April 19
| 1539 | Emperor Charles V reaches a truce with German Protestants at Frankfurt, Germany. | |
| 1689 | Residents of Boston oust their governor, Edmond Andros. | |
| 1764 | The English Parliament bans the American colonies from printing paper money. | |
| 1775 | The American Revolution begins as fighting breaks out at Lexington, Massachusetts. | |
| 1782 | The Netherlands recognizes the United States. | |
| 1794 | Tadeusz Kosciuszko forces the Russians out of Warsaw. | |
| 1802 | The Spanish reopen New Orleans port to American merchants. | |
| 1824 | English poet Lord Byron dies of malaria at age 36 while aiding Greek independence. | |
| 1861 | The Baltimore riots result in four Union soldiers and nine civilians killed. | |
| 1861 | President Lincoln orders a blockade of Confederate ports. | |
| 1880 | The Times war correspondent telephones a report of the Battle of Ahmed Khel, the first time news is sent from a field of battle in this manner. | |
| 1927 | In China, Hankow communists declare war on Chiang Kai-shek. | |
| 1934 | Shirley Temple appears in her first movie. | |
| 1938 | General Francisco Franco declares victory in the Spanish Civil War. | |
| 1939 | Connecticut finally approves the Bill of Rights. | |
| 1943 | The Warsaw Ghetto uprising against Nazi rule begins. | |
| 1960 | Baseball uniforms begin displaying player's names on their backs. | |
| 1971 | Russia launches its first Salyut space station. | |
| 1977 | Alex Haley receives a special Pulitzer Prize for his book Roots. | |
| 1982 | NASA names Sally Ride to be the first woman astronaut. | |
| 1989 | The battleship USS Iowa's number 2 turret explodes, killing sailors. | |
| 1993 | The FBI ends a 51-day siege by storming the Branch Dividian religious cult headquarters in Waco, Texas. | |
| 1995 | A truck bomb explodes in front of the federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. | |
| Born on April 19 | ||
| 1666 | Sarah Kembel Knight, diarist. | |
| 1721 | Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence. | |
| 1832 | Lucretia Rudolph, President Garfield's first lady. | |
| 1877 | Ole Evinrude, inventor of the first successful outboard motor. | |
| 1900 | Richard Hughes, English novelist and playwright (A High Wind in Jamaica). | |
| 1903 | Eliot Ness, Treasury agent during Prohibition. | |
| 1905 | Tom Hopkinson, British writer. | |
| 1912 | Glenn T. Seaborg, physicist. | |
| 1933 | Etheridge Knight, poet. | |
