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Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known simply as Labor or the Labor Party, is the major centre-left political party in Australia and one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party has been in government since being elected at the 2022 federal election, and with political branches in each state and territory, they currently form government in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, the Australian Capital Territory, and the Northern Territory. As of 2023, Tasmania is the only state or territory where Labor forms the opposition. It is the oldest continuous political party in Australian history, being established on 8 May 1901 at Parliament House, Melbourne, the meeting place of the first federal Parliament.

The ALP was not founded as a federal party until after the first sitting of the Australian parliament in 1901. It is regarded as descended from labour parties founded in the various Australian colonies by the emerging labour movement in Australia, formally beginning in 1891. Colonial labour parties contested seats from 1891, and federal seats following Federation at the 1901 federal election. The ALP formed the world's first labour party government and the world's first democratic socialist or social-democratic government at a national level. At the 1910 federal election, Labor was the first party in Australia to win a majority in either house of the Australian parliament. In every election since 1910 Labor has either served as the governing party or the opposition. There have been 13 Labor Prime Ministers and 10 periods of Federal Labor governments. Of the major parties, it is the older one among them, since the Liberal Party was formed in 1944.

The Labor party is often called the party of unions due to its close ties to the labour movement in Australia, with the majority of trade unions being affiliated with the Labor party. The party is equally controlled by unions and rank-and-file party members through affiliated unions being granted 50% of delegates at each state and national conference.

At the federal and state/colony level, the Australian Labor Party predates both the British Labour Party and the New Zealand Labour Party in party formation, government, and policy implementation. Internationally, the ALP is a member of the Progressive Alliance, a network of progressive and social-democratic parties, having previously been a member of the Socialist International.

Name and spelling
In standard Australian English, the word "labour" is spelt with a u. However, the political party uses the spelling "Labor", without a u. There was originally no standardised spelling of the party's name, with "Labor" and "Labour" both in common usage. According to Ross McMullin, who wrote an official history of the Labor Party, the title page of the proceedings of the Federal Conference used the spelling "Labor" in 1902, "Labour" in 1905 and 1908, and then "Labor" from 1912 onwards. In 1908, James Catts put forward a motion at the Federal Conference that "the name of the party be the Australian Labour Party", which was carried by 22 votes to 2. A separate motion recommending state branches adopt the name was defeated. There was no uniformity of party names until 1918 when the Federal party resolved that state branches should adopt the name "Australian Labor Party", now spelt without a u. Each state branch had previously used a different name, due to their different origins.

Although the ALP officially adopted the spelling without a u, it took decades for the official spelling to achieve widespread acceptance. According to McMullin, "the way the spelling of 'Labor Party' was consolidated had more to do with the chap who ended up being in charge of printing the federal conference report than any other reason". Some sources have attributed the official choice of "Labor" to influence from King O'Malley, who was born in the United States and was reputedly an advocate of spelling reform; the spelling without a u is the standard form in American English. It has been suggested that the adoption of the spelling without a u "signified one of the ALP's earliest attempts at modernisation", and served the purpose of differentiating the party from the Australian labour movement as a whole and distinguishing it from other British Empire labour parties. The decision to include the word "Australian" in the party's name, rather than just "Labour Party" as in the United Kingdom, has been attributed to "the greater importance of nationalism for the founders of the colonial parties".

History
The Australian Labor Party has its origins in the Labour parties founded in the 1890s in the Australian colonies prior to federation. Labor tradition ascribes the founding of Queensland Labour to a meeting of striking pastoral workers under a ghost gum tree (the "Tree of Knowledge") in Barcaldine, Queensland in 1891. The 1891 shearers' strike is credited as being one of the factors for the formation of the Australian Labor Party. On 9 September 1892 the Manifesto of the Queensland Labour Party was read out under the well known Tree of Knowledge at Barcaldine following the Great Shearers' Strike. The State Library of Queensland now holds the manifesto; in 2008 the historic document was added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Australian Register and, in 2009, the document was added to UNESCO's Memory of the World International Register. The Balmain, New South Wales branch of the party claims to be the oldest in Australia. However, the Scone Branch has a receipt for membership fees for the 'Labour Electoral League' dated April 1891. This predates the Balmain claim. This can be attested in the Centenary of the ALP book. Labour as a parliamentary party dates from 1891 in New South Wales and South Australia, 1893 in Queensland, and later in the other colonies.

The first election contested by Labour candidates was the 1891 New South Wales election, when Labour candidates (then called the Labor Electoral League of New South Wales) won 35 of 141 seats. The major parties were the Protectionist and Free Trade parties and Labour held the balance of power. It offered parliamentary support in exchange for policy concessions. The United Labor Party (ULP) of South Australia was founded in 1891, and three candidates were that year elected to the South Australian Legislative Council. The first successful South Australian House of Assembly candidate was John McPherson at the 1892 East Adelaide by-election. Richard Hooper however was elected as an Independent Labor candidate at the 1891 Wallaroo by-election, while he was the first "labor" member of the House of Assembly he was not a member of the newly formed ULP.

At the 1893 South Australian elections, the ULP was immediately elevated to balance of power status with 10 of 54 lower house seats. The liberal government of Charles Kingston was formed with the support of the ULP, ousting the conservative government of John Downer. So successful, less than a decade later at the 1905 state election, Thomas Price formed the world's first stable Labor government. John Verran led Labor to form the state's first of many majority governments at the 1910 state election.

In 1899, Anderson Dawson formed a minority Labour government in Queensland, the first in the world, which lasted one week while the conservatives regrouped after a split.

The colonial Labour parties and the trade unions were mixed in their support for the Federation of Australia. Some Labour representatives argued against the proposed constitution, claiming that the Senate as proposed was too powerful, similar to the anti-reformist colonial upper houses and the British House of Lords. They feared that federation would further entrench the power of the conservative forces. However, the first Labour leader and Prime Minister Chris Watson was a supporter of federation.

Historian Celia Hamilton, examining New South Wales, argues for the central role of Irish Catholics. Before 1890, they opposed Henry Parkes, the main Liberal leader, and of free trade, seeing them both as the ideals of Protestant Englishmen who represented landholding and large business interests. In the strike of 1890 the leading Catholic, Sydney's Archbishop Patrick Francis Moran was sympathetic toward unions, but Catholic newspapers were negative. After 1900, says Hamilton, Irish Catholics were drawn to the Labour Party because its stress on equality and social welfare fitted with their status as manual labourers and small farmers. In the 1910 elections Labour gained in the more Catholic areas and the representation of Catholics increased in Labour's parliamentary ranks.

Early decades at the federal level
The federal parliament in 1901 was contested by each state Labour Party. In total, they won 15 of the 75 seats in the House of Representatives, collectively holding the balance of power, and the Labour members now met as the Federal Parliamentary Labour Party (informally known as the caucus) on 8 May 1901 at Parliament House, Melbourne, the meeting place of the first federal Parliament. The caucus decided to support the incumbent Protectionist Party in minority government, while the Free Trade Party formed the opposition. It was some years before there was any significant structure or organisation at a national level. Labour under Chris Watson doubled its vote at the 1903 federal election and continued to hold the balance of power. In April 1904, however, Watson and Alfred Deakin fell out over the issue of extending the scope of industrial relations laws concerning the Conciliation and Arbitration Bill to cover state public servants, the fallout causing Deakin to resign. Free Trade leader George Reid declined to take office, which saw Watson become the first Labour Prime Minister of Australia, and the world's first Labour head of government at a national level (Anderson Dawson had led a short-lived Labour government in Queensland in December 1899), though his was a minority government that lasted only four months. He was aged only 37, and is still the youngest Prime Minister in Australia's history.

George Reid of the Free Trade Party adopted a strategy of trying to reorient the party system along Labour vs. non-Labour lines prior to the 1906 federal election and renamed his Free Trade Party to the Anti-Socialist Party. Reid envisaged a spectrum running from socialist to anti-socialist, with the Protectionist Party in the middle. This attempt struck a chord with politicians who were steeped in the Westminster tradition and regarded a two-party system as very much the norm.

Although Watson further strengthened Labour's position in 1906, he stepped down from the leadership the following year, to be succeeded by Andrew Fisher who formed a minority government lasting seven months from late 1908 to mid 1909. At the 1910 federal election, Fisher led Labor to victory, forming Australia's first elected federal majority government, Australia's first elected Senate majority, the world's first Labour Party majority government at a national level, and after the 1904 Chris Watson minority government the world's second Labour Party government at a national level. It was the first time a Labour Party had controlled any house of a legislature, and the first time the party controlled both houses of a bicameral legislature. The state branches were also successful, except in Victoria, where the strength of Deakinite liberalism inhibited the party's growth. The state branches formed their first majority governments in New South Wales and South Australia in 1910, Western Australia in 1911, Queensland in 1915 and Tasmania in 1925. Such success eluded equivalent labour parties in other countries for many years.

Analysis of the early NSW Labor caucus reveals "a band of unhappy amateurs", made up of blue collar workers, a squatter, a doctor, and even a mine owner, indicating that the idea that only the socialist working class formed Labor is untrue. In addition, many members from the working class supported the liberal notion of free trade between the colonies; in the first grouping of state MPs, 17 of the 35 were free-traders.

In the aftermath of World War I and the Russian Revolution of 1917, support for socialism grew in trade union ranks, and at the 1921 All-Australian Trades Union Congress a resolution was passed calling for "the socialisation of industry, production, distribution and exchange." The 1922 Labor Party National Conference adopted a similarly worded "socialist objective," which remained official policy for many years. The resolution was immediately qualified, however, by the "Blackburn amendment," which said that "socialisation" was desirable only when was necessary to "eliminate exploitation and other anti-social features." In practice the socialist objective was a dead letter. Only once has a federal Labor government attempted to nationalise any industry (Ben Chifley's bank nationalisation of 1947), and that was held by the High Court to be unconstitutional. The commitment to nationalisation was dropped by Gough Whitlam, and Bob Hawke's government carried out many free market reforms including the floating of the dollar and privatisation of state enterprises such as Qantas airways and the Commonwealth Bank.

The Labor Party is commonly described as a social democratic party, and its constitution stipulates that it is a democratic socialist party. The party was created by, and has always been influenced by, the trade unions, and in practice its policy at any given time has usually been the policy of the broader labour movement. Thus at the first federal election 1901 Labor's platform called for a White Australia policy, a citizen army and compulsory arbitration of industrial disputes. Labor has at various times supported high tariffs and low tariffs, conscription and pacifism, White Australia and multiculturalism, nationalisation and privatisation, isolationism and internationalism.

From 1900 to 1940, Labor and its affiliated unions were strong defenders of the White Australia policy, which banned all non-European migration to Australia. This policy was motivated by fears of economic competition from low-wage overseas workers which was shared by the vast majority of Australians and all major political parties. In practice the Labor party opposed all migration, on the grounds that immigrants competed with Australian workers and drove down wages, until after World War II, when the Chifley government launched a major immigration program. The party's opposition to non-European immigration did not change until after the retirement of Arthur Calwell as leader in 1967. Subsequently, Labor has become an advocate of multiculturalism.

