August 19
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. Historically, a bad day for witches, I guess.
1782 – American Revolutionary War:
Battle of Blue Licks: The last major engagement of the war, fought near the Licking River in what is now
Robertson County, Kentucky, almost ten months after the surrender of the British commander Charles Cornwallis following the
Siege of Yorktown.
1839 – The French government announces that
Louis Daguerre's
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).
1854 – The
First Sioux War begins when United States Army soldiers kill Lakota chief
Conquering Bear and in return are massacred.
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.
1934 – The first All-American
Soap Box Derby is held in Dayton, Ohio.
1940 – First flight of the
B-25 Mitchell medium bomber.
1942 – World War II:
Operation Jubilee: The 2nd Canadian Infantry Division leads an amphibious assault by allied forces on Dieppe, France and fails, many Canadians are killed or captured. The operation was intended to develop and try new amphibious landing tactics for the coming full invasion in Normandy.
1953 – The intelligence agencies of the United Kingdom and the United States
orchestrated a coup d'état of Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mosaddegh, and restored the absolute monarchy of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
1960 – Cold War: In Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union, downed American
U-2 (the plane, not the band) 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, two rats and a variety of plants.
1981 –
Gulf of Sidra Incident: United States fighters intercept and shoot down two Libyan
Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jets over the Gulf of Sidra.
1987 –
Hungerford massacre: In the United Kingdom, Michael Ryan kills sixteen people with a semi-automatic rifle and then commits suicide.
1988 - '
Crazy' by
Patsy Cline and
Elvis Presley's '
Hound Dog' were announced as the most played jukebox songs of the first hundred years. The jukebox had been around since 1906, but earlier models had been first seen in 1889.
1989 –
Radio Caroline, the offshore pirate station in the North Sea, is raided by British and Dutch governments.
Several hundred East Germans cross the frontier between Hungary and Austria during the
Pan-European Picnic, part of the events that 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.
Crown Heights riot: Black groups target
Hasidic Jews on the streets of Crown Heights in New York City for three days, after two black children were hit by a car driven by a Hasidic man.
2002 –
Khankala Mi-26 crash: A Russian
Mil Mi-26 helicopter carrying troops is hit by a Chechen missile outside Grozny, killing 118 soldiers. The world's deadliest single helicopter crash.
2005 - A life-size bronze statue of
Phil Lynott, designed by
Paul Daly, was unveiled on Harry Street in Dublin. The ceremony was attended by his former
Thin Lizzy band members
Gary Moore,
Brian Robertson and
Scott Gorham.
Births
1871 – Orville Wright (Wright Bros); 1883 – Coco Chanel; 1902 – Ogden Nash; 1906 – Philo Farnsworth; 1915 – Ring Lardner, Jr.; 1919 – Malcolm Forbes; 1921 – Gene Roddenberry; 1926 – Angus Scrimm ('The Tall Man' in
Phantasm); 1930 – Frank McCourt (author
Angela's Ashes); 1931 – Bill 'Willie' Shoemaker (jockey); 1933 – Debra Paget; 1938 – Diana Muldaur; 1939 – Ginger Baker

(Cream); 1940 – Johnny Nash♪ ♫; 1940 – Jill St. John; 1942 – Fred Thompson; 1944 – Eddy Raven♪ ♫; 1945 – Ian Gillan♪ ♫; 1946 – Charles Bolden (Administrator of NASA), Bill ' Slick Willie' Clinton (42nd POTUS); 1948 – Gerald McRaney (
Simon & Simon, Major Dad); 1951 – John Deacon

(Queen); 1952 – Jonathan Frakes('Riker' on Star Trek: TNG); 1955 – Peter Gallagher; 1956 – Adam Arkin; 1957 – Martin Donovan; 1961 – Tony Longo; 1963 – John Stamos; 1965 – Kevin Dillon, Kyra Sedgwick; 1966 – Lee Ann Womack♪ ♫; 1967 – Satya Nadella (CEO Microsoft); 1969 – Nate Dogg♪ ♫, Matthew Perry, Clay Walker♪ ♫
Deaths
1662 – Blaise Pascal; 1895 – John Wesley Hardin; 1936 – Federico García Lorca; 1959 – Blind Willie McTell♪ ♫; 1975 – Mark Donohue

; 1977 – Groucho Marx; 1980 – Otto Frank (Anne's papa); 2008 – LeRoi Moore♪ ♫(DMB); 2009 – Don Hewitt (created
60 Minutes)