Religious Observances on August 19

• Islamic: Birth of Mawlāna Jalāluddīn Rūmi ق
• Hindu: Raksha Bandhan
• Chinese: Qixi Festival

Browse religious observances →

On This Day in History — August 19

• 2013 — The Dhamara Ghat train accident kills at least 37 people in the Indian state of Bihar.
• 2010 — Operation Iraqi Freedom ends, with the last of the United States brigade combat teams crossing the border to Kuwait.
• 2009 — A series of bombings in Baghdad, Iraq, kills 101 and injures 565 others.
• 2005 — The first-ever joint military exercise between Russia and China, called Peace Mission 2005 begins.
• 2003 — A car-bomb attack on United Nations headquarters in Iraq kills the agency's top envoy Sérgio Vieira de Mello and 21 other employees.
• 2003 — A suicide attack on a bus in Jerusalem, Israel, planned by Hamas, kills 23 Israelis, seven of them children, in the Shmuel HaNavi bus bombing.

More about history on this day →

Notable Births on August 19

• 1996 — Hsu Ching-wen, Taiwanese tennis player
• 1995 — Dylan Phythian, Australian rugby league player
• 1994 — Guadalupe Pérez Rojas, Argentinian tennis player
• 1994 — Nafissatou Thiam, Belgian pentathlete
• 1990 — Danny Galbraith, Scottish footballer
• 1989 — Romeo Miller, American basketball player, rapper, actor

Notable Deaths on August 19

• 2016 — Jack Riley, American actor and voice artist (b. 1935)
• 2015 — George Houser, American minister and activist (b. 1916)
• 2015 — Sanat Mehta, Indian activist and politician (b. 1935)
• 2014 — Samih al-Qasim, Palestinian poet and journalist (b. 1939)
• 2014 — Simin Behbahani, Iranian poet and activist (b. 1927)
• 2014 — James Foley, American photographer and journalist (b. 1973)

Public Holidays on August 20

• 🌍 Az államalapítás ünnepe (Hungary)
• 🌍 State Foundation Day (Hungary)

All public holidays for August 20 →

On This Day in History — August 20

• 2016 — 54 people are killed when a suicide bomber detonates himself at a Kurdish wedding party in Gaziantep, Turkey.
• 2014 — Seventy-two people are killed in Japan's Hiroshima Prefecture by a series of landslides caused by a month's worth of rain that fell in one day.
• 2012 — A prison riot in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, kills at least 20 people.
• 2008 — Spanair Flight 5022, from Madrid, Spain to Gran Canaria, skids off the runway and crashes at Barajas Airport. Of the 172 people on board, 146 die immediately, and eight more later die of injuries sustained in the crash.
• 2007 — China Airlines Flight 120 caught fire and exploded after landing at Naha Airport in Okinawa, Japan.
• 2006 — Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Tamil politician and former MP S. Sivamaharajah is shot dead at his home in Tellippalai.

More about history on this day →

Notable Births on August 20

• 1996 — Bunty Afoa, New Zealand rugby league player
• 1995 — Liana Liberato, American television and film actress
• 1993 — Mario Jelavic, Croatian footballer
• 1992 — Matt Eisenhuth, Australian rugby league player
• 1992 — Demi Lovato, American singer-songwriter and actress
• 1992 — Andrei Peteleu, Romanian footballer

Notable Deaths on August 20

• 2017 — Jerry Lewis, American actor and comedian (b. 1926)
• 2015 — Egon Bahr, German journalist and politician, Federal Minister for Special Affairs of Germany (b. 1922)
• 2015 — Paul Kibblewhite, New Zealand chemist and engineer (b. 1941)
• 2015 — Frank Wilkes, Australian soldier and politician (b. 1922)
• 2014 — Anton Buslov, Russian astrophysicist and journalist (b. 1983)
• 2014 — Lois Mai Chan, Taiwanese-American librarian, author, and academic (b. 1934)