World War II and beyond
The Curtin and Chifley governments governed Australia through the latter half of the Second World War and initial stages of transition to peace. Labor leader John Curtin became prime minister in October 1941 when two independents crossed the floor of Parliament. Labor, led by Curtin, then led Australia through the years of the Pacific War. In December 1941, Curtin announced that "Australia looks to America, free of any pangs as to our traditional links or kinship with the United Kingdom", thus helping to establish the Australian-American alliance (later formalised as ANZUS by the Menzies Government). Remembered as a strong war time leader and for a landslide win at the 1943 federal election, Curtin died in office just prior to the end of the war and was succeeded by Ben Chifley. Chifley Labor won the 1946 federal election and oversaw Australia's initial transition to a peacetime economy.

Labor was defeated at the 1949 federal election. At the conference of the New South Wales Labor Party in June 1949, Chifley sought to define the labour movement as follows: "We have a great objective – the light on the hill – which we aim to reach by working for the betterment of mankind. [...] [Labor would] bring something better to the people, better standards of living, greater happiness to the mass of the people."

To a large extent, Chifley saw centralisation of the economy as the means to achieve such ambitions. With an increasingly uncertain economic outlook, after his attempt to nationalise the banks and a strike by the Communist-dominated Miners' Federation, Chifley lost office in 1949 to Robert Menzies' Liberal-National Coalition. Labor commenced a 23-year period in opposition. The party was primarily led during this time by H. V. Evatt and Arthur Calwell.

Various ideological beliefs were factionalised under reforms to the ALP under Gough Whitlam, resulting in what is now known as the Socialist Left who tend to favour a more interventionist economic policy and more socially progressive ideals, and Labor Right, the now dominant faction that tends to be more economically liberal and focus to a lesser extent on social issues. The Whitlam Labor government, marking a break with Labor's socialist tradition, pursued social-democratic policies rather than democratic socialist policies. In contrast to earlier Labor leaders, Whitlam also cut tariffs by 25 percent. Whitlam led the Federal Labor Party back to office at the 1972 and 1974 federal elections, and passed a large amount of legislation. The Whitlam government lost office following the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis and dismissal by Governor-General John Kerr after the Coalition blocked supply in the Senate after a series of political scandals, and was defeated at the 1975 federal election in the largest landslide of Australian federal history. Whitlam remains the only Prime Minister to have his commission terminated in that manner. Whitlam also lost the 1977 federal election and subsequently resigned as leader.

Bill Hayden succeeded Whitlam as leader. At the 1980 federal election, the party achieved a big swing, though the unevenness of the swing around the nation prevented an ALP victory. In 1983, Bob Hawke became leader of the party after Hayden resigned to avoid a leadership spill.

Bob Hawke led Labor back to office at the 1983 federal election and the party won four consecutive elections under Hawke. In December 1991 Paul Keating defeated Bob Hawke in a leadership spill. The ALP then won the 1993 federal election. It was in power for five terms over 13 years, until severely defeated by John Howard at the 1996 federal election. This was the longest period the party has ever been in government at the national level.

Kim Beazley led the party to the 1998 federal election, winning 51 percent of the two-party-preferred vote but falling short on seats, and the ALP lost ground at the 2001 federal election. After a brief period when Simon Crean served as ALP leader, Mark Latham led Labor to the 2004 federal election but lost further ground. Beazley replaced Latham in 2005; not long afterwards he in turn was forced out of the leadership by Kevin Rudd.

Rudd went on to defeat John Howard at the 2007 federal election with 52.7 percent of the two-party vote (Howard became the first Prime Minister since Stanley Melbourne Bruce to lose not just the election but his own parliamentary seat). The Rudd government ended prior to the 2010 federal election with the overthrow of Rudd as leader of the Party by deputy leader Julia Gillard. Gillard, who was also the first woman to serve as Prime Minister of Australia, remained Prime Minister in a hung parliament following the election. Her government lasted until 2013, when Gillard lost a leadership spill, with Rudd becoming leader once again. Later that year the ALP lost the 2013 election.

After this defeat, Bill Shorten became leader of the party. The party narrowly lost the 2016 election, yet gained 14 seats. It remained in opposition after the 2019 election, despite having been ahead in opinion polls for the preceding two years. The party lost in 2019 some of the seats which it had won back in 2016. After the 2019 defeat, Shorten resigned from the leadership, though he remained in parliament. Anthony Albanese was elected as leader unopposed and led the party to victory in the 2022 election, and became the new prime minister. Between the 2007 federal election and the 2008 Western Australian state election, Labor was in government nationally and in all eight state and territory legislatures. This was the first time any single party or any coalition had achieved this since the ACT and the NT gained self-government. Labor narrowly lost government in Western Australia at the 2008 state election and Victoria at the 2010 state election. These losses were further compounded by landslide defeats in New South Wales in 2011, Queensland in 2012, the Northern Territory in 2012, Federally in 2013 and Tasmania in 2014. Labor secured a good result in the Australian Capital Territory in 2012 and, despite losing its majority, the party retained government in South Australia in 2014.

However, most of these reversals proved only temporary with Labor returning to government in Victoria in 2014 and in Queensland in 2015 after spending only one term in opposition in both states. Furthermore, after winning the 2014 Fisher by-election by nine votes from a 7.3 percent swing, the Labor government in South Australia went from minority to majority government. Labor won landslide victories in the 2016 Northern Territory election, the 2017 Western Australian election and the 2018 Victorian state election. However, Labor lost the 2018 South Australian state election after 16 years in government. In 2022, Labor returned to government after defeating the Liberal Party in the 2022 South Australian state election. Despite favourable polling, the party also did not return to government in the 2019 New South Wales state election or the 2019 federal election. The latter has been considered a historic upset due to Labor's consistent and significant polling lead; the result has been likened to the Coalition's loss in the 1993 federal election, with 2019 retrospectively referred to as the "unloseable election". Anthony Albanese later led the party into the 2022 Australian federal election, in which the party once again won a majority government. In 2023, Labor won the 2023 New South Wales state election returning to government for the first time since 2011. This victory marked the first time in 15 years that Labor were in government in all mainland states.

National platform
The policy of the Australian Labor Party is contained in its National Platform, which is approved by delegates to Labor's National Conference, held every three years. According to the Labor Party's website, "The Platform is the result of a rigorous and constructive process of consultation, spanning the nation and including the cooperation and input of state and territory policy committees, local branches, unions, state and territory governments, and individual Party members. The Platform provides the policy foundation from which we can continue to work towards the election of a federal Labor government."

The platform gives a general indication of the policy direction which a future Labor government would follow, but does not commit the party to specific policies. It maintains that "Labor's traditional values will remain a constant on which all Australians can rely." While making it clear that Labor is fully committed to a market economy, it says that: "Labor believes in a strong role for national government – the one institution all Australians truly own and control through our right to vote." Labor "will not allow the benefits of change to be concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, or located only in privileged communities. The benefits must be shared by all Australians and all our regions." The platform and Labor "believe that all people are created equal in their entitlement to dignity and respect, and should have an equal chance to achieve their potential." For Labor, "government has a critical role in ensuring fairness by: ensuring equal opportunity; removing unjustifiable discrimination; and achieving a more equitable distribution of wealth, income and status." Further sections of the platform stress Labor's support for equality and human rights, labour rights and democracy.

In practice, the platform provides only general policy guidelines to Labor's federal, state and territory parliamentary leaderships. The policy Labor takes into an election campaign is determined by the Cabinet (if the party is in office) or the Shadow Cabinet (if it is in opposition), in consultation with key interest groups within the party, and is contained in the parliamentary Leader's policy speech delivered during the election campaign. When Labor is in office, the policies it implements are determined by the Cabinet, subject to the platform. Generally, it is accepted that while the platform binds Labor governments, how and when it is implemented remains the prerogative of the parliamentary caucus. It is now rare for the platform to conflict with government policy, as the content of the platform is usually developed in close collaboration with the party's parliamentary leadership as well as the factions. However, where there is a direct contradiction with the platform, Labor governments have sought to change the platform as a prerequisite for a change in policy. For example, privatisation legislation under the Hawke government occurred only after holding a special national conference to debate changing the platform.,

National executive and secretariat
The Australian Labor Party National Executive is the party's chief administrative authority, subject only to Labor's national conference. The executive is responsible for organising the triennial national conference; carrying out the decisions of the conference; interpreting the national constitution, the national platform and decisions of the national conference; and directing federal members.

The party holds a national conference every three years, which consists of delegates representing the state and territory branches (many coming from affiliated trade unions, although there is no formal requirement for unions to be represented at the national conference). The national conference decides the party's platform, elects the national executive and appoints office-bearers such as the national secretary, who also serves as national campaign director during elections. The current national secretary is Paul Erickson. The most recent national conference was the 48th conference held in December 2018.

The head office of the ALP, the national secretariat, is managed by the national secretary. It plays a dual role of administration and a national campaign strategy. It acts as a permanent secretariat to the national executive by managing and assisting in all administrative affairs of the party. As the national secretary also serves as national campaign director during elections, it is also responsible for the national campaign strategy and organisation.

Federal Parliamentary Labor Party
The elected members of the Labor party in both houses of the national Parliament meet as the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party, also known as the Australian Labor Party Caucus (see also caucus). Besides discussing parliamentary business and tactics, the Caucus also is involved in the election of the federal parliamentary leaders.

Federal parliamentary leaders
Until 2013, the parliamentary leaders were elected by the Caucus from among its members. The leader has historically been a member of the House of Representatives. Since October 2013, a ballot of both the Caucus and by the Labor Party's rank-and-file members determined the party leader and the deputy leader. When the Labor Party is in government, the party leader is the Prime Minister and the deputy leader is the Deputy Prime Minister. If a Labor prime minister resigns or dies in office, the deputy leader acts as prime minister and party leader until a successor is elected. The deputy prime minister also acts as prime minister when the prime minister is on leave or out of the country. Members of the Ministry are also chosen by Caucus, though the leader may allocate portfolios to the ministers.

Anthony Albanese is the leader of the federal Labor party, serving since 30 May 2019. The deputy leader is Richard Marles, also serving since 30 May 2019.

State and territory branches
The Australian Labor Party is a federal party, consisting of eight branches from each state and territory. While the National Executive is responsible for national campaign strategy, each state and territory are an autonomous branch and are responsible for campaigning in their own jurisdictions for federal, state and local elections. State and territory branches consist of both individual members and affiliated trade unions, who between them decide the party's policies, elect its governing bodies and choose its candidates for public office.

Members join a state branch and pay a membership fee, which is graduated according to income. The majority of trade unions in Australia are affiliated to the party at a state level. Union affiliation is direct and not through the Australian Council of Trade Unions. Affiliated unions pay an affiliation fee based on the size of their membership. Union affiliation fees make up a large part of the party's income. Other sources of funds for the party include political donations and public funding.

