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19341776 Club

USS Macon finds Roosevelt at sea; parasite biplanes deliver his newspapers at Clipperton

The 785-foot helium scout located the cruiser Houston unannounced; the President radios his compliments on the navigation.

By the summer of 1934, the Navy's fleet exercises had not yet fully accounted for the airship's scouting capabilities and weaknesses. The USS Macon, a 785-foot helium-filled scout ship carrying its own squadron of parasite biplanes, set out to prove a point: find a ship at sea before anyone knew to look for it. In July, soon after the Houston's stop at Clipperton Island, she located the heavy cruiser Houston and delivered newspapers and magazines to President Franklin D. Roosevelt himself. The Houston radioed back that the President sent his compliments on the navigation and thanked the crew for the papers…

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More from July 19
1943

690 American bombers hit Rome; 9,125 bombs fall on San Lorenzo, killing 1,500

A freight yard and steel factory were the targets, but apartment blocks and a papal basilica took hits too; Pope Pius XII walks the rubble before day's end.
1848

Stanton and Mott open a women's rights convention in Seneca Falls; 300 gather at the Wesleyan Chapel

A Declaration of Sentiments modeled on the Declaration of Independence is read on the first day, its most disputed line demanding the vote for women.
2013

Cassini turns its camera toward Earth; Saturn's shadow makes it possible

Imaging leader Carolyn Porco positioned the spacecraft to catch the sun eclipsed by Saturn, putting Earth in the frame 1.44 billion kilometers away, and millions look up and wave.
18631776 Club
Morgan himself escapes northeast with a few hundred men after five weeks of burning bridges and looting towns across Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio.
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Read the full July 19 edition →Everything that happened on July 19 →
More from The World Wars
1923

A father administers the presidential oath by lamplight in a Vermont farmhouse

Word of Harding's death reaches Plymouth Notch after midnight, and there is no federal judge for miles.
1936

Owens takes 100-meter gold in Hitler's stadium, 10.3 seconds

The first of four gold medals, run in the stadium Hitler built to prove Aryan supremacy.
1945

The Enola Gay drops the first atomic bomb used in war on Hiroshima

Three-quarters of the city is gone within seconds; the pilot named the plane for his mother.
1929

A German airship lifts off from New Jersey to fly around the world

Hearst money bought the trip; a New Jersey field bought its start and finish.
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