Historical Events on August 19

Events 1 - 200 of 201

• 1263 King James I of Aragon censors Hebrew writing

• 1458 Aenea Silvio Piccolomini chosen as Pope Pius II

• 1504 Battle of Knockdoe, bloodiest battle of medieval Ireland fought in Galway between two Anglo-Irish lords, Gearoid Fitzgerald, Lord Deputy, defeats Ulick Finn Burke

• 1600 Dutch ship Liefde reaches Japan, barely making it across the Pacific with 25 crew, including English navigator William Adams. Its cannon later play important role in Battle of Sekigahara. [1]

• 1691 Battle at Slankamen: "the Bloodiest battle of the Century" Austrian Hapsburg force defeats Ottoman army, killing Grand Vizer Köprülü Fazıl Mustafa Pasha

• 1702 -24] Battle at Santa Marta Venz: English fleet beat French

• 1757 Battle at Gross Jagerndorf: Russian army beats Prussia [NS=Aug 30]
• 1768 Saint Isaac's Cathedral is founded in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

• 1793 Yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia, then the US capital has its 1st fatality. Lasts till November killing around 5,000 people
• 1796 Spain & France sign anti-British alliance
• 1812 US warship Constitution defeats British warship Guerriere
• 1813 Gervasio Antonio de Posadas joins Argentina's second triumvirate
• 1816 Java returns to Dutch rule after being controlled by the British for five years

• 1826 Canada Co. chartered to colonize Upper Canada (Ontario)
• 1836 HMS Beagle anchors at Angra, Azores

• 1861 Confederacy Congress allies with government of Missouri
• 1864 2nd day of battle at Globe Tavern, Virginia, Union forces attempt to destroy Weldon Railroad Confederate supply route (successful 21 Ausgust)

• 1891 William Huggins describes astronomical application of spectrum
• 1895 American frontier murderer and outlaw, John Wesley Hardin is shot and killed by John Selman Sr. in a saloon in El Paso, Texas
• 1897 1st electric taxis driven in London
• 1900 Start of first and only Olympic cricket match in Paris; GB beats France by 158 runs
• 1903 Philadelphia Phillies suffer record 9th straight postponed game

• 1909 Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of automobile race Indianapolis 500, opens in Speedway, Indiana
• 1911 NY Giant Christy Mathewson loses after beating Reds 22 straight times
• 1912 Percy Grainger's orchestral piece "Shepherd's Hey" premieres
• 1913 Frenchman Adolphe Célestin Pégoud makes 1st parachute jump in Europe

• 1914 German army executes 150 Belgians by firing squad
• 1914 German fleet bombs the English coast
• 1914 Harris Theater (Candler, Coan & Harris) opens at 226 W 42nd St NYC

• 1915 British liner "SS Arabic" sunk by German submarine without warning leaving Liverpool for New York; killing 44. Creates diplomatic incident
• 1915 Rationing laws go into effect in Netherlands
• 1915 World War I: the Battle of Van begins
• 1917 Sunday benefit baseball game at NYC's Polo Grounds results in John McGraw & Christy Mathewson's arrest for violating Blue laws

• 1919 After nearly 100 years of British control, Afghanistan declares itself independent

• 1927 Metropolitan Sergius proclaims the declaration of loyalty of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Soviet state
• 1931 Lefty Grove wins AL record tying 16th consecutive game
• 1934 The first All-American Soap Box Derby is held in Dayton, Ohio
• 1936 Trial against Ljev Kamenev & Grigori Zinovjev because of "Trotskyism" opens in Moscow
• 1939 37.6 cm rainfall at Tuckerton, NJ (state record)

• 1942 World War II: Over 4,000 Canadian and British soldiers killed, wounded or captured raiding Dieppe, France
• 1943 Belgian church excommunicates Nazi collaborator Léon Degrelle
• 1943 US air raid on German bases at Gilze-Rijen/Vlissingen
• 1944 Allied air raid on Maastricht, 80+ killed
• 1944 Last Japanese troops driven out of India
• 1944 Nazis give parts of Paris to Resistance
• 1944 Paris police strike against nazi occupiers
• 1944 Polish 1st Division occupies Hill 262 (Mont Ormel), Normandy
• 1944 US 15th Army Corps occupies Mantes-Gassicourt at Paris
• 1944 US 90th/Polish 1st Division occupy Chambois, Normandy

• 1947 J Arens & D van Dorpen synthetise vitamin A
• 1950 ABC begins Saturday morning kid shows (Animal Clinic & Acrobat Ranch)

• 1955 32.4 cm precipitation at Burlington, Connecticut (state record)
• 1955 Hurricane Diane kills 200 people, becomes 1st billion $ damage storm (N.E. US)
• 1955 US raises import duty on bicycles 50%

