Happy Birthday March 19

David Livingstone was born on March 19, 1813 in a Glasgow worker's tenement in the mill town of Blantyre, Strathclyde, Scotland. Livingstone's father ran his own business as a door-to-door tea salesman, so the room was constantly fragrant with the smell of tea. At the age of 21, Livingstone was inspired to take up Theology and Medical studies after hearing an appeal by British and American Churches for medical missionaries to go to China. A pioneer Christian missionary with the London Missionary Society, as an explorer in Africa, he was the first European to discover the waterfall that was later named Victoria Falls. 

Posthumous portrait of David Livingstone by Frederick Havill

Chairman Mao's fourth and final wife, failed actress Jiang Qing, was born on March 19, 1914. Mao Zedong first met the neurotic, imperious, Jiang Qing at the the Chinese Communist headquarters in Yan'an in 1937. They married in a small private ceremony following approval by the Party's Central Committee the following year. Jiang became active in politics in the mid 1960s and was the driving force behind the Cultural Revolution.

The actor Bruce Willis was born on March 19, 1955, in the town of Idar-Oberstein, West Germany. Bruce's father, David Willis, was an American soldier. His mother, Marlene, was German. He had severe stuttering problems as a child. Bruce discovered the stutter disappeared while performing in a school play through the memorization of lines. While studying acting in college it was the combination of acting and speech therapy which helped him overcome his condition.

For more March 19 anniversaries, including the first bank robbery in United States history, the first U.S. air combat mission and the opening of The Sydney Harbor Bridge check out OnThatDay.