TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS FRIDAY, AUG. 19, the 232nd day of 2016. There are 134 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1991, Soviet hard-liners stunned the world by announcing that President Mikhail S. Gorbachev had been removed from power. (The coup attempt collapsed two days later.)
In A.D. 14, Caesar Augustus, Rome’s first emperor, died at age 76 after a reign lasting four decades; he was succeeded by his stepson, Tiberius.
In 1934, a plebiscite in Germany approved the vesting of sole executive power in Adolf Hitler.
In 1936, the first of a series of show trials orchestrated by Soviet leader Josef Stalin began in Moscow as 16 defendants faced charges of conspiring against the government (all were convicted and executed).
In 1942, during World War II, about 6,000 Canadian and British soldiers launched a disastrous raid against the Germans at Dieppe, France, suffering more than 50 percent casualties.
In 1955, torrential rains caused by Hurricane Diane resulted in severe flooding in the northeastern U.S., claiming some 200 lives.
In 1964, The Beatles opened their first fullfledged U.S. tour as they performed at San Francisco’s Cow Palace.
In 1980, 301 people aboard a Saudi Arabian L-1011 died as the jetliner made a fiery emergency return to the Riyadh airport. In 1991, rioting erupted in the Brooklyn, N.Y., Crown Heights neighborhood after a black
7-year-old, Gavin Cato, was struck and killed by a Jewish driver from the ultra-Orthodox Lubavitch community; three hours later, a gang of blacks fatally stabbed Yankel Rosenbaum, a rabbinical student.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Former MLB All-Star Bobby Richardson is 81. President Bill Clinton is 70. Actor Gerald McRaney is 69. Tipper Gore, wife of former Vice President Al Gore, and actor Jim Carter are 68. Rock musician John Deacon (Queen) is 65. Actor-director Jonathan Frakes
is 64. Political consultant Mary Matalin is 63. Actor Peter Gallagher is 61. Actor Adam Arkin is 60. Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Anthony Munoz
is 58. Rhythm-and-blues singer Ivan Neville is 57. Actor Eric Lutes is 54. Actor John Stamos is 53. Actress Kyra Sedgwick and actor Kevin Dillon are 51. Country singer Lee Ann Womack
is 50. TV reporter Tabitha Soren is 49. Country singer-songwriter Mark McGuinn is 48. Actor Matthew Perry and country singer Clay Walker
are 47. Rapper Fat Joe is 46. Olympic gold medal tennis player Mary Joe Fernandez is 45. Actress Tracie Thoms is 41. Actor Callum Blue is
39. Country singer Rissi Palmer is 35. Actresses Erika Christensen and Melissa Fumero are 34. Olympic silver medal snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis and actor J. Evan Bonifant are 31.