Today in History in 1937 Howard Hughes sets a new air record, by flying from Los Angeles, California to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.

The On This Day In History archives at “Simple English Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia” contains over 200,000 events, birthdays and deaths from 6,000 years of history. Here is a roundup of a few of them:

January 19 is the 19th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 346 days remaining until the end of the year.

EVENTS

1419 – Hundred Years' War: Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England in England's reconquest of Normandy.

1520 – Sten Sture the Younger, regent of Sweden, is injured in the Battle of Bogesund, leading to his death on February 3.

1607 – The San Agustin Church in Manila is completed. It is the oldest church in the Philippines still standing.

1788 – A second group of the First Fleet of convicts from Great Britain arrives at Botany Bay, present–day Sydney, Australia.

1795 – The Batavian Republic is founded in the Netherlands.

1806 – The United Kingdom occupies the Cape of Good Hope.

1812 – Peninsular War: After a ten–day siege, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington orders British soldiers of the Light and Third Divisions to storm Ciudad Rodrigo.

1817 – An army led by Jose de San Martin crosses the Andes from Argentina to Chile, having already liberated Argentina.

1829 – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust Part 1 is performed for the first time.

1839 – The British East India Company captures Aden, Yemen.

1840 – Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigates Antarctica.

1853 – Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore is performed for the first time, in Rome.

1861 – Confederate States of America: Georgia leaves the Union, becoming the 5th state to do so.

1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Mill Springs, the first important Confederate defeat of the war.

1871 – Franco-Prussian War: Prussia wins in the Battle of Saint Quentin.

1883 – German passenger steamer Cimbria sinks after a collision off the island of Borkum in the North Sea, killing 437 people.

1893 – Henrik Ibsen's play The Master Builder is performed for the first time, in Berlin.

1899 – Anglo–Egyptian Sudan is formed.

1915 – Georges Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.

1915 – World War I: German zeppelins bomb Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England, killing over 20 people.

1917 – A Munitions Plant Explosion in London kills 73 people.

1920 – The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.

1937 – Howard Hughes sets a new air record, by flying from Los Angeles, California to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.

1942 – World War II: Japanese forces invade Burma.

1942 – Canadian passenger steamer RMS Lady Hawkins is sunk by a German U–boat off North Carolina, killing 251 people.

1945 – World War II: Soviet forces liberate the Lodz ghetto.

1946 – General Douglas MacArthur establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo.

1949 – Cuba recognises Israel as an independent country.

1953 – Almost 72% of US television sets are tuned in to I Love Lucy, to watch Lucy give birth.

1958 – An expedition led by Vivian Fuchs reaches the South Pole, the fourth expedition to do so.

1965 – The unmanned spacecraft Gemini 2 is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

1966 – Indira Gandhi becomes Prime Minister of India.

1969 – Czechoslovakian student Jan Palach dies, three days after setting himself on fire in an act of protest.

1975 – A large earthquake strikes Himachal Pradesh, India.

1977 – Rare snowfalls occur in Miami, Florida and the Bahamas.

1977 – Gerald Ford pardons World War II propagandist Iva Toguri D'Aquino.

1978 – The last Volkswagen Beetle to be produced in Europe runs off the assembly line in Emden, Germany. They continue to be produced in Latin America until 2003.

1981 – Iran hostage crisis: US and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months in captivity.

1983 – The Apple Lisa commercial personal computer is announced by Apple Inc.

1983 – Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia.

1991 – Gulf War: Iraq fires a second scud missile into Israel.

1993 – The Czech Republic and Slovakia join the UN.

1996 – The North Cape Oil Spill occurs off Rhode Island.

1997 – Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron, West Bank, after 30 years.

2006 – NASA's New Horizons probe launches to Pluto.

2007 – Journalist Hrant Dink is murdered in front of his newspaper office.

2012 – Wikipedia's English language edition ends its blackout from the previous day, which was a protest action against the SOPA and PIPA laws proposed by the United States Congress.

2013 – Bulgarian politician Ahmed Dogan survives an attempt to kill him, when his attacker is stopped by security guards.

2013 – An EU–wide driving licence is introduced.

2014 – Anti–government protests escalate in Ukraine, as a new anti–protest law comes into force.

2014 – A bomb attack on an army convoy in the northern Pakistani city of Bannu kills 26 soldiers and injures 38 others.