History of Today 19 August: Important Events, Births and Deaths

Welcome to History of Today 19 August. On this page, you can read important historical events, famous births, notable deaths and general knowledge facts related to 19 August. This information is useful for UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railway, State PSC and other competitive exams.

Last updated on 19 August 2026, 01:02 AM

Important Events on 19 August in History

19 Aug 2017: Tens of thousands of farmed non-native Atlantic salmon are accidentally released into the wild in Washington waters in the 2017 Cypress Island Atlantic salmon pen break. Read more
19 Aug 2013: The Dhamara Ghat train accident kills at least 37 people in the Indian state of Bihar. Read more
19 Aug 2010: Operation Iraqi Freedom ends, with the last of the United States brigade combat teams crossing the border to Kuwait. Read more
19 Aug 2009: A series of bombings in Baghdad, Iraq, kills 101 and injures 565 others. Read more
19 Aug 2005: The first-ever joint military exercise between Russia and China, called Peace Mission 2005 begins. Read more
19 Aug 2004: Google Inc. has its initial public offering on Nasdaq. Read more
19 Aug 2003: A truck-bomb attack on United Nations headquarters in Iraq kills the agency's top envoy Sérgio Vieira de Mello and 21 other employees. Read more
19 Aug 2003: Shmuel HaNavi bus bombing: A suicide attack on a bus in Jerusalem, planned by Hamas, kills 23 Israelis, seven of them children. Read more
19 Aug 2002: Khankala Mi-26 crash: A Russian Mil Mi-26 helicopter carrying troops is hit by a Chechen missile outside Grozny, killing 118 soldiers. Read more
19 Aug 1999: In Belgrade, Yugoslavia, tens of thousands of Serbians rally to demand the resignation of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milošević. Read more
19 Aug 1991: Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The August Coup begins when Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is placed under house arrest while on holiday in the town of Foros, Ukraine. Read more
19 Aug 1991: Crown Heights riot in New York City begins. Read more
19 Aug 1989: Polish president Wojciech Jaruzelski nominates Solidarity activist Tadeusz Mazowiecki to be the first non-communist prime minister in 42 years. Read more
19 Aug 1989: Several hundred East Germans cross the frontier between Hungary and Austria during the Pan-European Picnic, part of the events that began the process of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Read more
19 Aug 1987: Hungerford massacre: In the United Kingdom, Michael Ryan kills sixteen people with a semi-automatic rifle and then commits suicide. Read more
19 Aug 1981: Gulf of Sidra Incident: United States F-14A Tomcat fighters intercept and shoot down two Libyan Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jets over the Gulf of Sidra. Read more
19 Aug 1980: Saudia Flight 163, a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar burns after making an emergency landing at Riyadh International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killing 301 people. Read more
19 Aug 1980: Otłoczyn railway accident: In Poland's worst post-war railway accident, 67 people lose their lives and a further 62 are injured. Read more
19 Aug 1978: In Iran, the Cinema Rex fire causes more than 300 deaths. Read more
19 Aug 1965: Japanese prime minister Eisaku Satō becomes the first post-World War II sitting prime minister to visit Okinawa Prefecture. Read more
19 Aug 1964: Syncom 3, the first geostationary communication satellite, is launched. Two months later, it would enable live coverage of the 1964 Summer Olympics. Read more
19 Aug 1960: Cold War: In Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union, downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Soviet Union for espionage. Read more
19 Aug 1960: Sputnik program: Korabl-Sputnik 2: The Soviet Union launches the satellite with the dogs Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, two rats and a variety of plants. Read more
19 Aug 1955: In the Northeast United States, severe flooding caused by Hurricane Diane, claims 200 lives. Read more
19 Aug 1953: Cold War: The CIA and MI6 help to overthrow the government of Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran and reinstate the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Read more
19 Aug 1945: August Revolution: Viet Minh led by Ho Chi Minh take power in Hanoi, Vietnam. Read more
19 Aug 1944: World War II: Liberation of Paris: Paris, France rises against German occupation with the help of Allied troops. Read more
19 Aug 1942: World War II: Operation Jubilee (The Dieppe Raid): The 2nd Canadian Infantry Division leads an amphibious assault by allied forces on Dieppe, France and fails. Read more
19 Aug 1941: Germany and Romania sign the Tiraspol Agreement, rendering the region of Transnistria under control of the latter. Read more
19 Aug 1940: First flight of the B-25 Mitchell medium bomber. Read more
19 Aug 1936: The Great Purge of the Soviet Union begins when the first of the Moscow Trials is convened. Read more
19 Aug 1934: The first All-American Soap Box Derby is held in Dayton, Ohio. Read more
19 Aug 1934: The German referendum of 1934 approves Adolf Hitler's appointment as head of state with the title of Führer. Read more
19 Aug 1927: Patriarch Sergius of Moscow proclaims the declaration of loyalty of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Soviet Union. Read more
19 Aug 1920: The Tambov Rebellion breaks out, in response to the Bolshevik policy of Prodrazvyorstka. Read more
19 Aug 1909: The Indianapolis Motor Speedway opens for automobile racing. William Bourque and his mechanic are killed during the first day's events. Read more
19 Aug 1903: The Transfiguration Uprising breaks out in East Thrace, resulting in the establishment of the Strandzha Commune. Read more
19 Aug 1862: Dakota War: During an uprising in Minnesota, Lakota warriors decide not to attack heavily defended Fort Ridgely and instead turn to the settlement of New Ulm, killing white settlers along the way. Read more
19 Aug 1861: First ascent of Weisshorn, fifth highest summit in the Alps. Read more
19 Aug 1854: The First Sioux War begins when United States Army soldiers kill Lakota chief Conquering Bear and in return are massacred. Read more
19 Aug 1848: California Gold Rush: The New York Herald breaks the news to the East Coast of the United States of the gold rush in California (although the rush started in January). Read more
19 Aug 1839: The French government announces that Louis Daguerre's photographic process is a gift "free to the world". Read more
19 Aug 1813: Gervasio Antonio de Posadas joins Argentina's Second Triumvirate. Read more
19 Aug 1812: War of 1812: American frigate USS Constitution defeats the British frigate HMS Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada earning the nickname "Old Ironsides". Read more

Famous Births on 19 August

19 Aug 2004: Chae Hyun-woo, South Korean football player Chae Hyun-woo is a South Korean professional footballer who plays as a winger for K League 1 club FC Anyang. During his first season with the team, he made 26 appearances and scored three goals, aiding in the team's promotion from the second division. Read more
19 Aug 2004: Nguyễn Đình Bắc, Vietnamese football player Nguyễn Đình Bắc is a Vietnamese professional footballer who plays as a winger or forward for V.League 1 club Công An Hà Nội and the Vietnam national team. Read more
19 Aug 2001: Awak Kuier, Finnish basketball player Awak Sabit Bior Kuier is a Finnish professional basketball player who competes for Galatasaray in the Turkish Women's Basketball Super League and in the EuroCup Women, and for the Dallas Wings of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She competes internationally for the Finnish national team. Selected by the Wings with the second overall pick in the 2021 WNBA draft, she was the second Finnish player in the history of the league after Taru Tuukkanen to be drafted, and she became the first Finnish player to play in the WNBA in May 2021. Read more
19 Aug 2000: Keegan Murray, American basketball player Keegan Mitchell Murray is an American professional basketball player for the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Iowa Hawkeyes before he was selected fourth overall by the Sacramento Kings in the 2022 NBA draft. He is the twin brother of Kris Murray. Read more
19 Aug 1999: Ethan Cutkosky, American actor and musician Ethan Francis Cutkosky is an American actor and musician. He began as a child actor with his film debut in an uncredited supporting role in Fred Claus (2007) before acting in his first credited role in the supernatural horror film The Unborn (2009). Read more
19 Aug 1999: Thomas Flegler, Australian rugby league player Thomas Flegler is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a prop and lock for the Dolphins in the National Rugby League (NRL). He also represents Australia at the international level. Read more
19 Aug 1999: Florentino Luís, Portuguese footballer Florentino Ibrain Morris Luís, known as Florentino, is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Premier League club Ipswich Town. Born in Angola, he has represented Portugal at youth level. Read more
19 Aug 1996: Jung Ye-rin, South Korean singer and actress Jung Ye-rin, known mononymously as Yerin (예린), is a South Korean singer and actress. She is a member of the South Korean girl group GFriend and is currently active as a soloist. Read more
19 Aug 1996: Lachlan Lewis, Australian rugby league player Lachlan Lewis was an Australian rugby league footballer, and is the current king of LARP content. He last played as a halfback or five-eighth for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in the NRL. Read more
19 Aug 1994: Nafissatou Thiam, Belgian pentathlete and heptathlete Nafissatou "Nafi" Thiam is a Belgian athlete specialising in multi-event competition. She is the first athlete with three multi-event gold medals at the Olympic Games, winning the heptathlon at the 2016 Rio, 2020 Tokyo and 2024 Paris Olympics. Her three individual Olympic golds in a row for a woman equals the record of Anita Wlodarczyk of Poland in the hammer and Faith Kipyegon in the 1500 metres. Thiam is also the only Belgian athlete to successfully defend an Olympic title. Read more
19 Aug 1994: Fernando Gaviria, Colombian cyclist Fernando Gaviria Rendón is a Colombian professional road and track racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI ProTeam Caja Rural–Seguros RGA. He is well known as a sprinter. Riding for the Colombian national cycling team, Gaviria came to international attention at the 2015 Tour de San Luis, where he beat former world champion Mark Cavendish in two sprint finishes. His first major Grand Tour wins came at the 2017 Giro d'Italia. He is the brother of track cyclist Juliana Gaviria. His nickname is "Quetzal splendente", from the brightful and colourful South American bird Quetzal. Its colours recall his world championship titles, his Colombia and "la maglia Ciclamino" won at Giro d'Italia. Read more
19 Aug 1993: Pio Seci, Fijian rugby league player Pio Maisamoa Seci is a Fijian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a winger and centre for Fiji at international level. Read more
19 Aug 1992: David Rittich, Czech ice hockey player David Rittich Jr. is a Czech professional ice hockey player who is a goaltender for the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League (NHL). Nicknamed "Big Save Dave", he has previously played for the Calgary Flames, Toronto Maple Leafs, Nashville Predators, Winnipeg Jets, Los Angeles Kings and New York Islanders. Rittich was an NHL All-Star in 2020 and has represented his native Czech Republic internationally. Read more
19 Aug 1991: Salem Al-Dawsari, Saudi Arabian footballer Salem Mohammed Shafi Al-Dawsari is a Saudi Arabian professional footballer who plays as a left winger and captains both Saudi Pro League club Al-Hilal and the Saudi Arabia national team. Read more
19 Aug 1990: Danny Galbraith, Scottish footballer Daniel William Galbraith is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a winger for Gala Fairydean Rovers. Read more
19 Aug 1989: Romeo Miller, American basketball player, rapper, actor Percy Romeo Miller, also known by his stage name Romeo, is an American rapper, singer, actor and television personality. He gained fame as a rapper in the early 2000s after signing with his father, Master P's record label No Limit Records. His 2001 debut single, "My Baby" peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and preceded his debut studio album Lil' Romeo, which peaked at number six on the US Billboard 200. Read more
19 Aug 1988: Kirk Cousins, American football player Kirk Daniel Cousins is an American professional football quarterback for the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Michigan State Spartans and was selected by the Washington Redskins in the fourth round of the 2012 NFL draft. Cousins ranks sixth all-time in completion percentage with at least 1,500 pass attempts and is 11th in the NFL's all-time regular season career passer rating. Read more
19 Aug 1988: Veronica Roth, American author Veronica Anne Roth is an American novelist and short story writer, known for her bestselling Divergent trilogy which has sold more than 35 million copies worldwide. Read more
19 Aug 1987: Patrick Chung, Jamaican-American football player Patrick Christopher Chung is a Jamaican-American former professional football safety who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons, primarily with the New England Patriots. He played college football for the Oregon Ducks and was selected in the second round of the 2009 NFL draft by the Patriots, where he spent 11 non-consecutive seasons. Chung was a member of the Philadelphia Eagles for one season in 2013 in between his Patriots tenure. A three-time Super Bowl winner with New England, Chung was named to the franchise's All-2010s Team and All-Dynasty Team in 2020. Read more
19 Aug 1987: Nick Driebergen, Dutch swimmer Nicolaas "Nick" Driebergen is a former Dutch Swimmer who is specialized in backstroke. He currently holds national long course records in all backstroke events and in the 4×100 medley relay. At short course he holds the national record in 50 and 100 m backstroke and in the 4×50 medley relay. He was the first swimmer in his country to swim the 100 m backstroke under 55 seconds and 200 m backstroke under 2 minutes at the long course. Read more
19 Aug 1987: Nico Hülkenberg, German racing driver Nicolas Hülkenberg is a German racing driver who competes in Formula One for Audi. In endurance racing, Hülkenberg won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2015 with Porsche. Read more
