July 19 facts for kids

July 19 is the 200th day of the year (201st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 165 days remain until the end of the year.

Every day is special, and July 19th has seen many important moments throughout history! From ancient battles to exciting discoveries and the birth of famous people, let's explore some of the most interesting events that happened on this day.

Historic Events on July 19th

Ancient Times and Early Middle Ages

• AD 64 – A huge fire, known as the Great Fire of Rome, began in the city of Rome. It caused a lot of damage and burned for six days, destroying about half of the city.
• 484 – Leontius, who tried to become the Roman emperor without being chosen, was crowned in Tarsus (which is now in Turkey). He made Antioch his capital city.
• 711 – In the Umayyad conquest of Hispania, a big battle called the Battle of Guadalete took place. Forces from the Umayyad Caliphate led by Tariq ibn Ziyad defeated the Visigoths and their king, Roderic.
• 939 – King Ramiro II of León won a major victory against the Moorish army, led by Caliph Abd-al-Rahman III, near the city of Simancas in the Battle of Simancas.
• 998 – During the Arab–Byzantine wars, the Fatimids defeated a Byzantine army in the Battle of Apamea near Apamea.

Medieval and Early Modern Eras

• 1333 – In the Wars of Scottish Independence, the English army won a very important battle against the Scots at the Battle of Halidon Hill.
• 1544 – The first Siege of Boulogne began as part of the Italian War.
• 1545 – The famous Tudor warship Mary Rose sank off the coast of Portsmouth. Many years later, in 1982, the ship's wreck was brought up from the sea in a very difficult and expensive project to study its history.
• 1553 – The plan to make Lady Jane Grey the Queen of England failed after only nine days.
• 1588 – During the Anglo-Spanish War, the huge Spanish Armada was seen in the English Channel. This led to the famous Battle of Gravelines.

17th to 19th Century Milestones

• 1701 – Leaders of the Iroquois Confederacy signed the Nanfan Treaty. This agreement gave a large area of land north of the Ohio River to England.
• 1702 – In the Great Northern War, a Polish-Saxon army, which was much larger and in a good defensive spot, was defeated by a smaller Swedish army led by King Charles XII at the Battle of Klissow.
• 1817 – Georg Anton Schäffer failed in his attempt to take over the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi for a Russian company and had to leave Kauaʻi.
• 1821 – George IV of the United Kingdom was crowned king.
• 1832 – The British Medical Association was started by Sir Charles Hastings in Worcester. This group helps doctors and improves healthcare.
• 1843 – The amazing steamship Great Britain, designed by Brunel, was launched. It was the first ocean-going ship with an iron body and a screw propeller, making it the largest ship in the world at the time.
• 1845 – A huge fire, the Great New York City Fire of 1845, started in Manhattan and destroyed 345 buildings. It also sadly caused the deaths of four firefighters and 26 civilians.
• 1848 – The first ever Women's Rights Convention began in Seneca Falls, New York. This was a very important meeting for the start of the women's rights movement.
• 1863 – During the American Civil War, Confederate General John Hunt Morgan's raid into the north was mostly stopped at Buffington Island in Ohio. Many of his men were captured.
• 1864 – The Qing dynasty finally defeated the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the Third Battle of Nanking, ending a long rebellion.
• 1870 – France declared war on Prussia, starting the Franco-Prussian War.
• 1900 – The first line of the Paris Métro (subway system) opened in Paris.

