Today is Wednesday, Aug. 19, the 231st day of 2026. There are 134 days left in the year.<\/p>\n
Today in History:<\/p>\n
On Aug. 19, 1953, Iran\u2019s elected prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddeq, was overthrown in a coup backed by the U.S. and U.K. that ultimately restored Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to power.<\/p>\n
Also on this date:<\/p>\n
In 1692, four men and one woman were hanged after being convicted of witchcraft at Salem in the Province of Massachusetts Bay; the story of one of the men, John Proctor, inspired Arthur Miller\u2019s play \u201cThe Crucible.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1812, the USS Constitution defeated the British frigate HMS Guerriere off Nova Scotia during the War of 1812, earning the nickname \u201cOld Ironsides.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1814, during the War of 1812, British forces landed at Benedict, Maryland, with the objective of capturing Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
In 1854, 31 U.S. soldiers were killed after one of the soldiers fatally shot Brule Lakota Chief Conquering Bear, sparking the First Sioux War.<\/p>\n
In 1909, Indianapolis Motor Speedway hosted its first automobile race.<\/p>\n
In 1934, German voters approved the vesting of sole executive power in Adolf Hitler.<\/p>\n
In 1955, torrential rains caused by Hurricane Diane resulted in severe flooding in the northeastern U.S., claiming some 200 lives.<\/p>\n
In 1960, a tribunal in Moscow convicted American U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers of espionage. (Although sentenced to 10 years\u2019 imprisonment, Powers was returned to the United States in 1962 as part of a prisoner exchange.)<\/p>\n
In 1980, 301 people aboard Saudia Flight 163 died as the jetliner made a fiery emergency return to the Riyadh airport.<\/p>\n
In 2010, the last American combat brigade exited Iraq, seven years and five months after a U.S.-led invasion marked the beginning of the Iraq War.<\/p>\n
In 2013, South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius was indicted in Pretoria, South Africa, on charges of murder and illegal possession of ammunition in the shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, at his home on Valentine\u2019s Day; Pistorius maintained he\u2019d mistaken her for an intruder. (Pistorius would be found guilty of murder and sentenced to prison; he was released on parole in January 2024.)<\/p>\n
In 2022, armed Islamic militants stormed a hotel in Somalia\u2019s capital, engaging in an hourslong firefight with security forces that left at least 20 people dead and dozens wounded. Authorities said more than 100 hostages were rescued during the 30-hour siege in Mogadishu.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s Birthdays:<\/p>\n
Former tennis player & coach Renee Richards is 92.
\nActor Jill St. John is 86.
\nAuthor Jack Canfield is 82.
\nRock singer Ian Gillan (Deep Purple) is 81.
\nFormer President Bill Clinton is 80.
\nActor Jim Carter (\u201cDownton Abbey\u201d) is 78.
\nRock bassist John Deacon (Queen) is 76.
\nActor-director Jonathan Frakes is 74.
\nActor Peter Gallagher is 71.
\nActor Adam Arkin is 70.
\nFootball Hall of Famer Anthony Munoz is 68.
\nMusician Ivan Neville is 67.
\nFootball Hall of Famer Morten Andersen is 66.
\nActor John Stamos is 63.
\nActor Kyra Sedgwick is 61.
\nCountry singer Lee Ann Womack is 59.
\nMicrosoft CEO Satya Nadella is 59.
\nCountry singer Clay Walker is 57.
\nOlympic gold medal tennis player Mary Joe Fernandez is 55.
\nActor Erika Christensen is 44.
\nActor Melissa Fumero is 44.
\nAuthor Veronica Roth is 38.
\nActor Ethan Cutkosky (TV: \u201cShameless\u201d) is 27.
\nActor Brighton Sharbino is 24.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today is Wednesday, Aug. 19, the 231st day of 2026. There are 134 days left in the year.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[122306,122307,9,24,63,122,124,123,3646],"class_list":["post-324768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-august-19-history","tag-iran-coup","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-today-in-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}