Cyclone Althea was a severe tropical cyclone that devastated parts of North Queensland just before Christmas during the 1971–72 Australian region cyclone season. The fourth system and second severe tropical cyclone of the season, Althea was one of the strongest storms ever to affect the Townsville area. After forming near the Solomon Islands on 19 December and heading southwest across the Coral Sea, the storm reached Category 4 on the Australian cyclone scale, peaking with 10-minute average maximum sustained winds of 165 km/h (105 mph). At 09:00 AEST on Christmas Eve, Althea struck the coast of Queensland near Rollingstone, about 50 km (30 mi) north of Townsville. While moving ashore, Althea generated wind gusts as high as 215 km/h (134 mph) that damaged thousands of homes and destroyed many. On nearby Magnetic Island almost all of the buildings were affected. Three people were killed, and damage totalled A$120 million. (Full article...)

Kathleen Hall Jamieson

• ... that Kathleen Hall Jamieson (pictured), author of Cyberwar, thinks it "highly probable" that Russia changed the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election?
• ... that habitat loss, a low reproductive rate, and a very small range make Rhacodactylus trachycephalus one of the rarest gecko species in the world?
• ... that Yohana Yembise is the first female minister in the Government of Indonesia to come from Papua?
• ... that billionaire businessman Mark Cuban funded the operations of the investigative reporting site Sharesleuth by short-selling the companies the site reported on?
• ... that the first of a planned three-volume series by A. Wilson Greene on the Siege of Petersburg was recently published?
• ... that the Soviet Union seized the Romanian destroyer Regina Maria and commissioned it into their navy despite Romania having switched sides to join the Allies?
• ... that artist Go Mishima selected his pen name as a tribute to his friend, the writer Yukio Mishima?
• ... that data from Media Bias/Fact Check was used to train an artificial intelligence machine learning algorithm to identify fake news?

The Balangiga bells

• In field hockey, the World Cup concludes with Belgium defeating the Netherlands in the final.
• The Balangiga bells (pictured), taken by US Army soldiers from the Philippines in 1901 as war trophies, are repatriated.
• Nine people are killed when a high-speed train collides with a locomotive in Ankara, Turkey.
• Two days after a shooting at the Christmas market in Strasbourg, France, in which five people died, French police kill the suspected perpetrator.

December 19

Charles Dickens

• 1154 – Henry II was crowned King of England in London's Westminster Abbey.
• 1828 – Nullification Crisis: Vice President of the United States John C. Calhoun wrote the South Carolina Exposition and Protest to protest the Tariff of 1828.
• 1843 – A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (pictured), a novella about the miser Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation after being visited by three Christmas ghosts, was first published.
• 1964 – The ruling junta of South Vietnam, led by Nguyễn Khánh, initiated a coup, dissolving and arresting members of the High National Council, a civilian advisory body.
• 2016 – Andrei Karlov, Russia's ambassador to Turkey, was assassinated at an art gallery in Ankara.

Adelaide of Susa (d. 1091) · Mary Livermore (b. 1820) · Kristina Keneally (b. 1968)