December 19 Birthday

Famous Birthdays on December 19

• Édith Piaf (1915)

  French singer known for La Vie en Rose and a voice regarded as one of the defining sounds of 20th-century French music.

• Alyssa Milano (1972)

  American actress known for Charmed and later activism helping popularize the #MeToo movement's viral phase.

• Jake Gyllenhaal (1980)

  American actor known for Brokeback Mountain and Nightcrawler.

This Day in History

• 1776 — Thomas Paine published the first installment of The American Crisis, opening with the line 'These are the times that try men's souls,' intended to bolster flagging revolutionary morale.

• 1998 — The U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach President Bill Clinton on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

• 1997 — Titanic premiered in U.S. theaters, going on to become, at the time, the highest-grossing film ever made.

What December 19 Says About You

December 19 is a date about morale, tested and rallied, across three very different eras. In 1776, with George Washington's Continental Army in retreat and enlistments about to expire, Thomas Paine published the first installment of The American Crisis on this date, opening with the now-famous line 'These are the times that try men's souls' — words reportedly read aloud to demoralized troops before Washington's crossing of the Delaware days later, a piece of writing credited with helping hold the revolutionary cause together at one of its lowest points. Two hundred twenty-two years later, in 1998, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on this date to impeach President Bill Clinton on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, a different kind of test of institutional endurance that played out over a bitterly divided vote. And in 1997, a film about a very different kind of endurance premiered in U.S. theaters: Titanic, which went on to become, at the time, the highest-grossing film ever made, built around a story of survival amid catastrophic loss. Sagittarius, ruling this later stretch of its run, is associated with resilience and belief carried through difficult circumstances. Édith Piaf, born on this date in 1915, built a singing career and public persona almost entirely around themes of survival through hardship, her own biography full of loss that fed directly into the emotional register of her most famous recordings. Alyssa Milano, born in 1972, later became one of the most visible figures in popularizing the #MeToo movement's viral spread, using a public platform to sustain momentum behind a difficult and drawn-out reckoning. Jake Gyllenhaal, born in 1980, has built a career on roles requiring sustained emotional intensity across otherwise very different genres. The 19th reduces to numerology day number 1, tied to independent resolve, matching a date whose recurring theme is continuing forward despite genuinely bad odds. Protection through hardship is an old association tied to blue topaz, tanzanite, zircon, and turquoise, December's birthstones, themes well matched to a date built around exactly that kind of endurance. Paine reportedly wrote much of The American Crisis while marching with Washington's retreating army, using a drumhead as a makeshift writing surface by firelight, a detail that has become part of the essay's own legend regardless of how literally accurate every version of it is. Titanic, directed by James Cameron, went on to win eleven Academy Awards, tying the record at the time, and held the record for highest-grossing film ever made for twelve years until Cameron's own Avatar surpassed it. Clinton was acquitted by the Senate in February 1999, falling well short of the two-thirds majority needed for conviction on either impeachment article, allowing him to serve out the remainder of his term. More than 100,000 people reportedly lined the streets of Paris for Édith Piaf's funeral procession in 1963, a testament to how deeply her voice had become bound up with French national identity.