January 19
Subject to Britannica's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
Featured Event
MPI/Archive Photos/Getty Images
Lucille Ball’s baby is born on television
On this day in 1953, American actress Lucille Ball welcomed a baby boy—both on and off-screen. She had a planned C-section delivery in real life, but her character on the hit sitcom I Love Lucy gave birth as well, breaking some of the stigma surrounding pregnancy and childbirth on television. About 44 million people watched the episode, titled “Lucy Goes to the Hospital.” [Read today’s edition of Today in History > >]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
© Print Collector—Hulton Fine Art Collection/Getty Images
French painter Paul Cézanne, who was born this day in 1839 and whose works and ideas influenced the aesthetic development of many 20th-century artists and art movements, was one of the greatest of the Post-Impressionists.
Famous Birthdays
More on January 19
Maarten De Boer/Getty Images
2013
Fruitvale Station, the first feature film made by Ryan Coogler, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. It won the festival’s Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for a drama film.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
2000
Austrian-born actress Hedy Lamarr, who was often typecast as a provocative femme fatale and later achieved recognition as a noted inventor of a radio communications device, died in Florida. [Read about seven celebrity inventors, including Hedy Lamarr.]
Hulton Archive—Archive Photos/Getty Images
1977
U.S. President Gerald Ford pardoned Iva Toguri D’Aquino (Tokyo Rose), who had been convicted of treason in 1949 and served six years in a U.S. prison for her propaganda radio broadcasts to U.S. troops during World War II. Ford was swayed by information that emerged after her conviction suggesting she had been wrongly convicted. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about World War II.]
Richard Nixon Library/National Archives, Washington, D.C.
1966
Following the sudden death of Indian Premier Lal Bahadur Shastri eight days earlier, Indira Gandhi became prime minister of India, assuming the office first held by her father, Jawaharlal Nehru.
Fabian Bachrach
1955
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower held the first-ever televised presidential press conference. [Test your knowledge of U.S. presidential firsts.]
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
1946
Country music singer, guitarist, and actress Dolly Parton, best known for pioneering the interface between country and pop music styles, was born in Locust Ridge, Tennessee. [Sort fact from fiction in our music quiz.]
© Holland/Retna Ltd.
1943
Singer Janis Joplin, who was known for her fierce and uninhibited musical style, was born in Port Arthur, Texas. [Take our quiz about singers, musicians, and composers.]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1883
In the North Sea the German steamer Cimbria collided with the British steamer Sultan and sank, killing 340. [Read about seven of the world’s deadliest shipwrecks.]
© Juulijs/Fotolia
1853
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1825
Ezra Daggett and Thomas Kensett obtained a patent for a preservation process used to store food in tin cans. [Take our quiz about food science.]
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
1809
Edgar Allan Poe, a short-story writer, poet, critic, and editor famous for his cultivation of mystery and the macabre, was born in Boston. [Learn about Poe’s mysterious death.]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
1807
Robert E. Lee—a U.S. Army officer, Confederate general, and college president who has been a contested figure since the end of the American Civil War, with many statues of him removed from public in the 21st century—was born in Stratford, Virginia. [Test your knowledge of famous war personalities.]