This Day in History – August 19
Today is the 231st day of 2013. There are 134 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
2002: An Islamic high court in the Katsina state of Nigeria, upheld a sentence of death by stoning for Amina Lawal, who had been convicted of adultery by a village court in March for having a child more than nine months after her divorce.
OTHER EVENTS
1587: Pope Sixtus V proclaims Catholic Crusade for invasion of England.
1936: Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca is shot by supporters of Franco after being forced to dig his own grave.
1942: About 6,000 Canadian and British soldiers launch a disastrous raid against the Germans at Dieppe, France, suffering 50 per cent casualties.
1945 – Start of the August Revolution against French rule in Vietnam, led by Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh.
1953: In Iran, the nationalist government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq collapses in a US-backed military coup; Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi returns to the country in triumph.
1955: Severe flooding in US north-east caused by Hurricane Diane claims 200 lives.
1960: Soviet scientists safely bring back to earth a 4,600-kilogramme (10,120-lb) satellite carrying two dogs into orbit. The dogs were sent into space the day before.
1966: More than 500 people die in earthquake in eastern Turkey.
1971: General Duong van Minh withdraws from presidential elections in South Vietnam, leaving President Nguyen van Thieu unopposed.
1979: Pope John Paul II makes major diplomatic gesture by calling for resumption of ties between Vatican and China’s Roman Catholics.
1982: Svetlana Savitskaya is the second Russian woman to go into space when she is launched with two crewmates aboard a Soyuz T-7 spacecraft.
1989: India’s Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi says his country must play bigger role in world affairs as superpowers shift to greater dialogue.
1990: Refugees fleeing occupied Kuwait say resistance fighters are staging attacks including suicide bombings and that Iraq has been unable to wipe them out.
1991: Communist hardliners stage coup of Soviet President Mikhail S Gorbachev.
1995: On their way to deliver a US-sponsored peace plan to the Bosnian government, three American peace negotiators are killed when their carrier plunges from a mountain road on Mount Igman outside Sarajevo.
1996: Philippine President Fidel Valdez Ramos and a rebel leader announce a settlement of the 26-year Muslim secessionist rebellion.
1999: Nearly 150,000 demonstrators converge on Belgrade to demand Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic resign. Protests began after the NATO air campaign leaves the country impoverished, isolated and without control over the southern province of Kosovo.
2005: A former Hutu rebel leader is elected Burundi’s president, culminating a three-year peace process after almost 12 years of ethnic war. Pierre Nkurunziza appeals for support from all Burundians to heal ethnic divisions and rebuild a shattered economy.
2011: Moammar Gadhafi’s forces launch a fierce counterattack in a strategic western city of Zawiya, firing rockets, mortar shells and anti-aircraft guns in a bid to keep the rebels from gaining complete control and advancing toward the capital, only 30 miles (50 kilometres)away
2012: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange portrays himself as a victim of an American “witch-hunt” over his s secret-spilling website in a defiant address from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has holed up to avoid extradition to face sex assault allegations.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAY
Jeanne Becu du Barry, French mistress of Louis XV (1746-1793); Bernard Baruch, US financier (1870-1976); Orville Wright, US aviation pioneer (1871-1948); Georges Enesco, Romanian composer (1881-1955); Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, French fashion designer (1883-1971); Ogden Nash, US poet (1902-1971); Bill Clinton, US president (1946-); Peter Gallagher, US actor (1955-); Adam Arkin, US actor (1956-).
— AP