Members are generally expected to attend at least one meeting of their local branch each year, although there are differences in the rules from state to state. In practice, only a dedicated minority regularly attend meetings. Many members are only active during election campaigns.

The members and unions elect delegates to state and territory conferences (usually held annually, although more frequent conferences are often held). These conferences decide policy, and elect state or territory executives, a state or territory president (an honorary position usually held for a one-year term), and a state or territory secretary (a full-time professional position). However, ACT Labor directly elects its president. The larger branches also have full-time assistant secretaries and organisers. In the past the ratio of conference delegates coming from the branches and affiliated unions has varied from state to state, however under recent national reforms at least 50% of delegates at all state and territory conferences must be elected by branches.

In some states, the party also contests local government elections or endorses local candidates. In others it does not, preferring to allow its members to run as non-endorsed candidates. The process of choosing candidates is called preselection. Candidates are preselected by different methods in the various states and territories. In some they are chosen by ballots of all party members, in others by panels or committees elected by the state conference, in still others by a combination of these two.

The state and territory Labor branches are the following:

Country Labor
The Country Labor Party, commonly known as Country Labor, was an affiliated organisation of the Labor Party. Although not expressly defined, Country Labor operated mainly within rural New South Wales, and was mainly seen as an extension of the New South Wales branch that operates in rural electorates.

Country Labor was used as a designation by candidates contesting elections in rural areas. The Country Labor Party was registered as a separate party in New South Wales, and was also registered with the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) for federal elections. It did not have the same status in other states and, consequently, that designation could not be used on the ballot paper.

The creation of a separation designation for rural candidates was first suggested at the June 1999 ALP state conference in New South Wales. In May 2000, following Labor's success at the 2000 Benalla by-election in Victoria, Kim Beazley announced that the ALP intended to register a separate "Country Labor Party" with the AEC; this occurred in October 2000. The Country Labor designation was most frequently used in New South Wales. According to the ALP's financial statements for the 2015–16 financial year, NSW Country Labor had around 2,600 members (around 17 percent of the party total), but almost no assets. It recorded a severe funding shortfall at the 2015 New South Wales election, and had to rely on a $1.68-million loan from the party proper to remain solvent. It had been initially assumed that the party proper could provide the money from its own resources, but the NSW Electoral Commission ruled that this was impermissible because the parties were registered separately. Instead the party proper had to loan Country Labor the required funds at a commercial interest rate.

The Country Labor Party was de-registered by the New South Wales Electoral Commission in 2021.

Australian Young Labor
Australian Young Labor is the youth wing of the Australian Labor Party, where all members under age 26 are automatically members. It is the peak youth body within the ALP. Former presidents of AYL have included former NSW Premier Bob Carr, Federal Leader of the House Tony Burke, former Special Minister of State Senator John Faulkner, former Australian Workers Union National Secretary, current Member for Maribyrnong and former Federal Labor Leader Bill Shorten as well as dozens of State Ministers and MPs. The current National President is Manu Risoldi.

Networks
The Australian Labor Party is beginning to formally recognise single interest groups within the party. The national platform currently encourages state branches to formally establish these groups known as policy action caucuses. Examples of such groups include the Labor Environment Action Network, Rainbow Labor, Labor For Choice, Labor Women's Network, Labor for Drug Law Reform Labor for Refugees, Labor for Housing, Labor Teachers Network, Aboriginal Labor Network, and recently, Labor Enabled - the action group for Disability Advocacy The Tasmanian Branch of the Australian Labor Party recently gave these groups voting and speaking rights at their state conference.

Ideology and factions
Labor's constitution has long stated: "The Australian Labor Party is a democratic socialist party and has the objective of the democratic socialisation of industry, production, distribution and exchange, to the extent necessary to eliminate exploitation and other anti-social features in these fields". This "socialist objective" was introduced in 1921, but was later qualified by two further objectives: "maintenance of and support for a competitive non-monopolistic private sector" and "the right to own private property". Labor governments have not attempted the "democratic socialisation" of any industry since the 1940s, when the Chifley government failed to nationalise the private banks, and in fact have privatised several industries such as aviation and banking.

Factions
The Labor Party has always had a left wing and a right wing; however, since 1989, it has been organised into formal factions.

The two largest factional groupings are the Labor Left, who are supportive of democratic socialist ideals, and the Labor Right who generally support social-democratic traditions. The national factional groupings are themselves divided into formal factions, primarily state-based such as Centre Unity in New South Wales and Labor Forum in Queensland.

Some trade unions are affiliated with the Labor Party and are also factionally aligned. Important unions supporting the right faction are the Australian Workers' Union (AWU), the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) and the Transport Workers Union of Australia (TWU). Important unions supporting the left include the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), United Workers Union, the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) and the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU).

Donors
For the 2015–2016 financial year, the top ten disclosed donors to the ALP were the Health Services Union NSW ($389,000), Village Roadshow ($257,000), Electrical Trades Union of Australia ($171,000), National Automotive Leasing and Salary Packaging Association ($153,000), Westfield Corporation ($150,000), Randazzo C&G Developments ($120,000), Macquarie Telecom ($113,000), Woodside Energy ($110,000), ANZ Bank ($100,000) and Ying Zhou ($100,000), all significantly lower than the 2014 donations by a Chinese donor Zi Chun Wang, which at $850,000 was the largest donation to any political party in the 2013-2014 financial year. At least one newspaper report queried the identity of this donor stating "news archive searches do not produce results for this name, suggesting Wang operates under another name". Another report mentions that in addition to a hotel and a travel agency, the donor's listed address at the Old Communist Cadres Activity Centre in Shijiazhuang houses several Chinese government entities, stating also that another publisher "tried many times without success" to contact the donor on the phone number listed in the donation return form.

The Labor Party also receives undisclosed funding through several methods, such as "associated entities". John Curtin House, Industry 2020, IR21 and the Happy Wanderers Club are entities which have been used to funnel donations to the Labor Party without disclosing the source.

A 2019 report found that the Labor Party received $33,000 from pro-gun groups during the 2011–2018 periods compared to $82,000 received by the Coalition.

title: Australian Labor Party


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August 18

Pre-1600

 * 684 – Battle of Marj Rahit: Umayyad partisans defeat the supporters of Ibn al-Zubayr and cement Umayyad control of Syria.
 * 707 – Princess Abe accedes to the imperial Japanese throne as Empress Genmei.
 * 1304 – The Battle of Mons-en-Pévèle is fought to a draw between the French army and the Flemish militias.
 * 1487 – The Siege of Málaga ends with the taking of the city by Castilian and Aragonese forces.
 * 1492 – The first grammar of the Spanish language (Gramática de la lengua castellana) is presented to Queen Isabella I.
 * 1572 – The Huguenot King Henry III of Navarre marries the Catholic Margaret of Valois, ostensibly to reconcile the feuding Protestants and Catholics of France.
 * 1590 – John White, the governor of the Roanoke Colony, returns from a supply trip to England and finds his settlement deserted.

1601–1900

 * 1612 – The trial of the Pendle witches, one of England's most famous witch trials, begins at Lancaster Assizes.
 * 1634 – Urbain Grandier, accused and convicted of sorcery, is burned alive in Loudun, France.
 * 1721 – The city of Shamakhi in Safavid Shirvan is sacked.
 * 1783 – A huge fireball meteor is seen across Great Britain as it passes over the east coast.
 * 1809 – The Senate of Finland is established in the Grand Duchy of Finland after the official adoption of the Statute of the Government Council by Tsar Alexander I of Russia.
 * 1826 – Major Gordon Laing becomes the first European to enter Timbuktu.
 * 1838 – The Wilkes Expedition, which would explore the Puget Sound and Antarctica, weighs anchor at Hampton Roads.
 * 1848 – Camila O'Gorman and Ladislao Gutierrez are executed on the orders of Argentine dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas.
 * 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Globe Tavern: Union forces try to cut a vital Confederate supply-line into Petersburg, Virginia, by attacking the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad.
 * 1868 – French astronomer Pierre Janssen discovers helium.
 * 1870 – Franco-Prussian War: Battle of Gravelotte is fought.
 * 1877 – American astronomer Asaph Hall discovers Phobos, one of Mars’s moons.
 * 1891 – A major hurricane strikes Martinique, leaving 700 dead.

1901–present

 * 1903 – German engineer Karl Jatho allegedly flies his self-made, motored gliding airplane four months before the first flight of the Wright brothers.
 * 1917 – A Great Fire in Thessaloniki, Greece, destroys 32% of the city leaving 70,000 individuals homeless.
 * 1920 – The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing women's suffrage.
 * 1923 – The first British Track and Field championships for women are held in London, Great Britain.
 * 1933 – The Volksempfänger is first presented to the German public at a radio exhibition; the presiding Nazi Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, delivers an accompanying speech heralding the radio as the ‘eighth great power’.
 * 1937 – A lightning strike starts the Blackwater Fire of 1937 in Shoshone National Forest, killing 15 firefighters within three days and prompting the United States Forest Service to develop their smokejumper program.
 * 1938 – The Thousand Islands Bridge, connecting New York, United States, with Ontario, Canada, over the Saint Lawrence River, is dedicated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
 * 1940 – World War II: The Hardest Day air battle, part of the Battle of Britain, takes place. At that point, it is the largest aerial engagement in history with heavy losses sustained on both sides.
 * 1945 – Sukarno takes office as the first president of Indonesia, following the country's declaration of independence the previous day.
 * 1945  – Soviet-Japanese War: Battle of Shumshu: Soviet forces land at Takeda Beach on Shumshu Island and launch the Battle of Shumshu; the Soviet Union’s Invasion of the Kuril Islands commences.
 * 1949 – Kemi Bloody Thursday: Two protesters die in the scuffle between the police and the strikers' protest procession in Kemi, Finland.
 * 1950 – Julien Lahaut, the chairman of the Communist Party of Belgium, is assassinated. The Party newspaper blames royalists and Rexists.
 * 1958 – Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is published in the United States.
 * 1958  – Brojen Das from Bangladesh swims across the English Channel in a competition as the first Bengali and the first Asian to do so, placing first among the 39 competitors.
 * 1963 – Civil rights movement: James Meredith becomes the first African American to graduate from the University of Mississippi.
 * 1965 – Vietnam War: Operation Starlite begins: United States Marines destroy a Viet Cong stronghold on the Van Tuong peninsula in the first major American ground battle of the war.
 * 1966 – Vietnam War: The Battle of Long Tan ensues after a patrol from the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment clashes with a Viet Cong force in Phước Tuy Province.
 * 1971 – Vietnam War: Australia and New Zealand decide to withdraw their troops from Vietnam.
 * 1973 – Aeroflot Flight A-13 crashes after takeoff from Baku-Bina International Airport in Azerbaijan, killing 56 people and injuring eight.
 * 1976 – The Korean axe murder incident in Panmunjom results in the deaths of two US Army officers.
 * 1976  – The Soviet Union’s robotic probe Luna 24 successfully lands on the Moon.
 * 1977 – Steve Biko is arrested at a police roadblock under Terrorism Act No. 83 of 1967 in King William's Town, South Africa. He later dies from injuries sustained during this arrest, bringing attention to South Africa's apartheid policies.
 * 1983 – Hurricane Alicia hits the Texas coast, killing 21 people and causing over US$1 billion in damage (1983 dollars).
 * 1989 – Leading presidential hopeful Luis Carlos Galán is assassinated near Bogotá in Colombia.
 * 1993 – American International Airways Flight 808 crashes at Leeward Point Field at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, injuring the three crew members.
 * 2003 – One-year-old Zachary Turner is murdered in Newfoundland by his mother, who was awarded custody despite facing trial for the murder of Zachary's father. The case was documented in the film Dear Zachary and led to reform of Canada's bail laws.
 * 2005 – A massive power blackout hits the Indonesian island of Java; affecting almost 100 million people, it is one of the largest and most widespread power outages in history.
 * 2008 – The President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, resigns under threat of impeachment.
 * 2008  – War of Afghanistan: The Uzbin Valley ambush occurs.
 * 2011 – A terrorist attack on Israel's Highway 12 near the Egyptian border kills 16 and injures 40.
 * 2017 – The first terrorist attack ever sentenced as a crime in Finland kills two and injures eight.
 * 2019 – One hundred activists, officials, and other concerned citizens in Iceland hold a funeral for Okjökull glacier, which has completely melted after having once covered six square miles (15.5 km2).

