Reuters historical calendar - November 19

London, Nov 18 (Reuters) Following are some of the major events to have occurred on November 19 since 1900: 1941 - The Australian warship Sydney engaged the German raider Kormoran in a fierce battle in the Indian Ocean some 300 miles off Australia's west coast. The Sydney sailed off and was never seen again, with all 645 aboard presumed dead.

1942 - Soviet Red Army troops began a huge counter-offensive against the Germans at Stalingrad in World War Two.

1946 - The first UNESCO conference opened in Paris.

1949 - Prince Rainier was sworn in as 30th ruling Prince of Monaco.

1969 - The US Apollo 12 lunar module landed on the moon, carrying astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean.

1976 - Algeria voted for a new constitution with a national assembly and increased powers for an elected president.

1977 - Egyptian President Anwar Sadat visited Israel, the first Arab leader to do so.

1988 - Christina Onassis, daughter of Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis, died aged 37 in Argentina.

1990 - NATO and Warsaw Pact leaders signed the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe, slashing their Cold War arsenals.

1994 - The UN Security Council authorised NATO warplanes to strike targets in Croatia used by Serbs to launch air attacks against UN-designated safe areas in neighbouring Bosnia.

1995 - A suicide bomber blasted his way into the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad, setting off a powerful explosion that killed 16 people and wounded more than 60.

1996 - Pope John Paul II had a first meeting in the Vatican with veteran Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro.

1997 - A 29-year-old woman in Des Moines, Iowa, gave birth to four boys and three girls - believed to be the world's first surviving set of septuplets.

1999 - The British telecommunications group Vodafone AirTouch launched the world's largest hostile takeover bid, offering 124 billion euros (128.5 billion dollars) for Mannesmann of Germany.

2000 - Bill Clinton ended a three-day visit to Vietnam, the first by a serving US president since the Vietnam War.

2002 - China wrote off debts to Afghanistan that could date back as far as the 1960s to help the war-ravaged nation get back on its feet.

2003 - South Africa approved a national drug treatment programme to spend 1.75 billion dollars in three years to tackle the world's highest AIDS caseload.

2004 - The oldest man in the world according to Guinness World Records, Fred Hale Sr, died less than two weeks shy of his 114th birthday.

2005 - Prince Albert of Monaco was enthroned, succeeding his father Prince Rainier.

Reuters DKA RS1219