19 Aug 1986: Sotiris Balafas, Greek footballer Sotiris Balafas is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. He was known for his defensive awareness, his tackling and heading skills as well as his pace and strength. Read more
19 Aug 1986: Saori Kimura, Japanese volleyball player Saori Kimura is a retired Japanese volleyball player who played for Toray Arrows. She also played for the All-Japan women's volleyball team and was a captain of the team. She was a participant at the 2004 Summer Olympics, 2008 Summer Olympics, 2012 Summer Olympics and 2016 Summer Olympics, winning a bronze medal in 2012. She was so versatile that she could play any position. Read more
19 Aug 1986: Christina Perri, American singer and songwriter Christina Judith Perri is an American singer and songwriter. After her debut single "Jar of Hearts" was featured on the television series So You Think You Can Dance in 2010, Perri signed with Atlantic Records and released her debut extended play, The Ocean Way Sessions. Her debut studio album, Lovestrong (2011), followed soon after and has since been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Read more
19 Aug 1985: Lindsey Jacobellis, American snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis is an American snowboarder from Roxbury, Connecticut. The most decorated female snowboard cross athlete of all time, she dominated the sport for almost two decades as a five-time World Champion and ten-time X Games champion. In her Olympic debut at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Jacobellis won the silver medal in snowboard cross but was unable to medal at the next three Olympics until winning gold at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Jacobellis also won gold in mixed team snowboard cross at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Read more
19 Aug 1984: Simon Bird, English actor and screenwriter Simon Antony Bird is an English comedian, actor, director and producer. He is best known for playing Will McKenzie in the E4 comedy series The Inbetweeners (2008–2010), as well as its two films, and Adam Goodman in the Channel 4 comedy series Friday Night Dinner (2011–2020). He is set to appear in Shawn Levy's Star Wars: Starfighter (2027). Read more
19 Aug 1984: Alessandro Matri, Italian footballer Alessandro Matri is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a striker. Read more
19 Aug 1984: Ryan Taylor, English footballer Ryan Anthony Taylor is an English former professional footballer who is now an academy coach at EFL Championship club Preston North End. A versatile player and former England under-21 international, he could play as a full-back or across the midfield and had excellent free-kick-taking ability. Read more
19 Aug 1983: Mike Conway, English racing driver Michael Robert Conway is a British professional racing driver competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship with Toyota Racing. In endurance racing, Conway has won two FIA World Endurance Championship titles, as well as the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2021 and 2026, all with Toyota. In formula racing, Conway was test driver for Honda in Formula One, and won multiple IndyCar Series races between 2009 and 2014. He also briefly raced in Formula E. Read more
19 Aug 1983: Missy Higgins, Australian singer-songwriter Melissa Morrison "Missy" Higgins is an Australian singer-songwriter and musician. Her most popular singles include "Scar", "Steer", and "Where I Stood". Her Australian number-one albums are The Sound of White (2004), On a Clear Night (2007) and The Ol' Razzle Dazzle (2012). In 2018, she released a greatest hits album called The Special Ones. Read more
19 Aug 1983: Tammin Sursok, South African-Australian actress and singer Tammin Pamela Sursok is an Australian and American actress. She is best known for her television roles as Dani Sutherland on Home and Away, Colleen Carlton on The Young and the Restless, Jenna Marshall on Pretty Little Liars and Siena on Hannah Montana. Read more
19 Aug 1982: Erika Christensen, American actress Erika Jane Christensen is an American actress. Her filmography includes roles in Traffic (2000), Swimfan (2002), The Banger Sisters (2002), The Perfect Score (2004), Flightplan (2005), How to Rob a Bank (2007), The Tortured (2010), and The Case for Christ (2017). For her performance in Traffic, she won the MTV Movie Award for Breakthrough Female Performance and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture along with her co-stars. Read more
19 Aug 1982: Melissa Fumero, American actress Melissa Fumero is an American actress and television director. She made her professional debut in 2004 in the recurring role of Adriana Cramer in the television soap opera One Life to Live. Following several minor roles, she had her first main role as Amy Santiago in the comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which she played from 2013 to 2021. Since then, she has starred as Melissa Tarleton in the animated series M.O.D.O.K. (2021), Eliza Walker in the Netflix comedy Blockbuster (2022), and Bella Torres in the animated series Digman! (2023–present). She is married to actor and former model David Fumero, with whom she has 2 sons. Read more
19 Aug 1982: J. J. Hardy, American baseball player James Jerry Hardy is an American former professional baseball shortstop. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, and Baltimore Orioles. Hardy attended Sabino High School in Tanque Verde, Arizona, where he was an All-State selection from 1999 to 2001 and an All-American selection in 2001. Hardy was originally drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the second round of the 2001 Major League Baseball draft. Read more
19 Aug 1982: Kevin Rans, Belgian pole vaulter Kevin Rans is a Belgian former pole vaulter. Read more
19 Aug 1982: Stipe Miocic, American professional mixed martial artist Stipe Miocic is an American former professional mixed martial artist who competed in the Heavyweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is a former two-time UFC Heavyweight Champion. He is widely regarded as the greatest UFC heavyweight of all time. Read more
19 Aug 1982: Steve Ott, Canadian ice hockey player Steven Bradley Ott is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre and current head coach of the Springfield Thunderbirds of the American Hockey League (AHL). He was selected in the first round, 25th overall, by the Dallas Stars in the 2000 NHL entry draft. Ott also previously played for the Buffalo Sabres, St. Louis Blues, Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens. Read more
19 Aug 1981: Nick Kennedy, English rugby player Nick Kennedy is a retired English rugby union player and former Director of Rugby at London Irish. He played Lock for England, London Irish, Toulon and Harlequins. Read more
19 Aug 1981: Taylor Pyatt, Canadian ice hockey player Taylor William Pyatt is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the New York Islanders, Buffalo Sabres, Vancouver Canucks, Phoenix Coyotes, New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins. Drafted from the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), he played major junior hockey with the Sudbury Wolves. Read more
19 Aug 1981: Percy Watson, American football player and wrestler Nicholas Christopher McNeil, better known by his ring name Percy Watson, is an American professional wrestler, commentator, and former professional football player. He is best known for his time with WWE as an in-ring performer and later as a commentator on NXT, 205 Live, and WWE Main Event. Read more
19 Aug 1980: Darius Campbell, Scottish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (died 2022) Darius Campbell Danesh was a Scottish singer-songwriter, actor and movie producer. He first came to prominence known as Darius Danesh when he appeared in the first series of Popstars in 2001, and the 2002 inaugural series of the ITV talent contest Pop Idol. Read more
19 Aug 1980: Craig Frawley, Australian rugby league player Craig Frawley is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s. He played in the National Rugby League for the Brisbane Broncos and the Canberra Raiders, usually as a wing or centre. Read more
19 Aug 1980: Jun Jin, South Korean singer Park Choong-jae, known professionally as Jun Jin, is a South Korean singer, actor and entertainer, known as a member and rapper of six-member boy band Shinhwa. He debuted as a dancer and rapper in Shinhwa in 1998 but started singing small parts in 2002; the release of Shinhwa's fifth album. He debuted as a solo artist in November 2006 with the single Love Doesn't Come. Read more
19 Aug 1980: Paul Parry, Welsh footballer Paul Ian Parry is a Welsh former footballer who is the assistant manager alongside Marc Ingles in the Ardal South East side Chepstow Town. He is a former Wales international, and played for Hereford United, Cardiff City, Preston North End and Shrewsbury Town during a 16-year professional career. Read more
19 Aug 1980: Michael Todd, American bass player Michael Robert Todd or Mic Todd is the former bassist for the progressive rock band Coheed and Cambria. Upon the time of his initial departure, he had been with the band for ten years. He officially parted ways with the band in 2011. He then created the band Flux Forteana, formerly known as 'Flux Fortuna', and is now in law school. Read more
19 Aug 1979: Oumar Kondé, Swiss footballer Oumar Kondé is a Swiss former professional footballer who played as a defender in the 1990s and 2000s. Read more
19 Aug 1978: Chris Capuano, American baseball player Christopher Frank Capuano is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He was selected by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the eighth round of the 1999 MLB draft. During his career, Capuano played for the Diamondbacks, Milwaukee Brewers, New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox, and New York Yankees, and was named an MLB All-Star in 2006. Read more
19 Aug 1978: Jakub Dvorský, Czech game designer Jakub Dvorský is a designer and video game creator from Brno, Czech Republic. In 2003, he founded Amanita Design, a small independent game developing studio based in the Czech Republic. Read more
19 Aug 1978: Thomas Jones, American football player Thomas Quinn Jones is an American actor and former professional football player. He played as a running back for 12 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). Jones played college football for the Virginia Cavaliers, earning consensus All-American honors in 1999. He was selected by the Arizona Cardinals seventh overall in the 2000 NFL draft, and played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in addition to the New York Jets, Chicago Bears, and Kansas City Chiefs. He retired among the top 25 leading rushers in NFL history, and a member of the 10,000 rushing yards club. In September 2019 he was nominated for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2020. Read more
19 Aug 1977: Iban Mayo, Spanish cyclist Iban Mayo Diez is a former professional road bicycle racer. Read more
19 Aug 1976: Régine Chassagne, Canadian singer-songwriter Régine Alexandra Chassagne is a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and multi-instrumentalist, and is a member of the band Arcade Fire. Read more
19 Aug 1975: Tracie Thoms, American actress Tracie Thoms is an American actress and singer. She is known for her roles in Rent, Cold Case, The Devil Wears Prada, Death Proof, the Fox television series Wonderfalls; as of 2018 she has been a recurring cast member of the police and firefighter TV drama 9-1-1. She also portrayed Charlotte in the Broadway revival of Falsettos. Read more
19 Aug 1973: Marco Materazzi, Italian footballer and manager Marco Materazzi is an Italian former professional football player and manager. A controversial and provocative figure in football, he was known for his very physical and aggressive style of defending, which saw him collect numerous cards throughout his career. Read more
19 Aug 1973: Roy Rogers, American basketball player and coach Roy Lee Rogers Jr. is an American professional basketball coach and former player who most recently served as an assistant coach for the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for Alabama and was a first-round selection of the Vancouver Grizzlies in the 1996 NBA draft. Rogers played four seasons in the NBA with the Grizzlies, Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors and Denver Nuggets. He also played in Russia, Italy and Poland. Read more
19 Aug 1973: Tasma Walton, Australian actress Tasma Walton is an Aboriginal Australian television and film actress and novelist. Read more
19 Aug 1972: Roberto Abbondanzieri, Argentinian footballer and manager Roberto Carlos Abbondanzieri, nicknamed El Pato, is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Read more
19 Aug 1972: Chihiro Yonekura, Japanese singer-songwriter Chihiro Yonekura is a Japanese singer and songwriter from Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. Read more
19 Aug 1971: Mary Joe Fernández, Dominican-American tennis player and coach Mary Joe Fernandez Godsick is an American former professional tennis player, who reached a career-high ranking of world No. 4 in both singles and doubles. In singles, Fernandez was the runner-up at the 1990 and 1992 Australian Open, and the 1993 French Open. She also won a bronze medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics. In doubles, she won the 1991 Australian Open with Patty Fendick and the 1996 French Open with Lindsay Davenport, plus two Olympic gold medals. Read more
19 Aug 1971: João Vieira Pinto, Portuguese footballer João Manuel Vieira Pinto is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played mostly as a forward. Read more
19 Aug 1970: Fat Joe, American rapper Joseph Antonio Cartagena, better known by his stage name Fat Joe, is an American rapper. He began recording as a member of hip hop group Diggin' in the Crates Crew (D.I.T.C.) in 1991, and pursued a solo career with the release of his debut studio album, Represent (1993) the following year. Cartagena formed the hip hop group Terror Squad and its namesake record label in the late 1990s, through which he has signed fellow New York artists including Big Pun, Remy Ma, Tony Sunshine, Cuban Link, Triple Seis, as well as then-unknown producers DJ Khaled and Cool & Dre. Read more
