On this day: July 19

Events on July 19

• 484 Leontius, Roman usurper, is crowned Eastern emperor at Tarsus (modern Turkey). He is recognized in Antioch and makes it his capital. Wikipedia
• 998 Arab–Byzantine wars: After initial Byzantine gains at the Battle of Apamea, a lone Kurdish rider killed Byzantine commander Damian Dalassenos, allowing Fatimid troops to turn the tide of the battle. Wikipedia
• 998 Arab–Byzantine wars: Battle of Apamea: Fatimids defeat a Byzantine army near Apamea. Wikipedia
• 1817 Georg Anton Schäffer was forced to depart for China after his unsuccessful attempt to seize the Hawaiian Kingdom for the Russian Empire. Wikipedia
• 1843 SS Great Britain, the first ocean-going ship with both an iron hull and a screw propeller, was launched in Bristol, England. Wikipedia
• 1845 Great New York City Fire of 1845: The last great fire to affect Manhattan begins early in the morning and is subdued that afternoon. The fire kills four firefighters and 26 civilians and destroys 345 buildings. Wikipedia
• 1848 The two-day Seneca Falls Convention, the first women's-rights and feminist convention held in the United States, opened in Seneca Falls, New York. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1864 Taiping Rebellion: Third Battle of Nanking: The Qing dynasty finally defeats the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Wikipedia
• 1916 First World War: The "worst 24 hours in Australia's entire history" occurred when Australian forces unsuccessfully attacked German defences at Fromelles, France. Wikipedia
• 1916 World War I: Battle of Fromelles: British and Australian troops attack German trenches as part of the Battle of the Somme. Wikipedia
• 1934 The rigid airship USS Macon surprises the USS Houston near Clipperton Island with a mail delivery for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, demonstrating its potential for tracking ships at sea. Wikipedia
• 1940 Field Marshal Ceremony: First occasion in World War II that Adolf Hitler appoints field marshals due to military achievements. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1947 Prime Minister of the shadow Burmese government, Bogyoke Aung San and eight others are assassinated. Wikipedia
• 1952 Opening of the Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. Wikipedia
• 1964 Vietnam War: At a rally in Saigon, South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Khánh calls for expanding the war into North Vietnam. Wikipedia
• 1967 Piedmont Airlines Flight 22, a Piedmont Airlines Boeing 727-22, and a twin-engine Cessna 310 collide over Hendersonville, North Carolina, USA. Both aircraft are destroyed and all passengers and crew are killed, including John T. McNaughton, an advisor to Robert McNamara. Wikipedia
• 1972 Dhofar Rebellion: British SAS units help the Omani government against Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman rebels in the Battle of Mirbat. Wikipedia
• 1979 The Sandinista rebels overthrow the government of the Somoza family in Nicaragua. Wikipedia
• 1980 Opening of the Summer Olympics in Moscow. Wikipedia
• 1981 In a private meeting with U.S. President Ronald Reagan, French President François Mitterrand reveals the existence of the Farewell Dossier, a collection of documents showing the Soviet Union had been stealing American technological research and development. Wikipedia
• 1992 A car bomb killed the anti-Mafia judge Paolo Borsellino and five policemen in Palermo, Italy, less than two months after the murder of Borsellino's friend and colleague Giovanni Falcone. Wikipedia
• 2011 Guinean President Alpha Condé survives an attempted assassination and coup d'état at his residence in Conakry. Wikipedia
• 2013 The NASA spacecraft Cassini took a photograph of Saturn with Earth in the distance (detail pictured), for which people were invited to "wave at Saturn". Wikipedia
• 2018 The Knesset passes the controversial Nationality Bill, which defines the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. Wikipedia

Born on July 19

• 810 Muhammad al-Bukhari, Persian scholar (died 870) Wikipedia
• 1223 Baibars, sultan of Egypt (died 1277) Wikipedia
• 1814 Samuel Colt, American businessman, founded the Colt's Manufacturing Company (died 1862) Wikipedia
• 1819 Gottfried Keller, Swiss author, poet, and playwright (died 1890) Wikipedia
• 1834 Edgar Degas, French painter, sculptor, and illustrator (died 1917) Wikipedia
• 1835 Justo Rufino Barrios, Guatemalan president (died 1885) Wikipedia
• 1884 Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, British-born German nobleman and Nazi politician (died 1954) Wikipedia
• 1890 George II of Greece (died 1947) Wikipedia
• 1893 Vladimir Mayakovsky, Russian actor, playwright, and poet (died 1930) Wikipedia
• 1894 Percy Spencer, American physicist and inventor of the microwave oven (died 1969) Wikipedia
• 1896 A. J. Cronin, Scottish physician and novelist (died 1981) Wikipedia
• 1898 Herbert Marcuse, German-American sociologist and philosopher (died 1979) Wikipedia
• 1921 Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2011) Wikipedia
• 1928 Choi Yun-chil, South Korean long-distance runner and a two-time national champion in the marathon (died 2020) Wikipedia
• 1947 Brian May, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and astrophysicist Wikipedia
• 1949 Kgalema Motlanthe, South African politician, 3rd President of South Africa Wikipedia
• 1950 Freddy Moore, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2022) Wikipedia
• 1956 Mark Crispin, American computer scientist, designed the IMAP (died 2012) Wikipedia
• 1970 Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish lawyer and politician, First Minister of Scotland Wikipedia
• 1971 Vitali Klitschko, Ukrainian boxer and politician, Mayor of Kyiv Wikipedia
• 1976 Benedict Cumberbatch, English actor Wikipedia
• 1982 Jared Padalecki, American actor Wikipedia

Died on July 19

• 514 Symmachus, pope of the Catholic Church Wikipedia
• 1374 Petrarch, Italian poet and scholar (born 1304) Wikipedia
• 1824 Agustín de Iturbide, Mexican general and emperor (born 1783) Wikipedia
• 1850 Margaret Fuller, American journalist and critic (born 1810) Wikipedia
• 1947 Aung San, Burmese general and politician (born 1915) Wikipedia
• 1965 Syngman Rhee, South Korean journalist and politician, 1st President of South Korea (born 1875) Wikipedia
• 1967 John T. McNaughton, United States Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs and an advisor to Robert McNamara (born 1921) Wikipedia
• 1975 John Alan Coey, American mercenary and medic in the Rhodesian Bush War Wikipedia
• 1980 Hans Morgenthau, German-American political scientist, philosopher, and academic (born 1904) Wikipedia
• 2004 Zenkō Suzuki, Japanese politician, 70th Prime Minister of Japan (born 1911) Wikipedia
• 2014 James Garner, American actor (born 1928) Wikipedia
• 2016 Garry Marshall, American actor, director, and producer (born 1934) Wikipedia
• 2019 Rutger Hauer, Dutch actor, director, and producer (born 1944) Wikipedia
• 2024 Nguyễn Phú Trọng, Vietnamese politician, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (born 1944) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Palace Day
• Christian feast day: Aurea of Córdoba Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Bernold, Bishop of Utrecht Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: John Plessington Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Justa and Rufina Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Kirdjun (or Abakerazum) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Macrina the Younger, Sister of St. Basil the Great Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Symmachus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: July 19 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Martyrs' Day (Myanmar) Wikipedia
• Sandinista Day or Liberation Day (Nicaragua) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “July 19” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.