January 19

in History

Sirmium, Roman EmpireClassical

379

Theodosius Elevated to Augustus

A soldier becomes master of the East

At Sirmium, in the heart of the Balkans, Emperor Gratian elevated Flavius Theodosius to the rank of Augustus, granting him authority over all the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. It was a calculated gamble: the empire needed a strong hand in the East after the catastrophic defeat at Adrianople. Theodosius would prove more than equal to the task, eventually becoming the last emperor to rule a united Roman world.

379 AD

Isle of Wight, EnglandEarly 20th Century

1901

Queen Victoria Falls Ill

The sun begins to set on a legendary reign

At Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, Queen Victoria was stricken with paralysis. The woman who had defined an era, reigning for sixty-three years over the most powerful empire the world had ever seen, was fading. She would die just three days later at the age of eighty-one. Her passing marked the end of the Victorian era and the beginning of a new, uncertain century that would test everything her empire had built.

1901 AD

American television sitcom (1951–1957)Late 20th Century

1953

I Love Lucy

Almost 72 percent of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.

I Love Lucy is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with 180 half-hour episodes across six seasons. The series starred Lucille Ball and her husband Desi Arnaz, along with Vivian Vance and William Frawley, and follows the life of Lucy Ricardo (Ball), a young, middle-class housewife living in New York City, who often concocts plans with her best friends and landlords, Ethel and Fred Mertz, to appear alongside her bandleader husband,

1953 AD