August 19 in History

Historical Events on August 19

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 Charles 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 the nickname "Old Ironsides".

1919 Afghanistan gains full independence from the United Kingdom.

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 Cold War: The CIA and MI6 help to overthrow the government of Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran and reinstate the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

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.

1999 In Belgrade, Yugoslavia, tens of thousands of Serbians rally to demand the resignation of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milošević.

2003 A suicide attack on a bus in Jerusalem, Israel, planned by Hamas, kills 23 Israelis, seven of them children, in the Shmuel HaNavi bus bombing.

2010 Operation Iraqi Freedom ends, with the last of the United States brigade combat teams crossing the border to Kuwait.

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Famous Birthdays on August 19

1835 Tom Wills

1871 Orville Wright

1946 Bill Clinton

1987 Nico Hülkenberg

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Famous Deaths on August 19

AD 14 Augustus

1580 Andrea Palladio

1936 Federico García Lorca

1994 Linus Pauling

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