19 Aug 1969: Douglas Allen Tunstall Jr., American professional wrestler and politician Douglas Allen Tunstall Jr., better known as Tiny the Terrible, is an American professional wrestler and politician. During his wrestling career, he appeared as an attraction on the independent circuit and made two appearances on WWF/E Raw. He stands 4 feet 7 inches (1.40 m) tall and is a former NWA World Midget's Champion. In 2006, Tunstall unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Pawtucket, Rhode Island. His campaign was the subject of A Man Among Giants, a documentary film directed by Rod Webber. Read more
19 Aug 1969: Nate Dogg, American rapper (died 2011) Nathaniel Dwayne Hale, known professionally as Nate Dogg, was an American singer, rapper, and songwriter. He gained recognition for providing soulful choruses and other guest vocals on several notable hip-hop songs between 1992 and 2007, earning him the honorific title "King of Hooks". Read more
19 Aug 1969: Matthew Perry, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (died 2023) Matthew Langford Perry was an American and Canadian actor. Known primarily for his work in comedy, he gained international fame for starring as Chandler Bing on the NBC television sitcom Friends (1994–2004), receiving his first Primetime Emmy Award nomination in 2002 for the role. Perry also appeared on Ally McBeal (2002), The West Wing (2003) and The Ron Clark Story (2006) receiving Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his performances in the latter two. He played a leading role in the NBC series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006–2007), and also became known for his leading film roles in Fools Rush In (1997), Almost Heroes (1998), Three to Tango (1999), The Whole Nine Yards (2000), Serving Sara (2002), The Whole Ten Yards (2004), and 17 Again (2009). Read more
19 Aug 1969: Kazuyoshi Tatsunami, Japanese baseball player and coach Kazuyoshi Tatsunami is a former Japanese professional baseball infielder and manager. He played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Chunichi Dragons from 1988 to 2009. He was drafted in the first round in the 1987 NPB Draft. Read more
19 Aug 1969: Clay Walker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist Ernest Clayton Walker Jr. is an American country music artist. He made his debut in 1993 with the single "What's It to You", which reached Number One on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, as did its follow-up, 1994's "Live Until I Die". Both singles were included on his self-titled debut album, released in 1993 via Giant Records. He stayed with the label until its 2001 closure, later recording for Warner Bros. Records, RCA Records Nashville, and Curb Records. Read more
19 Aug 1967: Satya Nadella, Indian-American business executive, chairman and CEO of Microsoft Satya Narayana Nadella is an Indian-American business executive. He is the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Microsoft, succeeding Steve Ballmer in 2014 as CEO and John W. Thompson in 2021 as chairman. Before becoming CEO, he was the executive vice president of Microsoft's cloud and enterprise group, responsible for building and running the company's computing platforms. Read more
19 Aug 1966: Lee Ann Womack, American singer-songwriter Lee Ann Womack is an American singer and songwriter. She has charted 23 times on the American Billboard Hot Country Songs charts; her highest peaking single there is her crossover signature song, "I Hope You Dance", a collaboration with country band Sons of the Desert which reached number one in 2000. Five of her singles made top 10 on the country music charts of the defunct RPM magazine in Canada. Read more
19 Aug 1965: Kevin Dillon, American actor Kevin Brady Dillon is an American actor. Born in New York, he first received recognition for his starring role in the comedy-drama film Heaven Help Us (1985) before his breakthrough with his supporting role as Bunny in the war film Platoon (1986). Dillon followed this up with his portrayal of musician John Densmore in the biographical film The Doors (1991), as well as starring roles in the films The Blob (1988) and No Escape (1994). Read more
19 Aug 1965: Kyra Sedgwick, American actress and producer Kyra Minturn Sedgwick is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her starring role as Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson on the crime drama The Closer (2005–2012), for which she won a Golden Globe in 2007 and an Emmy Award in 2010. She also starred in the 1992 TV film Miss Rose White, which won an Emmy Award. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her performance in the 1995 film Something to Talk About. Sedgwick's other film credits include Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and Cameron Crowe's Singles (1992). She also had a recurring role as Deputy Chief Madeline Wuntch on the sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Read more
19 Aug 1965: James Tomkins, Australian rower James Bruce Tomkins is an Australian rower, seven-time World Champion and a three-time Olympic gold medalist. He is Australia's most awarded oarsman, having made appearances at six Olympic games ; eleven World Championships ; four Rowing World Cups and eighteen state representative King's Cup appearances – the Australian blue riband men's VIII event,. Tomkins is one of only five Australian athletes and four rowers worldwide to compete at six Olympics. From 1990 to 1998 he was the stroke of Australia's prominent world class crew – the coxless four known as the Oarsome Foursome. Read more
19 Aug 1963: John Stamos, American actor John Phillip Stamos is an American actor and musician. He first gained recognition for his contract role as Blackie Parrish on the ABC television soap opera General Hospital, for which he was nominated for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series at the 10th Daytime Emmy Awards in 1983. He is known for his work in television, especially in his starring role as Jesse Katsopolis on the ABC sitcom Full House. Since the show's finale in 1995, Stamos has appeared in numerous TV films and series. Read more
19 Aug 1961: Jonathan Coe, English author and academic Jonathan Coe is an English novelist and writer. His work has an underlying preoccupation with political issues, although this serious engagement is often expressed comically in the form of satire. For example, What a Carve Up! (1994) reworks the plot of an old 1960s spoof horror film of the same name. It is set within the "carve up" of the UK's resources that was carried out by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative governments of the 1980s. Read more
19 Aug 1960: Morten Andersen, Danish-American football player Morten Andersen, nicknamed "the Great Dane", is a Danish-American former professional football kicker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 25 seasons, most notably with the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons. Following a career from 1982 to 2007, Andersen holds the NFL record for regular season games played at 382. He also ranks second in field goals (565) and points scored (2,544). In addition to his league accomplishments, he is the Saints all-time leading scorer at 1,318 points. Andersen was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2017. Along with Jan Stenerud and Adam Vinatieri, he is one of only three exclusive kickers to receive the honor. Read more
19 Aug 1960: Ron Darling, American baseball player and commentator Ronald Maurice Darling Jr. is an American former professional baseball pitcher and television sports color commentator. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a right-handed pitcher from 1983 to 1995, including as a member of the New York Mets team that won the 1986 World Series. Since 2006, he has been the co-lead color commentator for Mets broadcasts on SNY alongside former teammate Keith Hernandez. Read more
19 Aug 1959: Chris Mortimer, Australian rugby league player Chris Mortimer is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s for the Canterbury-Bankstown, Penrith, New South Wales and for the Australian national side. Read more
19 Aug 1959: Ivan Neville, American singer-songwriter Ivan Neville is an American multi-instrumentalist musician, singer, and songwriter. He is the son of Aaron Neville and nephew to the other members of The Neville Brothers. Read more
19 Aug 1959: Ricky Pierce, American basketball player Richard Charles Pierce is an American former professional basketball player. Nicknamed "Deuces" and "Big Paper Daddy", he was selected as an NBA All-Star (1991) and was twice the NBA Sixth Man of the Year while with the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Read more
19 Aug 1958: Gary Gaetti, American baseball player, coach, and manager Gary Joseph Gaetti is an American former professional baseball third baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Minnesota Twins (1981–1990), California Angels (1991–1993), Kansas City Royals (1993–1995), St. Louis Cardinals (1996–1998), Chicago Cubs (1998–1999) and Boston Red Sox (2000). Read more
19 Aug 1958: Anthony Muñoz, American football player and sportscaster Michael Anthony Muñoz Sr. is an American former professional football player who played his entire career of 13 seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL) as an offensive tackle. He played college football for the USC Trojans. In 2022, an ESPN panel named Muñoz as the greatest offensive tackle in NFL history. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1998. Muñoz is regarded by many as the greatest player in Bengals history. Read more
19 Aug 1958: Brendan Nelson, Australian physician and politician, 47th Minister for Defence for Australia Brendan John Nelson is an Australian business leader, physician and former politician. He served as the federal Leader of the Opposition from 2007 to 2008, going on to serve as Australia's senior diplomat to the European Union and NATO. He currently serves in a global leadership role with Boeing. Read more
19 Aug 1958: Rick Snyder, American politician and businessman, 48th Governor of Michigan Richard Dale Snyder is an American business executive, venture capitalist, attorney, accountant, and politician who served as the 48th governor of Michigan from 2011 to 2019. Snyder, who was born in Battle Creek, Michigan, began his career in business in 1982. He was chairman of the board of Gateway from 2005 to 2007, a co-founder of Ardesta, LLC, a venture capital firm, HealthMedia, Inc., a digital health coaching company, and is currently CEO of SensCy, a cybersecurity company based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Read more
19 Aug 1958: Darryl Sutter, Canadian ice hockey player and coach Darryl John Sutter is a Canadian ice hockey coach and former player. He most recently served as head coach of the Calgary Flames of the National Hockey League (NHL). He is one of seven Sutter brothers, six of whom made the NHL ; all but Rich and Gary worked alongside Darryl in some capacity during his first tenure with the Flames. Read more
19 Aug 1957: Paul-Jan Bakker, Dutch cricketer Paul-Jan Bakker is a Dutch former international cricketer, who also played domestic cricket at first-class and List A one-day level in England for Hampshire from 1986 to 1992, taking 269 wickets across both formats. He later played in the Netherlands inaugural One Day International match in the 1996 World Cup, before retiring shortly after the tournament. In 2007, he briefly succeeded Peter Cantrell as Netherlands coach. Read more
19 Aug 1957: Gary Chapman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist Gary Winther Chapman is an American contemporary Christian music singer-songwriter and former television talk show host. Read more
19 Aug 1957: Martin Donovan, American actor and director Martin Donovan is an American actor. He has had a long collaboration with director Hal Hartley, appearing in many of his films, including Trust (1990), Surviving Desire (1991), Simple Men (1992), Amateur (1994), Flirt (1995), and The Book of Life (1998), starring as Jesus Christ in the latter. Donovan played Peter Scottson on Showtime's cable series Weeds. He made his writing/directorial debut with the film Collaborator (2011). Donovan played Detective Hap Eckhart in Christopher Nolan's psychological thriller Insomnia (2002) and the protagonist's CIA handler, Fay, in Nolan's science-fiction thriller Tenet (2020). Read more
19 Aug 1957: Ian Gould, English cricketer and umpire Ian James Gould is an English former first-class cricketer and a former member of the ICC Elite Panel of cricket umpires. He previously also served as the chairman of English football club Burnham FC. In April 2019, Gould announced that he would retire as an umpire following the 2019 Cricket World Cup. On 6 July 2019, Gould retired from umpiring, after officiating in the World Cup match between India and Sri Lanka. However, he has since umpired in matches in the 2020 Under-19 Cricket World Cup. Read more
19 Aug 1957: Cesare Prandelli, Italian footballer and manager Claudio Cesare Prandelli is an Italian former football coach and former player. Read more
19 Aug 1957: Christine Soetewey, Belgian high jumper Maria-Christine Soetewey is a retired Belgian high jumper. Read more
19 Aug 1957: Gerda Verburg, Dutch trade union leader and politician, Dutch Minister of Agriculture Gerritje "Gerda" Verburg is a Dutch politician, diplomat of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party and trade union leader. Read more
19 Aug 1956: Adam Arkin, American actor, director, and producer Adam Arkin is an American actor and director. He is best known for playing the role of Aaron Shutt on Chicago Hope. He has been nominated for numerous awards, including a Tony as well as three primetime Emmys, four SAG Awards, and a DGA Award. Between 2000-2002 he played the recurring role of Dr. Stanley Keyworth in The West Wing,
most notably in Season 2, Episode 10, "Noel". In 2002, Arkin won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Directing in a Children's Special for My Louisiana Sky. He is also one of the three actors to portray Dale "The Whale" Biederbeck on Monk. Between 2007 and 2009, he starred in Life. Beginning in 1990, he had a recurring guest role on Northern Exposure playing the angry, paranoid Adam, for which he received an Emmy nomination. In 2009, he portrayed villain Ethan Zobelle, a white separatist gang leader, in Sons of Anarchy and Principal Ed Gibb in 8 Simple Rules (2003–2005). His brother Matthew is also an actor, as was his father, Alan Arkin. Read more
19 Aug 1956: José Rubén Zamora, Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín is a Guatemalan industrial engineer, entrepreneur, and the founder of three Guatemalan newspapers: Siglo Veintiuno in 1990, El Periódico in 1996, and Nuestro Diario in 1998. He has been threatened and attacked on several occasions for his work, including being held hostage in his home in 2003 and being kidnapped and beaten in 2008. Read more
