1506 – Alexander Jagiellon, Grand Duke of Lithuania (1492-1506) and King of Poland (1501-6), dies at 45
1680 – Jean Eudes, French catholic priest, founder of the Eudists, dies at 78
1795 – Friedrich Hartmann Graf, German composer, dies at 67
1889 – Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, French writer (Contes cruels), dies at 60
1959 – Claude Grahame-White, English aviation pioneer who was the 1st to make a night flight, dies at 79
1962 – Kerstin Hesselgren, Swedish politician, 1st woman in Swedish parliament, dies at 90
1963 – Kathleen Parlow, Canadian violinist, and educator, dies at 72
1970 – Paweł Jasienica, Polish historian, dies at 60
2008 – Marguerite Empey [Diane Webber], American model and Playboy playmate (May 1955, Feb 1956), dies at 76
2017 – Janusz Glowacki, Polish novelist (Give Us This Day), playwright (Cinders) and screenwriter (Hunting Flies), dies at 78
Author: gil7
Historical Events for 19th August 2026
1768 – Empress Catherine II commissions a new version of Saint Isaac’s Cathedral in St. Petersburg, Russia
1911 – MLB New York Giants pitcher Christy Mathewson loses against the Cincinnati Reds after 22 consecutive wins against the team
1939 – 37.6 cm of rainfall in Tuckerton, NJ (state record)
1969 – Film adaptation of Arlo Guthrie’s song “Alice’s Restaurant,” directed by Arthur Penn and starring Guthrie, premieres
1979 – Soviet Cosmonauts Vladimir Lyakhov and Valery Ryumin return to Earth aboard Soyuz 34 after a record 175 days in space
2001 – German Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher wins the Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring to clinch his fourth F1 World Drivers’ Championship and equal Alain Prost’s record of 51 Grand Prix victories
2013 – 37 pilgrims are killed in a train accident in India
2020 – Golfing dinner termed #GolfGate, appearing to flout COVID-19 restrictions and attended by Irish political figures, prompts two politicians to later resign
Today in History for 19th August 2026
Historical Events
1745 – Jacobite Rising 1745: Bonnie Prince Charlie raises his standard at Glenfinnan, Scotland, igniting the second Jacobite rebellion
1897 – First electric taxis drive in London
1931 – Lefty Grove wins an AL record-tying 16th consecutive game
1962 – Homer Blancos plays his finest round in golf, shooting a 55
2018 – Two more earthquakes hit Lombok in Indonesia, killing 14 people two weeks after previous earthquakes
Famous Birthdays
1824 – Georg Goltermann, German cellist and composer, born in Hanover, Kingdom of Hanover, German Confederation (d. 1898)
1963 – John Stamos, American actor (General Hospital; Full House; ER) and musician, born in Cypress, California
1972 – Elizabeth Wolfgramm, American singer (The Jets), born in Salt Lake City, Utah
1977 – Callum Blue, English actor (Dead Like Me, The Tudors), born in London, England
1982 – Melissa Fumero [Gallo], American actress (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), born in Lyndhurst, New Jersey
Famous Deaths
1900 – Jean-Baptiste Accolay, Belgian composer, dies at 67
1967 – Isaac Deutscher, Polish-English historian (Stalin/Trotsky biography), dies at 60
1987 – Hayden Rorke, American actor (I Dream of Jeannie, When Worlds Collide), dies from multiple myeloma at 76
1992 – Norvel Lee, American boxer (Olympic gold 1952), dies at 67
2016 – Jack Riley, American actor (The Bob Newhart Show – “Mr. Carlin”; Rugrats -“Stu Pickles”), dies of pneumonia at 80
Famous Deaths for 18th August 2026
1642 – Guido Reni, Italian Baroque painter, dies at 66
1803 – James Beattie, Scottish poet and philosopher (Essay on Truth), dies at 67
1896 – Frederick Crouch, British-American cellist, composer (“Kathleen Mavourneen”), Confederate soldier, and music teacher, dies at 88
1980 – Norman Cazden, American composer, educator, and music theorist, dies at 65
1989 – Luis Carlos Galan, Colombian presidential candidate, murdered
2004 – Hiram Fong, American businessman and politician (U.S. Senator from Hawaii), dies at 97
2009 – Kim Dae-jung, 8th President of South Korea (1998-2003) and 2000 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, dies at 85
