19 August
Notable Births
Keegan Murray
b. 2000
American basketball player (born 2000)
Thomas Flegler
b. 1999
Australian rugby league footballer
Florentino Luís
b. 1999
Portuguese footballer (born 1999)
Yerin (entertainer)
b. 1996
South Korean singer and actress (born 1996)
Lachlan Lewis
b. 1996
Australian rugby league footballer (born 1996)
Nafissatou Thiam
b. 1994
Belgian athlete (born 1994)
Fernando Gaviria
b. 1994
Colombian road racing cyclist
Pio Seci
b. 1993
Fiji international rugby league footballer (born 1993)
David Rittich
b. 1992
Czech ice hockey player (born 1992)
Salem Al-Dawsari
b. 1991
Saudi Arabian footballer (born 1991)
Danny Galbraith
b. 1990
Scottish footballer
Romeo Miller
b. 1989
American rapper, singer, and actor (born 1989)
Kirk Cousins
b. 1988
American football player (born 1988)
Veronica Roth
b. 1988
American author (born 1988)
Patrick Chung
b. 1987
Jamaican-American gridiron football player (born 1987)
Nico Hülkenberg
b. 1987
German racing driver (born 1987)
Sotiris Balafas
b. 1986
Greek professional footballer
Saori Kimura
b. 1986
Japanese former volleyball player (born 1986)
Christina Perri
b. 1986
American singer-songwriter (born 1986)
Lindsey Jacobellis
b. 1985
American snowboarder (born 1985)
Notable Deaths
Maria Branyas
d. 2024
American-born Spanish supercentenarian (1907–2024)
Vašo Patejdl
d. 2023
Slovak musician and composer (1954–2023)
Tekla Juniewicz
d. 2022
Polish supercentenarian (1906–2022)
Sonny Chiba
d. 2021
Japanese actor and martial artist (1939–2021)
Dick Gregory
d. 2017
American comedian, actor, writer, activist and social critic (1932–2017)
Jack Riley (actor)
d. 2016
American actor (1935–2016)
Samih al-Qasim
d. 2014
Palestinian Druze poet (1939–2014)
Simin Behbahani
d. 2014
Persian poet (1927–2014)
James Foley (journalist)
d. 2014
American journalist (1973–2014)
Candida Lycett Green
d. 2014
British author (1942–2014)
Donna Hightower
d. 2013
American singer-songwriter (1926–2013)
Edmund Skellings
d. 2012
American poet
Raúl Ruiz (director)
d. 2011
Chilean filmmaker, writer and teacher (1941-2011)
Don Hewitt
d. 2009
American television news producer (1922–2009)
Levy Mwanawasa
d. 2008
3rd president of Zambia (1948–2008)
Mo Mowlam
d. 2005
British politician (1949–2005)
Carlos Roberto Reina
d. 2003
President of Honduras from 1994 to 1998
Sérgio Vieira de Mello
d. 2003
Brazilian UN diplomat and humanitarian aid officer (1948–2003)
Donald Woods
d. 2001
South African journalist and activist
Pierre Schaeffer
d. 1995
French musicologist (1910–1995)
On This Day in History
All 60 ›
2017
Tens of thousands of farmed non-native Atlantic salmon are accidentally released into the wild in Washington waters in the 2017 Cypress Island Atlantic salmon pen break.
Atlantic salmon
2013
The Dhamara Ghat train accident kills at least 37 people in the Indian state of Bihar.
Dhamara Ghat train accident
2010
Operation Iraqi Freedom ends, with the last of the United States brigade combat teams crossing the border to Kuwait.
Iraq War
2009
A series of bombings in Baghdad, Iraq, kills 101 and injures 565 others.
August 2009 Baghdad bombings
2005
The first-ever joint military exercise between Russia and China, called Peace Mission 2005 begins.
Peace Mission 2005
2004
Google Inc. has its initial public offering on Nasdaq.
2003
A truck-bomb attack on United Nations headquarters in Iraq kills the agency's top envoy Sérgio Vieira de Mello and 21 other employees.
Canal Hotel bombing
2003
Shmuel HaNavi bus bombing: A suicide attack on a bus in Jerusalem, planned by Hamas, kills 23 Israelis, seven of them children.
Shmuel HaNavi bus bombing
2002
Khankala Mi-26 crash: A Russian Mil Mi-26 helicopter carrying troops is hit by a Chechen missile outside Grozny, killing 118 soldiers.
2002 Khankala Mi-26 crash
1999
In Belgrade, Yugoslavia, tens of thousands of Serbians rally to demand the resignation of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milošević.
Belgrade
1991
Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The August Coup begins when Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is placed under house arrest while on holiday in the town of Foros, Ukraine.
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
1991
Crown Heights riot in New York City begins.
Crown Heights riot
1989
Polish president Wojciech Jaruzelski nominates Solidarity activist Tadeusz Mazowiecki to be the first non-communist prime minister in 42 years.
Wojciech Jaruzelski
1989
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.
East Germany
1987
Hungerford massacre: In the United Kingdom, Michael Ryan kills sixteen people with a semi-automatic rifle and then commits suicide.
Hungerford massacre
1981
Gulf of Sidra Incident: United States F-14A Tomcat fighters intercept and shoot down two Libyan Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jets over the Gulf of Sidra.
Gulf of Sidra incident (1981)
1980
Saudia Flight 163, a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar burns after making an emergency landing at Riyadh International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killing 301 people.
Saudia Flight 163
1980
Otłoczyn railway accident: In Poland's worst post-war railway accident, 67 people lose their lives and a further 62 are injured.
Otłoczyn railway accident
1978
In Iran, the Cinema Rex fire causes more than 300 deaths.
Cinema Rex fire
1965
Japanese prime minister Eisaku Satō becomes the first post-World War II sitting prime minister to visit Okinawa Prefecture.
Prime Minister of Japan