What Happened on September 19th in History
30 historical events on this date
World War II: The Battle of KÄpa Oksywska concludes, with Polish losses reaching roughly 14% of all the forces engaged.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major...
World War II: Witold Pilecki is voluntarily captured and sent to Auschwitz concentration camp to gather and smuggle out information for the resistance movement.
Witold Pilecki, known by the codenames Roman Jezierski, Tomasz SerafiĆski, Druh and Witold, was a Polish World War II cavalry officer, intelligence agent, and resistance leader.
World War II: The Battle of HĂŒrtgen Forest begins. It will become the second-longest individual battle that the U.S. Army has ever fought.
The Battle of HĂŒrtgen Forest was a series of battles fought from 19 September to 16 December 1944, between American and German forces on the Western Front during World War II, in the HĂŒrtgen Forest,...
World War II: The Moscow Armistice between Finland and the Soviet Union is signed, which officially ended the Continuation War.
The Moscow Armistice was signed between Finland on one side and the Soviet Union and United Kingdom on the other side on 19 September 1944, ending the Continuation War. The Armistice restored the...
The Council of Europe is founded following a speech by Winston Churchill at the University of Zurich.
The Council of Europe is an international organisation which aims to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental...
Korean War: An attack by North Korean forces was repelled at the Battle of Nam River.
The Korean War was an armed conflict fought on the Korean Peninsula between North Korea and South Korea and their allies. North Korea was supported by China and the Soviet Union, while South Korea...
Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistani President Ayub Khan sign the Indus Waters Treaty for the control and management of the Indus, Chenab, Jhelum, Ravi, Sutlej and Beas rivers.
Jawaharlal Nehru was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a...
Michael Eavis hosts the first Glastonbury Festival.
Sir Athelstan Joseph Michael Eavis is an English dairy farmer and the co-creator of the Glastonbury Festival, which takes place at his farm in Pilton, Somerset.
Kostas Georgakis, a Greek student of geology, sets himself ablaze in Matteotti Square in Genoa, Italy, as a protest against the dictatorial regime of Georgios Papadopoulos.
Kostas Georgakis was a Greek student studying geology in Italy. On 26 July 1970, while in Italy, he gave an interview denouncing the dictatorial regime of Georgios Papadopoulos. The junta retaliated...
Turkish Airlines Flight 452 hits the Taurus Mountains, outskirt of Karatepe, Turkey, killing all 154 passengers and crew.
Turkish Airlines Flight 452 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight operated by a Boeing 727-2F2 of Turkish Airlines that crashed near Isparta on 19 September 1976 while en route from Milan,...
Two Imperial Iranian Air Force F-4 Phantom II jets fly out to investigate an unidentified flying object.
On 19 September 1976, a radar and visual sighting of an unidentified flying object (UFO) occurred over Tehran, the capital of Iran, by civilians and military personnel. In separate incidents, two...
The Solomon Islands join the United Nations.
Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons, is an archipelagic country consisting of six major islands and over 1,000 smaller islands in Melanesia, Oceania, to the north-east of Australia....
Scott Fahlman posts the first documented emoticons :-) and :-( on the Carnegie Mellon University bulletin board system.
Scott Elliott Fahlman is an American computer scientist and Professor Emeritus at Carnegie Mellon University's Language Technologies Institute and Computer Science Department. He is notable for...
Saint Kitts and Nevis gains its independence.
Saint Kitts and Nevis (SKN), officially the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, is an island country located in the Caribbean consisting of the two islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis, in the...
A strong earthquake kills thousands and destroys about 400 buildings in Mexico City.
The 1985 Mexico City earthquake struck in the early morning of 19 September at 07:17:50 (CST) with a moment magnitude of 8.0 and a maximal Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). The event caused...
Tipper Gore and other political wives form the Parents Music Resource Center as Frank Zappa, John Denver, and other musicians testify at U.S. Congressional hearings on obscenity in rock music.
