.