20th and 21st Century Events

• 1903 – Maurice Garin won the very first Tour de France, a famous bicycle race.
• 1916 – During World War I, British and Australian soldiers attacked German trenches in the Battle of Fromelles, as part of the larger Battle of the Somme.
• 1934 – The airship USS Macon surprised the USS Houston near Clipperton Island by delivering mail to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This showed how useful airships could be for tracking ships far out at sea.
• 1936 – The Spanish Civil War began. Workers' groups in Spain called for a general strike and formed militias to fight against the Nationalist forces.
• 1940 – In World War II, the Royal Navy and the Regia Marina (Italian Navy) fought in the Battle of Cape Spada. The Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni sank.
• 1940 – Adolf Hitler appointed several military leaders as field marshals for their achievements in World War II.
• 1940 – The Intelligence Corps of the British Army was officially formed.
• 1942 – In World War II, the "Second Happy Time" for German submarines ended. The American convoy system became much better at protecting ships, forcing the submarines to return to the central Atlantic.
• 1943 – During World War II, Rome was heavily bombed by over 500 Allied aircraft, causing many casualties.
• 1952 – The Summer Olympics officially opened in Helsinki, Finland.
• 1961 – Tunisia started a blockade against the French naval base at Bizerte. The French took control of the whole town four days later.
• 1963 – Joe Walker flew a North American X-15 aircraft to a record height of 106,010 meters (about 347,800 feet). This flight went above 100 kilometers, which is considered the edge of space, making it a human spaceflight.
• 1964 – In Saigon, South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Khánh called for expanding the Vietnam War into North Vietnam.
• 1967 – Piedmont Airlines Flight 22, a Piedmont Airlines Boeing 727, crashed after colliding with a small plane over Hendersonville, North Carolina, USA. Everyone on both planes died.
• 1969 – U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy was involved in a car crash at Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, which resulted in the death of his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne.
• 1972 – British SAS units helped the Omani government fight against rebels in the Battle of Mirbat.
• 1976 – Sagarmatha National Park was created in Nepal. This park is home to Mount Everest.
• 1977 – The world's first Global Positioning System (GPS) signal was sent from a satellite and received on Earth. This was a huge step for modern navigation.
• 1979 – The Sandinista rebels successfully overthrew the government of the Somoza family in Nicaragua.
• 1979 – The oil tanker SS Atlantic Empress collided with another tanker, causing the largest ever oil spill from a ship.
• 1980 – The Summer Olympics opened in Moscow.
• 1981 – French President François Mitterrand told U.S. President Ronald Reagan about the Farewell Dossier, which showed that the Soviet Union had been secretly stealing American technology.
• 1983 – The first three-dimensional image of a human head from a CT was published.
• 1985 – The Val di Stava dam collapse in Italy killed 268 people.
• 1989 – United Airlines Flight 232 crashed in Sioux City, Iowa, sadly killing 111 people.
