This is a list of selected August 19 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article, featured listorpicture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
Use only ONE image at a time
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| Feast of the Transfiguration (Julian calendar) | Refimprove |
| Independence DayinAfghanistan (1919) | refimprove section |
| National Aviation Day in the United States | stub |
| 295 BC – The oldest known templetoVenus, the Roman goddess of love, beauty and fertility, was dedicated. | refimprove section |
| 1666 – Second Anglo-Dutch War: English Rear-Admiral Robert Holmes led a raidonTerschelling and on the Vlie estuary in the Netherlands, destroying 130 merchant ships within two days. | refimprove sections |
| 1782 – American Revolutionary War: Ten months after the British had surrendered, a combined force of British rangers and American Indians routed Kentucky militiamen at the Battle of Blue Licks. | needs more footnotes |
| 1812 – War of 1812: American Navy frigate USS Constitution defeated British Royal Navy frigate HMS Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, earning her nickname "Old Ironsides". | refimprove |
| 1895 – American outlaw and folk hero John Wesley Hardin was shot dead by an off-duty lawman in El Paso, Texas. | cleanup required |
| 1909 – The first auto race was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the highest-capacity sports venue in the world. | refimprove |
| 1936 – The first of the Moscow Trials, instigated by Joseph Stalin against so-called Trotskyists began in the House of the Unions. | refimprove section |
| 1942 – Second World War: Allied forces suffered over 3,000 casualties when they unsuccessfully raided the German-occupied port of Dieppe, France. | refimprove |
| 1945 – During the August Revolution against French colonial rule, the Viet Minh under Ho Chi Minh took control of Hanoi in northern Vietnam. | refimprove section |
| 1960 – Soviet space dogs Belka and Strelka began to orbit the Earth aboard the Korabl-Sputnik 2 spacecraft. | refimprove section |
| 1989 – Hungary opened its border with Austria as part of the Pan-European Picnic, allowing several hundred East Germans to defect to the West. | refimprove |
| 1991 – During a Soviet coup attempt led by Gennady Yanayev and other top level government officials, it was announced to the public that President Mikhail Gorbachev had been relieved of his duties "due to illness". | refimprove section |
| 2003 – A car bomb destroyed the United Nations headquarters at Baghdad's Canal Hotel, killing Brazilian diplomat Sérgio Vieira de Mello and 21 others. | outdated section |
| Paweł Jasienica (d. 1970) | refimprove section |
Tom Wills (b. 1835) ·
Edward Boscawen (b. 1711) · Gustave Caillebotte (b. 1848) · Linus Pauling (d. 1994)
