01010819 This Day In History, August 19

14: Octavian, later known as Augustus, the first Roman Emperor and adopted son of Julius Caesar, died (see A History Of Jerusalem: Pompey And The Caesars). Augustus was the Emperor at the time of the Messiah's birth ("2:1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed" Luke 2:1 KJV). Augustus was succeeded by Tiberius, who was the Caesar at the time of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ (see also Whatever Happened To Those Romans?).

1099: The Church of Rome's armies of the First Crusade defeated the Saracens (a European term for Muslims) at the Battle of Ascalon, one month after they had captured Jerusalem (see Constantine's Crusades In History And Prophecy and A History Of Jerusalem: Constantine and Muhammad; also A Biography Of Abraham: Abrahamic Religions and The Prophet Daniel: Kings Of The North and South).

1477: Maximilian I, son of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III, married Mary of Burgundy and acquired the Burgundian possessions in the Netherlands and France (see The Holy Roman Empire Of The German Nation).

1504: The Battle of Knockdoe in Ireland; the Hiberno-Norman de Burghs (Burkes) against the Anglo-Norman Fitzgeralds.

1561: Mary Queen of Scots arrived in Scotland to assume the throne after spending 13 years in France.

1587 Sigismund III, son of John of Sweden, was elected King of Poland.

1612: Three women from the Lancashire village of Samlesbury, known as the "Samlesbury witches," were put on trial for witchcraft. It became one of the most famous witch trials in English history (see also What Is Sorcery?).

1666: During the Second Anglo-Dutch War, Rear Admiral Robert Holmes led a raid on the Dutch island of Terschelling, destroying 150 merchant ships. The foray later became known as "Holmes's Bonfire."

1692: During the Salem, Massachusetts witch trials, a woman and four men, including a clergyman, were executed after being convicted of witchcraft.

1768: The Saint Isaac's Cathedral was founded in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

1861: The first ascent of Weisshorn, one of the highest summits in the Alps.

1880: French acrobat Blondin walked a tightrope across Niagara Falls with his manager on his back.

1919: Afghanistan was granted full independence from the United Kingdom.

1934: Adolf Hitler became "der Fuehrer" of Germany after nearly 90% of voters gave him their support (see also Presidential Quotes On War, Terrorism, Religion).

1942: The Dieppe Raid. During the Second World War, 4,963 Canadian and 1,075 British commandos, 50 U.S. Army Rangers, and 20 inter-Allied commandos launched a coastal attack on the heavily fortified German-held Dieppe. Of the 6,108 troops involved, only about 2,500 returned. The rest were killed or captured. Although the mission was a disaster, the lessons learned from it contributed to the success of the D-Day Normandy invasion that followed 2 years later.

1953: During the "Cold War" between Western fascism and Eastern communism, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and Britain's MI6 ("Military Intelligence, Section 6") helped to overthrow the Soviet-allied government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran and installed the dictator Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

1953: Israel's parliament conferred Israeli citizenship posthumously on all Jews killed by the Nazis during the years of the Holocaust (1933-45) in Europe.

1954: The U.S. Congress approved a bill outlawing the Communist Party.

1960: U.S. U-2 (a high-altitude spy plane) pilot Francis Gary Powers, who had been shot down by the Russians, was sentenced by a Moscow court to 10 years for espionage. He was later set free in exchange for a Russian spy who had been captured in New York.

1989: Polish President Wojciech Jaruzelski nominated Solidarity activist Tadeusz Mazowiecki to be the first non-communist Prime Minister of Poland in 42 years.

1991: The government of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was temporarily overthrown by a military coup.

2003: A Hamas terrorist suicide attack on a bus in Jerusalem killed 23 Israelis, 7 of them children.

2009: Terrorist bombings in Baghdad, Iraq, killed 101 people and injured 565 others (see also The LORD's Seed Covenants With The Two Men Of Iraq).