Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/August 19
August 19: Qi Xi in the Chinese lunar calendar (2007); Afghan Independence Day; National Aviation Day in the United States.
- 1942 – World War II: Allied forces unsuccessfully raided the German-occupied port of Dieppe, France in the Dieppe Raid, suffering over 3,000 casualties.
- 1953 – The government of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq was overthrown in a coup d'état and was replaced by Fazlollah Zahedi.
- 1960 – Russian space dogs Belka and Strelka (pictured) began to orbit the Earth aboard the Korabl-Sputnik-2 spacecraft.
- 1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev was announced as "ill and had been relieved of his state post as President" in a failed Soviet coup attempt.
- 2003 – A car bomb destroyed the United Nations headquarters at Baghdad's Canal Hotel, killing Brazilian diplomat Sérgio Vieira de Mello and 21 others.
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