August 19
is the 231st day of the year (232nd in
leap years) in the
Gregorian Calendar. There are 134 days remaining.
*
293 BC - Oldest known
Roman temple to
Venus Libitina founded on the
Esquiline Hill; institution of
Vinalia Rustica begins.
*
43 BC - Octavian, later
Augustus, compels the senate to elect him Consul
*
1388 -
Battle of Otterburn, border skirmish between the
Scottish and the
English in Northern
England.
*
1504 -
Battle of Knockdoe*
1561 - Queen
Mary Stuart returns to
Scotland.
*
1692 -
Salem Witch Trials: In
Salem, Massachusetts five women and a clergyman are executed after being convicted of
witchcraft.
*
1745 -
Jacobite Rising,
Prince Charles Edward Stuart lands from a French warship in
Glenfinnan, raises his standard and marches on
London - the start of the Second Jacobite Rebellion known as "the 45"
*
1768 -
Saint Isaac's Cathedral is founded in
Saint Petersburg,
Russia*
1782 -
Battle of Blue Licks: the last major battle of the
American Revolutionary War, almost ten months after the surrender of the British commander
Lord Cornwallis following the
Siege of Yorktown.
*
1812 -
War of 1812: American frigate
USS Constitution defeats the
British frigate
HMS Guerrière off the coast of
Nova Scotia.
*
1813 -
Gervasio Antonio de Posadas joins
Argentina's second triumvirate.
*
1839 - Presentation of
Jacque Daguerre's new
photographic process to the
French Academy of Sciences.
*
1848 -
California Gold Rush: The
New York Herald breaks the news to the East Coast of the
United States of the
gold rush in
California (although the rush started in January).
*
1862 -
Indian Wars: During an uprising in
Minnesota,
Lakota warriors decide not to attack heavily-defended
Fort Ridgely and instead turn to the settlement of
New Ulm, killing white settlers along the way.
*
1895 -
American frontier murderer and outlaw,
John Wesley Hardin, is killed by an off-duty policeman in a
saloon in
El Paso, Texas.
*
1919 -
Afghanistan gains independence from the
United Kingdom.
*
1929 - The
radio comedy show
Amos and Andy makes its
NBC debut starring
Freeman Gosden and
Charles Correll.
*
1934 - The first All-American
Soap Box Derby is held in
Dayton, Ohio.
* 1934 - The creation of the position
Führer approved by the German electorate with 89.9% of the popular vote.
*
1942 -
World War II:
Operation Jubilee - The
2nd Canadian Infantry Division leads an
allied forces amphibious assault on
Dieppe, France.
*
1944 -
World War II:
Liberation of Paris -
Paris rises against
German occupation with the help of
Allied troops.
*
1945 -
Vietnam War:
Viet Minh led by
Ho Chi Minh take power in
Hanoi,
Vietnam.
*
1953 -
Cold War: The
CIA helps to overthrow the government of
Mohammed Mossadegh in
Iran and reinstate the
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
*
1955 - In the Northeast
United States, severe
flooding caused by
Hurricane Diane, claims 200 lives.
*
1960 -
Cold War: In
Moscow, downed American
U-2 pilot
Francis Gary Powers is sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the
Soviet Union for
espionage.
* 1960 -
Sputnik program: The
Soviet Union launches
Sputnik 5 with the
dogs
Belka and Strelka, 40
mice, 2
rats and a variety of
plants.
*
1961 - The Australian public-affairs show
Four Corners starts on the
ABC.
*
1965 -
Japanese prime minister Eisaku Sato becomes the first post-
World War II sitting prime minister to visit
Okinawa.
*
1975 - The cricket test match between
England and
Australia is called off after the pitch is vandalised by supporters of
George Davis.
*
1980 -
Saudia Flight 163, a
Lockheed L-1011 TriStar burns after making an emergency landing at
King Khalid International Airport in
Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia, killing 301 people.
*
1981 -
Gulf of Sidra Incident: Two
Libyan
Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jets intercept
United States fighters over the
Gulf of Sidra and are destroyed by them.
*
1987 -
Hungerford Massacre: In the
United Kingdom,
Michael Ryan kills sixteen people with an
assault rifle and then commits
suicide.
*
1989 -
Polish president Wojciech Jaruzelski nominates
Solidarity activist
Tadeusz Mazowiecki to be the first non-communist
Prime Minister in 42 years.
*
1990 -
Leonard Bernstein conducts his final concert, ending with
Ludwig van Beethoven's
Symphony No. 7.
