On this day

December 19, 2013

Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.

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Headlines from December 19, 2013

Brazil Snubs Boeing in Fighter Jet Deal

By Dan Horch and Christopher Drew

The announcement that Brazil picked the aircraft maker Saab for a $4.5 billion contract to build 36 fighter jets comes at a time of heightened tension with the United States over spying.

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Music on My Birthday

Billboard 200

The Top 50 albums for the chart week of December 18, 2013, covering December 19, 2013.

  1. 1
    Album cover for Blame It All On My Roots: Five Decades Of Influences by Garth Brooks

    Blame It All On My Roots: Five Decades Of Influences

    Garth Brooks

    Last week
    3
    Peak
    1
    Weeks
    2
  2. 2
    Album cover for Midnight Memories by One Direction

    Midnight Memories

    One Direction

    Last week
    1
    Peak
    1
    Weeks
    2
  3. 3
    Album cover for Wrapped In Red by Kelly Clarkson

    Wrapped In Red

    Kelly Clarkson

    Last week
    6
    Peak
    3
    Weeks
    6
  4. 4
    Album cover for Britney Jean by Britney Spears

    Britney Jean

    Britney Spears

    Last week
    —
    Peak
    4
    Weeks
    1
  5. 5
    Album cover for Duck The Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas by The Robertsons

    Duck The Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas

    The Robertsons

    Last week
    4
    Peak
    3
    Weeks
    6

Notable Deaths

2013Winton Dean, English musicologist and author (born 1916)[†]

Winton Basil Dean was an English musicologist of the 20th century, most famous for his research on the life and works—in particular the operas and oratorios—of George Frideric Handel, as detailed in his book Handel's Dramatic Oratorios and Masques (1959).

Al Goldstein

2013Al Goldstein, American publisher and pornographer (born 1936)[†]

Alvin Goldstein was an American pornographer best known for helping normalize hardcore pornography in the United States.

Ned Vizzini

2013Ned Vizzini, American author and screenwriter (born 1981)[†]

Edison Price Vizzini was an American writer. He was the author of four books for young adults, including It's Kind of a Funny Story (2006), which NPR placed at #56 in its list of the "100 Best-Ever Teen Novels" and which is the basis of the film of the same name.

Historical Events

Gaia (spacecraft)

2013Spacecraft Gaia is launched by the European Space Agency.[†]

Gaia was a space observatory of the European Space Agency (ESA) that was launched in 2013 and operated until March 2025. The spacecraft was designed for astrometry: measuring the positions, distances and motions of stars with unprecedented precision, and the positions of exoplanets by measuring attributes about the stars they orbit such as their apparent magnitude and color. As of May 2025, the mission data processing continues, aiming to construct the largest and most precise 3D space catalog ever made, totalling approximately 1 billion astronomical objects, mainly stars, but also planets, comets, asteroids and quasars, among others.

Historical Context for December 19, 2013

In 2013, the world population was approximately 7,291,793,585 people[†]