Nov 19 in History
1493 — Christopher Columbus goes ashore on an island in the Caribbean Sea, called Borikén by the Taíno inhabitants. He names it San Juan Bautista in honour of St John the Baptist, while the capital city is named Ciudad de Puerto Rico (Rich Port City). Eventually, traders and other maritime visitors come to refer to the island as Puerto Rico, and San Juan becomes the name of the capital.
1805 — Ferdinand de Lesseps, French diplomat and developer of the Suez Canal (1859-69), is born in Versailles, First French Empire.
1847 — The second Canadian railway line, the 12km Montreal and Lachine Railroad (built to bypass the Lachine Rapids), is opened.
1881 — A meteorite lands near the village of Grossliebenthal, southwest of Odesa, Ukraine.
1916 — Goldwyn Pictures Corporation is founded by Samuel Goldfish (who later changes his name to Goldwyn), an executive at Lasky’s Feature Play Company, and Broadway producer brothers Edgar and Archibald Selwyn, using an amalgamation of their surnames for the company name. On April 17 1924 it merges with Metro Pictures Corporation and Louis B Mayer Productions, bringing with it Leo the Lion, the mascot/logo still synonymous with the powerhouse Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).
1941 — HMAS Sydney, a modified Leander-class light cruiser operated by the Royal Australian Navy, is sunk off the west coast of Australia in a battle with the 9,500 ton German raider Kormoran, with the loss of all 645 on board. The Kormoran, disguised as a Dutch merchant ship, also sinks, but 318 of its 397 crew are rescued. Both wreckages are discover in 2008.
1954 — Télé Monte-Carlo, Europe’s oldest private television channel, is launched by Prince Rainier III of Monaco.
1969 — Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum (“Ocean of Storms”) and become the third and fourth humans to walk on the moon.
1969 — Brazilian football legend Pelé, 29, scores his 1,000th goal, giving Santos (the club he plays for from 1956 to 1974) a 2-1 victory against Vasco da Gama in a jam-packed Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. He scores from the penalty spot after being brought down inside the box.
1985 — In Geneva, US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time. They discuss international diplomatic relations and the arms race.