*
1991 - Soviet Union President
Mikhail Gorbachev is overthrown by a coup. This leads to the fall of the
Soviet Union *
1999 - In
Belgrade, tens of thousands of
Serbians rally to demand the resignation of
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milošević.
*
2002 - A
Russian
Mi-26 helicopter carrying troops is hit by a
Chechen missile outside of
Grozny, killing 118 soldiers.
*
2003 - A car-bomb attack on
UN headquarters in
Iraq kills the agency's top envoy
Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 other employers.
*
2005 - The first-ever joint military exercise between
Russia and
China, called
Peace Mission 2005 begins.
*
1398 -
Marqués de Santillana, Spanish poet (d.
1458)
*
1557 -
Frederick I, Duke of Württemberg (d.
1608)
*
1590 -
Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, English soldier (d.
1649)
*
1596 -
Elizabeth of Bohemia (d.
1662)
*
1621 -
Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Dutch painter (d.
1674)
*
1631 -
John Dryden, English poet (d.
1700)
*
1646 -
John Flamsteed, English astronomer (d.
1719)
*
1686 -
Eustace Budgell, English writer (d.
1737)
* 1686 -
Nicola Porpora, Italian composer (d.
1768)
*
1689 -
Samuel Richardson, English writer (d.
1761)
*
1711 -
Edward Boscawen, British admiral (d.
1761)
*
1743 -
Madame du Barry, French courtesan (d.
1793)
*
1853 -
Aleksei Brusilov, Russian general (d.
1926)
*
1870 -
Bernard Baruch, American financier (d.
1965)
*
1871 -
Orville Wright, American aviation pioneer (d.
1948)
*
1875 -
Stjepan Seljan, Croatian explorer (d.
1936)
*
1878 -
Manuel Quezon,
President of the Philippines (d.
1944)
*
1881 -
George Enescu, Romanian composer (d.
1955)
*
1883 -
Coco Chanel, French clothing designer (d.
1971)
* 1883 -
Elsie Ferguson, American film actress (d.
1961)
*
1892 -
Alfred Lunt, American actor (d.
1977)
*
1896 -
Olga Baclanova, Russian-born actress (d.
1974)
*
1902 -
Ogden Nash, American poet (d.
1971)
*
1906 -
Philo T. Farnsworth, American inventor and television pioneer (d.
1971)
*
1907 -
Thruston B. Morton, American politician (d.
1982)
*
1913 -
Richard Simmons, American actor (d.
2003)
*
1914 -
Lajos Baróti, Hungarian footballer and coach (d.
2005)
*
1915 -
Ring Lardner, Jr., American actor and screenwriter (d.
2000)
*
1919 -
Malcolm Forbes, American publisher (d.
1990)
*
1921 -
Gene Roddenberry, American television producer (d.
1991)
*
1925 -
Claude Gauvreau, Canadian playwright, poet, and polemicist (d.
1971)
*
1926 -
Arthur Rock, American venture capitalist
*
1930 -
Frank McCourt, Irish-American author
*
1931 -
Willie Shoemaker, American jockey (d.
2003)
*
1935 -
Bobby Richardson, baseball player
*
1938 -
Diana Muldaur, American actress, dog breeder and judge
*
1939 -
Ginger Baker, English musician
*
1940 -
Johnny Nash, American singer
* 1940 -
Jill St. John, American actress
*
1942 -
Fred Dalton Thompson, U.S. Senator from Tennessee and actor
*
1944 -
Bodil Malmsten, Swedish writer
* 1944 -
Charles B. Wang, Chinese-born philanthropist
*
1945 -
Ian Gillan, English singer
*
1946 -
Bill Clinton, 42nd
President of the United States* 1946 -
Beat Raaflaub, Swiss conductor
*
1947 -
Gerard Schwarz, American conductor
*
1948 -
Gerald McRaney, American actor
* 1948 -
Tipper Gore,
Second Lady of the United States*
1950 -
Jennie Bond, British journalist
*
1951 -
John Deacon, English musician (
Queen)
*
1952 -
Jonathan Frakes, American actor and director
*
1955 -
Peter Gallagher, American actor
*
1956 -
Adam Arkin, American actor
*
1958 -
Anthony Muñoz, American football player
* 1958 -
Gary Gaetti, baseball player
*
1960 -
Morten Andersen, American football player
*
1963 -
John Stamos, American actor
* 1963 -
Joey Tempest, Swedish singer (
Europe)
*
1964 -
Whitney Prescott, American model
*
1965 -
Kyra Sedgwick, American actress
*
1966 -
Lee Ann Womack, American musician
*
1969 -
Matthew Perry, Canadian actor
* 1969 -
Nate Dogg, American rapper
*
1972 -
Roberto Abbondanzieri, Argentine footballer
*
1973 - Crown Princess
Mette Marit of Norway
* 1973 -
Callum Blue, British actor
* 1973 -
Marco Materazzi, Italian footballer
* 1973 -
Lilian Garcia, Professional wrestling announcer
*
1975 -
Tracie Thoms, American actress
*
1979 -
Dave Douglas, American musician (
Relient K)
* 1979 -
Jennifer Morrison, American actress
*
1980 -
Jun Jin, rapper in Korean group
Shinhwa* 1980 -
Darius Danesh, Scottish singer
*
1982 -
Erika Christensen, American actress
*
1983 -
Missy Higgins, Australian singer-songwriter
* 1983 -
Tammin Sursok, Australian actress
*
1987 -
Anais Lameche, Swedish singer (
Play)
*1987 -
Richard Stearman, English footballer
*
14 -
Augustus,
Roman Emperor (b.
