Holidays Calendar for August 19, 2018

Independence Day in Afghanistan is celebrated on August 19. It commemorates the full independence of Afghanistan from the British Empire in 1919. Interestingly, Afghanistan was never officially part of the British Empire.

The Day of the Tribes (Ibumin Earoeni Day) is a public holiday in the Micronesian island country of Nauru. It is celebrated on August 19 to honor the country’s twelve traditional tribes and matrilineal system.

Eastern churches that use the Julian calendar celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration of Jesus on August 19. It is one of the so-called Twelve Great Feasts of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

World Photography Day, also known as World Photo Day, is celebrated on August 19. It is a community focused global celebration of photography launched in 2009 by Australian photographer Korske Ara.

Some Star Wars fans celebrate International Talk Like Jar Jar Binks Day on August 19. This annual holiday is dedicated to one of the most controversial characters of the Star Wars franchise.

International Orangutan Day, formerly known as World Orangutan Day, is celebrated annually on August 19. It was created to raise awareness of the critically endangered status of these amazing great apes.

International Bow Day is celebrated annually on August 19. It was created to celebrate a versatile accessory that has been around for hundreds of years.

Beekeeper Day is an official professional holiday in Ukraine celebrated on August 19 every year. It was established by President Leonid Kuchma in 1997.

Russia and Belarus celebrate Air Force Day on the third Sunday in August each year. This holiday was established in the USSR decades ago, but after the collapse of the Soviet Union only Belarus and Russia continued to celebrate it on this date.

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Sports Day in Kazakhstan is observed on the third Sunday in August. This holiday was established by President Nursultan Nazarbayev in November 2003 and has been celebrated each year since August 15, 2004.

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Aviation Workers’ Day is an unofficial professional holiday in Russia. It is celebrated on the third Sunday of August, coinciding with Air Force Day. Aviation Workers’ Day is the professional holiday of all people who work in the country’s aviation industry.

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The Day of Inventors and Innovators is an official professional holiday in Tajikistan, celebrated annually on the third Sunday of August. It was established by the Law of the Republic of Tajikistan “On Holidays”.

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On August 19, National Aviation Day is celebrated across the United States. It is an annual national observance that honors the development of aviation.

August 19 is August Revolution Commemoration Day in Vietnam. It celebrates the 1945 revolution that ended Japanese rule in Vietnam. The anniversary of the August Revolution is not a public holiday, but it is an important memorial day.

August 19 is an official flag flying day in Norway because it is the birthday of Mette-Marit, Crown Princess of Norway, the wife of Crown Prince Haakon.

Manuel Luis Quezon Day is a Philippine holiday celebrated on August 19. It is dedicated to the second president of the Philippines and the first president of the country to have been elected by popular vote. Quezon Day is a special working holiday in the provinces of Quezon and Aurora, named after Manuel Quezon and his wife Aurora Aragon, respectively.

The birthday of Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Debbarman Bahadur is a state holiday in the Indian state of Tripura. It is celebrated on August 19 to commemorate the last ruling Maharaja of Tripura who made a great contribution to its development.

On August 19, National Soft Ice Cream Day is celebrated throughout the United States. This food holiday celebrates a type of ice cream that has been around since 1930s.

Russian Telnyashka Day, also known as the birthday of the Russian telnyashka, is an unofficial holiday celebrated on August 19. It is dedicated to an iconic uniform garment worn by the Russian Navy and some other branches of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

Potatoes are a staple in many countries across the world because they are easy to grow, relatively inexpensive, and very versatile. Celebrate this amazing root vegetable on National Potato Day that is observed annually on August 19.

World Humanitarian Day is an annual United Nations observance that was officially proclaimed in 2008 and first celebrated on August 19, 2009. It was established to honor humanitarian personnel and those who lost their lives working for humanitarian causes.

Children's Day is celebrated in Argentina on the third Sunday in August. Although the date is fixed, Children's Day is often celebrated on other days due to the needs of Argentinian market, and it causes confusion among people.