Pre-1600

 * 1305 – Ashikaga Takauji, Japanese Shōgun (d. 1358)
 * 1450 – Marko Marulić, Croatian poet and author (d. 1524)
 * 1458 – Lorenzo Pucci, Catholic cardinal (d. 1531)
 * 1497 – Francesco Canova da Milano, Italian composer (d. 1543)
 * 1542 – Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland (d. 1601)
 * 1579 – Countess Charlotte Flandrina of Nassau (d. 1640)
 * 1587 – Virginia Dare, granddaughter of Governor John White of the Colony of Roanoke, first child born to English parents in the Americas (date of death unknown)
 * 1596 – Jean Bolland, Flemish priest and hagiographer (d. 1665)

1601–1900

 * 1605 – Henry Hammond, English churchman and theologian (d. 1660)
 * 1606 – Maria Anna of Spain (d. 1646)
 * 1629 – Agneta Horn, Swedish writer (d. 1672)
 * 1657 – Ferdinando Galli-Bibiena, Italian architect and painter (d. 1743)
 * 1685 – Brook Taylor, English mathematician and theorist (d. 1731)
 * 1692 – Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon (d. 1740)
 * 1700 – Baji Rao I, first Peshwa of Maratha Empire (d. 1740)
 * 1720 – Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers, English politician (d. 1760)
 * 1750 – Antonio Salieri, Italian composer and conductor (d. 1825)
 * 1754 – François, marquis de Chasseloup-Laubat, French general and engineer (d. 1833)
 * 1774 – Meriwether Lewis, American soldier, explorer, and politician (d. 1809)
 * 1792 – John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1878)
 * 1803 – Nathan Clifford, American lawyer, jurist, and politician, 19th United States Attorney General (d. 1881)
 * 1807 – B. T. Finniss, Australian politician, 1st Premier of South Australia (d. 1893)
 * 1819 – Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1876)
 * 1822 – Isaac P. Rodman, American general and politician (d. 1862)
 * 1830 – Franz Joseph I of Austria (d. 1916)
 * 1831 – Ernest Noel, Scottish businessman and politician (d. 1931)
 * 1834 – Marshall Field, American businessman, founded Marshall Field's (d. 1906)
 * 1841 – William Halford, English-American lieutenant, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1919)
 * 1855 – Alfred Wallis, English painter and illustrator (d. 1942)
 * 1857 – Libert H. Boeynaems, Belgian-American bishop and missionary (d. 1926)
 * 1866 – Mahboob Ali Khan, 6th Nizam of Hyderabad (d. 1911)
 * 1869 – Carl Rungius, German-American painter and educator (d. 1959)
 * 1870 – Lavr Kornilov, Russian general and explorer (d. 1918)
 * 1879 – Alexander Rodzyanko, Russian general (d. 1970)
 * 1885 – Nettie Palmer, Australian poet and critic (d. 1964)
 * 1887 – John Anthony Sydney Ritson, English rugby player, mines inspector, engineer and professor of mining (d. 1957)
 * 1890 – Walther Funk, German economist and politician, Reich Minister of Economics (d. 1960)
 * 1893 – Burleigh Grimes, American baseball player and manager (d. 1985)
 * 1893  – Ernest MacMillan, Canadian conductor and composer (d. 1973)
 * 1896 – Jack Pickford, Canadian-American actor and director (d. 1933)
 * 1898 – Clemente Biondetti, Italian race car driver (d. 1955)
 * 1900 – Ruth Bonner, Soviet Communist activist, sentenced to a labor camp during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge (d. 1987)
 * 1900  – Ruth Norman, American religious leader (d. 1993)

1901–present

 * 1902 – Adamson-Eric, Estonian painter (d. 1968)
 * 1902  – Margaret Murie, American environmentalist and author (d. 2003)
 * 1903 – Lucienne Boyer, French singer (d. 1983)
 * 1904 – Max Factor, Jr., American businessman (d. 1996)
 * 1905 – Enoch Light, American bandleader, violinist, and recording engineer (d. 1978)
 * 1906 – Marcel Carné, French director and screenwriter (d. 1996)
 * 1906  – Curtis Jones, American blues pianist and singer (d. 1971)
 * 1908 – Edgar Faure, French historian and politician, 139th Prime Minister of France (d. 1988)
 * 1908  – Olav H. Hauge, Norwegian poet and gardener (d. 1994)
 * 1908  – Bill Merritt, New Zealand cricketer and sportscaster (d. 1977)
 * 1909 – Gérard Filion, Canadian businessman and journalist (d. 2005)
 * 1910 – Herman Berlinski, Polish-American pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 2001)
 * 1910  – Robert Winters, Canadian colonel, engineer, and politician, 26th Canadian Minister of Public Works (d. 1969)
 * 1911 – Amelia Boynton Robinson, American activist (d. 2015)
 * 1911  – Klara Dan von Neumann, Hungarian computer scientist and programmer (d. 1963)
 * 1911  – Maria Ulfah Santoso, Indonesian politician and women's rights activist (d. 1988)
 * 1912 – Otto Ernst Remer, German general (d. 1997)
 * 1913 – Romain Maes, Belgian cyclist (d. 1983)
 * 1914 – Lucy Ozarin, United States Navy lieutenant commander and psychiatrist (d. 2017)
 * 1915 – Max Lanier, American baseball player and manager (d. 2007)
 * 1916 – Neagu Djuvara, Romanian historian, journalist, and diplomat (d. 2018)
 * 1916  – Moura Lympany, English pianist (d. 2005)
 * 1917 – Caspar Weinberger, American captain, lawyer, and politician, 15th United States Secretary of Defense (d. 2006)
 * 1918 – Cisco Houston, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1961)
 * 1919 – Wally Hickel, American businessman and politician, 2nd Governor of Alaska (d. 2010)
 * 1920 – Godfrey Evans, English cricketer (d. 1999)
 * 1920  – Bob Kennedy, American baseball player and manager (d. 2005)
 * 1920  – Shelley Winters, American actress (d. 2006)
 * 1921 – Lydia Litvyak, Russian lieutenant and pilot (d. 1943)
 * 1921  – Zdzisław Żygulski, Polish historian and academic (d. 2015)
 * 1922 – Alain Robbe-Grillet, French director, screenwriter, and novelist (d. 2008)
 * 1923 – Katherine Victor, American actress (d. 2004)
 * 1925 – Brian Aldiss, English author and critic (d. 2017)
 * 1925  – Pierre Grondin, Canadian surgeon and academic (d. 2006)
 * 1925  – Anis Mansour, Egyptian journalist and author (d. 2011)
 * 1927 – Rosalynn Carter, 41st First Lady of the United States (d. 2023)
 * 1928 – Marge Schott, American businesswoman (d. 2004)
 * 1928  – Sonny Til, American R&B singer (d. 1981)
 * 1929 – Hugues Aufray, French singer-songwriter
 * 1930 – Liviu Librescu, Romanian-American engineer and academic (d. 2007)
 * 1930  – Rafael Pineda Ponce, Honduran academic and politician (d. 2014)
 * 1931 – Bramwell Tillsley, Canadian 14th General of The Salvation Army (d. 2019)
 * 1931  – Hans van Mierlo, Dutch journalist and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 2010)
 * 1931  – Grant Williams, American film, theater and television actor (d. 1985)
 * 1932 – Luc Montagnier, French virologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2022)
 * 1933 – Just Fontaine, Moroccan-French footballer and manager (d. 2023)
 * 1933  – Roman Polanski, French-Polish director, producer, screenwriter, and actor
 * 1933  – Frank Salemme, American gangster and hitman (d. 2022)
 * 1934 – Vincent Bugliosi, American lawyer and author (d. 2015)
 * 1934  – Roberto Clemente, Puerto Rican-American baseball player and soldier (d. 1972)
 * 1934  – Gulzar, Indian poet, lyricist and film director
 * 1934  – Rafer Johnson, American decathlete and actor (d. 2020)
 * 1934  – Michael May, German-Swiss race car driver and engineer
 * 1935 – Gail Fisher, American actress (d. 2000)
 * 1935  – Hifikepunye Pohamba, Namibian lawyer and politician, 2nd President of Namibia
 * 1936 – Robert Redford, American actor, director, and producer
 * 1937 – Sheila Cassidy, English physician and author
 * 1939 – Maxine Brown, American soul/R&B singer-songwriter
 * 1939  – Robert Horton, English businessman (d. 2011)
 * 1939  – Johnny Preston, American pop singer (d. 2011)
 * 1940 – Adam Makowicz, Polish-Canadian pianist and composer
 * 1940  – Gil Whitney, American journalist (d. 1982)
 * 1942 – Henry G. Sanders, American actor
 * 1943 – Martin Mull, American actor and comedian (d. 2024)
 * 1943  – Gianni Rivera, Italian footballer and politician
 * 1943  – Carl Wayne, English singer and actor (d. 2004)
 * 1944 – Paula Danziger, American author (d. 2004)
 * 1944  – Robert Hitchcock, Australian sculptor and illustrator
 * 1945 – Sarah Dash, American singer-songwriter and actress (d. 2021)
 * 1945  – Värner Lootsmann, Estonian lawyer and politician
 * 1945  – Lewis Burwell Puller, Jr., American soldier, lawyer, and author (d. 1994)
 * 1948 – James Jones, English bishop
 * 1948  – John Scarlett, English intelligence officer
 * 1949 – Nigel Griggs, English bass player, songwriter, and producer
 * 1950 – Dennis Elliott, English drummer and sculptor
 * 1952 – Elayne Boosler, American actress, director, and screenwriter
 * 1952  – Patrick Swayze, American actor and dancer (d. 2009)
 * 1952  – Ricardo Villa, Argentinian footballer and coach
 * 1953 – Louie Gohmert, American captain, lawyer, and politician
 * 1953  – Marvin Isley, American R&B bass player and songwriter (d. 2010)
 * 1954 – Umberto Guidoni, Italian astrophysicist, astronaut, and politician
 * 1955 – Bruce Benedict, American baseball player and coach
 * 1955  – Taher Elgamal, Egyptian-American cryptographer
 * 1956 – John Debney, American composer and conductor
 * 1956  – Sandeep Patil, Indian cricketer and coach
 * 1956  – Jon Schwartz, American drummer and producer
 * 1956  – Kelly Willard, American singer-songwriter
 * 1956  – Rainer Woelki, German cardinal
 * 1957 – Carole Bouquet, French actress
 * 1957  – Tan Dun, Chinese composer
 * 1957  – Denis Leary, American comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter
 * 1957  – Ron Strykert, Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
 * 1958 – Didier Auriol, French race car driver
 * 1958  – Madeleine Stowe, American actress
 * 1959 – Tom Prichard, American wrestler and trainer
 * 1960 – Mike LaValliere, American baseball player
 * 1960  – Fat Lever, American basketball player and sportscaster
 * 1961 – Huw Edwards, Welsh-English journalist and author
 * 1961  – Timothy Geithner, American banker and politician, 75th United States Secretary of the Treasury
 * 1961  – Bob Woodruff, American journalist and author
 * 1962 – Felipe Calderón, Mexican lawyer and politician, 56th President of Mexico
 * 1962  – Geoff Courtnall, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
 * 1962  – Adam Storke, American actor
 * 1964 – Craig Bierko, American actor and singer
 * 1964  – Andi Deris, German singer and songwriter
 * 1964  – Mark Sargent, Australian rugby league player
 * 1964  – Kenny Walker, American basketball player and sportscaster
 * 1965 – Ikue Ōtani, Japanese voice actress
 * 1966 – Gustavo Charif, Argentinian director and producer
 * 1967 – Daler Mehndi, Indian Punjabi singer, songwriter and record producer
 * 1967  – Brian Michael Bendis, American author and illustrator
 * 1969 – Everlast, American singer, rapper, and musician
 * 1969  – Masta Killa, American rapper
 * 1969  – Mark Kuhlmann, German rugby player and coach
 * 1969  – Edward Norton, American actor
 * 1969  – Christian Slater, American actor and producer
 * 1970 – Jason Furman, American economist and politician
 * 1970  – Malcolm-Jamal Warner, American actor and producer
 * 1971 – Patrik Andersson, Swedish footballer
 * 1971  – Richard David James, English musician composer
 * 1974 – Nicole Krauss, American novelist and critic
 * 1975 – Kaitlin Olson, American actress and comedian
 * 1977 – Paraskevas Antzas, Greek footballer
 * 1977  – Even Kruse Skatrud, Norwegian musician and educator
 * 1978 – Andy Samberg, American actor and comedian
 * 1979 – Stuart Dew, Australian footballer
 * 1980 – Esteban Cambiasso, Argentinian footballer
 * 1980  – Rob Nguyen, Australian race car driver
 * 1980  – Ryan O'Hara, Australian rugby league player
 * 1980  – Bart Scott, American football player
 * 1980  – Jeremy Shockey, American football player
 * 1981 – César Delgado, Argentinian footballer
 * 1981  – Dimitris Salpingidis, Greek footballer
 * 1983 – Mika, Lebanese-born English recording artist and singer-songwriter
 * 1983  – Cameron White, Australian cricketer
 * 1984 – Sigourney Bandjar, Dutch footballer
 * 1984  – Robert Huth, German footballer
 * 1985 – Inge Dekker, Dutch swimmer
 * 1985  – Bryan Ruiz, Costa Rican footballer
 * 1986 – Evan Gattis, American baseball player
 * 1986  – Ross McCormack, Scottish footballer
 * 1987 – Joanna Jędrzejczyk, Polish mixed martial artist
 * 1987  – Justin Wilson, American baseball player
 * 1988 – Jack Hobbs, English footballer
 * 1988  – Eggert Jónsson, Icelandic footballer
 * 1988  – G-Dragon, South Korean rapper, singer-songwriter and record producer
 * 1989 – Anna Akana, American actress, comedian, musician, and YouTuber
 * 1989  – Yu Mengyu, Singaporean table tennis player
 * 1991 – Liz Cambage, Australian basketball player
 * 1991  – Richard Harmon, Canadian actor
 * 1992 – Elizabeth Beisel, American swimmer
 * 1992  – Bogdan Bogdanović, Serbian basketball player
 * 1992  – Frances Bean Cobain, American visual artist and model
 * 1993 – Jung Eun-ji, South Korean singer-songwriter
 * 1993  – Maia Mitchell, Australian actress and singer
 * 1994 – Madelaine Petsch, American actress and YouTuber
 * 1994  – Morgan Sanson, French footballer
 * 1994  – Seiya Suzuki, Japanese baseball player
 * 1995 – Alīna Fjodorova, Latvian figure skater
 * 1995  – Parker McKenna Posey, American actress
 * 1997 – Josephine Langford, Australian actress
 * 1997  – Renato Sanches, Portuguese footballer
 * 1998 – Brian To'o, Australian-Samoan rugby league player
 * 1998  – Clairo, American singer-songwriter
 * 1998  – Nick Fuentes, American far-right political commentator
 * 1999 – Cassius Stanley, American basketball player