Mary Elizabeth "Tipper" Gore is an American social issues advocate. She was the second lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001 through her marriage to the 45th vice president, Al Gore in 1970,...
A bomb destroys UTA Flight 772 in mid-air above the TĂčnĂčrĂč Desert, Niger, killing all 170 passengers and crew.
UTA Flight 772 was a scheduled international passenger flight of the French airline Union de Transports AĂ©riens (UTA) operating from Brazzaville in the People's Republic of the Congo, via N'Djamena...
Ătzi the Iceman is discovered in the Alps on the border between Italy and Austria.
Ătzi, also called The Iceman, Similaun man, or Tyrolean Iceman, is the natural mummy of a man who lived between 3350 and 3105Â BC. Ătzi's remains were discovered on 19 September 1991, in the Ătztal...
The Washington Post and The New York Times publish the Unabomber Manifesto.
Industrial Society and Its Future, also known as the Unabomber Manifesto, is a 1995 essay by Ted Kaczynski arguing that the Industrial Revolution began a harmful process of natural destruction...
The Guelb El-Kebir massacre in Algeria kills 53 people.
The Guelb El-Kebir massacre took place in the village of Guelb el-Kebir, near Beni Slimane, in the Algerian province of Medea, on 20 September 1997. 53 people were killed by attackers that were not...
The Thai army stages a coup. The Constitution is revoked and martial law is declared.
The 2006 Thai coup d'Ă©tat took place on 19 September 2006, when the Royal Thai Army staged a coup d'Ă©tat against the elected caretaker government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The coup...
A Learjet 60 carrying musicians Travis Barker and Adam "DJ AM" Goldstein crashes during a rejected takeoff from Colombia Metropolitan Airport in West Columbia, South Carolina, killing four of the six people on board. Barker and Goldstein both survive.
The Learjet 60 is a mid-size cabin, medium-range business jet aircraft manufactured by Bombardier Aerospace in Wichita, Kansas. Powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW305A engines, it has a range...
The leaking oil well in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is sealed.
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was an environmental disaster beginning 20 April 2010 off the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico, on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. It is considered...
Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees surpasses Trevor Hoffman to become Major League Baseball's all-time career saves leader with 602.
Mariano Rivera is a Panamanian-American former professional baseball player who was a pitcher for 19 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, from 1995 to 2013. Nicknamed...
In the wake of a manhunt, the suspect in a series of bombings in New York and New Jersey is apprehended after a shootout with police.
On September 17â19, 2016, a series of three constructed bombs exploded, and several unexploded devices were discovered in the New York metropolitan area followed by a subsequent shooting in Linden,...
The 2017 Puebla earthquake strikes Mexico, causing 370 deaths and over 6,000 injuries, as well as extensive damage.
The 2017 Puebla earthquake, also known as 19S, struck at 13:14Â CDT on 19 September 2017 with an estimated magnitude of 7.1 Mw and strong shaking for about 20 seconds. Its epicenter was about 55Â km...
The Cumbre Vieja volcano, on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands, erupts. The eruption lasts for almost three months, ending on December 13.
The Cumbre Vieja is an active volcanic ridge on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands, Spain. The spine of Cumbre Vieja trends in an approximate northâsouth direction, comprising the southern...
The state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom is held at Westminster Abbey, London.
Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms, died on 8 September 2022 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, at the age of 96. Elizabeth's reign of 70 years and 214 days is...
A strong earthquake kills 2 and injures over 30 in Mexico's state of MichoacĂĄn.
On 19 September 2022, a moment magnitude 7.6â7.7 earthquake struck between the Mexican states of MichoacĂĄn and Colima at 13:05:06 local time. The earthquake had a depth of 26.9Â km (16.7Â mi),...
Azerbaijan launches a military offensive against the Republic of Artsakh in the Nagorno-Karabakh region; this leads to the flight of the Armenian population.
Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a transcontinental landlocked country at the boundary of Western Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is...