2010 – Kenneth “Kenny” Edwards, American musician and singer-songwriter (The Stone Poneys, Bryndle), dies of cancer and a blood disorder at 64
2023 – Garry Adey, English rugby union number 8 (2 Tests; Leicester Tigers 381 games) and businessman (Executive Chairman The Adey Group), dies at 78
2025 – Vivian Ayers Allen, American cultural activist, novelist and poet (Hawk, Spice of Dawns), dies at 102
Historical Events for 18th August 2026
440 – St Sixtus III ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1612 – Pendle Witch Trial begins with 10 people accused of witchcraft in Lancaster, England; the key witness is a nine-year-old boy
1958 – Verne Gagne defeats Edouard Carpentier in Omaha to become NWA champion
1960 – The first photograph bounces off a satellite between Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Richardson, Texas
1976 – Korean axe murder incident: two US soldiers tasked with cutting down a poplar tree blocking the view of UN observers are killed by North Koreans, claiming it was planted by Kim Il-Sung in the Korean Demilitarized Zone
1986 – WYSP 94.1 FM in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, begins simulcasting the Howard Stern Radio Show from New York City’s WXRK
1996 – Record 6,654 tap dancers in a single routine at Macy’s Tap-O-mania in New York City
1996 – British Open Women’s Golf, Woburn, Duke’s Course: Emilee Klein wins by 7 strokes ahead of fellow Americans Amy Alcott and Penny Hammel
Today in History for 18th August 2026
Historical Events
1926 – England regains Ashes with fifth Test cricket win to take series 1-0
1954 – James E. Wilkins is the first Black person to attend a US cabinet meeting
1958 – Fidel Castro delivers a speech on Radio Rebelde, the clandestine station founded by Che Guevara to broadcast news and revolutionary messages from the Sierra Maestra mountains
2013 – Six people are killed by a bomb blast on a bus in West Bengal, India
2025 – Leaders from across Europe join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a hastily arranged summit meeting with US President Trump at the White House
Famous Birthdays
1938 – Orestes Quércia, Brazilian politician (Governor of São Paulo, 1987-91), born in Pedregulho, Brazil (d. 2010)
1939 – Molly Bee, American actress (Pinky Lee Show), born in Oklahoma City (d. 2009)
1966 – Gustavo Charif, Argentine artist, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina
1968 – Mark Robinson, American politician, 2024 North Carolina nominee for Governor, born in Greensboro, North Carolina
1973 – Clarence Benford, American football tight end (Seattle Seahawks), born in Windsor Forest, Georgia
Famous Deaths
1797 – Josiah Spode, English potter and founder of Spode pottery works, dies at 64
1901 – Richard Kleinmichel, composer, dies at 54
1943 – Ali-Agha Shikhlinski, Russian-Azerbaijani general, dies at 78
1952 – Ralph Byrd, American actor (Dick Tracy TV Show, SOS Coast Guard), dies from a heart attack at 43
2014 – Don Pardo, American television announcer (Jeopardy, Saturday Night Live), dies at 96
Famous Deaths for 17th August 2026
1777 – Giuseppe Scarlatti, Italian composer, dies at 54
1786 – Frederick the Great, King of Prussia (1740-86), dies at 74
1834 – Husein Gradaščević, Bosniak general, dies at 31
1914 – James Grierson, British general, dies of an aneurism at 55
1935 – Charlotte Perkins Gilman, American feminist, writer and lecturer for social reform, dies at 75
1961 – Carlos Salzedo, French-American piano prodigy, harpist, composer, educator (Curtis Institue; Juilliard), and new music advocate (co-founder of International Composers’ Guild), dies at 76
1979 – Vivian Vance [Jones], American stage and screen actress (I Love Lucy – “Ethel Mertz”; The Lucy Show – “Viv”), dies of cancer at 70
1987 – Charles Drummond de Andrade, Brazilian poet (Claro Enigma), dies at 84
2025 – Sheila R. Canby, American historian and curator of Islamic art (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009-19), dies of complications of cancer at 76
