Saturday 19th of August 1662

Mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and philosopher Blaise Pascal dies of tuberculosis at the age of 39 in Paris, Île-de-France, France.

Tuesday 19th of August 1692

John Willard, George Burroughs, John Proctor, George Jacobs and Martha Carrier are accused of witchcraft and hanged on Gallow's hill in Salem, Massachusetts, United States.

Saturday 19th of August 1871

Aviation pioneer Orville Wright is born in Dayton, Ohio, United States.

Sunday 19th of August 1883

Fashion designer Coco Chanel is born as Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel in Saumur, Maine-et-Loire, France.

Monday 19th of August 1889

Symbolist writer Auguste Jean Marie Mathias Philippe Villiers de l'Isle-Adam aka Le Comte dies of stomach cancer at the age of 51 in Clinique des Frères Saint-Jean-de-Dieu, 19 Rue Oudinot, Paris, VIIe, Île-de-France, France.

Monday 19th of August 1895

Outlaw, gunfighter and folk icon John Wesley Hardin aka Little Arkansaw is shot in the back of the head by 56-year-old lawman John Selman at the age of 42 in Acme Saloon, 101 N. Mesa, El Paso, Texas, United States.

As Hardin lay dead on the floor Selman fired three more shots into him.

Tuesday 19th of August 1902

Gangster and French public enemy No. 1 for 1950 Émile Buisson aka Mimile is born in Paray-le-Minial, Saône-et-Loire, France.

Friday 19th of August 1921

Several body parts, presumed victims of 58-year-old Serial killer and cannibal Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Großmann aka Die Bestie vom Schlesischen Bahnhof are found in Luisenstädtischer Kanal, Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

Friday 19th of August 1921

Television screenwriter and producer Gene Eugene Wesley Roddenberry known for the TV series Star Trek is born in El Paso, Texas, United States.

Saturday 19th of August 1922

Rapist and murderer Thomas Henry Allaway is executed by hanging by John Ellis at the age of 37 in Winchester Prison, Winchester, Hampshire, United Kingdom.

Wednesday 19th of August 1936

Poet Federico García Lorca is executed by Nationalist Francists of the Falanga Militia at the age of 38 in Alfacar, Andalucía, Spain.

One of them fired 2 bullets in Lorca's behind because he was a homosexual. Lorca was buried nearby the excution site but until today his grave was never found.

Tuesday 19th of August 1947

42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton is born as William Jefferson Blythe III in Julia Chester Hospital, 1001 South Main Street, Hope, Arkansas, United States.

Tuesday 19th of August 1947

43-year-old SS-Gruppenführer and leader of the Aktion T4 euthanasia program Karl Brandt and 6 other Nazi doctors are sentenced to death in the 'Nürnberger Ärzteprozess' in Justizpalast, Fürther Straße 110, Nürnberg, Bayern, Germany.

Wednesday 19th of August 1953

Victim of Edmund Kemper aka The Co-ed Killer Mary Ann Pesce is born in New York City, New York, United States.

Friday 19th of August 1960

31-year-old United States Air Force pilot Francis Gary Powers known from the 1960 U-2 incident is sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for spying in Moscow, Central Federal District, Russia.

Sunday 19th of August 1962

74-year-old Ida Irga is sexually assaulted and strangled by serial killer Albert DeSalvo aka The Boston Strangler aka The Measuring Man aka The Green Man in 7 Grove Street, Boston, Beacon Hill, Massachusetts, United States.

Wednesday 19th of August 1964

44-year-old Vrouw C. is attacked and raped by serial killer Michel Bellen aka The Strangler of the Left Bank in Linkeroever, Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium.

Wednesday 19th of August 1970

23-year-old Serial killer John Norman Collins aka The Ypsilanti Killer sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States.

Friday 19th of August 1977

Comedian and actor Groucho Julius Henry Marx dies of pneumonia at the age of 87 in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, 8700 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, United States.

Saturday 19th of August 1978

420 die in cinema fire in Cinema Rex, Abadan, Ostān-e Khūzestān, Iran.

Hundreds of people were watching the Iranian drama film 'The Deer' when four men barred the doors of the cinema and doused it with petrol from a can. The fire started outside three entrance doors to the main hall after the attackers allegedly dropped a match into the petrol. The attackers then fled and blocked the doors from the outside. 

Tuesday 19th of August 1980

301 die in Saudia Flight 163 Lockheed L-1011-200 TriStar inflight fire in Riyadh International Airport, Riyāḍ, Manţiqat ar Riyāḍ, Saudi Arabia.

All 287 passengers and 14 crew on board the plane died from smoke inhalation after the aircraft made a successful emergency landing at Riyadh.

Sunday 19th of August 1984

16-year-old Daniel Bridges is beaten, stabbed to death and cut to pieces by serial killer Larry Eyler aka The Leather Boy Killer in 1628 West Sherwin Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, United States.

Wednesday 19th of August 1987

Spree killer and mass murderer Michael Robert Ryan aka The Rambo Killer commits suicide by a shot through the head at the age of 27 in John O'Gaunt School, Hungerford, Berkshire, United Kingdom.

Ryan first fatally shot his mother and 15 others with a Type 56 semi-automatic rifle M1 carbine and a Beretta 92FS in a shooting spree. The dead were: 35-year-old Susan Godfrey, his neighbours Roland and Sheila Mason, 51-year-old Kenneth Clements, Roger Brereton, George White, his neighbour Abdul Rahman Khan, his mother Dorothy Ryan, Francis Butler, Marcus Barnard, 67-year-old Douglas Wainwright, 51-year-old Eric Vardy, 22-year-old Sandra Hill, Jack and Myrtle Gibbs and 34-year-old Ian Playle.

Saturday 19th of August 1989

19-year-old Elena Varga is abducted and stabbed to death by serial killer Andrei Chikatilo aka The Rostov Ripper in Krasnoznamenka, Odessa Oblast, Ukraine.

Chikatilo offered to carry Varga's bags, then killed her, cut off her breasts, cut out her uterus, cut off the soft tissues of her face, wrapped everything in scraps of her clothes and went with all this on his father's birthday.

Saturday 19th of August 1995

Deranged gunman Marcus Wayne Chenault dies of a stroke at the age of 44 in Southern Regional Medical Center, Riverdale, Georgia, United States.

On 30 June 1974 he killed Mrs. Alberta Williams King, the mother of Dr. Martin Luther King.

Saturday 19th of August 1995

Composer, musicologist and acoustician Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer dies of Alzheimer's disease at the age of 85 in Aix-en-Provence, Provence, France.

Sunday 19th of August 2001

A Joseph Beuys lookalike mannequin in the sick bay of a War Memorial Museum in Oostende, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Sunday 19th of August 2007

A wild boar at remarkable close distance in Grünewald, Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

Tuesday 19th of August 2008

52-year-old Serial killer Egidius Leo Schiffer aka Der Würger von Aachen is sentenced to life imprisonment for five murders in Landgericht, Aachen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Tuesday 19th of August 2008

64-year-old Singer-songwriter Gary Glitter aka Paul Raven, Rubber Bucket, Paul Monday or Paul Russell is released from prison after nearly three years of confinement in Hàm Tân, Bình Thuận, Vietnam.

Glitter was to be deported to the United Kingdom but refused to board a plane to London in Bangkok. In all at least 19 countries refused to admit Glitter and three days later he finally arrived at Heathrow Airport and was ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for life.