TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – AUG 19
43 BC Octavian, later known as Augustus, compels the Roman Senate to elect him Consul
1493 Maximilian succeeds his father Frederick III as Holy Roman Emperor
1692 Five women are hanged in Salem, Massachusetts after being convicted of the crime of witchcraft. Fourteen more people are executed that year and 150 others are imprisoned.
1772 Gustavus III of Sweden eliminates the rule of parties and establishes an absolute monarchy.
1787 W Herschel discovers Enceladus, a moon of Saturn
1812 The U.S. frigate Constitution, Old Ironsides, defeated the British ship Guerriere during the War of 1812.
1917 Sunday benefit baseball game at the Polo Grounds results in John McGraw & Christy Mathewson’s arrest for violating Blue laws
1919 Afghanistan Gains Independence From the United Kingdom
1934 38 million Germans vote to make Adolf Hitler the official successor to President von Hindenburg.
1953 A military coup supported and financed by the United States overthrows the government of Premier Mohammed Mosaddeq and reinstates the Shah of Iran.
1958 Production of the luxury Packard automobiles is ended shortly after Packard is merged with Studebaker. The Ohio Automobile Company had begun production of the distinct cars in 1899 in Warren, Ohio.
1960 The captured American U2 pilot Gary Powers is sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for espionage by a Soviet military court.
1974 US Ambassador to Cyrus Rodger P. Davies assassinated by a sniper of Greek Cypriot paramilitary group EOKA-B during a demonstration outside the embassy in Nicosia.
1987 Hungerford Massacre in the UK; armed with semi-automatic rifles and a handgun Michael Ryan kills 16 people before committing suicide. In response, Parliament passed the Firearms (Amendment) Act of 1988 banning ownership of certain classes of firearms.
2003 Shmuel Hanavi bus bombing: suicide attack on a bus in Jerusalem kills 23 Israelis, some of them children, and wounds 130. Islamist militant group Hamas claims responsibility for the attack.
2003 U.N. special representative Sergio Vieira de Mello was one of 22 killed when a suicide car bomb struck the UN’s Baghdad headquarters.
2010 Operation Iraqi Freedom ends; the last US combat brigade, 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, leaves the country. Six brigades remain to train Iraqi troops.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