19 Aug 1955: Mary-Anne Fahey, Australian actress Mary-Anne Fahey credited also as Maryanne Fahey, is an Australian actress, comedian, screenwriter and children's author. Read more
19 Aug 1955: Peter Gallagher, American actor Peter Killian Gallagher is an American actor. Since 1980, he has played roles in numerous Hollywood films. He is best known for starring as Sandy Cohen in the television drama series The O.C. from 2003 to 2007, and recurring roles in television such as Deputy Chief William Dodds on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Stacey Koons on the Showtime comedy-drama Californication, Nick on the Netflix series Grace & Frankie, and Director of Clandestine Services (DCS) Arthur Campbell on Covert Affairs. He also is known for his roles in the films Summer Lovers (1982), Bob Roberts (1992), The Player (1992), Short Cuts (1993), While You Were Sleeping (1995), American Beauty (1999), Mr. Deeds (2002), and Palm Springs (2020). In musical theatre, his best-known roles are that of Sky Masterson in the 1992 Broadway revival of Guys and Dolls and Oscar Jaffe in the 2015 Broadway revival of On the Twentieth Century. Read more
19 Aug 1955: Patricia Scotland, Baroness Scotland of Asthal, Dominica-born English lawyer and politician, Attorney General for England and Wales Patricia Janet Scotland, Baroness Scotland of Asthal,, is a Dominican-British barrister and politician who served as the sixth secretary-general of the Commonwealth of Nations from 2016 to 2025. She was the first woman to hold that post. Read more
19 Aug 1955: Ned Yost, American baseball player and manager Edgar Frederick Yost III is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) catcher and manager of the Milwaukee Brewers and Kansas City Royals. He played for the Brewers, Texas Rangers, and Montreal Expos. Since 2025, he has served as a senior advisor to Royals general manager J. J. Picollo. Read more
19 Aug 1954: Oscar Larrauri, Argentinian racing driver Oscar Rubén Larrauri is a racing driver from Argentina. He participated in 21 Formula One Grands Prix, all with the EuroBrun team, debuting at the 1988 Brazilian Grand Prix. He scored no championship points, only qualifying eight times. Read more
19 Aug 1952: Jonathan Frakes, American actor and director Jonathan Scott Frakes is an American actor and director. He is best known for his portrayal of William Riker in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and subsequent films and series. He has also hosted the anthology series Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction, voiced David Xanatos in the Disney television series Gargoyles, and narrated the History Channel documentary Lee and Grant. He is the credited author of the novel The Abductors: Conspiracy, which was ghostwritten by Dean Wesley Smith. Read more
19 Aug 1952: Gabriela Grillo, German equestrian (died 2024) Gabriela Grillo was a German businesswoman, equestrian and Olympic champion. She won a gold medal in team dressage and placed fourth in individual dressage at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. She achieved gold medals with the team at three European championships. Read more
19 Aug 1952: Jimmy Watson, Canadian ice hockey player James Charles Watson is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman. He played ten seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Philadelphia Flyers from 1973 to 1982. With the Flyers he won the Stanley Cup twice, in 1974 and 1975. He was inducted into the Flyers' Hall of Fame in February 2016. Internationally, Watson played two games in the 1976 Canada Cup for Canada. Read more
19 Aug 1951: John Deacon, English bass player and songwriter John Richard Deacon is an English retired musician who was the bass guitarist for the rock band Queen. He wrote several songs for the group, including Top 10 hits "You're My Best Friend", "Another One Bites the Dust" and "I Want to Break Free"; and co-wrote "Under Pressure", "Friends Will Be Friends" and "One Vision". Read more
19 Aug 1951: Gustavo Santaolalla, Argentinian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer Gustavo Alfredo Santaolalla is an Argentine composer, record producer and musician. He is the recipient of numerous accolades for his works, including two Academy Awards for Best Original Score, a Golden Globe, two Grammy Awards and 17 Latin Grammy Awards. He is known for his minimalist approach to composing and for his influence in the Latin rock music genre. Read more
19 Aug 1950: Jennie Bond, English journalist and author Jennifer Bond is an English journalist and television presenter. Bond worked for fourteen years as the BBC's royal correspondent. She has also hosted Cash in the Attic and narrated the programme Great British Menu. Read more
19 Aug 1950: Sudha Murty, Indian author and teacher, head of Infosys Foundation Sudha Murty is an Indian educator, author, and philanthropist. She is the Founder-Chairperson of the non-profit charitable organization Infosys Foundation. She is married to the co-founder of Infosys, N. R. Narayana Murthy. Murty was nominated as Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha on 8 March 2024 for her contribution to social work and education. Murty was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in India, for social work by the Government of India in 2006. In 2023, she was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award in India. Read more
19 Aug 1949: Michael Nazir-Ali, Pakistani-English bishop Michael James Nazir-Ali is a Pakistani-born British Catholic priest and former Anglican bishop. He served as the 106th Bishop of Rochester from 1994 to 2009 and, before that, as Bishop of Raiwind in Pakistan. He is currently the director of the Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy and Dialogue. Read more
19 Aug 1948: Jim Carter, English actor James Edward Carter is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Mr Carson in the ITV historical drama series Downton Abbey (2010–2015), which earned him four nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (2012–2015). He reprised the role in the feature films Downton Abbey (2019), Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022) and Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (2025). Read more
19 Aug 1948: Tipper Gore, American activist and author, former Second Lady of the United States Mary Elizabeth "Tipper" Gore is an American social issues advocate who was the second lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001. She was married to Al Gore, the 45th vice president, from 1970 to 2010. Read more
19 Aug 1948: Robert Hughes, Australian actor Robert Lindsay Hughes also billed variously as Bob Hughes and Robert Hughs, is an Australian-born British former actor who appeared in ABBA: The Movie and the television sitcom Hey Dad..!. Read more
19 Aug 1948: Christy O'Connor Jnr, Irish golfer and architect (died 2016) Christopher O'Connor was an Irish professional golfer. He is often known for defeating American Fred Couples at the 1989 Ryder Cup, helping Europe secure the trophy. Read more
19 Aug 1947: Dave Dutton, English actor and screenwriter Dave Dutton is an English actor. He first came to public recognition when he played the part of Oswald, the eccentric cafe owner in Granada television's situation comedy, Watching. He has played roles in many different television series including Heartbeat and The Royal. He has also played eleven different parts in the soap opera, Coronation Street as well as five in Emmerdale. Read more
19 Aug 1947: Terry Hoeppner, American football player and coach (died 2007) Terry Lee Hoeppner was an American college football coach who served as head coach of the Miami RedHawks in Oxford, Ohio from 1999 to 2004 and the Indiana Hoosiers from 2005 to 2006. Shortly after announcing that he would be on medical leave for the 2007 season, he died of brain cancer. Read more
19 Aug 1947: Gerald McRaney, American actor Gerald Lee McRaney is an American television and film actor. McRaney is best known as one of the stars of the television shows Simon & Simon, Major Dad, Promised Land and House of Cards. He most recently starred as Admiral Hollace Kilbride on NCIS: Los Angeles. He was a series regular in the first season of the CBS drama series Jericho and the final season of the HBO series Deadwood. He appeared in a recurring role as main antagonist Mason Wood in season eight of Castle. Recently, he played Barlow Connally in the A&E series Longmire and had a recurring role in the NBC series This Is Us as Dr. Nathan Katowski, a role which earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. Read more
19 Aug 1947: Gerard Schwarz, American conductor and director Gerard Schwarz, also known as Gerry Schwarz or Jerry Schwarz, is an American symphony conductor and trumpeter. As of 2019, Schwarz serves as the Artistic and Music Director of Palm Beach Symphony and the Director of Orchestral Activities and Music Director of the Frost Symphony Orchestra at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. Read more
19 Aug 1947: Anuška Ferligoj, Slovenian mathematician Anuška Ferligoj is a Slovenian mathematician, born August 19, 1947, in Ljubljana, Slovenia, whose specialty is statistics and network analysis. Her specific interests include multivariate analysis, cluster analysis, social network analysis, methodological research of public opinion, analysis of scientific networks. She is a professor emeritus at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Read more
19 Aug 1946: Charles Bolden, American general and astronaut Charles Frank Bolden Jr. is a former administrator of NASA, a retired United States Marine Corps Major General, and a former astronaut who flew on four Space Shuttle missions. Read more
19 Aug 1946: Bill Clinton, American lawyer and politician, 40th and 42nd Governor of Arkansas, 42nd President of the United States William Jefferson Clinton is an American former politician and lawyer who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the attorney general of Arkansas from 1977 to 1979, the governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981, and governor again from 1983 to 1992. His centrist Third Way political philosophy became known as Clintonism, which defined his presidency and the succeeding decades of Democratic Party into the 21st century. Read more
19 Aug 1946: Dawn Steel, American film producer (died 1997) Dawn Leslie Steel was an American film studio executive and producer. She was one of the first women to run a major Hollywood film studio, rising through the ranks of merchandising and production to head Columbia Pictures in 1987. Read more
19 Aug 1945: Dennis Eichhorn, American author and illustrator (died 2015) Dennis P. Eichhorn was an American writer, best known for his adult-oriented autobiographical comic book series Real Stuff. His stories, often involving sex, drugs, and alcohol, have been compared to those of Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, and Charles Bukowski. Read more
19 Aug 1945: Charles Wellesley, 9th Duke of Wellington, English politician Arthur Charles Valerian Wellesley, 9th Duke of Wellington, Baron Wellington of Stratfield Saye , styled Earl of Mornington between 1945 and 1972 and Marquess of Douro between 1972 and 2014, is a British peer and politician. He served as Conservative Member of the European Parliament for Surrey (1979–1984) and Surrey West (1984–1989). Read more
19 Aug 1945: Ian Gillan, English singer-songwriter Ian Gillan is an English singer who is best known as the lead singer and lyricist for the rock band Deep Purple. He is known for his powerful and wide-ranging singing voice. Read more
19 Aug 1944: Jack Canfield, American author Jack Canfield is an American author and motivational speaker. He is the co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, which has more than 250 titles and 500 million copies in print in over 40 languages. In 2005 Canfield co-authored with Janet Switzer The Success Principles: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be. Read more
19 Aug 1944: Stew Johnson, American basketball player Stewart Johnson is an American former professional basketball player. A 6-foot-8-inch (2.03 m) tall forward/center from Murray State University, who was born in New York City, Johnson was selected by the New York Knicks in the third round of the 1966 NBA draft. However, Johnson never played in the NBA, joining the rival American Basketball Association instead. Read more
19 Aug 1944: Bodil Malmsten, Swedish author and poet (died 2016) Bodil Malmsten was a Swedish poet and novelist. Read more
19 Aug 1944: Eddy Raven, American country music singer-songwriter Edward Garvin Futch, known professionally as Eddy Raven, is an American country music singer and songwriter. Active from 1962 to 2018, Raven has recorded for several record labels, including ABC, Dimension, Elektra, RCA, Universal, and Capitol Records. After multiple albums that yielded few hit songs, his greatest commercial success came between 1984 and 1990, when Raven achieved six number-one singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts: "I Got Mexico", "Shine, Shine, Shine", "I'm Gonna Get You", "Joe Knows How to Live", "In a Letter to You", and "Bayou Boys". Raven has a total of 18 top-10 hits on that chart. Although his chart success diminished in the 1990s, Raven continued to record throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century. In addition to his own work, he has written singles for Don Gibson, Randy Cornor, Jeannie C. Riley, Connie Smith, and the Oak Ridge Boys, among others. Raven's music is defined by mainstream country, country pop, Cajun music, and reggae, and he wrote a large number of his singles by himself or with Frank J. Myers. Read more
19 Aug 1944: Charles Wang, Chinese-American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded Computer Associates International (died 2018) Charles B. Wang was a Chinese-American billionaire, businessman, and philanthropist, who was a co-founder and CEO of Computer Associates International, Inc.. He was a minority owner of the NHL's New York Islanders ice hockey team and their AHL affiliate, as well as the owner of the New York Dragons of the Arena Football League. Read more
19 Aug 1943: Don Fardon, English pop singer Donald Arthur Fardon is an English pop singer. Read more
19 Aug 1943: Sid Going, New Zealand rugby player (died 2024) Sidney Milton Going was a New Zealand rugby union footballer. Dubbed Super Sid by his fans, he played 86 matches, including 29 tests, for the All Blacks between 1967 and 1977. He represented North Auckland domestically. Read more
