| 142711 | December 19 | Event | 1932 – BBC World Service begins broadcasting as the BBC Empire Service. |
| 142712 | December 19 | Event | 1941 – World War II: Adolf Hitler becomes Supreme Commander-in-chief of the German Army. |
| 142713 | December 19 | Event | 1941 – World War II: Limpet mines placed by Italian divers heavily damage the HMS Valiant and HMS Queen Elizabeth in Alexandria harbour. |
| 142714 | December 19 | Event | 1946 – Start of the First Indochina War. |
| 142715 | December 19 | Event | 1956 – Irish-born physician John Bodkin Adams is arrested in connection with the suspicious deaths of more than 160 patients. Eventually he is convicted only of minor charges. |
| 142716 | December 19 | Event | 1961 – India annexes Daman and Diu, part of Portuguese India. |
| 142717 | December 19 | Event | 1964 – The South Vietnamese military junta of Nguyễn Khánh dissolve the High National Council and arrest some of the members. |
| 142718 | December 19 | Event | 1967 – Harold Holt, the Prime Minister of Australia, is officially presumed dead. |
| 142719 | December 19 | Event | 1972 – Apollo program: The last manned lunar flight, Apollo 17, crewed by Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans (astronaut) and Harrison Schmitt, returns to Earth. |
| 142720 | December 19 | Event | 1974 – Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as Vice President of the United States under President Gerald Ford under the provisions of the twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. |
| 142721 | December 19 | Event | 1975 – John Paul Stevens is appointed a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. |
| 142722 | December 19 | Event | 1981 – Sixteen lives are lost when the Penlee lifeboat goes to the aid of the stricken coaster Union Star in heavy seas. |
| 142723 | December 19 | Event | 1983 – The original FIFA World Cup trophy, the Jules Rimet Trophy, is stolen from the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. |
| 142724 | December 19 | Event | 1984 – The Sino-British Joint Declaration, stating that China would resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong and the United Kingdom would restore Hong Kong to China with effect from July 1, 1997 is signed in Beijing, China by Deng Xiaoping and Ma |
| 142725 | December 19 | Event | 1986 – Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union, releases Andrei Sakharov and his wife from exile in Gorky. |
| 142726 | December 19 | Event | 1995 – The United States Government restores federal recognition to the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Native American tribe. |
| 142727 | December 19 | Event | 1997 – SilkAir Flight 185 crashes into the Musi River, near Palembang in Indonesia, killing 104. |
| 142728 | December 19 | Event | 1998 – President Bill Clinton is impeached by the United States House of Representatives, becoming the second President of the United States to be impeached. |
| 142729 | December 19 | Event | 2000 – The Leninist Guerrilla Units wing of the Communist Labour Party of Turkey/Leninist attack a Nationalist Movement Party office in Istanbul, Turkey, killing one person and injuring three. |
| 142730 | December 19 | Event | 2001 – A record high barometric pressure of 1085.6 hPa (32.06 inHg) is recorded at Tosontsengel, Khövsgöl, Mongolia. |
| 142731 | December 19 | Event | 2001 – Argentine economic crisis: December 2001 riots – Riots erupt in Buenos Aires, Argentina. |
| 142732 | December 19 | Event | 2012 – Park Geun-hye is elected the first female president of South Korea. |
| 142733 | December 19 | Birth | 1554 – Philip William, Prince of Orange (d. 1618) |
| 142734 | December 19 | Birth | 1587 – Dorothea Sophia, Abbess of Quedlinburg (d. 1645) |
| 142735 | December 19 | Birth | 1683 – Philip V of Spain (d. 1746) |
| 142736 | December 19 | Birth | 1699 – William Bowyer, English printer (d. 1777) |
| 142737 | December 19 | Birth | 1714 – John Winthrop, American astronomer and educator (d. 1779) |
| 142738 | December 19 | Birth | 1778 – Marie Thérèse of France (d. 1851) |
| 142739 | December 19 | Birth | 1779 – Albine de Montholon, French mistress of Napoleon (d. 1848) |
| 142740 | December 19 | Birth | 1796 – Manuel Bretón de los Herreros, Spanish poet, playwright, and critic (d. 1873) |