August 19 is the 231st day of the year (232nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 134 days remaining.

Events

upto 19th century

• 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.
• 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 Battle of Yorktown.
• 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 Constitution's sides, earning her the nickname "Old Ironsides".
• 1813 - 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, 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.

20th century

• 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 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 Saudi Arabia killing 301
• 1981 - Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi sends two 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.

21st century

• 2002 - A Russian Mi-26 helicopter carrying troops is hit by Chechen missile outside of Grozny killing 118 soldiers
• 2003 - A car-bomb attack on UN headquarters in Iraq killed the agency's top envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and other 21 employers.

Births

upto 19th century

• 1631 - John Dryden, poet (d. 1700)
• 1870 - Bernard Baruch, financier (d. 1965)
• 1871 - Orville Wright, aviator (d. 1958)
• 1875 - Stjepan Seljan, explorer (d. 1936)
• 1883 - Coco Chanel, clothing designer (d. 1971)
• 1883 - Elsie Ferguson, Broadway star, silent film actress (d. 1961)
• 1892 - Alfred Lunt, actor (d. 1977)

20th century

1900s-1930s

• 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)
• 1915 - Ring Lardner, Jr., actor, screenwriter (d. 2000)
• 1916 - Marie Wilson, actress (d. 1972)
• 1919 - Malcolm Forbes, publisher (d. 1990)
• 1921 - Gene Roddenberry, author, producer (d. 1991)
• 1925 - Claude Gauvreau, Quebec playwright, poet and polemist (d. 1971)
• 1926 - Arthur Rock, venture capitalist
• 1930 - Frank McCourt, author
• 1931 - Willie Shoemaker, jockey (d. 2003)
• 1938 - Diana Muldaur, actress, dog breeder, dog judge
• 1939 - Ginger Baker, drummer, trumpet player

1940s-1980s

• 1944 - Charles B. Wang, philanthropist
• 1940 - Johnny Nash, singer
• 1940 - Jill St. John, actress
• 1942 - Fred Thompson, Watergate counsel, Senator from Tennessee, actor
• 1945 - Ian Gillan, vocalist
• 1946 - Bill Clinton, U.S. president
• 1946 - Beat Raaflaub, conductor
• 1947 - Gerard Schwarz, American conductor
• 1948 - Tipper Gore, author, activist for "Parental Advisory" labels on music
• 1950 - Jennie Bond, journalist
• 1952 - Jonathan Frakes, actor, director (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
• 1955 - Peter Gallagher, actor (The O.C.)
• 1958 - Anthony Muñoz, American football Hall of Famer
• 1960 - Morten Andersen, American football player
• 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
• 1980 - Darius Danesh, singer

Deaths

• 14 - Augustus, Roman emperor
• 1186 - Geoffrey Plantagenet, Duke of Brittany, stamped by a horse in a tournament
• 1493 - Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor
• 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
• 1936 - John M.S. Pearce, neurologist and author
• 1954 - Alcide De Gasperi, former Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1881)
• 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
• 2003 - Carlos Roberto Reina, former president of Honduras
• 2003 - Sérgio Vieira de Mello, UN Special Representative in Iraq

Holidays and observances

• Afghan Independence Day see above: 1919

August 18 - August 20 - July 19 - September 19 -- listing of all days