19 July - Definition and Overview

July 19 is the 200th day (201st in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 165 days remaining.

Events

• 711 - Moslem forces under Tariq ibn Ziyad defeat the Visigoths led by their king Roderic.
• 1333 - Battle of Halidon Hill: the final battle of the Wars of Scottish Independence
• 1553 - Lady Jane Grey is replaced by Mary I of England as Queen of England after having that title for just nine days.
• 1848 - Women's rights: The two day Women's Rights Convention opens in Seneca Falls, New York and the "Bloomers" are introduced at the feminist convention.
• 1862 - American Civil War: Morgan's Raid - At Buffington Island in Ohio, Confederate General John Hunt Morgan's raid into the north is mostly thwarted when a large group of his men are captured while trying to escape across the Ohio River.
• 1870 - Franco-Prussian War: France declares war on Prussia.
• 1873 - William Gosse becomes the first European to discover Ayers Rock (Uluru) and names it in honour of South Australian Premier Sir Henry Ayers.
• 1879 - Doc Holliday kills for the first time after a man shoots up Holliday's New Mexico saloon.
• 1940 - World War II: Battle of Cape Spada between the Royal Navy and the Regia Marina; the Italian light cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni sinks, with 121 casualities.
• 1942 - World War II: Battle of the Atlantic - German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz orders the last U-boats to withdraw from their United States Atlantic coast postions in response to the an effective American convoy system.
• 1943 - World War II: Rome is bombed by the Allies for the first time in the war.
• 1945 - Montgomery Ward is seized by United States Army troops at the direction of Attorney General Francis Biddle because of its refusal to obey National War Labor Board orders. Montgomery Ward chairman Seward Avery is carried out of his office by troops
• 1948 - Games of the XIV Olympiad opened in London.
• 1964 - Vietnam War: At a rally in Saigon, South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Khanh calls for expanding the war into North Vietnam.
• 1967 - A Piedmont Airlines Boeing 727 and a Cessna 310 collided in mid-air over Hendersonville, North Carolina killing 82
• 1976 - Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal is created.
• 1979 - The Sandinista rebels overthrow the US-backed government of the Somoza family in Nicaragua.
• 1985 - US Vice President George H. W. Bush announces that New Hampshire teacher Christa McAuliffe will become the first schoolteacher to ride aboard the Space Shuttle (see Space Shuttle Challenger).
• 1989 - A Douglas DC-10 carrying United Airlines flight 232 crashes in Sioux City, Iowa killing 112 but due to extraordinary efforts by the pilot and his crew, 184 on board survive.
• 2001 - UK politician and novelist Jeffrey Archer, Lord Archer of Weston-Super-Mare, is sentenced to four years in prison for perjury and perverting the course of justice.

Births

• 1789 - John Martin, English painter
• 1814 - Samuel Colt, inventor (d. 1862)
• 1819 - Gottfried Keller, writer (d. 1890)
• 1834 - Edgar Degas, impressionist painter (d. 1917)
• 1860 - Lizzie Borden, accused murderess (d. 1927)
• 1875 - Alice Dunbar Nelson, author, poet (d. 1935)
• 1876 - Joseph Fielding Smith, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1972)
• 1883 - Max Fleischer, animator, film producer (d. 1992)
• 1893 - Vladimir Mayakovsky, poet (d. 1930)
• 1894 - Khawaja Nazimuddin, second Prime Minister of Pakistan (d. 1965)
• 1896 - A.J. Cronin, writer (d. 1981)
• 1898 - Herbert Marcuse, communist philosopher (d. 1979)
• 1917 - William Scranton, U.S. politician
• 1921 - Rosalyn Yalow, medical physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1977
• 1922 - George McGovern, former US presidential candidate
• 1934 - Francisco Sá Carneiro, Prime Minister of Portugal (1980; died in office).
• 1946 - Ilie Nastase, Romanian ex-tennis player
• 1947 - Brian May, guitarist in rock band Queen
• 1965 - Stuart Scott, sportscaster
• 1973 - Scott Walker, NHL hockey player
• 1978 - Topher Grace, actor
• 1983 - Paul McKane, Irish student rights activist
• 1989 - Brian Hughes, actor, movie maker, writer, politic, guitarist, pianist, musician

Deaths

• 1061 - Pope Nicholas II (or July 27)
• 1374 - Petrarch, poet (b. 1304)
• 1415 - Philippa of Lancaster, consort queen of Portugal (from the plague)
• 1857 - Stefano Franscini, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1796)
• 1810 - Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz Queen of Prussia
• 1850 - Margaret Fuller, writer (b. 1810)
• 1910 - Johann Gottfried Galle, German astronomer (b. 1812)
• 1947 - Aung San, Burmese nationalist, assassinated
• 1965 - Clyde Beatty, circus performer, big game hunter
• 1965 - Syngman Rhee, first President of South Korea
• 1972 - Hezekiah M. Washburn, missionary (b. 1884)
• 1980 - Nihat Erim, former Turkish Prime Minister assassinated
• 1985 - Janusz A. Zajdel, Polish science fiction writer
• 2002 - Alan Lomax, documenter of blues and folk songs
• 2003 - Pierre Graber, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1908)
• 2003 - Bill Bright, evangelist, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ

Holidays and observances

• Roman festivals - Lucaria
• Malaysia - Birthday of Yang di-Pertuan Besar of Ng Sembilan
• Myanmar - Martyr's Day
• Nicaragua - National Liberation Day
• Catholic - Feast of St. Vincent De Paul

July 18 - July 20 - June 19 - August 19 -- listing of all days