19 Aug 1943: Billy J. Kramer, English pop singer William Howard Ashton, known professionally as Billy J. Kramer, is an English pop singer. With the Dakotas, Kramer was managed by Brian Epstein during the 1960s and scored hits with several Lennon–McCartney compositions never recorded by the Beatles, among them the UK number one "Bad to Me" (1963). Kramer and the Dakotas had a further UK chart-topper in 1964 with "Little Children" and achieved U.S. success as part of the British Invasion. Since the end of the beat boom, Kramer has continued to record and perform. His autobiography, Do You Want to Know a Secret, was published in 2016. Read more
19 Aug 1942: Fred Thompson, American actor, lawyer, and politician (died 2015) Freddie Dalton Thompson was an American politician, attorney, lobbyist, columnist, actor, and radio personality. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a United States senator from Tennessee from 1994 to 2003. He was an unsuccessful candidate in the Republican Party presidential primaries for the 2008 United States presidential election. Read more
19 Aug 1941: John Cootes, Australian rugby league player, priest, and businessman John Cootes, nicknamed "the footballing priest", is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1960s and 1970s, and Roman Catholic priest. An Australia international representative three-quarter back and adept goal-kicker, he played club football in the Newcastle Rugby League for Western Suburbs during the 1960s and also later worked as a television commentator and presenter. Read more
19 Aug 1941: Mihalis Papagiannakis, Greek educator and politician (died 2009) Mihalis Papayiannakis was a Greek politician. He was born in Kalamata; his father was executed by the Nazis during World War II. He died on 26 May 2009 after a long battle with cancer. Read more
19 Aug 1940: Roger Cook, English songwriter, singer, and producer Roger Frederick Cook is an English singer, songwriter and record producer, who has written many hit records for other recording artists. He has also had a successful recording career in his own right. Read more
19 Aug 1940: Johnny Nash, American singer-songwriter (died 2020) John Lester Nash Jr. was an American singer and songwriter, best known in the United States for his 1972 hit "I Can See Clearly Now". Primarily a reggae and pop singer, he was one of the first non-Jamaican artists to record reggae music in Kingston, Jamaica. Read more
19 Aug 1940: Jill St. John, American model and actress Jill St. John is an American retired actress. She is best known for playing Tiffany Case, the first American Bond girl of the James Bond franchise, in 1971's Diamonds Are Forever. Additional performances in film include Holiday for Lovers, The Lost World, Tender Is the Night, Come Blow Your Horn, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination, Who's Minding the Store?, Honeymoon Hotel, The Liquidator, The Oscar, Tony Rome, Sitting Target and The Concrete Jungle. Read more
19 Aug 1939: Ginger Baker, English drummer and songwriter (died 2019) Peter Edward "Ginger" Baker was an English drummer. His work in the 1960s and 1970s earned him the reputation of "rock's first superstar drummer", for a style that melded jazz and African rhythms and pioneered both jazz fusion and world music. Read more
19 Aug 1938: Diana Muldaur, American actress Diana Muldaur is an American film and television actress. Muldaur's television roles include Rosalind Shays on L.A. Law and Dr. Katherine Pulaski in the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. She appeared in two episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series in the late 1960s, playing different roles. She has been nominated for an Emmy twice, as a supporting actress on L.A. Law in 1990 and 1991. Read more
19 Aug 1938: Nelly Vuksic, Argentine conductor and musician Nelly Vuksic is an Argentinian conductor and singer. She has worked with a variety of groups in several styles, and has released albums with Americas Vocal Ensemble. Outside of performing and conducting, she has also taught music at several establishments such as the Bloomingdale School of Music, Friends Seminary and Columbia University. Read more
19 Aug 1937: Richard Ingrams, English journalist, founded The Oldie Richard Reid Ingrams is an English journalist, a co-founder and second editor of the British satirical magazine Private Eye, and founding editor of The Oldie magazine. He left the latter job at the end of May 2014. Read more
19 Aug 1937: William Motzing, American composer and conductor (died 2014) William Edward Motzing Jr. was an American composer, conductor, arranger and trombonist best known for the award-winning film and television scores and gold and platinum pop album arrangements he wrote in Australia. He was a jazz lecturer and the Director of Jazz Studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music over a period of 40 years. Read more
19 Aug 1936: Richard McBrien, American priest, theologian, and academic (died 2015) Richard Peter McBrien was a Catholic priest, theologian, and writer who was the Crowley-O'Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame near South Bend, Indiana. He authored twenty-five books, including the popular Catholicism, a reference text on the Church after the Second Vatican Council. Read more
19 Aug 1935: Bobby Richardson, American baseball player and coach Robert Clinton Richardson Jr. is an American former professional baseball second baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees from 1955 through 1966. Batting and throwing right-handed, he formed a top double play combination with fellow Yankee infielders Clete Boyer and Tony Kubek. In the 1960 World Series he became the only World Series Most Valuable Player to be selected from the losing team. In 1962, he led the American League (AL) in hits with 209 and caught a line drive off the bat of Willie McCovey to win the 1962 World Series for the Yankees. Read more
19 Aug 1934: David Durenberger, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (died 2023) David Ferdinand Durenberger was an American politician and attorney from Minnesota who served as a Republican member of the United States Senate from 1978 to 1995. He left the Republican Party in 2005 and became a critic of it, endorsing Democratic presidential nominees Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in 2016 and 2020, respectively. Read more
19 Aug 1934: Renée Richards, American tennis player and ophthalmologist Renée Richards is an American ophthalmologist and former tennis player who competed on the professional circuit in the 1970s, and became widely known following male-to-female medical affirmation, when she fought to compete as a woman in the 1976 US Open. Read more
19 Aug 1933: Bettina Cirone, American model and photographer Bettina L. Cirone was an American photographer, interviewer, and Ford model. Cirone took photographs of celebrities; including actors, musicians, artists, politicians in the United States and internationally from about 1970 on. Her works have appeared in magazines, newspapers, books, and at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. A retrospective of her work was held in Norwich, Connecticut, in 1995 at the New England Museum for Contemporary Art. Read more
19 Aug 1933: David Hopwood, English microbiologist and geneticist Sir David Alan Hopwood is a British microbiologist and geneticist. Read more
19 Aug 1933: Debra Paget, American actress Debra Paget is a retired American actress and entertainer. She is perhaps best known for her performances in Cecil B. DeMille's epic The Ten Commandments (1956) and in Elvis Presley's film debut, Love Me Tender (1956), as well as for her snake dance scene in The Indian Tomb (1959). Read more
19 Aug 1932: Thomas P. Salmon, American lawyer and politician, 75th Governor of Vermont Thomas Paul Salmon was an American Democratic Party politician who served as the 75th governor of Vermont from 1973 to 1977. Read more
19 Aug 1932: Banharn Silpa-archa, Thai politician, Prime Minister (1995–1996) (died 2016) Banharn Silpa-archa was a Thai politician who served as the Prime Minister of Thailand from 1995 to 1996. Banharn made a fortune in the construction business before he became a Member of Parliament representing his home province of Suphan Buri. He held different cabinet posts in several governments. In 1994, he became the leader of the Thai Nation Party. In 2008, the party was dissolved by the Constitutional Court and Banharn was banned from politics for five years. Read more
19 Aug 1931: Bill Shoemaker, American jockey and author (died 2003) William Lee Shoemaker, known as Bill Shoemaker, Willie Shoemaker, and The Shoe, was an American jockey and trainer. He won 8,833 races, a world record at the time of his retirement, and held the career wins record until it was broken by Laffit Pincay Jr. in 1999. Read more
19 Aug 1930: Frank McCourt, American author and educator (died 2009) Francis McCourt was an Irish-American teacher and writer. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his book Angela's Ashes, a tragicomic memoir of the misery and squalor of his childhood. Read more
19 Aug 1929: Bill Foster, American basketball player and coach (died 2016) William Edwin Foster was the head men's basketball coach at Rutgers University, University of Utah, Duke University, University of South Carolina, and Northwestern University. He is best known for guiding Duke to the NCAA championship game in 1978, and that year he was named national Coach of the Year by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. Foster was inducted into the Rutgers Basketball Hall of Fame and was the first NCAA coach to guide four teams to 20-win seasons. Foster was a graduate of Elizabethtown College. Read more
19 Aug 1929: Ion N. Petrovici, Romanian-German neurologist and academic (died 2021) Ion N. Petrovici was a German neurologist, professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Cologne. Read more
19 Aug 1928: Shiv Prasaad Singh, Indian Hindi writer (died 1998) Shiv Prasaad Singh was an Indian writer, university professor and scholar of the Hindi language. He is well-known for writing novels, short stories and critiques in Hindi. He was formerly a professor of Hindi literature in Benares Hindu University. He received the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award in 1990 for his novel Neela Chand.Due to his extensive portrayal of post-independence rural Northern India in various novels, such as Alag Alag Vaitarani, he faced criticism from elite Hindi circles who labeled him an "Aanchalik" (regional) writer. The intelligentsia often referred to this regional writing as a lesser form of literature, arguing that a focus merely on local village dialects, customs, and rural poverty (dehat) lacked the sophistication and universal appeal of urban stories. Despite this criticism, he is regarded as one of the most important writers of the Hindi "Aanchalik" genre, second only to Phanishwar Nath Renu. Read more
19 Aug 1928: Bernard Levin, English journalist, author, and broadcaster (died 2004) Henry Bernard Levin was an English journalist, author and broadcaster, described by The Times as "the most famous journalist of his day". The son of a poor Jewish family in London, he won a scholarship to the independent school Christ's Hospital and went on to the London School of Economics, graduating in 1952. After a short spell in a lowly job at the BBC selecting press cuttings for use in programmes, he secured a post as a junior member of the editorial staff of a weekly periodical, Truth, in 1953. Read more
19 Aug 1926: Angus Scrimm, American actor and author (died 2016) Angus Scrimm was an American actor, author, and journalist, known for his portrayal of the Tall Man in the 1979 horror film Phantasm and its sequels. Read more
19 Aug 1925: Claude Gauvreau, Canadian poet and playwright (died 1971) Claude Gauvreau was a playwright, poet, sound poet, and polemicist. He was a member of the radical Automatist movement and a contributor to the revolutionary Refus Global Manifesto. Read more
19 Aug 1924: Willard Boyle, Canadian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2011) Willard Sterling Boyle was a Canadian applied physicist who shared one half of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics with George E. Smith for their invention of the charge-coupled device. Read more
19 Aug 1924: William Marshall, American actor, director, and opera singer (died 2003) William Horace Marshall was an American actor, director and opera singer. He played the title role in the 1972 blaxploitation classic Blacula and its 1973 sequel Scream Blacula Scream. He has appeared as the King of Cartoons on the 1980s television show Pee-wee's Playhouse, as Dr. Richard Daystrom on the television series Star Trek, and as Thomas Bowers on the television series Bonanza. He was 6‘5” tall and was known for his bass voice. Read more
19 Aug 1923: Edgar F. Codd, English computer scientist, inventor of relational model of data (died 2003) Edgar Frank "Ted" Codd was a British computer scientist who, while working for IBM, invented the relational model for database management, the theoretical basis for relational databases and relational database management systems. He won the 1981 ACM Turing Award. Read more
19 Aug 1922: Jack Holland, Australian rugby league player (died 1994) Jack Holland (1922-1994) was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1940s and 1950s. An Australian international and New South Wales interstate representative forward, he played his club football in Sydney's NSWRFL Premiership for the St. George club. Read more
19 Aug 1921: Gene Roddenberry, American screenwriter and producer (died 1991) Eugene "Gene" Wesley Roddenberry Sr. was an American television screenwriter and producer who created the science fiction series and fictional universe Star Trek. Born in El Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles, where his father was a police officer. Roddenberry flew 89 combat missions in the Army Air Forces during World War II and worked as a commercial pilot after the war. Later, he joined the Los Angeles Police Department and began to write for television. Read more
19 Aug 1919: Malcolm Forbes, American publisher and politician (died 1990) Malcolm Stevenson Forbes was an American businessman and politician most prominently known as the publisher of Forbes magazine, which was founded by his father B. C. Forbes. He represented Somerset County in the New Jersey Senate from 1952 to 1958 and ran two campaigns for Governor of New Jersey. In 1953, he lost the Republican nomination to Paul L. Troast, who had the support of most of the party establishment. In 1957, he won the Republican nomination but lost the general election to incumbent Governor Robert Meyner. He was known as an avid promoter of capitalism and free market economics and for an extravagant lifestyle, spending on parties, travel, and his collection of homes, yachts, aircraft, art, motorcycles, and Fabergé eggs. Read more