• 1957 NY Giants board of directors vote 8-1 to move their baseball franchise to San Francisco in 1958 [1]
• 1957 US Major David Simons reaches 30,933m in a balloon
• 1958 NAACP Youth Council begin sit-in at "whites-only" lunch counter at Katz Drug Store in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma [1]
• 1959 Honolulu, Hawaii seeks a franchise in baseball's new Continental League
• 1959 Satellite Discoverer 6 launched into polar orbit

• 1960 Soviet Sputnik 5 carries 2 dogs, 2 rats, 40 mice, 1 rabbit and fruit flies into space, 1st animals to return alive from orbit
• 1960 The first commercial atomic energy reactor, owned by the Yankee Atomic Electric Company, achieves a self-sustaining nuclear reaction in Rowe, Deerfield River, Massachusetts

• 1962 Homer Blancos plays finest round in golf, shooting a 55
• 1963 NAACP Youth Council begins sit-ins at lunch counters, Oklahoma City, OKlahoma
• 1964 Communication satellite Syncom 3 launched
• 1965 Auschwitz trials end with 6 life sentences
• 1965 Cincinnati Reds pitcher Jim Maloney throws his second no-hitter of the season in 1-0 win over the Chicago Cubs
• 1965 The Yardbirds launch their first US tour
• 1966 Beatles pelted with rotten fruit and firecrackers during concert at Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee; Ku Klux Klan demonstrated outside the show and burned records
• 1966 Earthquake strikes Varto region in eastern Turkey with 6.8 magnitude killing around 2,400
• 1967 The Beatles' "All You Need is Love" single goes #1

• 1970 The Chinese Community in South Africa is granted 'White' status
• 1973 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
• 1973 Pirate World Music Radio (Holland) closes down after 10 years

• 1977 USSR performs nuclear test at Sary Shagan USSR
• 1978 422 die in an arson fire at a movie theater in Iran
• 1979 "My Sharonna" by the Knack hits #1, stays at top for 6 weeks
• 1979 Soviet Cosmonauts Vladimir Lyakov and Valery Ryumin return to Earth aboard Soyuz 34 after a record 175 days in space

• 1980 Saudi Arabian Lockhead Tristar crashes on landing at Riyadh, 301 die
• 1980 Willy Russell's play "Educating Rita" premieres in London starring Julie Walters
• 1981 2 US Navy F-14 jet fighters shoot down 2 Soviet-built Libyan SU-22
• 1982 Renaldo Nehemiah of US sets record for 110 m hurdles, 12.93 sec
• 1982 Soyuz T-7 launched, Svetlana Savtiskaya 2nd woman in space
• 1983 Dodgers trade Dave Stewart & Ricky Wright to Texas for Rick Honeycut

• 1985 Japan launches its 2nd probe of Halley's Comet, Suisei
• 1986 Car bomb kills 20 in Tehran, Iran
• 1987 Hungerford Massacre: in England, Michael Ryan kills sixteen people with an assault rifle and then commits suicide
• 1988 Iran and Iraq begin a cease-fire in their 8-year-old war (11 PM EDT)
• 1988 Maung Maung succeeds General Sein Lwin as the 7th President of Burma

• 1989 1st crack in the Iron Curtain when Hungary opens its borders to Austria for a pan-European picnic for a few hours
• 1989 Tadeusz Mazowiecki, elected 1st non-communist president of Poland
• 1990 Dodger Jose Offerman hits HR in his 1st at bat
• 1991 -20] Hurricane Bob hits US

• 1992 Romesh Kaluwitharana scores 132 on Test Cricket debut (SL v Australia)
• 1992 Sri Lanka make their highest cricket score ever 8-547 v Australia
• 1993 Dow Jones hits record high of 3612.13
• 1993 George Tiller, abortion doctor, shot in his arms by Rachelle Shannon
• 1993 Mattel & Fisher Price toy companies merge
• 1993 Sally Gunnell runs women's world record 400m hurdles (52.74")
• 1995 After 5 days Shannon Faulkner quits as 1st woman at the Citadel
• 1995 Bruce Seldon TKOs Joe Hipp in 10 for heavyweight boxing title

• 1996 The major South African political parties begin their submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)

• 1997 STS 85 (Discovery 23) lands
• 1998 South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission chairperson, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, releases documents revealing an alleged plot by Western countries to assassinate UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld of Sweden

• 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 United Nations headquarters in Iraq kills the agency's top envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 other employees.
• 2003 A Hamas planned suicide attack on a bus in Jerusalem kills 23 Israelis, 7 of them children