2025 – Joe Hickerson, American folk music singer and archivist (Director of the Library of Congress American Folklife Center, 1963-98), dies at 89
Historical Events for 17th August 2026
1908 – Projection in Paris of the first animated cartoon, “Fantasmagorie,” created by Émile Cohl
1918 – Turkish troops overthrow Caucasus
1933 – MLB player Lou Gehrig plays his record 1,308th consecutive game
1944 – German field marshal Walter Model replaces Günther von Kluge in Normandy
1951 – Hurricane winds drive six ships ashore in Kingston, Jamaica
1959 – Columbia Records releases “Kind of Blue,” a studio album by American jazz trumpeter and composer Miles Davis, leading a sextet featuring saxophonist John Coltrane and pianist Bill Evans; the work is widely considered a masterpiece and is one of the most influential and best-selling albums of Davis’ long career
1978 – First successful crossing of the Atlantic by balloon is completed by Americans Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman aboard Double Eagle II
1986 – Rioting occurs at a DMC concert at the Long Beach Convention Center in California; 40 people are injured
Today in History for 17th August 2026
Historical Events
1891 – People’s Bath, the first public bathhouse with showers, opens in New York City
1948 – Alger Hiss denies ever being a Communist agent
1964 – Boycott scores his first Test cricket century: 113 against Australia at The Oval
1989 – Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken plays in his 1,208th consecutive game and moves to 3rd place all-time behind NY Yankees’ Lou Gehrig and Boston Red Sox/NY Yankees’ Everett Scott
2008 – China wins its 33rd gold medal of the Beijing Olympics by defeating Singapore in the table tennis women’s team event, achieving its most successful Olympiad ever by winning all 10 singles and all 5 doubles matches
Famous Birthdays
1904 – Leopold Nowak, Austrian musicologist (International Bruckner Society; Mozart’s Requiem), and educator (Vienna University, 1932-73), born in Vienna, Austria (d. 1991)
1929 – Francis Gary Powers, American spy captured by the USSR after his U-2 spy was shot plane in 1959, born in Jenkins, Kentucky (d. 1977)
1955 – Kevin Welch, American country songwriter (“True Love Never Dies”), born in Long Beach, California
1960 – Johnny Bumphus, American boxer (WBA super lightweight title 1984), born in Tacoma, Washington (d. 2020)
1993 – Ederson [de Moraes], Brazilian football goalkeeper (Manchester City, Brazil), born in Osasco, Brazil
Famous Deaths
1785 – Jonathan Trumbull, American politician and statesman during the American Revolutionary wars, Governor of Connecticut (1769-84), dies at 74
1887 – Franz Commer, German composer, dies at 74
1914 – James Grierson, British general, dies of an aneurism at 55
1987 – Rudolf Hess, German Nazi official (Deputy Fuhrer who dramatically escaped to Britain in 1941, sentenced to life in Spandau Prison), commits suicide at 93
2014 – Caterina De Nave, New Zealand television producer (Shortland Street), dies of leukaemia at 67
Famous Deaths for 16th August 2026
1864 – Victor Girardey, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies in battle at 27
1895 – Samuel Bell Maxey, American Brigadier General in the Confederate Army and Senator from Texas (Democratic: 1875-87), dies at 70
1905 – Jamie Anderson, Scottish golfer (British Open 1877-79), dies at 63
1983 – Earl Averill, American Baseball HOF outfielder (6 × MLB All-Star 1933–1938; Cleveland Indians), dies at 81
1997 – Gerard McLarnon, British-Irish actor and writer (The Wrestler’s Honeymoon), dies at 82
2004 – Carl Mydans, American photojournalist (Life Magazine, 1936-72), dies at 97
2020 – Chetan Chauhan, Indian cricket batsman (40 Tests @ 31.57, 16 x 50; Maharashtra, Delhi), dies of COVID-19 at 73
2022 – Aydın Yelken, Turkish soccer forward (9 caps; Karagümrük, Fenerbahçe, Altay, İzmirspor), dies at 83
2023 – Renata Scotto, Italian soprano (Metropolitan Opera, 1965-87; La Traviata – “Violetta”) and opera director, dies at 89
2024 – Countess of Airlie [Virginia Ogilvy], British-American Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth II, dies at 91