|
August 19 is the 231st day of the year (232nd in leap years)
in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 134 days remaining.
Events
- 1561 - Mary Stuart
returns to Scotland.
- 1692 - Salem Witch
Trials: In Salem, Massachusetts five women and a
clergyman are executed after being convicted of witchcraft.
- 1812 - War of 1812: USS Constitution defeats the British frigate Guerrière off
the coast of Nova Scotia. The British shot is said to have bounced off the
Constitutions sides, earning her the nickname "Old Ironsides".
- 1813 - Gervasio Antonio de Posadas joins Argentina's
second triumvirate.
- 1848 - California
Gold Rush: The New York Herald breaks the news to the
East Coast of the United States, that there is a 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. The creation
of the position Führer approved by the German electorate with 89.9% of the popular
vote.
- 1942 - World War II: The Dieppe Raid - Allied forces raid Dieppe, France.
- 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 (Russian for "Squirrel" and "Little Arrow"), 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants. The spacecraft will return to
earth the next day and all animals will be recovered safely.
- 1975 - The cricket test match between England and Australia is called off after the pitch is vandalised
by supporters of George Davis (armed
robber)
- 1980 - A Saudi
Arabian Airlines Tristar burned after making an emergency landing in Riyadh
Saudia Arabiakilling 301
- 1981 - Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi sends two Sukoi Su-22 fighter jets to take on a
couple of United States fighters over the Gulf of Sidra. The American jets destroyed the Libyan fighters.
- 1987 - Hungerford
Massacre: In the United Kingdom, Michael Ryan kills 16 with an
assault rifle and then commits suicide.
- 1989 - Polish president Wojciech Jaruzelski nominates Solidarity activist Tadeusz Mazowiecki to be
Prime Minister, thus becoming the first non-communist in Polish power
in 42 years.
- 1999 - In Belgrade, tens of thousands of
Serbians rally to demand the resignation of president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic.
- 2002 - A Russian Mi-26 helicopter carrying troops is hit by Chechen missile outside of Grozny killing 118 soldiers
Births
- 1870 - Bernard Baruch,
financier (d. 1965)
- 1871 - Orville Wright,
aviator (d. 1958)
- 1875 - Stjepan Seljan,
explorer Croatia(d. 1936)
- 1883 - Coco Chanel, clothing
designer (d. 1971)
- 1892 - Alfred Lunt, actor (d.
1977)
- 1902 - Ogden Nash, poet (d. 1971)
- 1906 - Philo T.
Farnsworth, inventor, television pioneer (d. 1971)
- 1907 - Thruston B. Morton, former Representative and Senator from Kentucky (d. 1982)
- 1916 - Marie Wilson, actress (d. 1972)
- 1915 - Ring Lardner,
Jr., actor, screenwriter (d. 2000)
- 1919 - Malcolm Forbes,
publisher (d. 1990)
- 1921 - Gene Roddenberry,
author, producer (d. 1991)
- 1925 - Claude Gauvreau,
Quebec playwright, poet and polemist (d. 1971)
- 1930 - Frank McCourt,
author
- 1931 - Willie Shoemaker,
jockey (d. 2003)
- 1938 - Diana Muldaur, actress,
dog breeder, dog judge (L.A. Law, Star Trek: The Next Generation)
- 1939 - Ginger Baker, drummer,
trumpet player
- 1940 - Johnny Nash, singer
- 1940 - Jill St. John,
actress
- 1942 - Fred Thompson, Watergate counsel, Senator from Tennessee, actor (Cape Fear, Law & Order)
- 1946 - Beat Raaflaub,
conductor
- 1946 - Bill Clinton, U.S.
president
- 1948 - Tipper Gore, author,
activist for "Parental Advisory" labels on music
- 1952 - Jonathan Frakes,
actor, director (Star Trek: The Next
Generation)
- 1955 - Peter Gallagher,
actor (The O.C.)
- 1963 - John Stamos, actor
(Full House)
- 1965 - Kevin Dillon, actor
- 1965 - Kyra Sedgwick, actress
- 1966 - Lee Ann Womack,
country music musician
- 1969 - Matthew
Perry, actor (Friends, The Whole Nine Yards)
- 1973 - Crown Princess Mette Marit
of Norway
Deaths
- 14 - Augustus, Roman emperor
- 1186 - Geoffrey Plantagenet, Duke of
Brittany, stamped by a horse in a tournement
- 1662 - Blaise Pascal,
mathematician, physicist and religious philosopher
- 1819 - James Watt, engineer (b.
1736)
- 1872 - King Charles
XV / Carl IV of Sweden-Norway (b. 1826)
- 1895 - John Wesley
Hardin, gunfighter
- 1936 - Federico
García Lorca, author
- 1957 - David Bomberg,
painter
- 1967 - Hugo Gernsback,
editor, publisher
- 1970 - Paweł
Jasienica, Polish historian (b. 1909)
- 1977 - Groucho Marx, comedian,
actor (b. 1890)
- 1980 - Otto Frank, father of Anne Frank
- 1994 - Linus Pauling, chemist,
peace activist
- 1995 - Pierre Schaeffer,
composer and pioneer of musique concrète
Holidays and observances
- Afghan
Independence Day see above: 1919
August 18 - August 20 -
July 19 - September 19 --
listing of all days
|