July 19Birthdays & History

On this day: July 19 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 64The Great Fire of Rome causes widespread devastation and rages on for six days, destroying half of the city.Europe
2. 484Leontius, Roman usurper, is crowned Eastern emperor at Tarsus (modern Turkey). He is recognized in Antioch and makes it his capital.EuropeMiddle East
3. 711Umayyad conquest of Hispania: Battle of Guadalete: Umayyad forces under Tariq ibn Ziyad defeat the Visigoths led by King Roderic.Middle East
4. 803Bardanes Tourkos is proclaimed emperor by rebellious Byzantine troops.Europe
5. 939Battle of Simancas: King Ramiro II of León defeats the Moorish army under Caliph Abd-al-Rahman III near the city of Simancas.Middle East
6. 998Arab–Byzantine wars: Battle of Apamea: Fatimids defeat a Byzantine army near Apamea.Middle EastEurope
7. 1333Wars of Scottish Independence: The English win a decisive victory over the Scots in the battle of Halidon Hill.Europe
8. 1544Italian War of 1542–46: The first Siege of Boulogne begins.Europe
9. 1545The 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.Europe
10. 1553The attempt to install Lady Jane Grey as Queen of England collapses after only nine days.Europe
11. 1588Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines: The Spanish Armada is sighted in the English Channel.Europe
12. 1701Representatives of the Iroquois Confederacy sign the Nanfan Treaty, ceding a large territory north of the Ohio River to England.North AmericaEurope
13. 1702Great 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.Europe
14. 1733The Ottoman army defeats the Iranian army under Nader Shah in the battle of Baghdad.Middle East
15. 1817Unsuccessful in his attempt to conquer the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi for the Russian-American Company, Georg Anton Schäffer is forced to admit defeat and leave Kauaʻi.EuropeNorth America
16. 1821Coronation of George IV of the United Kingdom.Europe
17. 1832The 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.Europe
18. 1843Brunel's steamship the SS Great Britain is launched, becoming the first ocean-going craft with an iron hull and screw propeller, becoming the largest vessel afloat in the world.Europe
19. 1845Great New York City Fire of 1845: The last great fire to affect Manhattan begins early in the morning and is subdued that afternoon. The fire kills four firefighters and 26 civilians and destroys 345 buildings.North America
20. 1848Women's rights: A two-day Women's Rights Convention opens in Seneca Falls, New York.North America
21. 1863American 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.North America
22. 1864Taiping Rebellion: Third Battle of Nanking: The Qing dynasty finally defeats the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.Asia
23. 1870Franco-Prussian War: France declares war on Prussia.Europe
24. 1900The first line of the Paris Metro opens for operation.Europe
25. 1903Maurice Garin wins the first Tour de France.Europe
26. 1916World War I: Battle of Fromelles: British and Australian troops attack German trenches as part of the Battle of the Somme.EuropeOceania
27. 1934The rigid airship USS Macon surprises the USS Houston near Clipperton Island with a mail delivery for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, demonstrating its potential for tracking ships at sea.North America
28. 1936Spanish Civil War: The CNT and UGT call a general strike in Spain – mobilizing workers' militias against the Nationalist forces. People's Olympiad of Barcelona cancelled.Europe
29. 1940Field Marshal Ceremony: First occasion in World War II that Adolf Hitler appoints field marshals due to military achievements.Latin America
30. 1940World War II: Army order 112 forms the Intelligence Corps of the British Army.Europe
31. 1940World War II: Battle of Cape Spada: The Royal Navy and the Regia Marina clash; the Italian light cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni sinks, with 121 casualties.Europe
32. 1942World War II: The Second Happy Time of Hitler's submarines comes to an end, as the increasingly effective American convoy system compels them to return to the central Atlantic.North America
33. 1943World War II: Rome is heavily bombed by more than 500 Allied aircraft, inflicting thousands of casualties.Europe
34. 1947Prime Minister of the shadow Burmese government, Bogyoke Aung San and eight others are assassinated.Asia
35. 1947Korean politician Lyuh Woon-hyung is assassinated.Asia
36. 1952Opening of the Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland.Europe
37. 1957The largely autobiographical novel The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold by Evelyn Waugh is published.World
38. 1961Tunisia imposes a blockade on the French naval base at Bizerte; the French would capture the entire town four days later.AfricaEurope
39. 1963Joe Walker flies a North American X-15 to a record altitude of 106,010 meters (347,800 feet) on X-15 Flight 90. Exceeding an altitude of 100 km, this flight qualifies as a human spaceflight under international convention.North America
40. 1964Vietnam War: At a rally in Saigon, South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Khánh calls for expanding the war into North Vietnam.Asia
41. 1967Piedmont Airlines Flight 22, a Piedmont Airlines Boeing 727-22, and a twin-engine Cessna 310 collide over Hendersonville, North Carolina, USA. Both aircraft are destroyed and all passengers and crew are killed, including John T. McNaughton, an advisor to Robert McNamara.North America
42. 1969Chappaquiddick incident: U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy crashes his car into a tidal pond at Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, killing his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne.North America
43. 1972Dhofar Rebellion: British SAS units help the Omani government against Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman rebels in the Battle of Mirbat.EuropeMiddle East
44. 1976Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal is created.Asia
45. 1977The world's first Global Positioning System (GPS) signal is transmitted from Navigation Technology Satellite 2 (NTS-2) and received at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at 12:41 a.m. Eastern time (ET).North America
46. 1979The oil tanker SS Atlantic Empress collides with another oil tanker, causing the largest ever ship-borne oil spill.Europe
47. 1979The Sandinista rebels overthrow the government of the Somoza family in Nicaragua.Latin America
48. 1980Opening of the Summer Olympics in Moscow.Europe
49. 1981In a private meeting with U.S. President Ronald Reagan, French President François Mitterrand reveals the existence of the Farewell Dossier, a collection of documents showing the Soviet Union had been stealing American technological research and development.North AmericaEurope
50. 1982In one of the first militant attacks by Hezbollah, David S. Dodge, president of the American University of Beirut, is kidnapped.North AmericaMiddle East
51. 1983The first three-dimensional reconstruction of a human head in a CT is published.Africa
52. 1985The Val di Stava dam collapses, killing 268 people in Val di Stava, Italy.Europe
53. 1989United Airlines Flight 232 crashes in Sioux City, Iowa, killing 111.North America
54. 1992A car bomb kills Judge Paolo Borsellino and five members of his escort.Europe
55. 1994Alas Chiricanas Flight 00901 is destroyed by a bomb after takeoff from Enrique Adolfo Jiménez Airport in Colón, Panama, killing 21.Latin America
56. 1997The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army resumes a ceasefire to end their 25-year paramilitary campaign to end British rule in Northern Ireland.Europe
57. 2011Guinean President Alpha Condé survives an attempted assassination and coup d'état at his residence in Conakry.Europe
58. 2012Syrian civil war: The People's Protection Units (YPG) capture the city of Kobanî without resistance, starting the Rojava conflict in Northeast Syria.Middle East
59. 2014Gunmen in Egypt's western desert province of New Valley Governorate attack a military checkpoint, killing at least 21 soldiers. Egypt reportedly declares a state of emergency on its border with Sudan.Middle EastAfrica
60. 2018The Knesset passes the controversial Nationality Bill, which defines the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.Middle East

Source: Wikipedia "July 19" / CC BY-SA 4.0