Pre-1600

 * 353 – Decentius, Roman usurper
 * 440 – Pope Sixtus III
 * 472 – Ricimer, Roman general and politician (b. 405)
 * 670 – Fiacre, Irish hermit
 * 673 – Kim Yu-shin, general of Silla (b. 595)
 * 849 – Walafrid Strabo, German monk and theologian (b. 808)
 * 911 – Al-Hadi ila'l-Haqq Yahya, first Zaydi Imam of Yemen (b. 859)
 * 1095 – King Olaf I of Denmark
 * 1211 – Narapatisithu, king of Burma (b. 1150)
 * 1258 – Theodore II Laskaris, emperor of Nicea (Byzantine emperor in exile)
 * 1276 – Pope Adrian V (b. 1220)
 * 1318 – Clare of Montefalco, Italian nun and saint (b. 1268)
 * 1430 – Thomas de Ros, 8th Baron de Ros, English soldier and politician (b. 1406)
 * 1500 – Alfonso of Aragon, Spanish prince (b. 1481)
 * 1502 – Knut Alvsson, Norwegian nobleman and politician (b. 1455)
 * 1503 – Pope Alexander VI (b. 1431)
 * 1550 – Antonio Ferramolino, Italian architect and military engineer
 * 1559 – Pope Paul IV (b. 1476)
 * 1563 – Étienne de La Boétie, French judge and philosopher (b. 1530)
 * 1600 – Sebastiano Montelupi, Italian businessman (b. 1516)

1601–1900

 * 1613 – Giovanni Artusi, Italian composer and theorist (b. 1540)
 * 1620 – Wanli Emperor of China (b. 1563)
 * 1625 – Edward la Zouche, 11th Baron Zouche, English diplomat (b. 1556)
 * 1634 – Urbain Grandier, French priest (b. 1590)
 * 1642 – Guido Reni, Italian painter and educator (b. 1575)
 * 1648 – Ibrahim of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1615)
 * 1683 – Charles Hart, English actor (b. 1625)
 * 1707 – William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire, English soldier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire (b. 1640)
 * 1712 – Richard Savage, 4th Earl Rivers, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Essex (b. 1660)
 * 1765 – Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1708)
 * 1815 – Chauncey Goodrich, American lawyer and politician, 8th Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut (b. 1759)
 * 1823 – André-Jacques Garnerin, French balloonist and the inventor of the frameless parachute (b. 1769)
 * 1842 – Louis de Freycinet, French explorer and navigator (b. 1779)
 * 1850 – Honoré de Balzac, French novelist and playwright (b. 1799)
 * 1852 – James Finlayson, Scottish Quaker (b. 1772)
 * 1886 – Eli Whitney Blake, American inventor, invented the Mortise lock (b. 1795)

1901–present

 * 1919 – Joseph E. Seagram, Canadian businessman and politician, founded the Seagram Company (b. 1841)
 * 1940 – Walter Chrysler, American businessman, founded Chrysler (b. 1875)
 * 1942 – Erwin Schulhoff, Austro-Czech composer and pianist (b. 1894)
 * 1943 – Ali-Agha Shikhlinski, Azerbaijani general (b. 1865)
 * 1944 – Ernst Thälmann, German soldier and politician (b. 1886)
 * 1945 – Subhas Chandra Bose, Indian activist and politician (b. 1897)
 * 1949 – Paul Mares, American trumpet player and bandleader (b. 1900)
 * 1950 – Julien Lahaut, Belgian soldier and politician (b. 1884)
 * 1952 – Alberto Hurtado, Chilean priest, lawyer, and saint (b. 1901)
 * 1961 – Learned Hand, American lawyer, jurist, and philosopher (b. 1872)
 * 1964 – Hildegard Trabant, Berlin Wall victim (b. 1927)
 * 1968 – Arthur Marshall, American pianist and composer (b. 1881)
 * 1975 – Odd Lindbäck-Larsen, Norwegian Army general and war historian (b. 1897)
 * 1979 – Vasantrao Naik, Indian politician (b. 1913)
 * 1981 – Anita Loos, American author and screenwriter (b. 1889)
 * 1983 – Nikolaus Pevsner, German-English historian and scholar (b. 1902)
 * 1986 – Harun Babunagari, Bangladeshi Islamic scholar and educationist (b. 1902)
 * 1990 – B. F. Skinner, American psychologist and philosopher, invented the Skinner box (b. 1904)
 * 1994 – Francis Raymond Shea, American bishop (b. 1913)
 * 1998 – Persis Khambatta, Indian model and actress, Femina Miss India 1965 (b. 1948)
 * 2001 – David Peakall, English chemist and toxicologist (b. 1931)
 * 2002 – Dean Riesner, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1918)
 * 2003 – Tony Jackson, English singer and bassist (b. 1938)
 * 2004 – Elmer Bernstein, American composer and conductor (b. 1922)
 * 2004  – Hiram Fong, American soldier and politician (b. 1906)
 * 2005 – Chri$ Ca$h, American wrestler (b. 1982)
 * 2006 – Ken Kearney, Australian rugby player (b. 1924)
 * 2007 – Michael Deaver, American soldier and politician, White House Deputy Chief of Staff (b. 1938)
 * 2007  – Magdalen Nabb, English author (b. 1947)
 * 2009 – Kim Dae-jung, South Korean lieutenant and politician, 15th President of South Korea, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1925)
 * 2009  – Rose Friedman, Ukrainian-American economist and author (b. 1910)
 * 2009  – Robert Novak, American journalist and author (b. 1931)
 * 2010 – Hal Connolly, American hammer thrower and coach (b. 1931)
 * 2010  – Benjamin Kaplan, American scholar and jurist (b. 1911)
 * 2012 – Harrison Begay, American painter (b. 1917)
 * 2012  – John Kovatch, American football player (b. 1920)
 * 2012  – Scott McKenzie, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1939)
 * 2012  – Ra. Ki. Rangarajan, Indian journalist and author (b. 1927)
 * 2012  – Jesse Robredo, Filipino public servant and politician, 23rd Secretary of the Interior and Local Government (b. 1958)
 * 2013 – Josephine D'Angelo, American baseball player (b. 1924)
 * 2013  – Jean Kahn, French lawyer and activist (b. 1929)
 * 2013  – Albert Murray, American author and critic (b. 1916)
 * 2014 – Gordon Faber, American soldier and politician, 39th Mayor of Hillsboro, Oregon (b. 1930)
 * 2014  – Jim Jeffords, American captain, lawyer, and politician (b. 1934)
 * 2014  – Levente Lengyel, Hungarian chess player (b. 1933)
 * 2014  – Don Pardo, American radio and television announcer (b. 1918)
 * 2015 – Khaled al-Asaad, Syrian archaeologist and author (b. 1932)
 * 2015  – Roger Smalley, English-Australian pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1943)
 * 2015  – Suvra Mukherjee, Wife of former Indian president Pranab Mukherjee (b. 1940)
 * 2015  – Louis Stokes, American lawyer and politician (b. 1925)
 * 2015  – Bud Yorkin, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1926)
 * 2016 – Ernst Nolte, German historian (b. 1923)
 * 2017 – Bruce Forsyth, English television presenter and entertainer (b. 1928)
 * 2017  – Zoe Laskari, Greek actress and beauty pageant winner (b. 1944)
 * 2018 – Denis Edozie, Nigerian Supreme Court judge (b. 1935)
 * 2018  – Kofi Annan, Ghanaian diplomat and seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations (b. 1938)
 * 2020 – Ben Cross, English stage and film actor (b. 1947)
 * 2023 – Lolita, the second-oldest orca in captivity (b. ca. 1966)
 * 2023  – Al Quie, American politician, 35th Governor of Minnesota (b. 1923)

