On This Day

[IceWizard]

Historical Events on July 19


1553  15-year-old Lady Jane Grey deposed as England's Queen after 9 days

1692  5 more people are hanged for witchcraft (20 in all) in Salem, Massachusetts

Dramatic lithograph of the Salem witch trials produced in 1892

1836  HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin arrives in Ascension Island

Naturalist
Charles Darwin

1843  The steamship SS Great Britain is launched, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, is the first ocean-going craft with an iron hull or screw propeller and the largest vessel afloat in the world

A painting of the launch of SS Great Britain, by Joseph Walter

1845  Fire in NYC destroys 1,000 homes and kills many

1848  1st US women's rights convention held in Seneca Falls NY, organised by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott

Women's Rights Activist
Elizabeth Cady Stanton

1863  Battle of Buffington's Island (St George Creek), Ohio

1864  Third Battle of Winchester, Virginia (Stephenson's Depot) [->JUL 20]

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1867  US Congress passes 3rd Reconstruction Act over President Andrew Johnson's veto

17th US President
Andrew Johnson

1879  Doc Holliday kills for the first time after a man shoots up his New Mexico saloon

Gunfighter in the American Old West
Doc Holliday

1922  American swimmer Johnny Weissmuller first to break 1 minute barrier for 100m freestyle; swims 58.6s at Alameda, CA

1930  Richard E. Byrd, Laurence McKinley Gould, and their polar expedition team return to the United States following the first exploration of the interior of Antarctica

Aviator and Polar Explorer
Richard E. Byrd

1940  Adolf Hitler orders Great Britain to surrender

Dictator of Nazi Germany
Adolf Hitler

1940  Nazi occupiers imprison 231 prominent Dutch citizens in Buchenwald

1940  Nazi occupiers in Netherlands forbid anti-nazi films

1941  British PM Winston Churchill launches his "V for Victory" campaign

Soldier, Author and British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill

1941  US President Franklin D. Roosevelt appoints the Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC)

32nd US President
Franklin D. Roosevelt

1943  500 allied air forces raid Rome during WW II

1944  1,200+ 8th US Air Force bombers bomb targets in SW Germany

1944  500 15th US Air Force Liberators/Flying Fortresses bomb Munich vicinity

1944  Democratic convention opens in Chicago, goes on to nominate President Franklin D. Roosevelt

1944  US general Omar Bradley flies to England

US WWII General
Omar Bradley

1944  Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg 1st meets Adolf Eichmann

Nazi SS Officer and War Criminal
Adolf Eichmann

1950  French/Vietnamese offensive against Viet Minh

1956  US refuse to lend Egypt money to build Aswan Dam

1965  Shooting begins on Star Trek 2nd pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before"

1966  Governor James Rhodes declares state of emergency in Cleveland (race riot)

1967  Race riots in Durham, North Carolina

1969  Apollo 11 goes into Moon orbit

Buzz Aldrin's bootprint, one of the first steps taken on the Moon

1974  David Bowie's "Diamond Dog" tour ends in NYC

Singer-Songwriter
David Bowie

1976  Rock group Deep Purple disbands

1976  Allman Brother's roadie Scooter Herring sentenced to 75 years for providing drugs for the group, based on Gregg Allman's testimony

1980  David Bowie appears in role of "Elephant Man" in Denver

1984  Geraldine A Ferraro, (Rep-D-NY), wins Democratic VP nomination

1985  Christa McAuliffe chosen as 1st school teacher to fly aboard the space shuttle

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1991  Mike Tyson rapes a Miss Black America contestant (Desiree Washington)

Heavyweight Boxing Champion
Mike Tyson

1992  NYC ballet dancer Peter Martins is arrested for beating his wife

1993  President Clinton fires FBI director William Sessions

42nd US President
Bill Clinton

2001  Michael Brunet discovers the skull of Sahelanthropus tchadensis in the Djurab Desert, Chad. One of the oldest known species in the human family tree, 6-7 million years ago years old

2017  US scientists calculate total amount plastic ever produced - 8.3 billion tonnes, equal to weight of 1 billion elephants

2017  US Senator John McCain diagnosed with brain cancer

US Senator
John McCain

2017  Archaeological dig in Kakadu National Park extends Aboriginal peoples time in Australia to 65,000 to 80,000 years ago

2017  Investigators using DNA identify 16 year-old James Byron Haakenson as a victim of serial killer John Wayne Gacy, 41 years after his disappearance

Serial Killer
John Wayne Gacy

2018  Largest intact sarcophagus of its kind ever found (2000 years old) opened in Alexandria, contains 3 skeletons, not a curse as feared

2018  Israel's parliament passes controversial "nation state" law giving only Jews self-determination, relegating Arabic to "special status"

2018  Russian ship Dmitri Donskoii, with possible cargo of gold coins is discovered in waters between South Korea and Japan where it sunk in 1905

2018  A duck boat sinks in Table Rock Lake, Missouri, drowning 17 people