August 19 Historical Events

The following events took place on August 19. The list is arranged in chronological order.

Found 56 events. Showing 31 - 56.

• 1945
  August Revolution: 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 Mohammad Mosaddegh 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, Russia, Soviet Union, downed American U-2 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.
• 1964
  Syncom 3, the first geostationary communication satellite, was launched.
• 1965
  Japanese prime minister Eisaku Satō becomes the first post-World War II sitting prime minister to visit Okinawa Prefecture.
• 1978
  Cinema Rex fire caused more than 400 deaths.
• 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 a semi-automatic 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
  Radio Caroline, the offshore pirate station in the North Sea, is raided 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 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.
• 1991
  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.
• 1999
  In Belgrade, Yugoslavia, tens of thousands of Serbians rally to demand the resignation of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milošević.
• 2002
  Khankala Mi-26 crash: A Russian Mil Mi-26 helicopter carrying troops is hit by a Chechen missile outside Grozny, killing 118 soldiers.
• 2003
  A car-bomb attack on United Nations headquarters in Iraq kills the agency’s top envoy Sérgio Vieira de Mello and 21 other employees.
• 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.
• 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 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.
• 2012
  A plane crash kills 32 people in Sudan.
• 2013
  A train accident in India kills at least 37 people and injures over a dozen.