What events happened on 19 August in history? We round up the events, births and deaths…
19 August 1560
Birth in Dumfriesshire of polymath and soldier James Crichton. His precocious talents earned him the soubriquet of the ‘Admirable Crichton’. He died, aged 21, after being mortally wounded in a street brawl in Mantua.
19 August 1561
After 13 years in France, Mary, Queen of Scots returned to Scotland, landing at Leith. Mary had made the journey by sea after Elizabeth I had refused her permission to travel through England.
19 August 1659
A pro-Royalist rising led by Sir George Booth was crushed by Major-General John Lambert at Winnington Bridge near Northwich in Cheshire. Booth tried to escape dressed as a woman but was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower.
19 August 1745
After landing in Scotland from France, Charles Edward Stuart (aka Bonnie Prince Charlie) raises his flag to claim the British throne and launch the final Jacobite rebellion – and gives Highland recruits brandy to celebrate.
19 August 1812
The USS Constitution captured HMS Guerriere in a single-ship action in the north-west Atlantic. It was noted that the Constitution seemed impervious to the cannonballs of the English frigate, earning her the nickname ‘old Ironsides’.