Holidays and observances

 * Christian feast day:
 * Agapitus of Palestrina
 * Alberto Hurtado
 * Daig of Inniskeen
 * Evan (or Inan)
 * Fiacre
 * Florus and Laurus
 * Helena of Constantinople (Roman Catholic Church)
 * William Porcher DuBose (Episcopal Church)
 * August 18 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 * Arbor Day (Pakistan)
 * Armed Forces Day (North Macedonia)
 * Birthday of Virginia Dare (Roanoke Island)
 * Constitution Day (Indonesia)
 * Long Tan Day, also called Vietnam Veterans' Day (Australia)
 * National Science Day (Thailand)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: August 18


text:
August 19

Pre-1600

 * 295 BC – The first temple to Venus, the Roman goddess of love, beauty and fertility, is dedicated by Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges during the Third Samnite War.
 * 43 BC – Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, later known as Augustus, compels the Roman Senate to elect him Consul.
 * 947 – Abu Yazid, a Kharijite rebel leader, is defeated and killed in the Hodna Mountains in modern-day Algeria by Fatimid forces.
 * 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 the 211th Pope.
 * 1504 – In Ireland, the Hiberno-Norman de Burghs (Burkes) and Cambro-Norman Fitzgeralds fight in the Battle of Knockdoe.
 * 1561 – Mary, Queen of Scots, aged 18, returns to Scotland after spending 13 years in France.

1601–1900

 * 1604 – Eighty Years War: a besieging Dutch and English army led by Maurice of Orange forces the Spanish garrison of Sluis to capitulate.
 * 1612 – The "Samlesbury witches", three women from the Lancashire village of Samlesbury, England, are put on trial, accused of practicing witchcraft, one of the most famous witch trials in British history.
 * 1666 – Second Anglo-Dutch War: Rear Admiral Robert Holmes leads a raid on the Dutch island of Terschelling, destroying 150 merchant ships, an act later known as "Holmes's Bonfire".
 * 1692 – Salem witch trials: In Salem, Province of Massachusetts Bay, five people, one woman and four men, including a clergyman, are executed after being convicted of witchcraft.
 * 1745 – Prince Charles Edward Stuart raises his standard in Glenfinnan: The start of the Second Jacobite Rebellion, known as "the 45".
 * 1745  – Ottoman–Persian War: In the Battle of Kars, the Ottoman army is routed by Persian forces led by Nader Shah.
 * 1759 – Battle of Lagos: Naval battle during the Seven Years' War between Great Britain and France.
 * 1772 – Gustav III of Sweden stages a coup d'état, in which he assumes power and enacts a new constitution that divides power between the Riksdag and the King.
 * 1782 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Blue Licks: The last major engagement of the war, almost ten months after the surrender of the British commander Charles Cornwallis following the Siege of Yorktown.
 * 1812 – War of 1812: American frigate USS Constitution defeats the British frigate HMS Guerriere (1806) off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada earning the nickname "Old Ironsides".
 * 1813 – Gervasio Antonio de Posadas joins Argentina's Second Triumvirate.
 * 1839 – The French government announces that Louis Daguerre's photographic process is a gift "free to the world".
 * 1848 – California Gold Rush: The New York Herald breaks the news to the East Coast of the United States of the gold rush in California (although the rush started in January).
 * 1854 – The First Sioux War begins when United States Army soldiers kill Lakota chief Conquering Bear and in return are massacred.
 * 1861 – First ascent of Weisshorn, fifth highest summit in the Alps.
 * 1862 – Dakota War: During an uprising in Minnesota, Lakota warriors decide not to attack heavily defended Fort Ridgely and instead turn to the settlement of New Ulm, killing white settlers along the way.

1901–present

 * 1903 – The Transfiguration Uprising breaks out in East Thrace, resulting in the establishment of the Strandzha Commune.
 * 1909 – The Indianapolis Motor Speedway opens for automobile racing. William Bourque and his mechanic are killed during the first day's events.
 * 1920 – The Tambov Rebellion breaks out, in response to the Bolshevik policy of Prodrazvyorstka.
 * 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.
 * 1934  – The German referendum of 1934 approves Adolf Hitler's appointment as head of state with the title of Führer.
 * 1936 – The Great Purge of the Soviet Union begins when the first of the Moscow Trials is convened.
 * 1940 – First flight of the B-25 Mitchell medium bomber.
 * 1941 – Germany and Romania sign the Tiraspol Agreement, rendering the region of Transnistria under control of the latter.
 * 1942 – World War II: Operation Jubilee: The 2nd Canadian Infantry Division leads an amphibious assault by allied forces on Dieppe, France and fails.
 * 1944 – World War II: Liberation of Paris: Paris, France rises against German occupation with the help of Allied troops.
 * 1945 – August Revolution: Viet Minh led by Ho Chi Minh take power in Hanoi, Vietnam.
 * 1953 – Cold War: The CIA and MI6 help to overthrow the government of Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran and reinstate the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
 * 1955 – In the Northeast United States, severe flooding caused by Hurricane Diane, claims 200 lives.
 * 1960 – Cold War: In Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union, downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Soviet Union for espionage.
 * 1960  – Sputnik program: Korabl-Sputnik 2: The Soviet Union launches the satellite with the dogs Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, two rats and a variety of plants.
 * 1964 – Syncom 3, the first geostationary communication satellite, is launched. Two months later, it would enable live coverage of the 1964 Summer Olympics.
 * 1965 – Japanese prime minister Eisaku Satō becomes the first post-World War II sitting prime minister to visit Okinawa Prefecture.
 * 1978 – In Iran, the Cinema Rex fire causes more than 400 deaths.
 * 1980 – Saudia Flight 163, a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar burns after making an emergency landing at Riyadh International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killing 301 people.
 * 1980  – Otłoczyn railway accident: In Poland's worst post-war railway accident, 67 people lose their lives and a further 62 are injured.
 * 1981 – Gulf of Sidra Incident: United States F-14A Tomcat fighters intercept and shoot down two Libyan Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jets over the Gulf of Sidra.
 * 1987 – Hungerford massacre: In the United Kingdom, Michael Ryan kills sixteen people with a semi-automatic rifle and then commits suicide.
 * 1989 – Polish president Wojciech Jaruzelski nominates Solidarity activist Tadeusz Mazowiecki to be the first non-communist prime minister in 42 years.
 * 1989  – Several hundred East Germans cross the frontier between Hungary and Austria during the Pan-European Picnic, part of the events that began the process of the Fall of the Berlin Wall.
 * 1991 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The August Coup begins when Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is placed under house arrest while on holiday in the town of Foros, Ukraine.
 * 1991  – Crown Heights riot begins.
 * 1999 – In Belgrade, Yugoslavia, tens of thousands of Serbians rally to demand the resignation of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milošević.
 * 2002 – Khankala Mi-26 crash: A Russian Mil Mi-26 helicopter carrying troops is hit by a Chechen missile outside Grozny, killing 118 soldiers.
 * 2003 – A truck-bomb attack on United Nations headquarters in Iraq kills the agency's top envoy Sérgio Vieira de Mello and 21 other employees.
 * 2003  – Shmuel HaNavi bus bombing: A suicide attack on a bus in Jerusalem, planned by Hamas, kills 23 Israelis, seven of them children.
 * 2004 – Google Inc. has its initial public offering on Nasdaq.
 * 2005 – The first-ever joint military exercise between Russia and China, called Peace Mission 2005 begins.
 * 2009 – A series of bombings in Baghdad, Iraq, kills 101 and injures 565 others.
 * 2010 – Operation Iraqi Freedom ends, with the last of the United States brigade combat teams crossing the border to Kuwait.
 * 2013 – The Dhamara Ghat train accident kills at least 37 people in the Indian state of Bihar.
 * 2017 – Tens of thousands of farmed non-native Atlantic salmon are accidentally released into the wild in Washington waters in the 2017 Cypress Island Atlantic salmon pen break.

