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What happened in history on this day: August 19?
On August 19 in ...
- 440 - Saint Sixtus III ends his reign as Catholic Pope.
- 1099 - Crusaders beat Saracens in Battle of Ascalon.
- 1263 - King James I or Argon censors Hebrew writings.
- 1398 - Birth of Iñigo López Spain, marques de Santillana, poet (Comedieta de Ponza).
- 1631 - Birth of John Dryden; first poet laureate of England (Absalom and Achitophel) (dies 1700).
- 1646 - Birth of John Flamsteed first astronomer royal of England.
- 1689 - Birth of Samuel Richardson English novelist (Pamela) (baptized).
- 1700 - Russia declares war on Sweden.
- 1785 - Birth of Seth Thomas; pioneer in mass production of clocks.
- 1787 - William Herschel discovers Enceladus, a moon of Saturn.
- 1812 - 44-gun frigate USS Constitution defeats British 38-gun frigate HMS Guerriere. The strength of the American ship causes British round cannonballs to bounce off the sides, leading to the ship's nickname "Old Ironsides".
- 1826 - Canada Company chartered to colonize Upper Canada (Ontario).
- 1839 - Jacque Daguerre's new photographic process is presented to the French Academy of Sciences.
- 1844 - Birth of Minna Canth in Finland; novelist/dramatist (social evils).
- 1848 - The New York Herald newspaper breaks the news to the East Coast of the United States that there is a gold rush in California.
- 1858 - Birth of Edith Nesbit in England; children books author (Railway Children).
- 1859 - Birth of Charles Comiskey; first basemen/manager (Chicago White Sox).
- 1860 - Birth of John Kane in Scotland; US primitivist painter (Self-Portrait).
- 1871 - Birth of Orville Wright; aviator (dies 1948).
- 1878 - Birth of Manuel Quezon; first president of Philippine Commonwealth (1935-42).
- 1881 - Birth of Georges Enescu in Romania; composer (Romanian Dances).
- 1890 - Chickaumauga is established as a national military park in Georgia.
- 1890 - Chattanooga is established as a national military park in Tennessee.
- 1891 - William Huggins describes astronomical application of spectrum.
- 1892 - Birth of Alfred Lunt; Broadway actor (Emmy 1965).
- 1902 - Birth of Ogden Nash in Rye, New York, USA; humorous poet (I'm a Stranger Here Myself).
- 1903 - Birth of Claude Dauphin in Corbell, France; actor (April in Paris, Deported).
- 1903 - Birth of James Gould Cozzens; US novelist (1949 Pulitzer - Guard of Honor).
- 1906 - Birth of Philo T Farnsworth in Beaver, Utah, USA; inventor (electronic TV).
- 1907 - Birth of June Collyer in New York City, New York, USA; actress (June - Stu Erwin Show).
- 1907 - Birth of Thurston Morton; American politician (Senator-Kentucky, 1957-1969).
- 1909 - First race at the Indianapolis 500 Speedway in Indiana, USA.
- 1915 - Birth of Ring Lardner in Chicago, Illinois, USA; screenwriter (Woman of the Year).
- 1916 - Birth of Marie Wilson in Anaheim, California, USA; actress (My Friend Irma).
- 1917 - Sunday benefit baseball game at the Polo Grounds results in John McGraw and Christy Mathewson's arrest for violating Blue laws.
- 1919 - Birth of Malcolm Forbes; publisher (Forbes Magazine) (dies 1990).
- 1921 - Birth of Gene Roddenberry; executive producer (Star Trek).
- 1924 - Birth of William Marshall in Gary, Indiana, USA; actor (Blacula, Something of Value).
- 1929 - Sergei P Diaghilev Russia, dance master (Imperial Ballet), dies at age 57.
- 1931 - Birth of Willie Shoemaker; American jockey (in 1956 he won $2 million) (dies 2003).
- 1933 - Birth of Debra Paget; actress (Anne of the Indies, Love Me Tender).
- 1934 - Birth of Bill Cleary; American ice hockey player (Olympic-gold-1960).
