From Historynet: Today in History December 19

1154              Henry II  is crowned king of England.

1562              The French Wars of Religion between the Huguenots and the Catholics begins with the Battle of Dreux.

1793              French troops recapture Toulon from the British.

1862              Confederate General Nathan B. Forrest  begins tearing up the railroads in Union generals Grant and Rosecrans rear, causing considerable delays in the movement of Union supplies.

1900              The French Parliament votes amnesty for everyone involved in the Dreyfus Affair.

1909              American socialist women denounce suffrage as a movement of the middle class.

1941              Japanese land on Hong Kong and clash with British troops.

1941              Adolf Hitler assumes the position of commander in chief of the German army.

1942              The British advance 40 miles into Burma in a drive to oust the Japanese from the colony.

1944              During the Battle of the Bulge, American troops begin pulling back from the twin Belgian cities of Krinkelt and Rocherath in front of the advancing German Army.

1945              Congress confirms Eleanor Roosevelt  as U.S. delegate to the United Nations.

1950              The North Atlantic Council names General Dwight D. Eisenhower as supreme commander of Western European defense forces.

1959              Reputed to be the last civil war veteran, Walter Williams, dies at 117 in Houston.

1974              Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as vice president of the United states after a House of Representatives vote.

1982              Four bombs explode at South Africa's only nuclear power station in Johannesburg.

1984              British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang sign an agreement that committed Britain to return Hong Kong to China in 

1997 in return for terms guaranteeing a 50-year extension of its capitalist system. Hong Kong was leased by China to Great Britain in 1898 for 99 years.

1998              President Bill Clinton is impeached. The House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment against President Clinton, charging him with lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice. Clinton was the second president in American history to be impeached.

2001              The highest barometric pressure ever recorded (1085.6 hPa, 32.06 inHg) occurs at Tosontsengel, Khovsgol, Mongolia.

2001              Rioting begins in Buenos Aires, Argentina, during the country's economic crisis.

2012              Park Geun-hye elected President of South Korea, the nation's first female chief executive.