Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/December 19
December 19: Eid ul-Adha begins (Islam, 2007); Tenth of Tevet (Judaism, 2007).
- 1843 – A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, a novella about Ebenezer Scrooge, was first published.
- 1916 – World War I: The Battle of Verdun on the Western Front ended as the French drove the Germans back to their starting positions.
- 1972 – NASA astronauts Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Harrison Schmitt aboard Apollo 17 returned to Earth. No human has visited the Moon since.
- 1974 – The Altair 8800 (pictured), widely recognized as the spark that led to the personal computer revolution of the next few years, went on sale.
- 1984 – The People's Republic of China and the United Kingdom signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration, agreeing to the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong to China on July 1 1997.
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