19 January 2025 (MIA)

– The Macedonian Orthodox Church celebrates Epiphany

1795 – The Batavian Republic is proclaimed in the Netherlands, bringing to an end the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands.

1806 – Britain occupies the Dutch Cape Colony after the Battle of Blaauwberg.

1817 – An army of 5,423 soldiers, led by General José de San Martín, crosses the Andes from Argentina to liberate Chile and then Peru.

1829 – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust: The First Part of the Tragedy receives its premiere performance.

1839 – The British East India Company captures Aden.

1853 – Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Il trovatore receives its premiere performance in Rome.

1861 – American Civil War: Georgia joins South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama in declaring secession from the United States.

1871 – Dame Gruev, prominent Macedonian revolutionary at the turn of the 20th century, is born in the village of Smilevo, near Demir Hisar. He was killed in a battle against the Ottomans in 1906.

1871 – Franco-Prussian War: In the Siege of Paris, Prussia wins the Battle of St. Quentin. Meanwhile, the French attempt to break the siege in the Battle of Buzenval will end unsuccessfully the following day.

1883 – The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey.

1899 – Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is formed.

1915 – World War I: German zeppelins bomb the towns of Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn in the United Kingdom killing at least 20 people, in the first major aerial bombardment of a civilian target.

1920 – The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.

1925 – Macedonian composer Kiril Makedonski is born in Bitola. He is credited with composing the first Macedonian opera, “Goce,” which premiered in Skopje in 1954.

1937 – Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in seven hours, 28 minutes, 25 seconds.

1941 – World War II: The Greek Triton (Y-5) sinks the Italian submarine Neghelli in Otranto.

1942 – World War II: The Japanese conquest of Burma begins.

1945 – World War II: Soviet forces liberate the Łódź Ghetto. Of more than 200,000 inhabitants in 1940, less than 900 had survived the Nazi occupation.

1947 – The Association of Musicians of Macedonia is formed in Skopje.

1949 – Cuba recognizes Israel.

1956 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 111 relating to UNTSO in Palestine is adopted.

1960 – Japan and the United States sign the US–Japan Mutual Security Treaty

1969 – Student Jan Palach dies after setting himself on fire three days earlier in Prague’s Wenceslas Square to protest about the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968. His funeral turns into another major protest.

1974 – China gain control over all the Paracel Islands after a military engagement between the naval forces of the People’s Republic of China and Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam)

1981 – Iran hostage crisis: United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity.

1983 – Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia.

1988 – Pavle Videv, the first Macedonian chess master, dies in Igalo. He was born in 1912.

1990 – Boro Licenoski, WWII veteran and head of the National Antifascists Liberation Council of Macedonia, dies in Belgrade.

1991 – Gulf War: Iraq fires a second Scud missile into Israel, causing 15 injuries.

1993 – Czech Republic and Slovakia join the United Nations.

1996 – The barge North Cape oil spill occurs as an engine fire forces the tugboat Scandia ashore on Moonstone Beach in South Kingstown, Rhode Island.

1997 – Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron after more than 30 years and joins celebrations over the handover of the last Israeli-controlled West Bank city.

2007 – Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink is assassinated in front of his newspaper’s Istanbul office by 17-year-old Turkish ultra-nationalist Ogün Samast.

2012 – The Hong Kong-based file-sharing website Megaupload is shut down by the FBI.

2014 – A bomb attack on an army convoy in the city of Bannu kills at least 26 soldiers and injures 38 others.

2017 –Adama Barrow sworn in as President of Gambia in Dahkar as Senegalese troops enter Gambia to persuade former President Yahya Jammeh to leave.

2021 – The US death toll from COVID-19 passes 400,000.