July
19
Events
July 19
64 – Great
Fire of Rome: a fire begins to burn in the merchant area of
Rome and soon burns completely out of control. According to
a popular, but untrue legend, Nero fiddled as the city burned.
484 – Leontius, Roman usurper, is crowned Eastern emperor at
Tarsus (modern Turkey). He is recognized in Antioch and makes
it his capital.
711 – Umayyad conquest of Hispania: Battle of Guadalete – Umayyad
forces under Tariq ibn Ziyad defeat the Visigoths led by King
Roderic.
1333 – Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Halidon Hill
– The English win a decisive victory over the Scots.
1544 – Italian War of 1542: the first Siege of Boulogne begins.
1545 – The Tudor warship Mary Rose sinks off Portsmouth; in
1982 the wreck is salvaged in one of the most complex and expensive
projects in the history of maritime archaeology.
1553 – Lady Jane Grey is replaced by Mary I of England as Queen
of England after only nine days of reign.
1588 – Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines – The Spanish
Armada is sighted in the English Channel.
1701 – Representatives of the Iroquois Confederacy sign the
Nanfan Treaty, ceding a large territory north of the Ohio River
to England.
1702 – Great Northern War: A numerically superior Polish-Saxon
army of Augustus II the Strong, operating from an advantageous
defensive position, is defeated by a Swedish army half its size
under the command of King Charles XII in the Battle of Klissow.
1832 – The British Medical Association is founded as the Provincial
Medical and Surgical Association by Sir Charles Hastings at
a meeting in the Board Room of the Worcester Infirmary.
1843 – Brunel's steamship the SS Great Britain is launched,
becoming the first ocean-going craft with an iron hull or screw
propeller and also becoming the largest vessel afloat in the
world.
1848 – Women's rights: a two-day Women's Rights Convention opens
in Seneca Falls, New York; there the "Bloomers" are
introduced.
1863 – American Civil War: Morgan's Raid – At Buffington Island
in Ohio, Confederate General John Hunt Morgan's raid into the
north is mostly thwarted when a large group of his men are captured
while trying to escape across the Ohio River.
1864 – Taiping Rebellion: Third Battle of Nanking – The Qing
Dynasty finally defeats the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
1870 – Franco-Prussian War: France declares war on Prussia.
1900 – The first line of the Paris Métro opens for operation.
1908 – Dutch football club Feyenoord was founded
1916 – World War I: Battle of Fromelles – British and Australian
troops attack German trenches in a prelude to the Battle of
the Somme.
1919 – Following Peace Day celebrations marking the end of World
War I, ex-servicemen riot and burn down Luton Town Hall.
1940 – World War II: Battle of Cape Spada – The Royal Navy and
the Regia Marina clash; the Italian light cruiser Bartolomeo
Colleoni sinks, with 121 casualties.
1940 – World War II: Army order 112 forms the Intelligence Corps
of the British Army.
1942 – World War II: Battle of the Atlantic – German Grand Admiral
Karl Dönitz orders the last U-boats to withdraw from their United
States Atlantic coast positions in response to the effective
American convoy system.
1947 – The Prime Minister of the shadow Burmese government,
Bogyoke Aung San and 6 of his cabinet and 2 non-cabinet members
are assassinated by Galon U Saw.
1947 – Korean politician Yuh Woon-Hyung is assassinated.
1961 – Tunisia imposes a blockade on the French naval base at
Bizerte; the French would capture the entire town four days
later.
1963 – Joe Walker flies a North American X-15 to a record altitude
of 106,010 metres (347,800 feet) on X-15 Flight 90. Exceeding
an altitude of 100 km, this flight qualifies as a human spaceflight
under international convention.
1964 – Vietnam War: at a rally in Saigon, South Vietnamese Prime
Minister Nguyen Khanh calls for expanding the war into North
Vietnam.
1972 – Dhofar Rebellion: British SAS units help the Omani government
against Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman rebels in the
Battle of Mirbat.
1976 – Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal is created.
1979 – The Sandinista rebels overthrow the government of the
Somoza family in Nicaragua.
1981 – In a private meeting with U.S. President Ronald Reagan,
French Prime Minister François Mitterrand reveals the existence
of the Farewell Dossier, a collection of documents showing that
the Soviets had been stealing American technological research
and development.
1983 – The first three-dimensional reconstruction of a human
head in a CT is published.
1985 – The Val di Stava dam collapses killing 268 people in
Val di Stava, Italy.
1989 – United Airlines flight 232 crashes in Sioux City, Iowa
killing 112 of the 296 passengers.
1992 – A car bomb placed by mafia with collaboration of Italian
intelligence kills judge Paolo Borsellino and five members of
his escort
1997 – The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army resumes
a ceasefire to end their 25-year campaign to end British rule
in Northern Ireland.
Holidays
and observances
Burmese
Martyrs' Day (Burma)
Christian Feast Day:
Arsenius (Roman Catholic Church)
Bernold, Bishop of Utrecht
Justa and Rufina
Kirdjun
Macrina the Younger, Sister of St. Basil the Great
Symmachus
July 19 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Sandinista Day or Liberation Day (Nicaragua)
For details, contact Datacentre
|