August 19:43 BC:
Octavian, later known as Augustus, compelled the Roman Senate to elect him Consul.
14: Death of
Augustus, Roman emperor
1493: Death of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor
1662: Death of Blaise Pascal, French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher
1812: The
U.S.S. Constitution earned its nickname, "Old Ironsides", in a battle with the
R.M.S. Guerriereas cannonballs bounced off its sides.
1743: Birthday of Madame du Barry, French mistress of Louis XV of France.
1848: A newspaper in New York broke the news on the East Coast of the discovery of gold in California fueling the gold rush.
1870: Birthday of Bernard Baruch, American businessman and philanthropist
1871: Birthday of Orville Wright, American engineer and pilot, co-founder with his brother of the Wright Company
1881: Birthday of George Enescu, Romanian violinist, pianist composer, and conductor
1895: Notorious outlaw
John Wesley Hardin was shot and killed in El Paso.
1909: First race held in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
1921: Birthday of
Gene Rodenberry, American screenwriter and producer, creator of
Star Trek1929: Death of Sergei Diaghilev, Russian critic and producer, founded Ballet Russes
1934:
Chancellor Adolf Hitler took advantage of the death of Pres. Paul von Hindenburg to assume that office as well, further enshrining his dictatorial rule over Germany.
1936: Stalin's Great Purge of the Soviet Union with the beginning of the Moscow Trials, show trials to eliminate Trotskyites or anyone else Stalin felt threatened by in his paranoid delusions.
1940: First flight of the B-25 Mitchell medium bomber.
1942: Birthday of Fred Thompson, American actor, lawyer, and politician
1944: Paris was liberated as the people of the city rose up against Nazi occupation with the help of allied forces.
1945: The Viet Minh under the leadership of
Ho Chi Minh took power in Hanoi, Vietnam.
1946: Birthday of Bill Clinton, American lawyer and politician, 42ndPresident of the U.S.
1952: Birthday of Jonathan Frakes, American actor and director
1953: The government of Iran is overthrown by
Reza Pahlavi, aided by the CIA. The Shah himself would be overthrown in the 1979 revolution.
1960: American pilot
Francis Gary Powers was sentenced by a Soviet court for his spying activities when his U-2 plane was shot down on May 1.
1981: U.S. fighters intercepted and shot down two Libyan Soviet-made fighter jets over the Gulf of Sidra.
1989: Communist Polish president Wojciech Jaruzelski nominated a Solidarity activist to be the first non-communist prime minister in 42 years.
1991: Attempted coup against
Mikhail Gorbachev1999: A rally in Belgrade, Yugoslavia saw tens of thousands Serbians demand the resignation of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia President
Slobodan Milosevic.
“Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!”
Psalm 119:36