July 19 - Events

Events

• 64 – Great Fire of Rome: a fire begins to burn in the merchant area of Rome and soon burns completely out of control. According to a popular, but untrue legend, Nero fiddled as the city burned.
• 484 – Leontius, Roman usurper, is crowned Eastern emperor at Tarsus (modern Turkey). He is recognized in Antioch and makes it his capital.
• 711 – Umayyad conquest of Hispania: Battle of Guadalete – Umayyad forces under Tariq ibn Ziyad defeat the Visigoths led by King Roderic.
• 1333 – Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Halidon Hill – The English win a decisive victory over the Scots.
• 1544 – Italian War of 1542–1546: the first Siege of Boulogne begins.
• 1545 – The Tudor warship Mary Rose sinks off Portsmouth; in 1982 the wreck is salvaged in one of the most complex and expensive projects in the history of maritime archaeology.
• 1553 – Lady Jane Grey is replaced by Mary I of England as Queen of England after only nine days of reign.
• 1588 – Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines – The Spanish Armada is sighted in the English Channel.
• 1701 – Representatives of the Iroquois Confederacy sign the Nanfan Treaty, ceding a large territory north of the Ohio River to England.
• 1702 – Great Northern War: A numerically superior Polish-Saxon army of Augustus II the Strong, operating from an advantageous defensive position, is defeated by a Swedish army half its size under the command of King Charles XII in the Battle of Klissow.
• 1832 – The British Medical Association is founded as the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association by Sir Charles Hastings at a meeting in the Board Room of the Worcester Infirmary.
• 1843 – Brunel's steamship the SS Great Britain is launched, becoming the first ocean-going craft with an iron hull or screw propeller and becoming the largest vessel afloat in the world.
• 1848 – Women's rights: a two-day Women's Rights Convention opens in Seneca Falls, New York.
• 1863 – 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.
• 1864 – Taiping Rebellion: Third Battle of Nanking – The Qing Dynasty finally defeats the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
• 1870 – Franco-Prussian War: France declares war on Prussia.
• 1900 – The first line of the Paris Métro opens for operation.
• 1908 – Dutch football/soccer club Feyenoord was founded
• 1916 – World War I: Battle of Fromelles – British and Australian troops attack German trenches in a prelude to the Battle of the Somme.
• 1919 – Following Peace Day celebrations marking the end of World War I, ex-servicemen riot and burn down Luton Town Hall.
• 1940 – World War II: Battle of Cape Spada – The Royal Navy and the Regia Marina clash; the Italian light cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni sinks, with 121 casualties.
• 1940 – World War II: Army order 112 forms the Intelligence Corps of the British Army.
• 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 positions in response to the effective American convoy system.
• 1947 – The Prime Minister of the shadow Burmese government, Bogyoke Aung San and 6 of his cabinet and 2 non-cabinet members are assassinated by Galon U Saw.
• 1947 – Korean politician Yuh Woon-Hyung is assassinated.
• 1952 – The 1952 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad, were opened in Helsinki, Finland.
• 1961 – Tunisia imposes a blockade on the French naval base at Bizerte; the French would capture the entire town four days later.
• 1963 – Joe Walker flies a North American X-15 to a record altitude of 106,010 meters (347,800 feet) on X-15 Flight 90. Exceeding an altitude of 100 km, this flight qualifies as a human spaceflight under international convention.
• 1964 – Vietnam War: at a rally in Saigon, South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Khanh calls for expanding the war into North Vietnam.
• 1972 – Dhofar Rebellion: British SAS units help the Omani government against Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman rebels in the Battle of Mirbat.
• 1976 – Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal is created.
• 1979 – The Sandinista rebels overthrow the government of the Somoza family in Nicaragua.
• 1981 – In a private meeting with U.S. President Ronald Reagan, French Prime Minister François Mitterrand reveals the existence of the Farewell Dossier, a collection of documents showing that the Soviets had been stealing American technological research and development.
• 1983 – The first three-dimensional reconstruction of a human head in a CT is published.
• 1985 – The Val di Stava dam collapses killing 268 people in Val di Stava, Italy.
• 1989 – United Airlines Flight 232 crashes in Sioux City, Iowa killing 112 of the 296 passengers.
• 1992 – A car bomb placed by mafia with collaboration of Italian intelligence kills Judge Paolo Borsellino and five members of his escort
• 1997 – The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army resumes a ceasefire to end their 25-year campaign to end British rule in Northern Ireland.