19 Aug 1918: Jimmy Rowles, American singer-songwriter and pianist (died 1996) James George Hunter, known professionally as Jimmy Rowles, was an American jazz pianist, vocalist, and composer. As a bandleader and accompanist, he explored multiple styles including swing and cool jazz. Read more
19 Aug 1916: Dennis Poore, English racing driver and businessman (died 1987) Roger Dennistoun Poore was a British racing driver, financier and entrepreneur. He became chairman of Norton Villiers Triumph (NVT) during the final years of the old British motorcycle industry. Read more
19 Aug 1915: Ring Lardner, Jr., American journalist and screenwriter (died 2000) Ringgold Wilmer Lardner Jr. was an American screenwriter and novelist. After enjoying early success in Hollywood, he was subpoenaed in 1947 by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), where he refused to answer whether he was a member of the Communist Party. He was declared in contempt of Congress, blacklisted by the film studios as one of the "Hollywood Ten", and sentenced to a year in federal prison. Lardner's next screenplay credit, using his own name, was not until The Cincinnati Kid in 1965. He went on to win an Academy Award for his M*A*S*H (1970) screenplay. Read more
19 Aug 1915: Alfred Rouleau, Canadian businessman (died 1985) Alfred Rouleau, was a Canadian businessman and President of the Fédération du Québec des Caisses Populaires Desjardins, Quebec's largest credit union. Read more
19 Aug 1915: Peter Kemp, British soldier, mercenary, and writer (died 1993) Peter Mant MacIntyre Kemp was an English soldier and writer. He became notable for his participation in the Spanish Civil War on the side of Franco's forces and, during World War II, as a member of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Read more
19 Aug 1914: Lajos Baróti, Hungarian footballer and manager (died 2005) Lajos Baróti was a Hungarian football player and manager. With eleven major titles he is one of the most outstanding coaches of his time. Read more
19 Aug 1914: Fumio Hayasaka, Japanese composer (died 1955) Fumio Hayasaka was a Japanese composer of classical music and film scores. Read more
19 Aug 1914: Rose Heilbron, British barrister and judge (died 2005) Dame Rose Heilbron, DBE was a British barrister who served later as a High Court judge. Her career included many "firsts" for a woman – she was the first woman to achieve a first class honours degree in law at the University of Liverpool, the first woman to win a scholarship to Gray's Inn, one of the first two women to be appointed King's Counsel in England, the first woman to lead in a murder case, the first woman recorder, the first woman judge to sit at the Old Bailey, and the first woman treasurer of Gray's Inn. She was also the second woman to be appointed a High Court judge, after Elizabeth Lane. Read more
19 Aug 1913: John Argyris, Greek engineer and academic (died 2004) Johann Hadjiargyris FRS was a Greek pioneer of computer applications in science and engineering, among the creators of the finite element method (FEM), and later Professor at the University of Stuttgart and Director of the Institute of Structural Mechanics and Dynamics in Aerospace Engineering. Read more
19 Aug 1913: Richard Simmons, American actor (died 2003) Richard Simmons was an American actor. Read more
19 Aug 1912: Herb Narvo, Australian rugby league player, coach, and boxer (died 1958) Hermann Olaf Frances "Herb" Narvo was an Australian rugby league footballer and boxer of the 1930s and 1940s. He was a national representative rugby league player and national heavyweight boxing champion. He has been named among the nation's finest footballers and sportsman of the 20th century. Read more
19 Aug 1911: Anna Terruwe, Dutch psychiatrist and author (died 2004) Anna Alberdina Antoinette Terruwe was a Dutch Catholic psychiatrist. She discovered emotional deprivation disorder and how obsessive–compulsive disorder could be healed: the "bevestigingsleer," the idea of "affirmation". Read more
19 Aug 1910: Saint Alphonsa, first woman of Indian origin to be canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church (died 1946) Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception, born as Anna Muttathupadathu, was an Indian Catholic nun and educator. She is the first woman of Indian origin to be canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church, and the first canonized saint of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. Read more
19 Aug 1909: Ronald King, New Zealand rugby player (died 1988) Ronald Russell King was a New Zealand rugby union player. Read more
19 Aug 1907: Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Indian historian, author, and scholar (died 1979) Hazari Prasad Dwivedi was a Hindi novelist, literary historian, essayist, critic and scholar. He penned numerous novels, collections of essays, historical research on medieval religious movements of India especially Kabir and Natha Sampradaya, and historical outlines of Hindi literature. Read more
19 Aug 1906: Philo Farnsworth, American inventor, invented the Fusor, key figure in the invention of television (died 1971) Philo Taylor Farnsworth was an American inventor who was granted the first patent for the television by the United States government. He also invented a video camera tube and the image dissector. He sold a fully functioning television system—complete with receiver and camera—which he produced commercially through the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation from 1938 to 1951, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Read more
19 Aug 1904: Maurice Wilks, English engineer and businessman (died 1963) Maurice Fernand Cary Wilks was an English automotive and aeronautical engineer, and by the time of his death in 1963, was the chairman of the Rover Company. He was the founder of the Land Rover marque and responsible for the inspiration and concept work that led to the development of the first Land Rover off-road utility vehicle. Read more
19 Aug 1903: James Gould Cozzens, American novelist and short story writer (died 1978) James Gould Cozzens was a Pulitzer prize-winning American writer whose work enjoyed an unusual degree of popular success and critical acclaim for more than three decades. His 1949 Pulitzer win was for the WWII race novel Guard of Honor, which more than one critic considered one of the most important accounts of the war. His 1957 Pulitzer nomination was for the best-selling novel By Love Possessed, which was later made into a popular 1961 film. Read more
19 Aug 1902: Ogden Nash, American poet (died 1971) Frederic Ogden Nash was an American poet well known for his light verse, of which he wrote more than 500 pieces. With his unconventional rhyming schemes, he was declared by The New York Times to be the country's best-known producer of humorous poetry. Read more
19 Aug 1900: Gontran de Poncins, French author and adventurer (died 1962) Jean-Pierre Gontran de Montaigne, vicomte de Poncins, known as Gontran De Poncins, was a French writer and adventurer. Read more
19 Aug 1900: Gilbert Ryle, English philosopher, author, and academic (died 1976) Gilbert Ryle was a British philosopher, principally known for his critique of Cartesian dualism, for which he coined the phrase "ghost in the machine". Some of Ryle's ideas in philosophy of mind have been called logical behaviourist. In his best-known book, The Concept of Mind (1949), he writes that the "general trend of this book will undoubtedly, and harmlessly, be stigmatised as 'behaviourist'." Having studied the philosophers Bernard Bolzano, Franz Brentano, Alexius Meinong, Edmund Husserl, and Martin Heidegger, Ryle suggested that the book instead "could be described as a sustained essay in phenomenology, if you are at home with that label." Read more
19 Aug 1900: Dorothy Burr Thompson, American archaeologist and art historian (died 2001) Dorothy Burr Thompson was an American classical archaeologist and art historian at Bryn Mawr College and a leading authority on Hellenistic terracotta figurines. Read more
19 Aug 1899: Colleen Moore, American actress (died 1988) Colleen Moore was an American film actress who began her career during the silent film era and continued into the early sound film era. Moore became one of the most fashionable stars of the era and helped popularize the bobbed haircut. Read more
19 Aug 1895: C. Suntharalingam, Sri Lankan lawyer, academic, and politician (died 1985) Chellappah Suntharalingam was a Sri Lankan Tamil academic, politician, Member of Parliament and government minister. Read more
19 Aug 1887: S. Satyamurti, Indian lawyer and politician (died 1943) Sundara Sastri Satyamurti was an Indian independence activist and politician. He was acclaimed for his rhetoric and was one of the leading politicians of the Indian National Congress from the Madras Presidency, alongside S. Srinivasa Iyengar, C. Rajagopalachari and T. Prakasam. Satyamurti is regarded as the mentor of K. Kamaraj, the Chief Minister of Madras State from 1954 to 1962. Read more
19 Aug 1885: Grace Hutchins, American labor reformer and researcher (died 1969) Grace Hutchins was an American labor reformer and researcher, journalist, political activist and communist. She spent many years of her life writing about labor and economics, in addition to being a lifelong dedicated member of the Communist Party, along with Anna Rochester, a Marxist economist and historian and her companion of 45 years. Together they were known for promoting radical Christian pacifism in the United States, although Hutchins was also regularly involved in strikes, demonstrations and labor disputes. Read more
19 Aug 1883: Coco Chanel, French fashion designer, founded the Chanel Company (died 1971) Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel was a French fashion designer and businesswoman. The founder and namesake of the Chanel brand, she was credited in the post–World War I era with popularising a sporty, casual chic as the feminine standard of style. She is the only fashion designer listed on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. A prolific fashion creator, Chanel extended her influence beyond couture clothing into jewellery, handbags, and fragrance. Her signature scent, Chanel No. 5, has become an iconic product, and Chanel herself designed her famed interlocked-CC monogram, which has been in use since the 1920s. Read more
19 Aug 1883: José Mendes Cabeçadas, Portuguese admiral and politician, 9th President of Portugal (died 1965) José Mendes Cabeçadas Júnior, OTE, ComA, MPCE, commonly known as Mendes Cabeçadas, was a Portuguese Navy officer, Freemason and republican, having a major role in the preparation of the revolutionary movements that created and ended the Portuguese First Republic: the 5 October revolution in 1910 and the 28 May coup d'état of 1926. In the outcome he became the minister of finance for one day only on 30 May 1926, then becoming interim minister for foreign affairs for two days between 30 May and 1 June, after which he again became the minister for finance on the same day. He served as the president of Portugal and prime minister for a brief period of time. Read more
19 Aug 1881: George Enescu, Romanian violinist, pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1955) George Enescu, known in France as Georges Enesco, was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor, teacher and statesman. He is regarded as one of the greatest musicians in Romanian history. Read more
19 Aug 1881: George Shepherd, 1st Baron Shepherd (died 1954) George Robert Shepherd, 1st Baron Shepherd PC, was a British Labour politician. Read more
19 Aug 1878: Manuel L. Quezon, Filipino soldier, lawyer, and politician, 2nd President of the Philippines (died 1944) Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina GCGH KGCR, also known by his initials MLQ, was a Filipino lawyer, statesman, soldier, and politician who served as the second president of the Philippines from 1935 until his death in 1944. He was the first Filipino to head a government of the entire Philippines and is considered the second president of the Philippines after Emilio Aguinaldo (1899–1901), whom Quezon defeated in the 1935 presidential election. Quezon City, a city in Metro Manila and Quezon Province, are named after him. Read more
19 Aug 1873: Fred Stone, American actor and producer (died 1959) Fred Andrew Stone was an American actor. Stone began his career as a performer in circuses and minstrel shows, went on to act in vaudeville, and became a star on Broadway and in feature films, which earned him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Read more
19 Aug 1871: Orville Wright, American engineer and pilot, co-founded the Wright Company (died 1948) The Wright brothers, Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright, were American aviation pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flying the world's first successful airplane. They made the first controlled, sustained flight of an engine-powered, heavier-than-air aircraft with the Wright Flyer on December 17, 1903, four miles (6 km) south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, at what is now known as Kill Devil Hills. In 1904 the Wright brothers developed the Wright Flyer II, which made longer-duration flights including the first circle, followed in 1905 by the first truly practical fixed-wing aircraft, the Wright Flyer III. Read more
19 Aug 1870: Bernard Baruch, American businessman and philanthropist (died 1965) Bernard Mannes Baruch was an American financier and statesman. Read more
19 Aug 1858: Ellen Willmott, English horticulturalist (died 1934) Ellen Ann Willmott was an English horticulturist. She was an influential member of the Royal Horticultural Society, and a recipient of the first Victoria Medal of Honour, awarded to British horticulturists living in the UK by the society, in 1897. Willmott was said to have cultivated more than 100,000 species and cultivars of plants and sponsored expeditions to discover new species. Inherited wealth allowed Willmott to buy large gardens in France and Italy to add to the garden at her home, Warley Place in Essex. More than 60 plants have been named after her or her home, Warley Place. Read more
