📜 This Day in History

July 19

• 998Arab–Byzantine wars: After initial Byzantine gains at the Battle of Apamea, a lone Kurdish rider killed Byzantine commander Damian Dalassenos, allowing Fatimid troops to turn the tide of the battle.
• 1702Great Northern War: Polish–Saxon forces were defeated by a Swedish army half their size at the Battle of Kliszów.
• 1848The two-day Seneca Falls Convention, the first women's-rights and feminist convention held in the United States, opened in Seneca Falls, New York.
• 1919Following Peace Day celebrations marking the end of the First World War, English ex-servicemen unhappy with unemployment and other grievances rioted and burned down Luton Town Hall.
• 1992A car bomb killed the anti-Mafia judge Paolo Borsellino and five policemen in Palermo, Italy, less than two months after the murder of Borsellino's friend and colleague Giovanni Falcone.
• 2024Neary's, a New York City Irish pub popular with political elites, closed.

Born on this day

• 1834Edgar Degas, French painter, sculptor, and illustrator (died 1917)
• 1893Vladimir Mayakovsky, Russian actor, playwright, and poet (died 1930)
• 1947Brian May, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and astrophysicist
• 1950Freddy Moore, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2022)