- 1934 - Birth of David F Durenberger in Minnesota, USA; American politician (Senator-Republican-Minnesota).
- 1934 - Helen Hull Jacobs win US Lawn Tennis Association.
- 1934 - Plebiscite in Germany approves sole executive power to Adolf Hitler.
- 1934 - The first All-American Soap Box Derby is held in Dayton, Ohio.
- 1935 - Birth of Bobby Richardson in South Carolina, USA; second baseman (New York Yankees).
- 1935 - Birth of F Story Musgrave in Boston, Massachusetts, USA; MD/astronaut (STS 6, 51-F, 33, 44).
- 1938 - Birth of Diana Muldaur; actress (McCloud, Star Trek: The Next Generation, L.A. Law).
- 1938 - Birth of Valentin Mankin in USSR; finn class yachtsman (Olympic-gold-1968).
- 1939 - Birth of Ginger [Peter] Baker in England; drummer (Cream - "White Room").
- 1940 - Birth of Jill Saint John [Oppenheim] in Los Angeles, California, USA; actress (Diamonds are Forever).
- 1940 - Birth of Johnny Nash in Houston, Texas, USA; rocker ("I Can See Clearly Now").
- 1942 - The Allies launch a major raid on the French port of Dieppe. 5000 of the 6000 troops are part of the Canadian 2nd Division. Original code name of the operation is Rutter, but was changed to a different plan code-named Jubilee. Primary objectives are to see if it is possible to seize and hold a major continental port, obtain intelligence from prisoners, documents, and equipment, and to see the German reaction to major attack on the French coast. Secondary objectives are to draw the Luftwaffe into battle, show the USSR that Britain is seriously trying to help distract the Germans, and to give Canadian forces in Britain something to do.
- 1942 - (about 1310 hours) The last Allied troops are evacuated from Dieppe. At the end of the attack, 4384 Allied officer and soldiers are dead, wounded, or taken prisoner, of which 3379 are Canadian. 108 British aircraft were shot down; 46 German aircraft were lost. The British navy lost one destroyer and 13 major landing craft.
- 1942 - First American offensive in Pacific in World War II, Guadalcanal, Solomon Island.
- 1943 - In Quebec, Canada, a conference is held by representatives of Canada, Great Britain, and the USA, over six days. British and American Chiefs of Staff approve outline plans for operation Overlord, an invasion of France across the English Channel. Target date is set for May 1, 1944. Discussions are held on atomic research and use of an atomic bomb.
- 1943 - Birth of Billy J Kramer in Liverpool, England; rocker (The Dakotas - "Bad to Me").
- 1945 - Birth of Ian Gillian; heavy metal rocker (Deep Purple - "Knocking at Backdoor").
- 1945 - US military intelligence report "Investigations, Research, Developments and Practical Use of the German Atomic Bomb" reports on German pilot Hans Zinsser over northern Germany in early October 1944, 12-15km from an atomic bomb test station, observed "strong, bright illumination of the whole atmosphere, lasting about 2 seconds", followed by "a cloud shaped like a mushroom with the turbulent billowing sections... over the spot where the explosion took place".
- 1946 - Birth of William Jefferson Clinton; 42nd US President (former Little Rock attorney).
- 1946 - Birth of Charles F Bolden Junior in Columbia, South Carolina, USA; astronaut (STS 61C, 31, STS 45).
- 1947 - Birth of Gerald McRaney in Collins, Mississippi, USA; actor (Simon and Simon, Major Dad).
- 1948 - Birth of Mary Elizabeth "Tipper" Aitcheson; wife of US Vice President Al Gore.
- 1950 - ABC begins Saturday morning kid shows (Animal Clinic and Acrobat Ranch).
- 1951 - Bill Veeck (Saint Louis Browns) sends Eddie Gaedel, a midget, to pinch-hit.
- 1951 - Birth of John Deacon; rocker (Queen - "Bohemian Rhapsody").
- 1951 - Birth of Randi Oakes in Randalia, Iowa, USA; actress (Officer Bonnie Clark - CHiPs).
