In 1961, India liberates Goa and two other Portuguese colonies.
Unlike the Indian liberation war against the British, in which several heroes rose to oppose British rule, the Goan freedom movement was openly short and more of a group effort. Armed rebels, satyagrahis, journalists, film artists, and many more, as well as India's land of joy, won their independence on December 19, 1961, thanks to the Indian army's Operation Vijay. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive in India and take over Indian lands. Vasco De Gama, a Portuguese sailor, arrived in India in 1498 and by 1510, the present-day Goa was under Portuguese control, which it maintained until 1961, implying that Goa had been inhabited for a longer length of time than any other portion of India.<
Related On This Day
Ashley Cole, an English football coach and former player who was born on December 20, 1980
Richard Branson marries Joan Templeman in the British Virgin Islands in 1989.
Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sign the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984, pledging to return Hong Kong to China in 1997.
In Menlo Park, California, Thomas Edison secretly tested incandescent light in 1879.
Pratibha Patil, the first female President of India and Governor of Rajasthan, was born in Nadgaon, India, in 1934.
Ricky Thomas Ponting, AO, a cricket coach, commentator, and former player from Australia, was born on December 19, 1974.
In 1995, Queen Elizabeth requests a divorce from Prince Charles and Princess Diana.
Donald Trump marries former model Marla Maples at the Trump Plaza Hotel in 1993.
Emily Bronte, an English author, dies of TB at the age of 30 in 1848.
The Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950 forces Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, to leave.
Poet Robert Frost marries Elinor Miriam White in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1895.
Jake Gyllenhaal, an American actor, was born in Los Angeles, California in 1980.
The $200 million epic "Titanic" by James Cameron premiered in American theatres on December 19, 1997.
Jonah Hill, an American actor, was born in Los Angeles, California in 1983.
Sacagawea, the Shoshone interpreter for the Lewis and Clark expedition, dies at the age of 24 in 1812.