Pre-1600

 * 232 – Marcus Aurelius Probus, Roman emperor (d. 282)
 * 1342 – Catherine of Bohemia, duchess of Austria (d. 1395)
 * 1398 – Íñigo López de Mendoza, 1st Marquis of Santillana, Spanish poet and politician (d. 1458)
 * 1570 – Salamone Rossi, Italian violinist and composer (probable; d. 1630)
 * 1583 – Daišan, Chinese prince and statesman (d. 1648)
 * 1590 – Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, English soldier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire (d. 1649)
 * 1596 – Elizabeth Stuart, queen of Bohemia (d. 1662)

1601–1900

 * 1609 – Jan Fyt, Flemish painter (d. 1661)
 * 1621 – Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Dutch painter, etcher, and poet (d. 1674)
 * 1631 – John Dryden, English poet, literary critic and playwright (d. 1700)
 * 1646 – John Flamsteed, English astronomer and academic (d. 1719)
 * 1686 – Eustace Budgell, English journalist and politician (d. 1737)
 * 1689 (baptized) – Samuel Richardson, English author and publisher (d. 1761)
 * 1711 – Edward Boscawen, English admiral and politician (d. 1761)
 * 1719 – Charles-François de Broglie, marquis de Ruffec, French soldier and diplomat (d. 1781)
 * 1743 – Madame du Barry, French mistress of Louis XV of France (d. 1793)
 * 1777 – Francis I, king of the Two Sicilies (d. 1830)
 * 1815 – Harriette Newell Woods Baker, American editor and children's book writer (d. 1893)
 * 1819 – Julius van Zuylen van Nijevelt, Luxembourger-Dutch politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1894)
 * 1830 – Julius Lothar Meyer, German chemist (d. 1895)
 * 1835 – Tom Wills, Australian cricketer and pioneer of Australian rules football (d. 1880)
 * 1843 – C. I. Scofield, American minister and theologian (d. 1921)
 * 1846 – Luis Martín, Spanish religious leader, 24th Superior General of the Society of Jesus (d. 1906)
 * 1848 – Gustave Caillebotte, French painter and engineer (d. 1894)
 * 1849 – Joaquim Nabuco, Brazilian politician and diplomat (d. 1910)
 * 1858 – Ellen Willmott, English horticulturalist (d. 1934)
 * 1870 – Bernard Baruch, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1965)
 * 1871 – Orville Wright, American engineer and pilot, co-founded the Wright Company (d. 1948)
 * 1873 – Fred Stone, American actor and producer (d. 1959)
 * 1878 – Manuel L. Quezon, Filipino soldier, lawyer, and politician, 2nd President of the Philippines (d. 1944)
 * 1881 – George Enescu, Romanian violinist, pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1955)
 * 1881  – George Shepherd, 1st Baron Shepherd (d. 1954)
 * 1883 – Coco Chanel, French fashion designer, founded the Chanel Company (d. 1971)
 * 1883  – José Mendes Cabeçadas, Portuguese admiral and politician, 9th President of Portugal (d. 1965)
 * 1885 – Grace Hutchins, American labor reformer and researcher (d. 1969)
 * 1887 – S. Satyamurti, Indian lawyer and politician (d. 1943)
 * 1895 – C. Suntharalingam, Sri Lankan lawyer, academic, and politician (d. 1985)
 * 1899 – Colleen Moore, American actress (d. 1988)
 * 1900 – Gontran de Poncins, French author and adventurer (d. 1962)
 * 1900  – Gilbert Ryle, English philosopher, author, and academic (d. 1976)
 * 1900  – Dorothy Burr Thompson, American archaeologist and art historian (d. 2001)

1901–present

 * 1902 – Ogden Nash, American poet (d. 1971)
 * 1903 – James Gould Cozzens, American novelist and short story writer (d. 1978)
 * 1904 – Maurice Wilks, English engineer and businessman (d. 1963)
 * 1906 – Philo Farnsworth, American inventor, invented the Fusor (d. 1971)
 * 1907 – Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Indian historian, author, and scholar (d. 1979)
 * 1909 – Ronald King, New Zealand rugby player (d. 1988)
 * 1910 – Saint Alphonsa, first woman of Indian origin to be canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church (d. 1946)
 * 1911 – Anna Terruwe, Dutch psychiatrist and author (d. 2004)
 * 1912 – Herb Narvo, Australian rugby league player, coach, and boxer (d. 1958)
 * 1913 – John Argyris, Greek engineer and academic (d. 2004)
 * 1913  – Peter Kemp, Indian-English soldier and author (d. 1993)
 * 1913  – Richard Simmons, American actor (d. 2003)
 * 1914 – Lajos Baróti, Hungarian footballer and manager (d. 2005)
 * 1914  – Fumio Hayasaka, Japanese composer (d. 1955)
 * 1914  – Rose Heilbron, British barrister and judge (d. 2005)
 * 1915 – Ring Lardner, Jr., American journalist and screenwriter (d. 2000)
 * 1915  – Alfred Rouleau, Canadian businessman (d. 1985)
 * 1916 – Dennis Poore, English racing driver and businessman (d. 1987)
 * 1918 – Jimmy Rowles, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 1996)
 * 1919 – Malcolm Forbes, American publisher and politician (d. 1990)
 * 1921 – Gene Roddenberry, American screenwriter and producer (d. 1991)
 * 1922 – Jack Holland, Australian rugby league player (d. 1994)
 * 1923 – Edgar F. Codd, English computer scientist, inventor of relational model of data (d. 2003)
 * 1924 – Willard Boyle, Canadian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2011)
 * 1924  – William Marshall, American actor, director, and opera singer (d. 2003)
 * 1925 – Claude Gauvreau, Canadian poet and playwright (d. 1971)
 * 1926 – Angus Scrimm, American actor and author (d. 2016)
 * 1928 – Shiv Prasaad Singh, Indian Hindi writer (d. 1998)
 * 1928  – Bernard Levin, English journalist, author, and broadcaster (d. 2004)
 * 1929 – Bill Foster, American basketball player and coach (d. 2016)
 * 1929  – Ion N. Petrovici, Romanian-German neurologist and academic (d. 2021)
 * 1930 – Frank McCourt, American author and educator (d. 2009)
 * 1931 – Bill Shoemaker, American jockey and author (d. 2003)
 * 1932 – Thomas P. Salmon, American lawyer and politician, 75th Governor of Vermont
 * 1932  – Banharn Silpa-archa, Thai politician, Prime Minister (1995–1996) (d. 2016)
 * 1933 – Bettina Cirone, American model and photographer
 * 1933  – David Hopwood, English microbiologist and geneticist
 * 1933  – Debra Paget, American actress
 * 1934 – David Durenberger, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (d. 2023)
 * 1934  – Renée Richards, American tennis player and ophthalmologist
 * 1935 – Bobby Richardson, American baseball player and coach
 * 1936 – Richard McBrien, American priest, theologian, and academic (d. 2015)
 * 1937 – Richard Ingrams, English journalist, founded The Oldie
 * 1937  – William Motzing, American composer and conductor (d. 2014)
 * 1938 – Diana Muldaur, American actress
 * 1938  – Nelly Vuksic, Argentine conductor and musician
 * 1939 – Ginger Baker, English drummer and songwriter (d. 2019)
 * 1940 – Roger Cook, English songwriter, singer, and producer
 * 1940  – Johnny Nash, American singer-songwriter (d. 2020)
 * 1940  – Jill St. John, American model and actress
 * 1941 – John Cootes, Australian rugby league player, priest, and businessman
 * 1941  – Mihalis Papagiannakis, Greek educator and politician (d. 2009)
 * 1942 – Fred Thompson, American actor, lawyer, and politician (d. 2015)
 * 1943 – Don Fardon, English pop singer
 * 1943  – Sid Going, New Zealand rugby player (d. 2024)
 * 1943  – Billy J. Kramer, English pop singer
 * 1944 – Jack Canfield, American author
 * 1944  – Stew Johnson, American basketball player
 * 1944  – Bodil Malmsten, Swedish author and poet (d. 2016)
 * 1944  – Eddy Raven, American country music singer-songwriter
 * 1944  – Charles Wang, Chinese-American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded Computer Associates International (d. 2018)
 * 1945 – Dennis Eichhorn, American author and illustrator (d. 2015)
 * 1945  – Charles Wellesley, 9th Duke of Wellington, English politician
 * 1945  – Ian Gillan, English singer-songwriter
 * 1946 – Charles Bolden, American general and astronaut
 * 1946  – Bill Clinton, American lawyer and politician, 42nd President of the United States
 * 1946  – Dawn Steel, American film producer (d. 1997)
 * 1947 – Dave Dutton, English actor and screenwriter
 * 1947  – Terry Hoeppner, American football player and coach (d. 2007)
 * 1947  – Gerald McRaney, American actor
 * 1947  – Gerard Schwarz, American conductor and director
 * 1947  – Anuška Ferligoj, Slovenian mathematician
 * 1948 – Jim Carter, English actor
 * 1948  – Tipper Gore, American activist and author, former Second Lady of the United States
 * 1948  – Robert Hughes, Australian actor
 * 1948  – Christy O'Connor Jnr, Irish golfer and architect (d. 2016)
 * 1949 – Michael Nazir-Ali, Pakistani-English bishop
 * 1950 – Jennie Bond, English journalist and author
 * 1950  – Sudha Murty, Indian author and teacher, head of Infosys Foundation
 * 1951 – John Deacon, English bass player and songwriter
 * 1951  – Gustavo Santaolalla, Argentinian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
 * 1952 – Jonathan Frakes, American actor and director
 * 1952  – Gabriela Grillo, German equestrian (d. 2024)
 * 1952  – Jimmy Watson, Canadian ice hockey player
 * 1954 – Oscar Larrauri, Argentinian racing driver
 * 1955 – Mary-Anne Fahey, Australian actress
 * 1955  – Peter Gallagher, American actor
 * 1955  – Patricia Scotland, Baroness Scotland of Asthal, Dominica-born English lawyer and politician, Attorney General for England and Wales
 * 1955  – Ned Yost, American baseball player and manager
 * 1956 – Adam Arkin, American actor, director, and producer
 * 1956  – José Rubén Zamora, Guatemalan journalist
 * 1957 – Paul-Jan Bakker, Dutch cricketer
 * 1957  – Gary Chapman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
 * 1957  – Martin Donovan, American actor and director
 * 1957  – Ian Gould, English cricketer and umpire
 * 1957  – Cesare Prandelli, Italian footballer and manager
 * 1957  – Christine Soetewey, Belgian high jumper
 * 1957  – Gerda Verburg, Dutch trade union leader and politician, Dutch Minister of Agriculture
 * 1958 – Gary Gaetti, American baseball player, coach, and manager
 * 1958  – Anthony Muñoz, American football player and sportscaster
 * 1958  – Brendan Nelson, Australian physician and politician, 47th Minister for Defence for Australia
 * 1958  – Rick Snyder, American politician and businessman, 48th Governor of Michigan
 * 1958  – Darryl Sutter, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
 * 1959 – Chris Mortimer, Australian rugby league player
 * 1959  – Ivan Neville, American singer-songwriter
 * 1959  – Ricky Pierce, American basketball player
 * 1960 – Morten Andersen, Danish-American football player
 * 1960  – Ron Darling, American baseball player and commentator
 * 1961 – Jonathan Coe, English author and academic
 * 1963 – John Stamos, American actor
 * 1965 – Kevin Dillon, American actor
 * 1965  – Kyra Sedgwick, American actress and producer
 * 1965  – James Tomkins, Australian rower
 * 1966 – Lee Ann Womack, American singer-songwriter
 * 1967 – Khandro Rinpoche, Indian spiritual leader
 * 1967  – Satya Nadella, Indian-American business executive, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft
 * 1969  – Douglas Allen Tunstall Jr., American professional wrestler and politician
 * 1969 – Nate Dogg, American rapper (d. 2011)
 * 1969  – Matthew Perry, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2023)
 * 1969  – Kazuyoshi Tatsunami, Japanese baseball player and coach
 * 1969  – Clay Walker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
 * 1970 – Fat Joe, American rapper
 * 1971 – Mary Joe Fernández, Dominican-American tennis player and coach
 * 1971  – João Vieira Pinto, Portuguese footballer
 * 1972 – Roberto Abbondanzieri, Argentinian footballer and manager
 * 1972  – Chihiro Yonekura, Japanese singer-songwriter
 * 1973 – Marco Materazzi, Italian footballer and manager
 * 1973  – Roy Rogers, American basketball player and coach
 * 1973  – Tasma Walton, Australian actress
 * 1975 – Tracie Thoms, American actress
 * 1976 – Régine Chassagne, Canadian singer-songwriter
 * 1977 – Iban Mayo, Spanish cyclist
 * 1978 – Chris Capuano, American baseball player
 * 1978  – Jakub Dvorský, Czech game designer
 * 1978  – Thomas Jones, American football player
 * 1979 – Oumar Kondé, Swiss footballer
 * 1980 – Darius Campbell, Scottish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (d. 2022)
 * 1980  – Craig Frawley, Australian rugby league player
 * 1980  – Jun Jin, South Korean singer
 * 1980  – Paul Parry, Welsh footballer
 * 1980  – Michael Todd, American bass player
 * 1981 – Nick Kennedy, English rugby player
 * 1981  – Taylor Pyatt, Canadian ice hockey player
 * 1981  – Percy Watson, American football player and wrestler
 * 1982 – Erika Christensen, American actress
 * 1982  – Melissa Fumero, American actress
 * 1982  – J. J. Hardy, American baseball player
 * 1982  – Kevin Rans, Belgian pole vaulter
 * 1982  – Stipe Miocic, American professional mixed martial artist
 * 1982  – Steve Ott, Canadian ice hockey player
 * 1983 – Mike Conway, English racing driver
 * 1983  – Missy Higgins, Australian singer-songwriter
 * 1983  – Tammin Sursok, South African-Australian actress and singer
 * 1984 – Simon Bird, English actor and screenwriter
 * 1984  – Alessandro Matri, Italian footballer
 * 1984  – Ryan Taylor, English footballer
 * 1985 – David A. Gregory, American actor
 * 1985  – Lindsey Jacobellis, American snowboarder
 * 1986 – Sotiris Balafas, Greek footballer
 * 1986  – Saori Kimura, Japanese volleyball player
 * 1986  – Christina Perri, American singer and songwriter
 * 1987 – Patrick Chung, Jamaican-American football player
 * 1987  – Nick Driebergen, Dutch swimmer
 * 1987  – Nico Hülkenberg, German racing driver
 * 1988 – Kirk Cousins, American football player
 * 1988  – Veronica Roth, American author
 * 1989 – Romeo Miller, American basketball player, rapper, actor
 * 1990 – Danny Galbraith, Scottish footballer
 * 1991 – Salem Al-Dawsari, Saudi Arabian footballer
 * 1992 – David Rittich, Czech ice hockey player
 * 1994 – Nafissatou Thiam, Belgian pentathlete and heptathlete
 * 1994  – Fernando Gaviria, Colombian cyclist
 * 1996 – Jung Ye-rin, South Korean singer and actress
 * 1996  – Lachlan Lewis, Australian rugby league player
 * 1999 – Ethan Cutkosky, American actor and musician
 * 1999  – Thomas Flegler, Australian rugby league player
 * 2000 – Keegan Murray, American basketball player
 * 2001 – Awak Kuier, Finnish basketball player