19 Aug 1849: Joaquim Nabuco, Brazilian politician and diplomat (died 1910) Joaquim Aurélio Barreto Nabuco de Araújo was a Brazilian statesman, diplomat, a leading voice in the abolitionist movement of his country, historian, jurist, journalist, and one of the founders of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. Read more
19 Aug 1848: Gustave Caillebotte, French painter and engineer (died 1894) Gustave Caillebotte was a French painter who was a member and patron of the Impressionists, although he painted in a more realistic manner than many others in the group. Caillebotte was known for his early interest in photography as an art form. Because of his family's wealth, he was a patron of many of his fellow Impressionists. Upon his death, his bequeathed collection of their works became the central collection of Impressionism for the French Republic, despite considerable controversy. Read more
19 Aug 1846: Luis Martín, Spanish religious leader, 24th Superior General of the Society of Jesus (died 1906) Luis Martín García was a Spanish Jesuit, elected the twenty-fourth Superior General of the Society of Jesus. Read more
19 Aug 1843: C. I. Scofield, American minister and theologian (died 1921) Cyrus Ingerson Scofield was an American theologian, minister, and writer whose best-selling annotated Bible popularized futurism and dispensationalism among fundamentalist Christians. Read more
19 Aug 1835: Tom Wills, Australian cricketer and pioneer of Australian rules football (died 1880) Thomas Wentworth Wills was an Australian sportsman who is credited with being Australia's first cricketer of significance and a founder of Australian rules football. Born in the British penal colony of New South Wales to a wealthy family descended from convicts, Wills grew up in the bush on stations owned by his father, the squatter and politician Horatio Wills, in what is now the state of Victoria. As a child, he befriended local Aboriginal people, learning their language and customs. Aged 14, Wills went to England to attend Rugby School, where he became captain of its cricket team and played an early version of rugby football. After Rugby, Wills represented Cambridge University in the annual cricket match against Oxford, and played at first-class level for Kent and the Marylebone Cricket Club. An athletic bowling all-rounder with tactical nous, he was regarded as one of the finest young cricketers in England. Read more
19 Aug 1830: Julius Lothar Meyer, German chemist (died 1895) Julius Lothar Meyer was a German chemist. He was one of the pioneers in developing the earliest versions of the periodic table of the chemical elements. The Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev and he both had worked with Robert Bunsen. Meyer never used his first given name and was simply known as Lothar Meyer throughout his life. Read more
19 Aug 1819: Julius van Zuylen van Nijevelt, Luxembourger-Dutch politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (died 1894) Julius Philip Jacob Adriaan, Count van Zuylen van Nijevelt was a conservative Dutch politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1860 until 1861, and again from 1866 until 1868. During his second ministership, he also served as Chairman of the Council of Ministers. Read more
19 Aug 1815: Harriette Newell Woods Baker, American editor and children's book writer (died 1893) Harriette Newell Woods Baker was an American author of books for children, and editor. Her career as an author began when she was about 30 years old. She devoted herself successfully to novels; but after about 15 years, she wrote popular religious literature. Her most famous book, Tim, the Scissors Grinder, sold half a million copies, and was translated into several languages. Baker published about 200 moral and religious tales under the pen name "Mrs. Madeline Leslie". She also wrote under her own name or initials, and under pseudonym "Aunt Hattie". She wrote chiefly for the young, and was still writing in 1893 when she died. Read more

Notable Deaths on 19 August

19 Aug 2024: Maria Branyas, American-Spanish supercentenarian (born 1907) Maria Branyas Morera was an American and Catalan supercentenarian, who, until her death at the age of 117 years and 168 days, was the world's oldest verified living person, following the death of Lucile Randon on 17 January 2023. Read more
19 Aug 2023: Václav Patejdl, Slovak musician (born 1954) Vašo Patejdl was a Slovak musician and composer. He was best known for being a co-founder and long-term member of the pop-rock band Elán. He wrote songs for other musicians, including the Richard Müller single "Po schodoch", and he composed music for films, such as Fontána pre Zuzanu (1985) and The Seven Ravens (2015). Patejdl also released a number of solo albums throughout his career, both in Slovak and English. He died on 19 August 2023, at the age of 68. Read more
19 Aug 2022: Tekla Juniewicz, Polish supercentenarian (born 1906) Tekla Juniewicz was a Polish supercentenarian who, living to the age of 116 years and 70 days, was the oldest living Polish person from 20 July 2017 until her death on 19 August 2022, and remains the oldest validated Polish person ever. Read more
19 Aug 2021: Sonny Chiba, Japanese actor (born 1939) Shinichi Chiba IPA: [tɕiꜜba ɕiɰ̃itɕi], known internationally as Sonny Chiba, was a Japanese actor and martial artist. Chiba was one of the first actors to achieve stardom through his skills in martial arts, initially in Japan and later to an international audience. Read more
19 Aug 2019: Lars Larsen, Danish businessman and billionaire, founder and owner of the Danish retail chain JYSK (born 1948) Lars Kristinus Larsen was a Danish businessman, owner and founder of the Jysk retail chain. Read more
19 Aug 2017: Dick Gregory, American comedian, author and activist (born 1932) Richard Claxton Gregory was an American comedian, actor, writer, activist and social critic. Gregory became popular among the African-American communities in the southern United States with his "no-holds-barred" sets, poking fun at the bigotry and racism in the United States. In 1961 he became a staple in the comedy clubs, appeared on television, and released comedy record albums. Read more
19 Aug 2016: Jack Riley, American actor and voice artist (born 1935) John Albert Riley Jr. was an American actor, comedian and writer, best known for his comedic roles. He is known for playing Elliot Carlin, a chronic psychology client of Bob Newhart's character on The Bob Newhart Show, and for voicing Stu Pickles, one of the parents in the animated Rugrats franchise. Read more
19 Aug 2015: George Houser, American minister and activist (born 1916) George Mills Houser was an American Methodist minister, civil rights activist, and activist for the independence of African nations. He served on the staff of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (1940s–1950s). Read more
19 Aug 2015: Sanat Mehta, Indian activist and politician (born 1935) Sanat Mehta was an Indian politician and social activist from Gujarat, India. He was associated with Indian National Congress. He served as labour and finance minister of the state. Mehta was elected to Lok Sabha from Surendranagar in 1996. Read more
19 Aug 2014: Samih al-Qasim, Palestinian poet and journalist (born 1939) Samīħ al-Qāsim al Kaissy was a Palestinian poet with Israeli citizenship whose work is well known throughout the Arab world. He was born in Transjordan and later lived in Mandatory Palestine and Israel. Before the Six-Day War in 1967, he was mainly influenced by Arab nationalism; after the war he joined the Israeli Communist Party. Read more
19 Aug 2014: Simin Behbahani, Iranian poet and activist (born 1927) Simin Behbahani was an Iranian poet, lyricist, and activist. Renowned for her mastery of the ghazal, a traditional poetic form, she became an icon of modern Persian poetry. The Iranian intelligentsia and literati affectionately referred to her as the "Lioness of Iran." Read more
19 Aug 2014: James Foley, American photographer and journalist (born 1973) James Wright Foley was an American journalist and video reporter. While working as a freelance war correspondent during the Syrian Civil War, he was abducted on November 22, 2012, in north-western Syria. He was murdered by beheading in August 2014 purportedly as a response to American airstrikes in Iraq, thus becoming the first American citizen to be murdered by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Read more
19 Aug 2014: Candida Lycett Green, Anglo-Irish journalist and author (born 1942) Candida Rose Lycett Green was a British author who wrote sixteen books including English Cottages, Goodbye London, The Perfect English House, Over the Hills and Far Away and The Dangerous Edge of Things. Her television documentaries included The Englishwoman and the Horse, and The Front Garden. Unwrecked England, based on a regular column of the same name she wrote for The Oldie from 1992, was published in 2009. Read more
19 Aug 2013: Musa'id bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi Arabian prince (born 1923) Musa'id bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was the eleventh son of King Abdulaziz, the founder of Saudi Arabia. He was a businessman and the father of Faisal bin Musaid, the assassin of his half-brother King Faisal. Read more
19 Aug 2013: Russell S. Doughten, American director and producer (born 1927) Russell S. Doughten Jr. was an American filmmaker and a producer of numerous short and feature-length films. His film work is credited under numerous variations of his name: with or without the "Jr." suffix or middle initial, and sometimes using the informal "Russ" instead of "Russell". Read more
19 Aug 2013: Abdul Rahim Hatif, Afghan politician, 8th President of Afghanistan (born 1926) Abdul Rahim Hatif was a politician in Afghanistan. He served as one of the vice presidents during the last years of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Read more
19 Aug 2013: Donna Hightower, American singer-songwriter (born 1926) Donna Lubertha Hightower was an American R&B, soul and jazz singer and songwriter, who recorded and released albums for the Decca and Capitol labels. Later in her career she was based in Europe, where she had a hit in 1972 with "This World Today is a Mess." Read more
19 Aug 2012: Donal Henahan, American journalist and critic (born 1921) Donal Henahan was an American music critic and journalist who had lengthy associations with the Chicago Daily News and The New York Times. With the Times he won the annual Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1986; he had been a finalist in 1982. Read more
19 Aug 2012: Ivar Iversen, Norwegian canoe racer (born 1914) Ivar Iversen was a Norwegian sprint canoeist who competed from the late 1930s to the late 1940s. He won a gold medal in the K-1 4 x 500 m event at the 1948 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in London. Read more
19 Aug 2012: Tony Scott, English-American director and producer (born 1944) Anthony David Leighton Scott was an English filmmaker. He made his theatrical film debut with The Hunger (1983) and went on to direct highly successful action and thriller films such as Top Gun (1986), Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), Days of Thunder (1990), The Last Boy Scout (1991), True Romance (1993), Crimson Tide (1995), Enemy of the State (1998), Man on Fire (2004), Déjà Vu (2006), The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009), and Unstoppable (2010). Read more
19 Aug 2012: Edmund Skellings, American poet and academic (born 1932) Edmund Skellings was an American poet. He was the Poet Laureate of Florida from 1980 to 2012, and was succeeded by Peter Meinke. Read more
19 Aug 2011: Raúl Ruiz, Chilean director and producer (born 1941) Raúl Ernesto Ruiz Pino was an experimental Chilean filmmaker, writer and teacher whose work is best known in France. He directed more than 100 films. Read more
19 Aug 2009: Don Hewitt, American television producer, created 60 Minutes (born 1922) Donald Shepard Hewitt was an American television news producer and executive, best known for creating the CBS television news magazine 60 Minutes in 1968, which, at the time of his death was the longest-running prime-time broadcast on American television. Under Hewitt's leadership, 60 Minutes was the only news program ever rated as the nation's top-ranked television program, which it accomplished five times. Hewitt produced the first televised presidential debate in 1960. Read more
19 Aug 2008: Levy Mwanawasa, Zambian lawyer and politician, 3rd President of Zambia (born 1948) Levy Patrick Mwanawasa was a Zambian politician who served as the third president of Zambia. He served as president from January 2002 until his death in August 2008. Mwanawasa is credited with having initiated a campaign to rid the corruption situation in Zambia during his term. Prior to Mwanawasa's election, he served as the fourth vice-president of Zambia from November 1991 to July 1994, whilst an elected Member of Parliament of Chifubu Constituency. Read more
19 Aug 2005: Mo Mowlam, English academic and politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (born 1949) Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam was a British Labour Party politician. She was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Redcar from 1987 to 2001 and served in the Cabinet of Tony Blair as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Read more
19 Aug 2003: Carlos Roberto Reina, Honduran lawyer and politician, President of Honduras (born 1926) Carlos Roberto Reina Idiáquez was a Honduran politician, lawyer and diplomat who served as the President of Honduras from 1994 to 1998. He was a member of the Honduran Liberal Party. Read more
19 Aug 2003: Sérgio Vieira de Mello, Brazilian diplomat (born 1948) Sérgio Vieira de Mello was a Brazilian United Nations diplomat who worked on several UN humanitarian and political programs for over 34 years. The Government of Brazil posthumously awarded the Sergio Vieira de Mello Medal to honor his legacy in promoting sustainable peace, international security and better living conditions for individuals in situations of armed conflict, challenges to which Sérgio Vieira de Mello had dedicated his life and career. Read more
19 Aug 2001: Donald Woods, South African journalist and activist (born 1933) Donald James Woods was a South African journalist and anti-apartheid activist. As editor of the Daily Dispatch, he was known for befriending fellow activist Steve Biko, who was killed by police after being detained by the South African government. Woods continued his campaign against apartheid in London, and in 1978 became the first private citizen to address the United Nations Security Council. Read more
