Historical Events on this Day in History - per Wikipedia

August 19

• 43 BC – Octavian, later known as Augustus, compels the Roman Senate to elect him Consul.
• 1504 – In Ireland, the Hiberno-Norman de Burghs (Burkes) and Anglo-Norman Fitzgeralds fight in the Battle of Knockdoe.
• 1561 – An 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 for practicing witchcraft, one of the most famous witch trials in English history.
• 1666 – Second Anglo-Dutch War: Rear Admiral Robert Holmes leads a raid on the Dutch island of Terschelling, destroying 150 merchant ships, an act later known as "Holmes's Bonfire".
• 1692 – Salem witch trials: in Salem, Massachusetts, Province of Massachusetts Bay five people, one woman and four men, including a clergyman, are executed after being convicted of witchcraft.
• 1745 – Prince Charles Edward Stuart raises his standard in Glenfinnan – the start of the Second Jacobite Rebellion, known as "the 45".
• 1759 – Battle of Lagos Naval battle during the Seven Year's War between Britain and France.
• 1768 – Saint Isaac's Cathedral is founded in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
• 1772 – Gustavus III of Sweden stages a Coup d'état, in which he assumes power and enacts a new constitution that divides power between the Riksdag and the King.
• 1782 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Blue Licks – the last major engagement of the war, almost ten months after the surrender of the British commander Lord Cornwallis following the Siege of Yorktown.
• 1812 – War of 1812: American frigate USS Constitution defeats the British frigate HMS Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada earning her nickname "Old Ironsides".
• 1813 – Gervasio Antonio de Posadas joins Argentina's Second Triumvirate.
• 1821 – Greek rebels massacre all the population of Navarino.
• 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).
• 1861 – First ascent of Weisshorn, fifth highest summit in the Alps.
• 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.
• 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 first All-American Soap Box Derby is held in Dayton, Ohio.
• 1934 – The creation of the position Führer is approved by the German electorate with 89.9% of the popular vote.
• 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 doomed to fail, and was intended to develop and try new amphibious landing tactics for the coming full invasion in Normandy.
• 1944 – World War II: Liberation of Paris – Paris rises against German occupation with the help of Allied troops.
• 1945 – Vietnam War: 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 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: Sputnik 5 – 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 Sato becomes the first post-World War II sitting prime minister to visit Okinawa.
• 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.
• 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 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 – Raid on offshore pirate station, Radio Caroline in North Sea 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, Crimea.
• 1991 – Crown Heights Riot: Black groups target Hasidic Jews on the streets of Crown Heights during 3 days, after 2 black kids were struck by a car driven by a Hasidic man.
• 1999 – In Belgrade, tens of thousands of Serbians rally to demand the resignation of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milošević.
• 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 in the Jerusalem bus 2 massacre.
• 2005 – The first-ever joint military exercise between Russia and China, called Peace Mission 2005 begins.
• 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.
• 2009 – A series of bombings in Baghdad, Iraq, kills 101 and injures 565 others.
• 2010 – Operation Iraqi Freedom ends, with the last of the United States brigade combat teams crossing the border to Kuwait.