Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date
Sunday, July 19, 2026
Today is the 200th day of 2026. There are 165 days left in this year.
Notable Events
1553
Fifteen-year-old Lady Jane Grey was deposed as Queen of England after claiming the crown for nine days. Mary, the daughter of King Henry VIII, was proclaimed Queen.
1701
Representatives of the Iroquois Confederacy sign the Nanfan Treaty, ceding a large territory north of the Ohio River to England.
1702
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.
1817
Unsuccessful in his attempt to conquer the Kingdom of Hawaii for the Russian-American Company, Georg Anton Schaffer is forced to admit defeat and leave Kauai.
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.
1848
A pioneer women's rights convention called by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia C. Mott convened in Seneca Falls, N.Y.
1870
The Franco-Prussian war began.
1941
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill launched his "V for Victory" campaign in Europe.
1941
The iconic cartoon characters "Tom and Jerry" appeared under their own names for the first time in a cartoon called The Midnight Snack.
1943
Rome is heavily bombed by more than 500 Allied aircraft, inflicting thousands of casualties.
1947
Korean politician Lyuh Woon-hyung is assassinated.
1947
Prime Minister of the shadow Burmese government, Bogyoke Aung San and eight others are assassinated.
1954
Elvis Presley released his first ever single, "That's All Right," which was a cover of the original song by Arthur Cruddup.
1961
Tunisia imposes a blockade on the French naval base at Bizerte; the French would capture the entire town four days later.
1969
Apollo 11 and its astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Edwin ''Buzz'' Aldrin and Michael Collins, went into orbit around the moon.
1975
The Apollo and Soyuz space capsules that were linked in orbit for two days separated.
1977
The world's first Global Positioning System (GPS) signal was received in Cedar Rapids, Iowa by an engineer from the company Rockwell Collins, which is now Collins Aerospace.
1979
The Nicaraguan capital of Managua fell to Sandinista guerrillas, two days after President Anastasio Somoza fled the country.
1980
The Moscow Summer Olympics began, minus dozens of nations that were boycotting the games because of the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan.
1981
In a private meeting with U.S. President Ronald Reagan, French President Francois Mitterrand reveals the existence of the Farewell Dossier, a collection of documents showing the Soviet Union had been stealing American technological research and development.
1984
U.S. Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York won the Democratic nomination for vice president at the party's convention in San Francisco.
1985
Christa McAuliffe of New Hampshire was chosen to be the first schoolteacher to ride aboard the space shuttle. (McAuliffe and six other crew members died the following year when the Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff.)
1985
The Val di Stava dam collapses killing 268 people in Val di Stava, Italy.
1986
Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President John F. Kennedy, married Edwin A. Schlossberg in Centerville, Mass.
1989
A United Air Lines DC-10 crashed while making an emergency landing at Sioux City, Iowa, killing 112 people; 184 survived.
1990
Baseball's all-time hits leader Pete Rose was sentenced in Cincinnati to five months in prison for tax evasion.
1993
President Clinton announced a compromise allowing homosexuals to serve in the military, but only if they refrained from homosexual activity.
1993
President Bill Clinton announced the creation of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" military policy, which allowed gay people to serve as long as they did not disclose their sexual orientation.
1994
Bomb explosion in Alas Airlines at Colon, Panama, 21 killed
1997
The Provisional Irish Republican Army resumes a ceasefire to end their 25-year paramilitary campaign to end British rule in Northern Ireland.
2011
In a speech outside of Potala Palace, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping declares he will crush attempts for an Independent Tibet
2013
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announces a plan to help settle Papua New Guinea asylum seekers who come to Australia by boat
2014
Tobacco company R. J. Reynolds must pay over $23 billion in resolution of a lawsuit filed by the widow of a man who died from lung cancer at age 36; the suit accused the company of hiding the health risks of cigarettes
2014
Gunmen in Egypt's western desert province of New Valley Governorate attack a military checkpoint, killing at least 21 soldiers. Egypt reportedly declares a state of emergency on its border with Sudan.
