19 August is the 231st day of the year (232nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 134 days remaining until the end of the year. On this day in the year: 295 BC – The first temple to Venus, the Roman goddess of love, beauty and fertility, is dedicated by Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges during the Third Samnite War 43 BC – Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, later known as Augustus, compels the Roman Senate to elect him Consul. 1153 – Baldwin III of Jerusalem takes control of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from his mother Melisende, and also captures Ascalon. 1504 – In Ireland, the Hiberno-Norman de Burghs (Burkes) and Anglo-Norman Fitzgeralds fight in the Battle of Knockdoe. 1561 – 18-year-old Mary, Queen of Scots, returns to Scotland after spending 13 years in France. 1612 – The Samlesbury witches, three women from the Lancashire village of Samlesbury, England, are put on trial, accused of practicing witchcraft, one of the most famous witch trials in British history. 1692 – Salem witch trials: in Salem, Province of Massachusetts Bay, five people, one woman and four men, including a clergyman, are executed after being convicted of witchcraft. 1759 – Battle of Lagos Naval battle during the Seven Years War between Great Britain and France. 1768 – Saint Isaacs Cathedral is founded in Saint Petersburg, Russia. 1839 – The French government announces that Louis Daguerres photographic process is a gift free to the world. 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 – American 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. 1909 – The first automobile race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway takes place. 1919 – Afghanistan gains full independence from the United Kingdom. 1927 – Metropolitan Sergius proclaims the declaration of loyalty of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Soviet Union.. 1934 – The creation of the position Führer is approved by the German electorate with 89.9% of the popular vote. 1945 – August Revolution: Viet Minh led by Ho Chi Minh take power in Hanoi, Vietnam. 1953 – Cold War: The CIA and MI6 help to overthrow the government of Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran and reinstate the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. 1960 – Cold War: in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union, downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Soviet Union for espionage. 1960 – Sputnik program: Korabl-Sputnik 2 – the Soviet Union launches the satellite with the dogs Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants. 1965 – Japanese prime minister Eisaku Satō becomes the first post-World War II sitting prime minister to visit Okinawa Prefecture. 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. 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. 1989 – Radio Caroline, the offshore pirate station in the North Sea, is raided by British and Dutch governments. 1989 – Several hundred East Germans cross the frontier between Hungary and Austria during the Pan-European Picnic, part of the events which began the process of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. 1991 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union, August Coup: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is placed under house arrest while on holiday in the town of Foros, Ukraine. 1991 – Crown Heights riot: Black groups target Hasidic Jews on the streets of Crown Heights in New York, New York for three days, after two black children were hit by a car driven by a Hasidic man. 2003 – A car-bomb attack on United Nations headquarters in Iraq kills the agencys top envoy Sérgio Vieira de Mello and 21 other employees. 2003 – A Hamas planned suicide attack on a bus in Jerusalem, Israel kills 23 Israelis, seven of them children, in the Shmuel HaNavi bus bombing. 2005 – The first-ever joint military exercise between Russia and China, called Peace Mission 2005 begins. 2010 – Operation Iraqi Freedom ends, with the last of the United States brigade combat teams crossing the border to Kuwait. 2012 – A plane crash kills 32 people in Sudan.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 19:16:06 +0000
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