September 19

Events

Pre-1600

* 85 – Nerva, suspected of complicity of the death of Domitian, is declared emperor by Senate. The Senate then annuls laws passed by Domitian and orders his statues to be destroyed.
* 634 – Siege of Damascus: The Rashidun Arabs under Khalid ibn al-Walid capture Damascus from the Byzantine Empire.
*1356 – Battle of Poitiers: An English army under the command of Edward the Black Prince defeats a French army and captures King John II.
*1410 – End of the Siege of Marienburg: The State of the Teutonic Order repulses the joint Polish— Lithuanian forces.

1601–1900

* 1676 – Jamestown is burned to the ground by the forces of Nathaniel Bacon during Bacon's Rebellion.
*1777 – American Revolutionary War: British forces win a tactically expensive victory over the Continental Army in the First Battle of Saratoga.
*1778 – The Continental Congress passes the first United States federal budget.
*1796 – George Washington's Farewell Address is printed across America as an open letter to the public.
*1799 – French Revolutionary Wars: French-Dutch victory against the Russians and British in the Battle of Bergen.
* 1846 – Two French shepherd children, Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud, experience a Marian apparition on a mountaintop near La Salette, France, now known as Our Lady of La Salette.
*1852 – Annibale de Gasparis discovers the asteroid Massalia from the north dome of the Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte.
*1862 – American Civil War: Union troops under William Rosecrans defeat a Confederate force commanded by Sterling Price.
*1863 – American Civil War: The first day of the Battle of Chickamauga, in northwestern Georgia, the bloodiest two-day battle of the conflict, and the only significant Confederate victory in the war's Western Theater.
*1864 – American Civil War: Union troops under Philip Sheridan defeat a Confederate force commanded by Jubal Early. With over 50,000 troops engaged, it was the largest battle fought in the Shenandoah Valley.
* 1868 – La Gloriosa begins in Spain.
*1870 – Franco-Prussian War: The siege of Paris begins. The city held out for over four months before surrendering.
*1893 – In New Zealand, the Electoral Act of 1893 is consented to by the governor, giving all women in New Zealand the right to vote.

1901–present

*1916 – World War I: During the East African Campaign, colonial forces of the Belgian Congo (Force Publique) under the command of Charles Tombeur capture the town of Tabora after heavy fighting.
*1939 – World War II: The Battle of Kępa Oksywska concludes, with Polish losses reaching roughly 14% of all the forces engaged.
* 1940 – World War II: Witold Pilecki is voluntarily captured and sent to Auschwitz concentration camp to gather and smuggle out information for the resistance movement.
*1944 – World War II: The Battle of Hürtgen Forest begins. It will become the longest individual battle that the U.S. Army has ever fought.
* 1944 – World War II: The Moscow Armistice between Finland and the Soviet Union is signed, which officially ended the Continuation War.
*1946 – The Council of Europe is founded following a speech by Winston Churchill at the University of Zurich.
*1950 – Korean War: An attack by North Korean forces was repelled at the Battle of Nam River.
*1957 – '' Plumbbob Rainier'' becomes the first nuclear explosion to be entirely contained underground, producing no fallout.
* 1970 – Michael Eavis hosts the first Glastonbury Festival.
* 1970 – 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.
*1976 – Turkish Airlines Flight 452 hits the Taurus Mountains, outskirt of Karatepe, Turkey, killing all 154 passengers and crew.
* 1976 – Two Imperial Iranian Air Force F-4 Phantom II jets fly out to investigate an unidentified flying object, when both independently lose instrumentation and communications as they approach, only to have them restored upon withdrawal.
*1978 – The Solomon Islands join the United Nations.
*1982 – Scott Fahlman posts the first documented emoticons :-) and :-( on the Carnegie Mellon University bulletin board system.
*1983 – Saint Kitts and Nevis gains its independence.
*1985 – A strong earthquake kills thousands and destroys about 400 buildings in Mexico City.
* 1985 – 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.
*1989 – A bomb destroys UTA Flight 772 in mid-air above the Tùnùrù Desert, Niger, killing all 170 passengers and crew.
*1991 – Ötzi the Iceman is discovered in the Alps on the border between Italy and Austria.
*1995 – ''The Washington Post'' and ''The New York Times'' publish the Unabomber manifesto.
*1997 – The Guelb El-Kebir massacre in Algeria kills 53 people.
*2006 – The Thai army stages a coup. The Constitution is revoked and martial law is declared.
*2010 – The leaking oil well in the ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill is sealed.
*2011 – Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees surpasses Trevor Hoffman to become Major League Baseball's all-time career saves leader with 602.
*2016 – 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.
*2017 – The 2017 Puebla earthquake strikes Mexico, causing 370 deaths and over 6,000 injuries, as well as extensive damage.
*2019 – A drone strike by the United States kills 30 civilian farmers in Afghanistan.
*2021 – 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.
*2022 – The state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom is held at Westminster Abbey, London.