2015
Jeffrey Webb pleads not guilty to bribery charges in the FIFA corruption case brought against 14 former officials; Webb is the first to be extradited to the U.S. to face the charges
2016
Donald Trump was officially nominated by the Republican Party as their nominee for President.
2018
The Knesset passes the controversial Nationality Bill, which defines the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.
2022
A series of severe heatwaves from July to August hit Europe, causing 61,000 estimated deaths and additionally causing major wildfires, travel disruption, and record high temperatures in many countries.
Notable Births
1814
Samuel Colt was an American inventor, industrialist, and businessman who established Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company and made the mass production of revolvers commercially viable. (d. 1862)
1860
Lizzie Andrew Borden was an American woman who was tried and acquitted of the August 4, 1892, axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts. (d. 1927)
1865
Charles Horace Mayo was an American medical practitioner and was one of the founders of the Mayo Clinic. (d. 1939)
1922
George Stanley McGovern was an American historian and South Dakota politician who was a U.S. representative and three-term U.S. senator, and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1972 presidential election. (d. 2012)
1929
Gaston Glock is an Austrian engineer and businessman who is the founder of the company Glock, who are best known for developing the Glock pistol in 1981.
1932
Arley "Buster" Benton was an American blues guitarist and singer. He played guitar in Willie Dixon's Blues All-Stars. (d. 1996)
1944
George Frayne, American musician a.k.a. Commander Cody (d. 2021). Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen were an American rock band founded in 1967. (d. 2021)
1946
Ilie Theodoriu Năstase is a former World No. 1 Romanian tennis player. He was ranked world No. 1 in singles from 23 August 1973 to 2 June 1974, and was the first man to hold the top position on the computerized ATP rankings.
1946
Alan Edward Gorrie is a Scottish bassist, guitarist, keyboardist and singer. He is a founding member of the Average White Band and remains one of two original members in the group's current line-up.
1947
Brian Harold May is an English musician, songwriter, singer, astrophysicist and animal rights activist. He achieved worldwide fame as the lead guitarist of the rock band Queen, which he co-founded with drummer Roger Taylor.
1947
Bernard Matthew Leadon III is an American singer, musician, songwriter and founding member of the Eagles, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.
1956
Mark Reed Crispin is best known as the father of the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), having invented it in 1985 during his time at the Stanford Knowledge Systems Laboratory. (d. 2012)
1962
Anthony Charles Edwards is an American actor and director. He played Dr. Mark Greene on the first eight seasons of ER, for which he received a Golden Globe award and six Screen Actors Guild Awards.
1963
Thomas Gabriel Fischer, also known by the stage names Tom Warrior and Satanic Slaughter, is a Swiss musician. He led the extreme metal groups Hellhammer and Celtic Frost, and today is the frontman of the band Triptykon.
1968
James Joseph Norton is an American comedian, radio personality, actor, author, and television and podcast host.
1968
Robert Conrad Flynn is an American musician best known as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for heavy metal band Machine Head.
Notable Deaths
1850
Sarah Margaret Fuller, sometimes referred to as Margaret Fuller Ossoli, was an American journalist, editor, critic, translator, and women's rights advocate.
1975
William Orville "Lefty" Frizzell was an American country and honky-tonk singer-songwriter.
2006
Jack Warden was an American character actor of film and television. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Shampoo (1975) and Heaven Can Wait (1978).
2016
Garry Kent Marshall was an American screenwriter, film director, producer and actor.
2019
Rutger Hauer was a Dutch actor, director, and producer. In 1999, he was named by the Dutch public as the Best Dutch Actor of the Century. (b. 1944)
2024
Sheila Jackson Lee, American lawyer and Democratic politician who was the U.S. representative for Texas's 18th congressional district, from 1995 until her death. The district includes most of central Houston. (b. 1950)