January 19 ...

In 1419 Rouen surrendered to Henry V, completing Henry's conquest of Normandy. In 1736 James Watt, inventor of the steam engine, was born in Scotland. In 1764 John Wilkes was expelled from the British House of Commons for seditious libel. In 1783 William Pitt at age 24 became the youngest Prime Minister of England. In 1793 King Louis XVI was tried by the French Convention, found guilty of treason and sentenced to the guillotine. In 1807 Robert E. Lee was born in Stratford, VA. In 1809 Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, MA. In 1839 French impressionist Paul Cezanne was born in Aix-en-Provence, France. In 1861 Georgia became the 5th state to secede from the Union. In 1903 Marconi broadcast the first transatlantic radio message from his station on Cape Cod, beaming a message to King Edward of England from President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1915 more than 20 people were killed when German zeppelins bombed England for the first time. The bombs were dropped on Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn. In 1920 the US Senate voted against membership in the League of Nations. In 1942 the Japanese invaded Burma (later Myanmar). In 1943 singer Janis Joplin was born in Port Arthur, TX. In 1944 the federal government relinquished control of the nation's railroads following settlement of a wage dispute. In 1945 Soviet forces liberated the ghetto of Lodz, Poland from the Nazis. Out of 230,000 inhabitants in 1940, less than 900 had survived Nazi occupation. In 1955 President Eisenhower's news conference was filmed and broadcast on television (and in movie newsreels) for the first time. In 1966 following in the footsteps of her father Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Ghandi became India's Prime Minister. In 1974 Notre Dame men's basketball team ended UCLA 88-game winning streak. In 1975 artist Thomas Hart Benton died in Kansas City, MO, at age 85. In 1977 President Gerald Ford pardoned Iva Toguri D'Aquino ("Tokyo Rose"), and restored her citizenship. In 1981 the US and Iran signed an agreement paving the way for the release of 52 Americans held hostage for more than 14 months. In 1983 notorious SS officer Klaus Barbie was arrested in Bolivia.