- 1952 - Birth of Jonathan Frakes; actor (Commander Will Riker in Star Trek: The Next Generation), director (Star Trek: First Contact).
- 1954 - Ralph J Bunche is named undersecretary of United Nations.
- 1956 - Birth of Adam Arkin in Brooklyn, New York, USA; actor (Lenny - Busting Loose, Pearl, Tough Cookies).
- 1956 - Birth of Cindy Nelson; American skier (Olympic-bronze-1976).
- 1957 - Birth of Darby Hinton in Santa Monica, California, USA; actor (Israel - Daniel Boone).
- 1957 - New York Giants vote to move their franchise to San Francisco in 1958.
- 1958 - NAACP Youth Council begin sit-ins at Oklahoma City Lunch counters.
- 1960 - Birth of Ron Darling in Hawaii, USA; baseball pitcher (New York Mets).
- 1960 - The Soviet Union launches the Sputnik 5 satellite with dogs Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants.
- 1962 - Birth of Valerie Kaprisky in Paris, France; actress (Breathless, Public Woman).
- 1962 - Homer Blancos plays the finest round in golf, shooting a 55.
- 1963 - Birth of Joey Tempest; rocker (Europe - "The Final Countdown").
- 1963 - Birth of John Stamos in Cypress, California, USA; actor (General Hospital, Full House).
- 1965 - Birth of Kevin Dillon; actor (Heaven Help Us, Remote Control, Platoon).
- 1965 - Cincinnati Reds' Jim Maloney's second no-hitter of year; beats Chicago Cubs, 1-0.
- 1966 - In Varto, Turkey, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake occurs. 2,500 fatalities, 1,500 injuries, 108,000 persons homeless. Twenty or more villages were completely razed in the provinces of Bingol, Erzurum, and Mus.
- 1967 - The Beatles' "All You Need is Love" single goes #1.
- 1968 - NBC airs the last The Monkees TV show.
- 1969 - Chicago Cubs' Ken Holtzman no-hits Atlanta Braves, 3-0.
- 1970 - Birth of Matthew Perry; actor (Sydney).
- 1971 - Birth of Tricia Ann Luedtke in Oostburg, Wisconsin, USA; Miss Wisconsin-America-1991.
- 1972 - NBC-TV debuts The Midnight Special TV show, hosted by John Denver.
- 1973 - Pirate World Music Radio (Holland) closes down after ten years.
- 1976 - President Gerald R Ford wins Republican presidential nomination at Kansas City convention.
- 1976 - In southwestern Turkey, a magnitude 5.0 earthquake occurs. 1800 homes destroyed.
- 1977 - South of Sumbawa Island, Indonesia, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake occurs. At least 100 killed; several villages completely destroyed. Tsunami generated wave heights in excess of 10 metres along Sumbawa Island coastline, and 6 metres on the coast of Northern Australia.
- 1977 - Julius (Groucho) Marx, comedian (Marx Bros), dies in Los Angeles at age 86.
- 1978 - 422 die in an arson fire at a movie theater in Iran.
- 1979 - Crew of Soyuz 32 returns to Earth aboard Soyuz 34 after 175-day flight.
- 1980 - Saudi Arabian Lockheed Tristar crashes on landing at Riyadh, 301 die.
- 1981 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan appoints Sandra Day O'Connor as a US Supreme Court Justice.
- 1981 - Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi sends two Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jets to intercept two U.S. fighters over the Gulf of Sidra. The American jets destroy the Libyan fighters.
- 1982 - Renaldo Nehemiah of US sets record for 110 m hurdles, 12.93 seconds.
- 1982 - Soyuz T-7 launched, Svetlana Savtiskaya second woman in space.
- 1983 - LSU football player Billy Cannon sentenced to five years for counterfeiting.
- 1984 - Lee Trevino wins the PGA.
- 1985 - Japan launches its second probe of Halley's Comet, Suisei.
- 1986 - Two weeks after it was stolen, the Picasso painting Weeping Woman is found in a locker at the Spencer Street Station in Melbourne, Australia.
- 1986 - Hermione Baddeley, actress (Camp Runamuck, Maude), dies at age 79.