Births

Pre-1600

* AD 86 – Antoninus Pius, Roman emperor (d. 161)
* 866 – Leo VI the Wise, Byzantine emperor (d. 912)
* 931 – Mu Zong, emperor of the Liao Dynasty (d. 969)
* 1377 – Albert IV, Duke of Austria (d. 1404)
*1426 – Marie of Cleves, Duchess of Orléans, French noble (d. 1487)
* 1477 – Ferrante d'Este, Ferrarese nobleman and condottiero (d. 1540)
*1551 – Henry III of France (d. 1589)
*1560 – Thomas Cavendish, English naval explorer, led the third expedition to circumnavigate the globe (d. 1592)

1601–1900

*1608 – Alfonso Litta, Roman Catholic cardinal and archbishop (d. 1679)
*1638 – Isaac Milles, English minister (d. 1720)
* 1662 – Jean-Paul Bignon, French priest and man of letters (d. 1743)
* 1721 – William Robertson, Scottish historian (d. 1793)
* 1749 – Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre, French mathematician and astronomer (d. 1822)
*1754 – John Ross Key, American lieutenant, lawyer, and judge (d. 1821)
* 1759 – William Kirby, English priest and entomologist (d. 1850)
*1778 – Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux, Scottish lawyer and politician, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (d. 1868)
*1796 – Hartley Coleridge, English poet and author (d. 1849)
* 1802 – Lajos Kossuth, Hungarian journalist, lawyer, and politician, Governor-President of Hungary (d. 1894)
*1803 – Maria Anna of Savoy (d. 1884)
*1811 – Orson Pratt, American mathematician and religious leader (d. 1881)
*1824 – William Sellers, American engineer, inventor, and businessperson (d. 1905)
*1828 – Fridolin Anderwert, Swiss judge and politician, President of the Swiss National Council (d. 1880)
*1856 – Arthur Morgan, Australian politician, 16th Premier of Queensland (d. 1916)
*1865 – Frank Eugene, American-German photographer (d. 1936)
* 1867 – Arthur Rackham, English illustrator (d. 1939)
*1869 – Ben Turpin, American comedian and actor (d. 1940)
*1871 – Frederick Ruple, Swiss-American painter (d. 1938)
*1882 – Christopher Stone, English radio host (d. 1965)
*1883 – Mabel Vernon, American educator and activist (d. 1975)
* 1887 – Lovie Austin, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (d. 1972)
* 1887 – Lynne Overman, American actor and singer (d. 1943)
*1888 – James Waddell Alexander II, American mathematician and topologist (d. 1971)
* 1888 – Porter Hall, American actor (d. 1953)
*1889 – Sarah Louise Delany, American physician and author (d. 1999)
*1894 – Rachel Field, American author and poet (d. 1942)
*1898 – Giuseppe Saragat, Italian lawyer and politician, 5th President of Italy (d. 1988)
*1900 – Ricardo Cortez, American actor (d. 1977)

1901–present

*1905 – Judith Auer