• 1997 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) announced a ceasefire, aiming to end their 25-year campaign for Northern Ireland to leave British rule.
• 2011 – Guinean President Alpha Condé survived an attempt to assassinate him and overthrow his government at his home in Conakry.
• 2012 – During the Syrian civil war, the People's Protection Units (YPG) took control of the city of Kobanî without a fight, starting the Rojava conflict in Northeast Syria.
• 2018 – The Knesset (Israel's parliament) passed the Nationality Bill. This law defines the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.

Famous Birthdays on July 19th

Born Before 1900

• 810 – Muhammad al-Bukhari, an important Persian scholar.
• 1223 – Baibars, a powerful sultan of Egypt.
• 1420 – William VIII, Marquess of Montferrat, a nobleman.
• 1569 – Conrad Vorstius, a Dutch theologian.
• 1670 – Richard Leveridge, an English singer and songwriter.
• 1688 – Giuseppe Castiglione, an Italian missionary and painter.
• 1744 – Heinrich Christian Boie, a German author and poet.
• 1759 – Marianna Auenbrugger, an Austrian pianist and composer.
• 1759 – Seraphim of Sarov, a Russian monk and saint.
• 1771 – Thomas Talbot, an Irish-Canadian colonel and politician.
• 1789 – John Martin, an English painter and illustrator.
• 1794 – José Justo Corro, a Mexican politician and president.
• 1800 – Juan José Flores, a Venezuelan general and the first President of Ecuador.
• 1814 – Samuel Colt, an American businessman who founded the Colt's Manufacturing Company, famous for firearms.
• 1819 – Gottfried Keller, a Swiss author and poet.
• 1822 – Princess Augusta of Cambridge.
• 1827 – Mangal Pandey, an Indian soldier.
• 1834 – Edgar Degas, a famous French painter and sculptor.
• 1835 – Justo Rufino Barrios, a Guatemalan president.
• 1842 – Frederic T. Greenhalge, an English-American lawyer and politician, who became the 38th Governor of Massachusetts.
• 1846 – Edward Charles Pickering, an American astronomer and physicist.
• 1849 – Ferdinand Brunetière, a French scholar and critic.
• 1864 – Fiammetta Wilson, an English astronomer.
• 1865 – Georges Friedel, a French mineralogist.
• 1865 – Charles Horace Mayo, an American surgeon and co-founder of the famous Mayo Clinic.
• 1868 – Florence Foster Jenkins, an American soprano singer.
• 1869 – Xenophon Stratigos, a Greek general and politician.
• 1875 – Alice Dunbar Nelson, an American poet and activist.
• 1876 – Joseph Fielding Smith, an American religious leader.
• 1877 – Arthur Fielder, an English cricketer.
• 1881 – Friedrich Dessauer, a German physicist and philosopher.
• 1883 – Max Fleischer, an Austrian-American animator and producer, known for cartoons.
• 1886 – Michael Fekete, a Hungarian-Israeli mathematician.
• 1888 – Enno Lolling, a German physician.
• 1890 – George II of Greece.
• 1892 – Dick Irvin, a Canadian ice hockey player and coach.
• 1893 – Vladimir Mayakovsky, a Russian actor, playwright, and poet.
• 1894 – Aleksandr Khinchin, a Russian mathematician.
• 1894 – Khawaja Nazimuddin, a Bangladeshi-Pakistani politician and the 2nd Prime Minister of Pakistan.
• 1894 – Percy Spencer, an American physicist and the inventor of the microwave oven.
• 1895 – Xu Beihong, a Chinese painter.
• 1896 – A. J. Cronin, a Scottish physician and novelist.
• 1896 – Bob Meusel, an American baseball player.
• 1898 – Herbert Marcuse, a German-American sociologist and philosopher.
• 1899 – Balai Chand Mukhopadhyay, an Indian physician, author, and poet.

