April 19 in History
1877 — Ole Evinrude, US inventor of the first outboard (boat) motor for practical commercial use, is born Ole Andreassen Aaslundeie in Gjøvik, Norway. 1893 — The Oscar Wilde play “A Woman of No Importance” opens at the Haymarket Theatre in London.
1927 — Mae West is sentenced to 10 days in prison, charged with “obscenity and corrupting the morals of youth” for writing (under the name Jane Mast), directing and performing in the Broadway production “Sex”. Before the show was raided in February 1927, about 325,000 people had come through the turnstiles since it opened on April 26 1926.
1968 — Ralph S Plaisted, insurance salesman turned Arctic explorer, reaches the North Pole by snowmobile with Walt Pederson, Gerry Pitzl and Jean-Luc Bombardier. This is the first confirmed surface conquest of the North Pole.
1968 — King Mswati III of Eswatini (since April 25 1986), is born Makhosetive in Manzini.
1971 — The Soviet Union launches Salyut 1, the world’s first space station, into orbit.
1971 — Sierra Leone becomes a republic and Siaka Stevens the president.
1973 — George Gregan, Australian rugby player and coach, is born in Lusaka, Zambia.
1975 — India’s first satellite, Aryabhata, is launched from Kapustin Yar, Russia.
1987 — “The Simpsons” first appears as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, starting with “Good Night”. After three seasons, the sketch is developed into a half-hour prime-time show.
1987 — Maria Sharapova, Russian tennis player, is born in Nyagan. She has been living in the US since 1994 and is one of 10 women to hold the career Grand Slam (Australian Open 2008, French Open 2012 and 2014, Wimbledon 2004, US Open 2006).
1993 — The 51-day siege of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ends as fire destroys the structure after federal agents began smashing their way in. Of the 85 people in the compound when the siege started on February 28, 76 (including leader David Koresh and 18 children under the age of 10) die in the fire or by gunshot wound from fellow Davidians. 1995 — Oklahoma City, US: At 9.02am a large car bomb explodes at the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 people and injuring over 600. The victims (aged three months to 73 years) include three pregnant women and 19 babies and children, many in the building’s daycare centre. Timothy McVeigh, 26, planned the attack in revenge for (among others) the 1993 Waco siege. He is executed on June 11 2001. 7.