Today in History in 1848 The New York Herald reports on the gold found in California.

Our on this day in history archives contain over 200,000 events, birthdays and deaths from 6,000 years of history. Here is a roundup of a few of them:

August 19 is the 231st day of the year (232nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 134 days remaining until the end of the year.

EVENTS

43 BC – Octavian, later known as Augustus, compels the Roman Senate to elect him as consul.

1153 – Baldwin III of Jerusalem takes control of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from his mother, Melisende, and also captures Ascalon.

1458 – Pope Pius II is elected.

1493 – Accession to the throne of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.

1561 – Mary, Queen of Scots returns to Scotland after 13 years in France.

1666 – Second Anglo-Dutch War: Rear Admiral Robert Holmes leads a raid on the Dutch island of Terschelling, destroying 150 merchant ships.

1692 – Salem Witch Trials: Five people are executed after being convicted of witchcraft.

1745 – Charles Edward Stuart raises his standard at Glenfinnan, beginning the second Jacobite rebellion.

1759 – Seven Years' War: Naval Battle of Lagos off Portugal - The Royal Navy defeats a French fleet.

1768 – St. Isaac's Cathedral is founded in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

1772 – Gustav III of Sweden stages a coup, dividing power between the King and the Riksdag (Swedish parliament).

1782 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Blue Licks - Last major engagement of the war.

1812 – War of 1812: American frigate USS Constitution defeats British frigate HMS Guerriere off Nova Scotia.

1839 – The French government announces that Louis Daguerre's photographic process is a gift 'free to the world'.

1848 – The New York Herald reports on the gold found in California.

1854 – The First Sioux War begins when United States Army soldiers kill Lakota chief Conquering Bear and in return are massacred.

1861 – The Weisshorn in the Alps is first climbed, by British scientist John Tyndall.

1889 – Meteorological experiments are carried out on the Eiffel Tower to bring new knowledge of weather patterns to scientists. During this, a lightning bolt strikes the top of the building, something which hardly anyone on the lower deck notices.

1895 – American Frontier murderer and outlaw John Wesley Hardin is killed by an off-duty policeman in a saloon in El Paso, Texas.

1901 – 2000

1909 – The first automobile race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway occurs.

1914 – The alliance between Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire is signed in Sofia.

1919 – Afghanistan gains full independence from the United Kingdom.

1927 – Patriarch Sergius of Moscow proclaims the declaration of loyalty of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Soviet Union.

1934 – The first All-American Soap Box Derby is held in Dayton, Ohio.

1941 – On Alaska's Kodiak Island, the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge is founded.

1942 – World War II: Operation Jubilee - British and Canadian landings at Dieppe, northern France, fail.

1944 – World War II: Paris rises up against German occupation, with help from allied troops.

1945 – The Viet Minh, under Ho Chi Minh, take command in Hanoi, Vietnam.

1953 – The CIA helps to overthrow Iranian leader Mohammed Mossadegh, allowing Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to return to power.

1955 – Hurricane Diane floods the Northeastern United States, killing 200 people.

1960 – The Soviet Union sentences US pilot Francis Gary Powers to ten years in prison.

1960 – Sputnik 5 is launched, with dogs, mice and plants on board. They all return safely back to Earth.

1965 – Eisaku Sato, becomes the first post-World War II Prime Minister of Japan to visit Okinawa.

1966 – An earthquake in Varto, Turkey, kills 2,500 people.

1978 – An attack on the Cinema Rex in Abadan, western Iran, kills over 430 people. It had been carried out by allies of Ayatollah Khomeini in order to damage the Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

1980 – A Lockheed L-1011 airplane of the Saudia airline, burns after making an emergency landing at King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killing 301 people. This is Saudi Arabia's worst-ever air disaster.

1981 – Gulf of Sidra Incident: US fighters intercept and shoot down two Libyan Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jets over the Gulf of Sidra.

1987 – In Hungerford, England, a gunman kills 16 people with an assault rifle, before killing himself.

1989 – Wojciech Jaruzelski nominates Tadeusz Mazowiecki as the first non-Communist Prime Minister of Poland in 42 years.

1989 – Several East Germans cross the border between Hungary and Austria during the Pan-European Picnic, part of the events leading up to the Fall of the Berlin Wall later the same year.

1991 – August Coup: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is placed under house arrest, while on holiday in Foros, Crimea.

1999 – In Belgrade, tens of thousands of people protest against President of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic, demanding his resignation.

2002 – A Russian Mil Mir 26 helicopter carrying troops is hit by a Chechen missile, killing 18.

2003 – A car bomb attack on Baghdad's United Nations Headquarters kills 22 people, including Brazilian diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello.

2003 – A bus bombing attack planned by Hamas in Jerusalem kills 23 people.

2005 – The first ever joint military exercise between Russia and China, called Peace Mission 2005, begins.

2005 – Strong storms hit southern Ontario, bringing tornadoes and flooding.

2007 – Pro-democracy demonstrations begin in Burma, led by Buddhist monks and nuns.

2008 – President of Zambia Levy Mwanawasa dies aged 59. Rupiah Banda is later elected to replace him.

2009 – A series of bombings in Baghdad kills 101 people, and injures 565.

2010 – The last US combat troops leave Iraq.

2012 – A Sudanese Antonov An-26 airliner crashes near Talodi, Sudan, killing over 30 people.

2012 – Movie director Tony Scott commits suicide at the age of 68.

2013 – The Dhamara Ghat train crash in the Indian state of Bihar kills 57 people.