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This Day in History

  • 2013 Died: Lee Thompson Young, American actor, known for his teenage role on the Disney Channel TV series The Famous Jett Jackson and as Chris Comer in Friday Night Lights. Before death, Young was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and suffered depression. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
  • 2012 Died: Tony Scott, British film director and producer, best known for work on films The Hunger, Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II, The Last Boy Scout, Enemy of the State, Domino, Unstoppable.
  • 2009 Died: Don Hewitt, American television producer, best known for creating 60 Minutes, the CBS television news magazine in 1968. This news magazine is the longest-running prime-time broadcast on American television.
  • 2009 A series of three car bomb attacks in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, killed at least 101 and injured 565 others. The bombings were targeted at government and privately owned buildings.
  • 1999 Tens of thousands of Serbians rallied on the streets to demand the resignation of President of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević.
  • 1994 Died: Linus Pauling, American chemist and biologist. In 1954 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances. In 1962 he was also awarded Nobel Peace Prize.
  • 1987 The first mass murder occurred in Hungerford, Berkshire, Britain. 27-year-old unemployed man Michael Robert killed 16 people, including his mother, with a semi-automatic rifle and then committed suicide.
  • 1980 Saudia Flight 163 en route from Riyadh to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia caught fire after takeoff. The aircraft burned after the emergency landing at the Riyadh airport, all 287 passengers and 14 crew on board died.
  • 1969 Born: Matthew Perry, American actor, well-known for role as Chandler Bing on popular sitcom Friends. He also appeared in number of films, including Fools Rush In, The Whole Nine Yards and 71 Again.
  • 1968 Died: George Gamow, Ukrainian-born American physicist and cosmologist. He is noted for discovery of theoretical explanation of alpha decay via quantum tunneling and work on radioactive decay of the atomic nucleus, star formation and Big Bang nucleosynthesis. In the middle of his career he focused on teaching and wrote books, including One Two Three... Infinity and the Mr. Tompkins... series of books.
  • 1964 The first geostationary communication satellite Syncom 3 was launched from Cape Canaveral. The satellite was turned off in 1696 and remains in the Earth's orbit.
  • 1960 The Soviet Union launched the satellite with the dogs Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, two rats and variety of plants to space. All animals safely returned back to Earth.
  • 1959 Died: Jacob Epstein, American-born British sculptor, pioneer of modern sculpture. He is known for controversial works, that challenged taboos on what was appropriate subject matter for public artworks.
  • 1955 At least 200 people died in the flooding, caused by Hurricane Diane, that hit the Northeast United States. That hurricane was the costliest Atlantic hurricane of its time.
  • 1946 Born: Bill Clinton, American politician, the 42nd President of the USA, serving in office from 1993 to 2001. He was impeached for perjury before a grand jury and obstruction of justice during the lawsuit against him, both related to a scandal involving a White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
  • 1945 Born: Ian Gillan, English singer and songwriter, known as the lead singer and lyricist for Deep Purple. During his career he co-worked with Episode Six, Black Sabbath, WhoCares. In addition to his main work, he sang the role of Jesus in the original recording of rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar.
  • 1944 Born: Jack Canfield, American author and motivational speaker, known as the co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, the third best selling book in the USA during the 1990s.
  • 1942 2nd Canadian Infantry Division lead an amphibious assault, code-named Operation Jubilee, by allied forces on Dieppe, Seine-Maritime, France during World War II. The operation was intended to develop and try new amphibious landing tactics for the coming full invasion in Normandy, but it failed and many Canadians were killed or captured.
  • 1936 Died: Federico García Lorca, Spanish poet, playwright and theater director. He achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27.
  • 1924 Born: Willard Boyle, Canadian-American physicist, co-inventor of the charge-coupled device. This work brought him Nobel Prize in Physics Award in 2009.
  • 1883 Born: Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, best remembered as Coco Chanel, French fashion designer and founder of the Chanel brand. She is credited with liberating women from the corsets and popularizing the acceptance of a sportive, chic and casual outfit as the feminine standard in the post-World War I era.
  • 1871 Born: Orville Wright, American pilot, inventor, and businessman, co-founder of the Wright Company. Together with his brother Wilbur he invented and built the world's first successful airplane and made the first controlled, powered and sustained human flight.
  • 1822 Died: Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre, French mathematician and astronomer, director of the Paris Observatory and author of well-known books, that were popular and influential to the 18th century.
  • 1808 Died: Fredrik Henrik af Chapman, Swedish shipbuilder, scientist, officer of the Swedish navy. He is credited as the first person to apply scientific methods to shipbuilding and is considered to be the first naval architect.
  • 1772 Gustav III of Sweden staged a coup d'état, in which he assumed power and enacted a new constitution. The constitution divided power between the Riksdag and the King.
  • 1743 Born: Madame du Barry, the last mistress of Louis XV of France. She had many lovers from the king's ministers to his courtiers and later became an official mistress of Louis XV. She fell as the victim of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.
  • 1689 Born: Samuel Richardson, English author, best known for his three epistolary novels Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded, Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady and The History of Sir Charles Grandison.
  • 1666 Second Anglo-Dutch War: Rear Admiral Robert Holmes lead a raid on the Dutch island of Terschelling. He destroyed 150 merchant ships, this act later known as Holmes's Bonfire.
  • 1662 Died: Blaise Pascal, French mathematician, inventor, physicist. He made important contributions to study of fluids, clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum. He also worked on calculating machines, that established him as one of the first two inventors of the mechanical calculator.
  • 1646 Born: John Flamsteed, English astronomer and academic, known for creation of catalog of over 3000 stars.