• 2004 Australian swimmer Jodie Henry records 53.84 to win the blue ribband 100m freestyle gold medal ahead of Dutch star Inge de Bruijn at the Athens Olympics
• 2004 US gymnast Carly Patterson becomes the 2nd American woman to win the all-around gold medal, and 1st to win at a non-boycotted Olympic games, when she takes gold in Athens
• 2005 A series of strong storms lashes Southern Ontario spawning several tornadoes as well as creating extreme flash flooding within the city of Toronto and its surrounding communities. In Toronto, it is also dubbed as the Toronto Supercell.
• 2005 The first-ever joint military exercise between Russia and China, called Peace Mission 2005 begins
• 2007 15.12 inches (38.4 cm) rainfall at Hoakh, Minnesota (state record, breaking previous mark after 35 years)
• 2007 The Tradition Senior Men's Golf, Crosswater Club: Mark McNulty of Zimbabwe wins lone career major title by 5 strokes from David Edwards
• 2008 Britain's Victoria Pendleton beats Anna Mears in the women's cycling sprint final at the Beijing Olympics; GB dominates the track winning 7 of 10 gold medals
• 2008 Chris Hoy encapsulates British dominance of track cycling at the Beijing Olympics beating teammate Jason Kenny to win the sprint, adding to his keirin and team sprint gold medals

• 2008 Reigning world champion, Christine Ohuruogu wins the women's 400m at the Beijing Olympics; GB's 50th gold medal in Olympic track & field competition
• 2008 The men's gymnastics program at the Beijing Olympics concludes with the home team from China dominating the medals tally takes 7 of 8 gold medals; Zou Kai wins 3
• 2009 A series of bombings in Baghdad, Iraq, kills 101 and injures 565 others

• 2012 Plane crash in mountainous region of Talodi, Sudan kills 32, including several government officials and staff, enroute to Eid al-Fitr festival marking end Muslim holy month of Ramadan; crash blamed on bad weather conditions
• 2013 24 Egyptian policemen are killed in an attack in Rafah
• 2013 37 pilgrims are killed in a train accident in India
• 2013 91 people are killed by floods across China

• 2014 The 24 hour ceasefire extension renewal between Israel and Palestine is violated as Hamas fire rockets; Israeli Air Force respond, killing 9 Gazans
• 2015 US Food and Drug administration approves Female Viagra libido pill Addyi
• 2016 A 6-way tie for first place in the final of the equestrian individual jumping competition at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics; Nick Skelton of Great Britain wins gold medal jump-off
• 2016 Chloe Esposito of Australia sets Olympic record overall score of 1,372 points to win the women's modern pentathlon in Rio de Janeiro. Élodie Clouvel of France second (1,356 points), Oktawia Nowacka of Poland third (1,349)

• 2016 Colombian BMX rider Mariana Pajón successfully defends her Olympic title when she beats American Alise Post in the final in Rio de Janeiro
• 2016 Germany beats Sweden 2-1 in the women's football gold medal match at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics; 52,432 at the Maracanã Stadium
• 2016 Great Britain upsets the heavily favoured Netherlands to win the women's field hockey gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics after drawing 3-3 in regulation time; win dramatic penalty shootout, 2-0
• 2016 Kiley Neushul scores 3 goals as the US women's water polo team routs Italy 12-5 to win the gold medal in Rio de Janeiro and retain their Olympic title
• 2016 Tajikistan's Dilshod Nazarov throws 78.68m to win the men's hammer throw gold medal the Rio de Janeiro Olympics; first gold medal for Tajikistan in Olympic history
• 2016 Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya goes one better than her London silver medal when she wins women's 5,000m at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics; runs Olympic record time of 14:26.17
• 2018 Limerick wins All Ireland Hurling Championship for first time in 45 years with a 3-16 to 2-18 win over defending champions Galway at Croke Park, Dublin
• 2018 Monsoon rains finally ease in Kerala State, India, with flooding taking 350 lives with 200,000 in relief camps

• 2018 Two more earthquakes hit Lombok in Indonesia killing 14 two weeks after previous earthquakes
• 2018 Weinstein accuser Asia Argento is alleged to have sexually assaulted a 17-year old in article by "The New York Times"
• 2019 Evelyn Hernández cleared of killing her newborn baby in landmark case in a retrial in El Salvador

• 2020 Apple becomes the 1st US company to be valued at $2 trillion, just 2 years after it reached $1 trillion valuation
• 2020 Golfing dinner termed #GolfGatet appearing to flout COVID-19 restrictions, attended by Irish political figures, prompts two politicians to later resign
• 2020 Largest floods in 70 years wet the toes of giant 71m Leshan Buddha carved by a river just outside Chengdu, China with 100,000 people evacuated
• 2020 US Postmaster General Louis DeJoy says he will suspend controversial plan to cut costs until after the election
• 2021 Iran's official COVID-19 death toll passes 100,000 amid its fifth wave of infections, according to its Health Ministry
• 2022 30-hour siege begins on Hayat Hotel, Mogadishu, by Shabab militants leaving 21 dead and 117 injured [1]
• 2022 European drought uncovers river 'hunger stones' that once warned of famine, including Děčín stone (earliest inscription 1417) on Elbe river, with carving "if you see me, then weep" [1]
• 2022 Mexico's former attorney general Jesús Murillo Karam arrested in connection with disappearance of 43 students in 2014, one of the country's worst human rights tragedies [1]

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