On This Day

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Important events of history that took place in India and elsewhere on today’s date.

19 November

🇮🇳 In India

1828 Lakshmibai, the Rani of Jhansi, the Maharani consort of the Maratha princely state of Jhansi from 1843 to 1853 as the wife of Maharaja Gangadhar Rao, was born. She was one of the leading figures of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and became a symbol of resistance to the British Raj for Indian nationalists. She died in the Rebellion, from wounds received in a battle on 17 June 1858.

1917 Indira Gandhi, the fourth prime minister of India and also the first and, to date, only female prime minister of India, was born.

1928 Dara Singh Randhawa, Indian professional wrestler, actor and politician, was born.

1975 Sushmita Sen, Indian actress, model and the winner of the Miss Universe 1994 pageant, was born.

1986 The Environment (Protection) Act, enacted with the objective of providing for the protection and improvement of the environment, comes into force. It empowers the Central Government to establish authorities charged with the mandate of preventing environmental pollution in all its forms and to tackle specific environmental problems that are peculiar to different parts of the country. The Act was last amended in 1991.

1995 Indian weightlifter Karnam Malleswari made a world record in weightlifting. She holds the distinguished honour of being the first woman from India to win a medal at the Olympics.

1997 Kalpana Chawla became the first woman of Indian origin to go to space.

🌎 Elsewhere

1703 The man in the iron mask, a political prisoner famous in French history and legend, died in the Bastille. His true identity was the cause of much intrigue, and his story became the basis of literary works by François Voltaire and Alexandre Dumas.

1881 A meteorite lands near the village of Grossliebenthal, southwest of Odessa, Ukraine.

1969 Brazilian football (soccer) player Pelé scored his 1,000th career goal.

1977 The president of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, becomes the first Arab leader ever to visit Israel.

2007 Amazon.com began selling the Kindle, a wireless electronic reading device that played a key role in popularizing e-books.

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