Friday, August 19, 2005
On Aug. 19, 1934, a plebiscite in Germany approved the vesting of sole executive power in Adolf Hitler as Fuhrer.
On this date in:
1812 The USS Constitution defeated the British frigate Guerriere east of Nova Scotia during the War of 1812.
1929 The comedy ''Amos 'n' Andy'' made its network radio debut on NBC.
1942 About 6,000 Canadian and British soldiers launched a disastrous raid against the Germans at Dieppe, France, suffering about 50 percent casualties.
1955 Severe flooding in the Northeast caused by the remnants of Hurricane Diane claimed some 200 lives.
1960 A tribunal in Moscow convicted American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers of espionage.
1974 U.S. Ambassador Rodger P. Davies was fatally wounded by a bullet that penetrated the American embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus, during a protest by Greek Cypriots.
1976 President Gerald R. Ford won the Republican presidential nomination at the party's national convention in Kansas City.
1977 Comedian Groucho Marx died at age 86.
1994 President Bill Clinton halted the nation's three-decade open-door policy for Cuban refugees.
1996 A judge sentenced former Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker to four years' probation for his Whitewater crimes.
2002 A Russian military helicopter crashed after being shot down by rebels in Chechnya, killing 119 people.
2003 A suicide truck bomb struck U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, killing 22, including the top U.N. envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
2004 Internet search engine Google went public.