- 1987 - ABC News Chief Middle East Correspondent Charles Glass escapes his Hizballah kidnappers in Beirut, Lebanon, after sixty-two days in captivity.
- 1987 - In London, The Order of the Garter is opened to women.
- 1987 - In Hungerford, Berkshire, England, 27-year-old Michael Ryan kills 16 and wounds 14 with a pistol, a Kalashnikov assault rifle, and a carbine rifle, before killing himself when surrounded in a school.
- 1987 - Death of Hayden Rorke at age 76 from multiple myeloma; actor (Dr. Bellows - I Dream of Jeannie TV show, Dr. Kildare, Mr. Adams and Eve).
- 1988 - Iran and Iraq begin a cease-fire after eight years of war.
- 1988 - New York Rangers sign ex-Montreal Canadiens' great Guy Lafleur.
- 1989 - Polish president Wojciech Jaruzelski nominates Solidarity activist Tadeusz Mazowiecki to be Prime Minister, the first non-communist in power in 42 years.
- 1990 - New York Yankees' player Kevin Mass is quickest to reach 14 home runs (approx 128 at bat).
- 1990 - Leonard Bernstein conducts his final concert, ending with Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
- 1991 - Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is put under house arrest while vacationing in the Crimea during a coup. The attempted coup, led by Vice President Gennady Yanayev and seven hard-liners, collapses in less than 72 hours.
- 1991 - The NBC TV network airs the last episode of Carol & Co..
- 1992 - In Kyrgyzstan, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake occurs. An estimated 75 people killed. Several villages, including Toluk, were destroyed and at least 8,200 dwellings were destroyed.
- 1994 - Death of Linus Pauling, American chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Peace (born 1901).
- 1998 - On the day of his 52nd birthday, U.S. President Bill Clinton admits in taped testimony that he had an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. He also admits before the nation that night in a nationally televised address that he "misled people" about his sexual affair with Lewinsky.
- 1998 - Russia defaults on the state short-term bonds, and devalues the ruble.
- 1999 - In Belgrade, tens of thousands of Serbians rally to demand the resignation of Yugoslav President Slobodan MiloÜevic.
- 2002 - In Baghdad, Iraq, international terrorist Abu Nidal is found dead of several gunshot wounds.
- 2003 - Death of Sérgio Vieira de Mello, Brazilian diplomat (born 1948).
- 2003 - Death of Carlos Roberto Reina, President of Honduras (born 1926).
- 2007 - Thailand holds its first-ever referendum, on a new constitution. Voter turnout is 58 percent, with 57 percent voting in favor.
- 2008 - Zambian leader Levy Mwanawasa dies at age 59 in a Paris hospital after suffering a stroke in June.
- 2008 - A suicide bomber rams a car into an Algerian military academy, killing 43 and injuring 45.
- 2008 - Taliban insurgents kill 10 and injure 21 French soldiers in an ambush in Afghanistan.
- 2009 - At least six bomb blasts strike near government ministries and other targets in Baghdad, Iraq, killing 95 people and wounding 536.
- 2011 - Hewlett-Packard stock shares crash 20 percent, $12 billion of market value, the day after announcement of plan to spin off personal computer business and buy British software maker Autonomy for $10.3 billion.
- 2017 - The research vessel Petrel locates the wreck of the USS Indianapolis, 18,000 feet below the surface of the Philippine Sea.
- 2020 - Apple becomes the first American company with a valuation of US$2 trillion.
- 2020 - The Special Tribunal for Lebanon convicts in absentia Salim Ayyash, a senior member of Hezbollah, for the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.
- 2022 - Death of Michael Malone at age 79 from cancer in Clinton, Connecticut, USA; writer (One Life to Live TV show).
- 2022 - Death of Wolfgang Petersen at age 81 of pancreatic cancer at home in Los Angeles, California, USA; German director (Air Force One movie, The Perfect Storm movie).
- 2023 - death of Ron Cephas Jones at age 66; actor (This Is Us TV show (2016-2022), Clyde's play (2021), Emmy award winner (2020)).
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