19 Aug 2000: Bineshwar Brahma, Indian poet, author, and educator (born 1948) Bineshwar Brahma was the president of the Bodo Sahitya Sabha in Assam, India. He was born in a small village of Bhatarmari in Kokrajhar. He was the son of Late Taramoni Brahma and Late Sanathi Brahma. Read more
19 Aug 1995: Pierre Schaeffer, French composer and musicologist (born 1910) Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer was a French composer, writer, broadcaster, engineer, musicologist, acoustician and founder of Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète (GRMC). His innovative work in both the sciences—particularly communications and acoustics—and the various arts of music, literature and radio presentation after the end of World War II, as well as his anti-nuclear activism and cultural criticism garnered him widespread recognition in his lifetime. Read more
19 Aug 1994: Linus Pauling, American chemist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1901) Linus Carl Pauling was an American chemist and peace activist. He published more than 1,200 papers and books, of which about 850 dealt with scientific topics. Scientific American called him one of the 20 greatest scientists of all time. For his scientific work, Pauling was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954. For his peace activism, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962. He is one of five people to have won more than one Nobel Prize. Of these, he is the only person to have been awarded two unshared Nobel Prizes, and one of two people to be awarded Nobel Prizes in different fields, the other being Marie Curie. Read more
19 Aug 1993: Utpal Dutt, Bangladeshi actor, director, and playwright (born 1929) Utpal Dutt was an Indian actor, director, and writer-playwright. He was primarily an actor in Bengali theatre, where he became a pioneering figure in Modern Indian theatre, when he founded the "Little Theatre Group" in 1949. This group enacted many English, Shakespearean and Brecht plays, in a period now known as the "Epic theatre" period, before it immersed itself completely in highly political and radical theatre. His plays became an apt vehicle for the expression of his Marxist ideologies, visible in socio-political plays such as Kallol (1965), Manusher Adhikar, Louha Manob (1964), Tiner Toloar and Maha-Bidroha. He also acted in over 100 Bengali and Hindi films in a career spanning 40 years, and remains most known for his roles in films such as Mrinal Sen’s Bhuvan Shome (1969), Satyajit Ray’s Agantuk (1991), Gautam Ghose’s Padma Nadir Majhi (1992) and Hrishikesh Mukherjee's breezy Hindi comedies such as Gol Maal (1979) and Rang Birangi (1983). He also did the role of a sculptor, Sir Digindra Narayan, in the episode Seemant Heera of Byomkesh Bakshi on Doordarshan in 1993, shortly before his death. Read more
19 Aug 1986: Hermione Baddeley, English actress (born 1906) Hermione Youlanda Ruby Clinton-Baddeley was an English actress of theatre, film, and television. She typically played brash, vulgar characters, often referred to as "brassy" or "blowsy". She found her milieu in revue, in which she played from the 1930s to the 1950s, co-starring several times with English actress Hermione Gingold. Read more
19 Aug 1986: Viv Thicknesse, Australian rugby player (born 1910) Viv Thicknesse (1910–1986) was an Australian dual-code rugby half-back, a state representative in both rugby league and rugby union. His rugby league career was spent with the champion Eastern Suburbs sides of the 1930s and he represented Australia in that code in seven Tests. Read more
19 Aug 1982: August Neo, Estonian wrestler (born 1908) August "Ago" Neo was an Estonian wrestler who won two medals at the 1936 Summer Olympics: a silver medal in the freestyle wrestling and a bronze in Greco-Roman wrestling. His achievements were underscored by teammate Kristjan Palusalu, who won two gold medals in wrestling at the same games. Neo also won five medals in both wrestling styles at the European championships in 1934–1939. Read more
19 Aug 1981: Jessie Matthews, English actress, singer, and dancer (born 1907) Jessie Margaret Matthews was an English actress, dancer and singer who rose to fame in the 1920s and 1930s, with her career continuing into the post-war period. Read more
19 Aug 1980: Otto Frank, German-Swiss businessman, father of Anne Frank (born 1889) Otto Heinrich Frank was a German businessman, and the father of Anne Frank. He edited and published the first edition of her diary in 1947 and advised on its later theatrical and cinematic adaptations. In the 1950s and the 1960s, he established European charities in his daughter's name and founded the trust which preserved his family's wartime hiding place, the Anne Frank House, in Amsterdam. Read more
19 Aug 1977: Aleksander Kreek, Estonian shot putter and discus thrower (born 1914) Aleksander Kreek was an Estonian track and field athlete who specialised in the shot put. He was the 1938 European champion in the shot put – one of only two Estonian men to achieve the feat, alongside Arnold Viiding. He was twice a medallist at the International University Games. Read more
19 Aug 1977: Groucho Marx, American comedian and actor (born 1890) Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian, actor, comic vocalist and game show host who performed in vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, and television. A master of the one-line retort, he is considered one of America's greatest comedians. Read more
19 Aug 1976: Alastair Sim, Scottish-English actor (born 1900) Alastair George Bell Sim was a Scottish actor. He began his theatrical career at the age of thirty and quickly became established as a popular West End performer, remaining so until his death in 1976. Starting in 1935, he also appeared in more than fifty British films, including an iconic adaptation of Charles Dickens' novella A Christmas Carol, released in 1951 as Scrooge in Great Britain and as A Christmas Carol in the United States. Though an accomplished dramatic actor, he is often remembered for his comically sinister performances. Read more
19 Aug 1976: Ken Wadsworth, New Zealand cricketer (born 1946) Kenneth John Wadsworth was a New Zealand cricketer who played 33 Tests and 13 One Day Internationals for New Zealand as a wicket-keeper. Wadsworth played domestically for Central Districts and Canterbury and for Nelson in the Hawke Cup. Read more
19 Aug 1975: Mark Donohue, American race car driver and engineer (born 1937) Mark Neary Donohue Jr., nicknamed "Captain Nice", was an American race car driver and engineer known for his ability to develop and set up his race car as well as driving it, often to victory. Read more
19 Aug 1970: Paweł Jasienica, Polish soldier and historian (born 1909) Paweł Jasienica was the pen name of Leon Lech Beynar, a Polish historian, journalist, essayist and soldier. Read more
19 Aug 1968: George Gamow, Ukrainian-American physicist and cosmologist (born 1904) George Gamow was a Soviet and American polymath, theoretical physicist and cosmologist. He was an early advocate and developer of Georges Lemaître's Big Bang theory. Gamow discovered a theoretical explanation of alpha decay by quantum tunneling, invented the liquid drop model, worked on radioactive decay, star formation, stellar nucleosynthesis, Big Bang nucleosynthesis, and predicted the existence of the cosmic microwave background radiation and molecular genetics. Read more
19 Aug 1967: Hugo Gernsback, Luxembourg-born American author and publisher (born 1884) Hugo Gernsback was a Luxembourgish American editor and magazine publisher whose publications included the first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories. For his significant contributions to the science fiction genre as publisher, he is often referred to as "The Father of Science Fiction", along with the novelists Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. In his honor, annual awards presented at the World Science Fiction Convention are named the "Hugos". Read more
19 Aug 1967: Isaac Deutscher, Polish-English journalist and historian (born 1907) Isaac Deutscher was a Polish Marxist writer, journalist and political activist who moved to the United Kingdom before the outbreak of World War II. He is best known as a biographer of Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin and as a commentator on Soviet affairs. Read more
19 Aug 1957: David Bomberg, English soldier and painter (born 1890) David Garshen Bomberg was a British painter, and one of the Whitechapel Boys. Read more
19 Aug 1954: Alcide De Gasperi, Italian journalist and politician, 30th Prime Minister of Italy (born 1881) Alcide Amedeo Francesco De Gasperi was an Italian politician and statesman who founded the Christian Democracy party and served as prime minister of Italy in eight successive coalition governments from 1945 to 1953. Read more
19 Aug 1950: Giovanni Giorgi, Italian physicist and engineer (born 1871) Giovanni Giorgi was an Italian physicist and electrical engineer who proposed the Giorgi system of measurement, the precursor to the International System of Units (SI). Read more
19 Aug 1945: Tomás Burgos, Chilean philanthropist (born 1875) Tomás Burgos Sotomayor was a Chilean philanthropist, one of the strongest supporters of the "mutualist movement" and the founder of "Villa Lo Burgos", the present city of Purranque. Read more
19 Aug 1944: Henry Wood, English conductor (born 1869) Sir Henry Joseph Wood was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts, known as the Proms. He conducted them for nearly half a century, introducing hundreds of new works to British audiences. After his death, the concerts were officially renamed in his honour as the "Henry Wood Promenade Concerts", although they continued to be generally referred to as "the Proms". Read more
19 Aug 1942: Harald Kaarmann, Estonian footballer (born 1901) Harald Kaarmann was an Estonian footballer and bandy player. Read more
19 Aug 1942: Heinrich Rauchinger, Kraków-born painter (born 1858) Heinrich Rauchinger (Polish name Henryk, pronounced /xɛnrɨk/, 1858–1942) was a Kraków-born history painter and portrait painter. Read more
19 Aug 1936: Federico García Lorca, Spanish poet, playwright, and director (born 1898) Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27, a group consisting mostly of poets who introduced the tenets of European movements into Spanish literature. Read more
19 Aug 1932: Louis Anquetin, French painter (born 1861) Louis Émile Anquetin was a French painter. Read more
19 Aug 1929: Sergei Diaghilev, Russian critic and producer, founded Ballets Russes (born 1872) Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev, also known as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes, from which many famous dancers and choreographers would arise. Read more
19 Aug 1928: Stefanos Skouloudis, Greek banker and diplomat, 97th Prime Minister of Greece (born 1838) Stefanos Skouloudis was a Greek banker, diplomat and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Greece from 1915 to 1916. Read more
19 Aug 1923: Vilfredo Pareto, Italian sociologist and economist (born 1845) Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto was an Italian polymath, whose areas of interest included sociology, civil engineering, economics, political science, and philosophy. He made several important contributions to economics, particularly in the study of income distribution and in the analysis of individuals' choices, and was one of the minds behind the Lausanne School of economics. He was also responsible for popularising the use of the term elite in social analysis and contributed to elite theory. He has been described as "one of the last Renaissance scholars. Trained in physics and mathematics, he became a polymath whose genius radiated into nearly all other major fields of knowledge." Read more
19 Aug 1915: Tevfik Fikret, Turkish poet and educator (born 1867) Tevfik Fikret was the pseudonym of Mehmed Tevfik, an Ottoman educator and poet, who is considered the founder of the modern school of Turkish poetry. Read more
19 Aug 1914: Franz Xavier Wernz, German religious leader, 25th Superior General of the Society of Jesus (born 1844) Franz Xavier Wernz, SJ was a German Catholic priest who served as the twenty-fifth superior general of the Society of Jesus from 1906 to 1914. Read more
19 Aug 1900: Jean-Baptiste Accolay, Belgian violinist, composer, and conductor (born 1833) Jean-Baptiste Accolay was a Belgian violin teacher, violinist, conductor, and composer of the romantic period. His best-known composition is his one-movement student concerto in A minor. It was written in 1868, originally for violin and orchestra. Read more
19 Aug 1895: John Wesley Hardin, American Old West outlaw, gunfighter (born 1853) John Wesley Hardin was an American Old West outlaw, gunfighter, lawyer and controversial folk icon. Hardin often got into trouble with the law from an early age. He killed his first man at the age of 15, claiming he did so in self-defense. Read more
19 Aug 1889: Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, French author, poet, and playwright (born 1838) Jean-Marie-Mathias-Philippe-Auguste, comte de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam was a French symbolist writer. His family called him Mathias while his friends called him Villiers; he would also use the name Auguste when publishing some of his books. Read more
19 Aug 1883: Jeremiah S. Black, American lawyer and politician, 24th United States Attorney General (born 1810) Jeremiah Sullivan Black was an American statesman and lawyer. He served as a justice on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (1851–1857) and as the Court's Chief Justice (1851–1854). He also served in the Cabinet of President James Buchanan, first as Attorney General (1857–1860), and then Secretary of State (1860–1861). Read more
19 Aug 1822: Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre, French mathematician and astronomer (born 1749) Jean Baptiste Joseph, chevalier Delambre was a French mathematician, astronomer, historian of astronomy, and geodesist. He was also director of the Paris Observatory, and author of well-known books on the history of astronomy from ancient times to the 18th century. He is known for his expedition to gather geodetical measurements in order to define the metre. Read more
19 Aug 1808: Fredrik Henrik af Chapman, Swedish admiral and shipbuilder (born 1721) Vice-Admiral Fredrik Henrik af Chapman was a Swedish Navy officer, shipwright and scientist. Serving as the manager of the Karlskrona shipyard from 1782 to 1793, Chapman has been credited as the first person to apply scientific methods to shipbuilding and is considered to be the first naval architect. Read more

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