August 19
2008-08-19 08:42
Today is Tuesday, August 19, the 232nd day of 2008. There are 134 days left in the year.
Highlights in history on this date:
636 - Khalid ibn Walid's forces defeat Byzantine army at Battle of Yarmuk, sealing the Muslim conquest of Syria.
1587 - Pope Sixtus V proclaims Catholic Crusade for invasion of England.
1601 - Michael the Brave, Prince of Moldavia, is assassinated by Hungarian patriots.
1691 - Louis of Baden defeats Turks at Slankamen, Bulgaria, and Grand Vizier Mustafa Pasa is killed in action. The Turks cede a large portion of Hungary in the subsequent peace.
1796 - France and Spain sign Alliance of San Ildefonso against Britain.
1856 - European powers decide to unite Moldavia with Wallachia.
1914 - British Navy torpedoes and damages German battleship Westfalen in North Sea; German fleet bombards English coast.
1936 - Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca is shot by supporters of Franco after being forced to dig his own grave.
1940 - Italian forces take British Somaliland.
1942 - About 6 000 Canadian and British soldiers launch a disastrous raid against the Germans at Dieppe, France, suffering 50% casualties.
1944 - A week before liberation by Allied troops, the French Resistance starts open warfare against the Germans in Paris.
1945 - Start of the August Revolution against French rule in Vietnam, led by Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh.
1953 - In Iran, the nationalist government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq collapses in a US-backed military coup; Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi returns to the country in triumph.
1955 - Severe flooding in America's Northeast caused by Hurricane Diane claims 200 lives.
1960 - Soviet scientists safely bring back to earth a 4 600kg satellite carrying two dogs into orbit. The dogs were sent into space the day before.
1966 - More than 500 people die in earthquake in eastern Turkey.
1971 - General Duong van Minh withdraws from presidential elections in South Vietnam, leaving President Nguyen van Thieu unopposed.
1974 - US Ambassador Rodger P Davies is shot and killed at the American embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus, during a protest by Greek Cypriots.
1979 - Pope John Paul II makes major diplomatic gesture by calling for resumption of ties between Vatican and China's Roman Catholics.
1982 - Svetlana Savitskaya is the second Russian woman to go into space when she is launched with two crewmates aboard a Soyuz T-7 spacecraft.
1986 - Car bomb explodes during morning rush hour in central Tehran, Iran, killing 20 people.
1988 - Hundreds of UN observers deploy along Iran-Iraq war front on eve of a cease-fire, the first step toward ending nearly eight years of bloodshed.
1989 - India's Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi says his country must play bigger role in world affairs as superpowers shift to greater dialogue.
1990 - Refugees fleeing occupied Kuwait say resistance fighters are staging attacks including suicide bombings and that Iraq has been unable to wipe them out.
1991 - Communist hardliners stage coup of Soviet President Mikhail S Gorbachev.
1992 - United States and its allies fly reconnaissance missions over southern Iraq to monitor treatment of dissident Shi'ites and warn they will attack Iraqi planes that interfere.
1993 - Eight Israeli soldiers are killed in bombings by Islamic militants.
1994 - Muslim militants cross border from Afghanistan and attack Russian troops in Tajikistan's civil war.
1995 - On their way to deliver a US-sponsored peace plan to the Bosnian government, three American peace negotiators are killed when their carrier plunges from a mountain road on Mount Igman outside Sarajevo.
1996 - Philippine president, Fidel Valdez Ramos and a rebel leader announce a settlement of the 26-year Muslim secessionist rebellion.
1997 - Lebanese guerrillas fire dozens of rockets onto towns in northern Israel one day after a pro-Israeli militia kills at least six civilians in south Lebanon.
1999 - Nearly 150 000 demonstrators converge on Belgrade to demand Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic resign. Protests began after the Nato air campaign leaves the country impoverished, isolated and without control over the southern province of Kosovo.
2001 - An underground methane and coal dust explosion in Ukraine, kills at least 50.
2002 - An Islamic high court in the Katsina state of Nigeria, upheld a sentence of death by stoning for Amina Lawal, who had been convicted of adultery by a village court in March for having a child more than nine months after her divorce.
2003 - A suicide bomber drives a large truck packed with explosives into the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, killing at least 23 people, including UN's representative, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
2004 - Georgian government forces engage separatists in a battle for strategic areas near the center city of separatist South Ossetia in some of the worst fighting in the breakaway region since a war more than a decade ago.
2005 - A former Hutu rebel leader is elected Burundi's president, culminating a three-year peace process after almost 12 years of ethnic war. Pierre Nkurunziza appeals for support from all Burundians to heal ethnic divisions and rebuild a shattered economy.
2006 - A boat loaded with illegal immigrants heading from North Africa to Italy sinks south of the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, killing at least 10 people.
2007 - A major Gaza power company shuts off the last of its generators because fuel to power them was blocked after Israel closed the Nahal Oz fuel crossing last week, citing security threats.
Today's Birthdays:
Jeanne Becu du Barry, French mistress of Louis XV (1746-1793); Bernard Baruch, US financier (1870-1976); Orville Wright, US aviation pioneer (1871-1948); Georges Enesco, Romanian composer (1881-1955); Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, French fashion designer (1883-1971); Ogden Nash, US poet (1902-1971); Bill Clinton, US president (1946--); Peter Gallagher, US actor (1955--); Adam Arkin, US actor (1956--).
Thought For Today:
One can live in the shadow of an idea without grasping it - Elizabeth Bowen, Irish author.
Sapa-AP
- SAPA