Following are some of the major events to have occurred on August 19:
1929 – The Russian ballet impresario and director Sergei Diaghilev died. His Ballets Russes produced such masterpieces as Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” and “Firebird”.
1934 – Voting in Germany decides Adolf Hitler as Fuhrer.
1936 – The Spanish poet and dramatist Federico Garcia Lorca was shot dead by Fascists early in the Civil War.
1944 – Sir Henry Wood, British conductor and co-founder of the British Promenade Concerts (“Proms”) in 1895, died.
1953 – Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq was overthrown in a coup and the Shah returned from exile in Italy.
1960 – Francis Gary Powers, a U.S. spy plane pilot shot down over the Soviet Union, was sentenced to 10 years’ detention.
1977 – The actor and comedian Groucho Marx, probably the most popular of the Marx Brothers, died. The brothers’ films include “A Night at the Opera” and “A Day at the Races”.
1995 – Prince Charles, Princess Diana attend Britain’s VJ (Victory over Japan) Day commemoration service outside Buckingham Palace with sons Prince Harry and Prince William.
2003 – A massive truck bomb devastated the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, killing 22 people in the worst attack on a U.N. civilian complex in the United Nations’ history. The dead included Sergio Vieira de Mello, the top U.N. envoy to Iraq.
2009 – Cooks in Ahmedabad aim to prepare the world’s longest dosa, an Indian pancake.
2013 – At least 34 people killed crossing a railway track in Indian state of Bihar, triggering protests that torched train carriages.
(Reuters)