Born After 1900

• 1902 – Samudrala Sr., an Indian singer, director, and screenwriter.
• 1904 – Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, an American lawyer.
• 1907 – Isabel Jewell, an American actress.
• 1908 – Daniel Fry, an American known for claiming contact with aliens.
• 1908 – Hans Trippel, a German engineer who developed the Amphicar.
• 1909 – Balamani Amma, an Indian poet.
• 1912 – Peter Leo Gerety, an American religious leader.
• 1913 – Kay Linaker, an American actress and screenwriter.
• 1914 – Marius Russo, an American baseball player.
• 1915 – Åke Hellman, a Finnish painter.
• 1916 – Phil Cavarretta, an American baseball player and manager.
• 1917 – William Scranton, an American politician and ambassador.
• 1919 – Patricia Medina, an English-American actress.
• 1919 – Miltos Sachtouris, a Greek poet.
• 1920 – Robert Mann, an American violinist and composer.
• 1921 – Harold Camping, an American evangelist.
• 1921 – Elizabeth Spencer, an American novelist.
• 1921 – Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, an American physicist and Nobel Prize winner.
• 1922 – George McGovern, an American politician.
• 1922 – Rachel Robinson, an American professor and the widow of baseball legend Jackie Robinson.
• 1923 – Alex Hannum, an American basketball player and coach.
• 1924 – Pat Hingle, an American actor.
• 1924 – Arthur Rankin Jr., an American director and producer.
• 1925 – Sue Thompson, an American singer.
• 1926 – Helen Gallagher, an American actress, singer, and dancer.
• 1928 – Samuel John Hazo, an American author.
• 1929 – Gaston Glock, an Austrian engineer who co-founded Glock Ges.m.b.H., known for pistols.
• 1932 – Buster Benton, an American singer and guitarist.
• 1934 – Francisco de Sá Carneiro, a Portuguese lawyer and politician, who became the 111th Prime Minister of Portugal.
• 1935 – Nick Koback, an American baseball player.
• 1936 – David Colquhoun, an English pharmacologist.
• 1937 – George Hamilton IV, an American country singer.
• 1937 – Richard Jordan, an American actor.
• 1938 – Jayant Narlikar, an Indian astrophysicist and astronomer.
• 1941 – Vikki Carr, an American singer.
• 1941 – Neelie Kroes, a Dutch politician and diplomat.
• 1943 – Han Sai Por, a Singaporean sculptor.
• 1944 – Tim McIntire, an American actor and singer.
• 1945 – Paule Baillargeon, a Canadian actress and director.
• 1946 – Alan Gorrie, a Scottish singer and musician.
• 1946 – Ilie Năstase, a Romanian tennis player and politician.
• 1947 – Bernie Leadon, an American guitarist and songwriter.
• 1947 – Brian May, an English singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer, and astrophysicist, famous for being in the band Queen.
• 1948 – Keith Godchaux, an American keyboard player.
• 1949 – Kgalema Motlanthe, a South African politician and the 3rd President of South Africa.
• 1950 – Per-Kristian Foss, a Norwegian politician.
• 1951 – Abel Ferrara, an American director and producer.
• 1952 – Allen Collins, an American guitarist and songwriter.
• 1953 – Howard Schultz, an American businessman and author, known for Starbucks.
• 1954 – Mark O'Donnell, an American playwright.
• 1955 – Roger Binny, an Indian cricketer.
• 1955 – Dalton McGuinty, a Canadian lawyer and politician.
• 1956 – Mark Crispin, an American computer scientist who designed the IMAP.
• 1958 – Brad Drewett, an Australian tennis player.
• 1958 – Robert Gibson, an American wrestler.
• 1958 – David Robertson, an American conductor.
• 1959 – Juan J. Campanella, an Argentinian director and screenwriter.
• 1960 – Atom Egoyan, an Egyptian-Canadian director.
• 1961 – Harsha Bhogle, an Indian journalist.
• 1961 – Maria Filatova, a Russian gymnast.
• 1961 – Lisa Lampanelli, an American comedian and actress.
• 1961 – Hideo Nakata, a Japanese director.
• 1961 – Campbell Scott, an American actor and director.
• 1962 – Anthony Edwards, an American actor and director.
• 1963 – Garth Nix, an Australian author.
• 1964 – Teresa Edwards, an American basketball player.
• 1964 – Masahiko Kondō, a Japanese singer and race car driver.
• 1965 – Evelyn Glennie, a Scottish musician, known for her percussion skills.
• 1965 & Claus-Dieter Wollitz, a German footballer and manager.
• 1967 – Yael Abecassis, an Israeli model and actress.
• 1968 – Robb Flynn, an American singer and guitarist.
• 1968 – Pavel Kuka, a Czech footballer.
• 1968 – Jim Norton, an American comedian and actor.
• 1969 – Matthew Libatique, an American cinematographer.
• 1970 – Bill Chen, an American poker player and software designer.
• 1970 – Christopher Luxon, a New Zealand politician and the 42nd Prime Minister of New Zealand.
• 1970 – Nicola Sturgeon, a Scottish lawyer and politician, who became the First Minister of Scotland.
• 1971 – Vitali Klitschko, a Ukrainian boxer and politician, who became the Mayor of Kyiv.
• 1972 – Ebbe Sand, a Danish footballer.
• 1973 – Martin Powell, an English keyboard player.
• 1974 – Vince Spadea, an American tennis player.
• 1975 – Luca Castellazzi, an Italian footballer.
• 1976 – Benedict Cumberbatch, a famous English actor.
• 1977 – Jean-Sébastien Aubin, a Canadian ice hockey player.
• 1979 – Rick Ankiel, an American baseball player.
• 1979 – Dilhara Fernando, a Sri Lankan cricketer.
• 1980 – Xavier Malisse, a Belgian tennis player.
• 1981 – Nenê, a Brazilian footballer.
• 1982 – Jared Padalecki, an American actor.
• 1983 – Helen Skelton, an English television host.
• 1984 – Andrea Libman, a Canadian voice actress.
• 1984 – Adam Morrison, an American basketball player.
• 1985 – LaMarcus Aldridge, an American basketball player.
• 1986 – Jinder Mahal, a Canadian wrestler.
• 1987 – Jon Jones, an American mixed martial artist.
• 1988 – Shane Dawson, an American comedian and actor.
• 1991 – Eray İşcan, a Turkish footballer.
• 1992 – Jake Nicholson, an English footballer.
• 1994 – Christian Welch, an Australian rugby league player.
• 1996 – Paul Momirovski, an Australian rugby league player.
• 1998 – Erin Cuthbert, a footballer.
• 2003 – Tyler Downs, an American Olympic diver.

