what happened on 19 december 1976?

Question

I am trying to find fascinating facts, famous birthdays etc from 30 years ago today.

Answer 1

If you have online access to a library, see whether they subscribe to the archives of "The Times" (Times Digital Archive), and if so, then sign up and search the newspaper for that day. I'm with Manchester Library (manchester.gov.uk) and no, you don't have to live in the area concerned to sign up.

I've checked myself for 19 December 1976, which happens to be a SUNDAY, and there is no newspaper to check for this day.

Monday's paper, dated the 20th December leads with a rather uninteresting story about a Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky and a political prisoner exchange with a Chilean communist Senor Luis Corvalan, and a press conference given in Zurich, Switzerland on the 19th. Another article on page one is even closer to home - the question of "home rule and devolution" for Scotland and Wales, which has been many years in the making.

On page two, Princess Anne has been accused of doing 90mph on the M1 motorway and court procceedings may be forthcoming. The troubles in Northern Ireland make page two as well, with and I quote "a weekend of violence left a youth dead, three people seriously injured, and three more in hospital". Also in the news, a gang of six armed men escaped with about £200,000 in a security van raid in Tonbridge, Kent.

Again proving that some things never change, page three leads with a story about winter fuel costs. Page four leads with a birthday report - the 70th birthday of Russian leader Mr Brezhnev (on the 19th) receiving various Soviet military honors and medals. Meanwhile, US president Ford flew on his winter skiing ttrip to Vail in the Rockies to find the slopes almost completely snowless! Meanwhile in Brisbane, Australia a cyclone badly damaged the village of Burketown, sending all 250 residents into the shelter of a hotel. In Beunos Aires on the 19th, the body of former Argentinian dictator Juan Peron was buried in a local cemetary, some two years after his death.

In cricket, England were playing India in New Delhi on the Sunday and seem to be doing reasonably well - 381 in the first innings, with India on 122 and 82-1, with John Lever as England's man of the match. In football, Saturday's matches ended in a 2-1 defeat for Newcastle at Villa Park, while Manchester United lost 3-1 at Arsenal. Ipswich Town sit at the top of divison one with 27 points, level with Liverpool, who went down 2-0 at West Ham United. Sunderland occupy bottom spot with just nine points.

In business news, a £6.2 million contract is awarded for a 6.2km section of the new M25 orbital motorway, and the hope that the entire route would be completed by 1983 or 1984. In the event of course, it was not opened until 1986!!

There's lots more stuff in this edition of the paper, but you are best going to a county library website yourself and looking them up yourself!

Hope this gives you a taster!

Answer 2

Unfortunately, absolutely nothing of significance happened on December 19, 1976 to date.

Check here for updates:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_19

Answer 3

DECEMBER 19th

On this day in history in 1989, died Stella Gibbons.
Gibbons was a journalist and fashion writer, whose satire on esteemed Nineteenth Century writers, in her novel, Cold Comfort Farm, made her a best selling author.

Gibbons was born on 5th January 1902, at Camden Town, London, the daughter of a physician who practiced in one of the poorest districts of London. Her upbringing in this background was depressing and unhappy, but she relieved the situation by creating extravagant fairy tales, which she recounted to her younger siblings. She was educated at North London Collegiate School for Girls and University College, London, where she read journalism.

After graduating, Gibbons decided on a career in journalism, knowing that her drunken and debauched father would never be in a position to support her. In 1924, she obtained a job with British United Press but was dismissed in 1926, after her miscalculation of the current exchange rates caused a tremor in the financial markets. Gibbons got a job at the London Evening Standard, writing book reviews. While appraising a novel, The Golden Arrow, by Mary Webb, a rural novel in the style of Thomas Hardy, she found the plot absurd and the characterisation fatuous, inspiring her to consider a parody of novels of that genre. In 1930, Gibbons was again discharged from her position and went to work for The Lady, a literary magazine for the educated ladies of the middle class.

Work at The Lady, was not too arduous, and Gibbons found time to write her magnum opus, Cold Comfort Farm, a burlesque of the pessimistic rustic environment, which characterised the works of Thomas Hardy and his followers. The plot involves a 1920’s flapper introduced to the eccentric idyll of the Starkadders, a grim and unwholesome family, said to be not dissimilar to her own parents. The novel was an immediate success and won the prestigious Prix Femina Vie Heureuse. Gibbons produced several other novels and a volume of verse, which was admired by Virginia Woolf. In 1951, Gibbons was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Gibbons died on 19th December 1989, and was buried in Highgate Cemetery. [Highgate Cemetery, Swains Lane, London, N6 6PJ]

Answer 4

It was my birthday, and July 4th was the 200 year Anniversary of the Adoption of the Declaration of Independence. But as for the 19th ?????.

Answer 5

I turned 7 months 21 days old.

Answer 6

I believe Mayor Richard J. Daley died in Chicago. Check out suntimes.com. They have a bunch of Daley stories today and I think it's because it's the anniversary of his death.

Answer 7

My brother celebrated a birthday, but I'm not going to mention what number.

Answer 8

I couldn't wait coz it was only six days til santa came !!

And it was my mums' birthday ! but she's only famous for having me !

Answer 9

the sex pistol's Paul Cook's mother tells The Daily Mail that Steve is no longer welcome at home. She's going to turn his bedroom into a dining room.

Answer 10

Did not find anything for 1976, but I did find December 19th:

324 - Licinius abdicates his position as Roman Emperor.
1187 - Pope Clement III is elected.
1606 - The Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery depart England carrying settlers who, at Jamestown, Virginia, would found the first of the thirteen colonies that became the United States.
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.
1843 - A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, is first published in England.
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.
1920 - King Constantine I restored as King of the Hellenes after the death of his son Alexander I of Greece and a plebescite.
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.
1975 - A bomb explodes in the centre of Dundalk, Ireland, killing two people.
1981 - Sixteen lives are lost when the Penlee lifeboat goes to the aid of the stricken coaster Union Star in heavy seas.
1984 - The Sino-British Joint Declaration, stating that the People's Republic of 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.
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 - The fire at the World Trade Center, as a result of the September 11, 2001 attacks, is finally extinguished after three months.
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.
2006 - Dutch 3FM DJs Giel Beelen, Gerard Ekdom and Sander Lantinga started their 6 days of fasting and non-stop radio broadcasting in a glass house in Utrecht, The Netherlands, to raise money for the victims of land mines worldwide, and the removal of land mines. The Belgian radio station 'Studio Brussel' also sends 3 DJs in a glass house, for the same reason, in Leuven.