63 BC)
*
1186 -
Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany (b.
1158)
*
1245 -
Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence (b.
1195)
*
1284 -
Alphonso, Earl of Chester, son of
Edward I of England (b.
1273)
*
1297 -
Saint Louis of Toulouse, French Catholic bishop (b.
1274)
*
1493 -
Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor (b.
1415)
*
1580 -
Andrea Palladio, Italian architect (b.
1508)
*
1646 -
Alexander Henderson, Scottish theologian
*
1662 -
Blaise Pascal, French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher (b.
1623)
*
1753 -
Balthasar Neumann, German architect (b.
1687)
*
1819 -
James Watt, Scottish inventor (b.
1736)
*
1822 -
Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre, French mathematician (b.
1749)
*
1872 - King
Charles XV /
Carl IV of Sweden and Norway (b.
1826)
*
1889 -
Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, French writer (b.
1838)
*
1895 -
John Wesley Hardin, American gunfighter (b.
1853)
*
1923 -
Vilfredo Pareto, Italian sociologist and economist (b.
1845)
*
1929 -
Sergei Diaghilev, Russian ballet impresario (b.
1872)
*
1936 -
Federico García Lorca, Spanish author (b.
1898)
*
1944 -
Günther von Kluge, German field marshal (b.
1882)
*
1950 -
Giovanni Giorgi, Italian physicist (b.
1871)
*
1954 -
Alcide De Gasperi,
Prime Minister of Italy (b.
1881)
*
1957 -
David Bomberg, English painter (b.
1890)
* 1957 -
Carl-Gustaf Rossby, Swedish meteorologist (b.
1898)
*
1959 -
Jacob Epstein, American-born sculptor (b.
1880)
*
1967 -
Hugo Gernsback, Luxembourg-born editor and publisher (b.
1884)
*
1968 -
George Gamow, Ukrainian-born physicist (b.
1904)
*
1969 -
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, German architect (b.
1886)
*
1970 -
Paweł Jasienica, Polish historian (b.
1909)
*
1975 -
Jim Londos, wrestler (b.
1897)
*
1976 -
Alastair Sim, Scottish actor and rector of Edinburgh University (b.
1900)
*
1977 -
Groucho Marx, American comedian and actor (b.
1890)
*
1980 -
Otto Frank, German writer and father of Anne Frank (b.
1889)
*
1982 -
August Neo, Estonian wrestler (b.
1908)
*
1994 -
Linus Pauling, American chemist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry and
Peace (b.
1901)
*
1995 -
Pierre Schaeffer, French composer (b.
1910)
*
2000 -
Antonio Pugliese, Italian professional wrestler (b.
1941)
*
2003 -
Carlos Roberto Reina,
President of Honduras (b.
1926)
* 2003 -
Sérgio Vieira de Mello, Brazilian diplomat (b.
1948)
*
2005 -
Bueno de Mesquita, Dutch comedian and actor (b.
1918)
* 2005 -
Mo Mowlam, British politician (b.
1949)
*
Roman festivals -
Vinalia Rustica celebrated in honor of
Venus Libitina commemorating the founding of the oldest known temple to her, on the
Esquiline Hill, in
293 BC on this date.
*
RC saints -
Saint Sebald,
Saint Louis of Toulouse,
Jean-Eudes de Mézeray*
Afghanistan -
Afghan Independence Day see above: 1919*National Day of the Filipino Language,
Philippines - Holiday for
Quezon City,
Quezon Province and other municipalities named after
Manuel Quezon*
National Aviation Day,
USA*
BBC: On This Day*
Today in History: August 19August 18 -
August 20 -
July 19 -
September 19 --
listing of all days