Notable People Who Died on July 19th

Before 1900

• 514 – Symmachus, a pope of the Catholic Church.
• 806 – Li Shigu, a Chinese general.
• 973 – Kyunyeo, a Korean monk and poet.
• 998 – Damian Dalassenos, a Byzantine general.
• 1030 – Adalberon, a French bishop.
• 1234 – Floris IV, a Dutch nobleman.
• 1249 – Jacopo Tiepolo, a doge of Venice.
• 1333 – John Campbell, Alexander Bruce, Sir Archibald Douglas, Maol Choluim II, and Kenneth de Moravia, 4th Earl of Sutherland, all Scottish noblemen who died in battle.
• 1374 – Petrarch, a famous Italian poet and scholar.
• 1415 – Philippa of Lancaster, a Portuguese queen.
• 1543 – Mary Boleyn, an English noblewoman.
• 1631 – Cesare Cremonini, an Italian philosopher.
• 1742 – William Somervile, an English poet.
• 1810 – Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a Prussian queen.
• 1814 – Matthew Flinders, an English navigator and cartographer.
• 1824 – Agustín de Iturbide, a Mexican general and emperor.
• 1838 – Pierre Louis Dulong, a French physicist and chemist.
• 1850 – Margaret Fuller, an American journalist and critic.
• 1855 – Konstantin Batyushkov, a Russian poet.
• 1857 – Stefano Franscini, a Swiss statistician and politician.
• 1878 – Yegor Ivanovich Zolotarev, a Russian mathematician.
• 1896 – Abraham H. Cannon, an American publisher and religious leader.

After 1900

• 1913 – Clímaco Calderón, a Colombian lawyer and politician.
• 1925 – John Indermaur, a British lawyer.
• 1930 – Robert Stout, a Scottish-New Zealand politician and the 13th Prime Minister of New Zealand.
• 1933 – Kaarle Krohn, a Finnish historian.
• 1939 – Rose Hartwick Thorpe, an American poet.
• 1943 – Yekaterina Budanova, a Russian pilot.
• 1947 – U Razak, a Burmese educator and politician.
• 1947 – Aung San, a Burmese general and politician.
• 1947 – Lyuh Woon-hyung, a South Korean politician.
• 1963 – William Andrew, an English priest.
• 1965 – Syngman Rhee, a South Korean journalist and the 1st President of South Korea.
• 1967 – John T. McNaughton, an American government official.
• 1967 – Odell Shepard, an American poet and politician.
• 1969 – Stratis Myrivilis, a Greek author.
• 1974 – Ernő Schwarz, a Hungarian-American soccer player and coach.
• 1975 – Lefty Frizzell, an American singer and guitarist.
• 1977 – Karl Ristikivi, an Estonian author.
• 1980 – Margaret Craven, an American author.
• 1980 – Nihat Erim, a Turkish politician and the 13th Prime Minister of Turkey.
• 1980 – Hans Morgenthau, a German-American political scientist.
• 1981 – Roger Doucet, a Canadian tenor.
• 1982 – Hugh Everett III, an American physicist and mathematician.
• 1984 – Faina Ranevskaya, a Russian actress.
• 1985 – Janusz Zajdel, a Polish author.
• 1989 – Kazimierz Sabbat, a Polish businessman and politician.
• 1990 – Eddie Quillan, an American actor.
• 1992 – Paolo Borsellino, an Italian lawyer and judge.
• 1994 – James Garner, a famous American actor.
• 1998 – Elmer Valo, a Polish-American baseball player.
• 2002 – Alan Lomax, an American historian and scholar.
• 2003 – Bill Bright, an American evangelist who founded Campus Crusade for Christ.
• 2004 – Zenkō Suzuki, a Japanese politician and the 70th Prime Minister of Japan.
• 2005 – Edward Bunker, an American author and screenwriter.
• 2006 – Jack Warden, an American actor.
• 2007 – Roberto Fontanarrosa, an Argentinian cartoonist.
• 2008 – Dercy Gonçalves, a Brazilian comedian and actress.
• 2009 – Frank McCourt, an American author and educator.
• 2010 – Cécile Aubry, a French actress and author.
• 2012 – Humayun Ahmed, a Bangladeshi director and playwright.
• 2012 – Tom Davis, an American comedian and actor.
• 2012 – Omar Suleiman, an Egyptian general and politician.
• 2013 – Mikhail Gorsheniov, a Russian singer.
• 2013 – Mel Smith, an English actor and director.
• 2013 – Bert Trautmann, a German footballer.
• 2014 – David Easton, a Canadian-American political scientist.
• 2015 – Gennadiy Seleznyov, a Russian journalist and politician.
• 2016 – Garry Marshall, an American actor, director, and producer.
• 2018 – Denis Ten, a Kazakhstani figure skater.
• 2019 – Rutger Hauer, a Dutch actor.

Holidays and Observances

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

See also

In Spanish: 19 de julio para niños