On Aug. 19, 1812, the USS Constitution defeated the British frigate Guerriere east of Nova Scotia during the War of 1812.
In 1848 the New York Herald reported the discovery of gold in California.
In 1886 eight men were found guilty of murder in connection with the May 4 Haymarket Riot in Chicago. (The next day, seven were sentenced to death and the eighth to 15 years in prison. Of the eight, four were hanged, one committed suicide and three were pardoned in 1893.)
In 1902 poet Ogden Nash was born in Rye, N.Y.
In 1921 Gene Roddenberry, creator of the “Star Trek” television series, was born in El Paso, Texas.
In 1929 the comedy program “Amos ‘n’ Andy,” starring Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, made its coast-to-coast radio debut on NBC.
In 1931 Bill Shoemaker, considered the greatest American jockey of the second half of the 20th Century, was born near Fabens, Texas.
In 1934 a plebiscite in Germany approved the vesting of sole executive power in Adolf Hitler.
In 1942 about 6,000 Canadian and British soldiers launched a disastrous raid against the Germans at Dieppe, France, suffering about 50 percent casualties.
In 1951 the owner of the St. Louis Browns, Bill Veeck, sent in Eddie Gaedel, a 3-foot, 7-inch midget, to pinch-hit in a game against Detroit. (Gaedel, whose function was to draw walks, was later barred from play by the American League.)
In 1960 a tribunal in Moscow convicted American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers of spying.
In 1974 U.S. Ambassador Rodger Davies was fatally wounded by a bullet that penetrated the American Embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus, during a protest by Greek Cypriots.
In 1977 comedian Groucho Marx died in Los Angeles; he was 86.
In 1989 President Wojciech Jaruzelski formally nominated Tadeusz Mazowiecki to become Poland’s first non-Communist prime minister in four decades.
In 1994 President Bill Clinton abruptly halted the nation’s three-decade open-door policy for Cuban refugees.
In 2001 soul singer Betty Everett died in Beloit, Wis.; she was 61.