Pre-1600

 * 607 BC – Duke Ling of Jin, Chinese monarch
 * AD 14 – Augustus, Roman emperor (b. 63 BC)
 * 780 – Credan, English abbot and saint
 * 947 – Abu Yazid, Kharijite rebel leader (b. 873)
 * 998 – Fujiwara no Sukemasa, Japanese noble, statesman and calligrapher (b. 944)
 * 1072 – Hawise, Duchess of Brittany (b. 1037)
 * 1085 – Al-Juwayni, Muslim scholar and imam (b. 1028)
 * 1186 – Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany (b. 1158)
 * 1245 – Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence (b. 1195)
 * 1284 – Alphonso, Earl of Chester (b. 1273)
 * 1297 – Louis of Toulouse, French bishop and saint (b. 1274)
 * 1457 – Andrea del Castagno, Italian painter (b. 1421)
 * 1470 – Richard Olivier de Longueil, French cardinal (b. 1406)
 * 1493 – Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1415)
 * 1506 – King Alexander Jagiellon of Poland (b. 1461)
 * 1541 – Vincenzo Cappello, Venetian admiral and statesman (b. 1469)
 * 1580 – Andrea Palladio, Italian architect, designed the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore and Il Redentore (b. 1508)

1601–1900

 * 1646 – Alexander Henderson, Scottish theologian and academic (b. 1583)
 * 1654 – Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller, Bohemian rabbi (b. 1579)
 * 1662 – Blaise Pascal, French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher (b. 1623)
 * 1680 – Jean Eudes, French priest, founded the Congregation of Jesus and Mary (b. 1601)
 * 1691 – Köprülü Fazıl Mustafa Pasha, Ottoman commander and politician, 117th Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1637)
 * 1702 – Anthony Grey, 11th Earl of Kent, English politician (b. 1645)
 * 1753 – Johann Balthasar Neumann, German engineer and architect, designed Basilica of the Fourteen Holy Helpers (b. 1687)
 * 1808 – Fredrik Henrik af Chapman, Swedish admiral and shipbuilder (b. 1721)
 * 1822 – Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre, French mathematician and astronomer (b. 1749)
 * 1883 – Jeremiah S. Black, American lawyer and politician, 24th United States Attorney General (b. 1810)
 * 1889 – Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, French author, poet, and playwright (b. 1838)
 * 1895 – John Wesley Hardin, American Old West outlaw, gunfighter (b. 1853)
 * 1900 – Jean-Baptiste Accolay, Belgian violinist, composer, and conductor (b. 1833)

1901–present

 * 1914 – Franz Xavier Wernz, German religious leader, 25th Superior General of the Society of Jesus (b. 1844)
 * 1915 – Tevfik Fikret, Turkish poet and educator (b. 1867)
 * 1923 – Vilfredo Pareto, Italian sociologist and economist (b. 1845)
 * 1928 – Stephanos Skouloudis, Greek banker and diplomat, 97th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1838)
 * 1929 – Sergei Diaghilev, Russian critic and producer, founded Ballets Russes (b. 1872)
 * 1932 – Louis Anquetin, French painter (b. 1861)
 * 1936 – Federico García Lorca, Spanish poet, playwright, and director (b. 1898)
 * 1942 – Harald Kaarmann, Estonian footballer (b. 1901)
 * 1942  – Heinrich Rauchinger, Kraków-born painter (b. 1858)
 * 1944 – Henry Wood, English conductor (b. 1869)
 * 1945 – Tomás Burgos, Chilean philanthropist (b. 1875)
 * 1950 – Giovanni Giorgi, Italian physicist and engineer (b. 1871)
 * 1954 – Alcide De Gasperi, Italian journalist and politician, 30th Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1881)
 * 1957 – David Bomberg, English soldier and painter (b. 1890)
 * 1967 – Hugo Gernsback, Luxembourg-born American author and publisher (b. 1884)
 * 1967  – Isaac Deutscher, Polish-English journalist and historian (b. 1907)
 * 1968 – George Gamow, Ukrainian-American physicist and cosmologist (b. 1904)
 * 1970 – Paweł Jasienica, Polish soldier and historian (b. 1909)
 * 1975 – Mark Donohue, American race car driver and engineer (b. 1937)
 * 1976 – Alastair Sim, Scottish-English actor (b. 1900)
 * 1976  – Ken Wadsworth, New Zealand cricketer (b. 1946)
 * 1977 – Aleksander Kreek, Estonian shot putter and discus thrower (b. 1914)
 * 1977  – Groucho Marx, American comedian and actor (b. 1890)
 * 1980 – Otto Frank, German-Swiss businessman, father of Anne Frank (b. 1889)
 * 1981 – Jessie Matthews, English actress, singer, and dancer (b. 1907)
 * 1982 – August Neo, Estonian wrestler (b. 1908)
 * 1986 – Hermione Baddeley, English actress (b. 1906)
 * 1986  – Viv Thicknesse, Australian rugby player (b. 1910)
 * 1993 – Utpal Dutt, Bangladeshi actor, director, and playwright (b. 1929)
 * 1994 – Linus Pauling, American chemist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)
 * 1995 – Pierre Schaeffer, French composer and musicologist (b. 1910)
 * 2000 – Bineshwar Brahma, Indian poet, author, and educator (b. 1948)
 * 2001 – Donald Woods, South African journalist and activist (b. 1933)
 * 2003 – Carlos Roberto Reina, Honduran lawyer and politician, President of Honduras (b. 1926)
 * 2003  – Sérgio Vieira de Mello, Brazilian diplomat (b. 1948)
 * 2005 – Mo Mowlam, English academic and politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (b. 1949)
 * 2008 – Levy Mwanawasa, Zambian lawyer and politician, 3rd President of Zambia (b. 1948)
 * 2009 – Don Hewitt, American television producer, created 60 Minutes (b. 1922)
 * 2011 – Raúl Ruiz, Chilean director and producer (b. 1941)
 * 2012 – Donal Henahan, American journalist and critic (b. 1921)
 * 2012  – Ivar Iversen, Norwegian canoe racer (b. 1914)
 * 2012  – Tony Scott, English-American director and producer (b. 1944)
 * 2012  – Edmund Skellings, American poet and academic (b. 1932)
 * 2013 – Musa'id bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi Arabian prince (b. 1923)
 * 2013  – Russell S. Doughten, American director and producer (b. 1927)
 * 2013  – Abdul Rahim Hatif, Afghan politician, 8th President of Afghanistan (b. 1926)
 * 2013  – Donna Hightower, American singer-songwriter (b. 1926)
 * 2014 – Samih al-Qasim, Palestinian poet and journalist (b. 1939)
 * 2014  – Simin Behbahani, Iranian poet and activist (b. 1927)
 * 2014  – James Foley, American photographer and journalist (b. 1973)
 * 2014  – Candida Lycett Green, Anglo-Irish journalist and author (b. 1942)
 * 2015 – George Houser, American minister and activist (b. 1916)
 * 2015  – Sanat Mehta, Indian activist and politician (b. 1935)
 * 2016 – Jack Riley, American actor and voice artist (b. 1935)
 * 2017 – Dick Gregory, American comedian, author and activist (b. 1932)
 * 2019 – Lars Larsen, Danish businessman and billionaire, founder and owner of the Danish retail chain JYSK (b. 1948)
 * 2021 – Sonny Chiba, Japanese actor (b. 1939)
 * 2023 – Václav Patejdl, Slovak musician (b. 1954)

Holidays and observances

 * Afghan Independence Day, commemorates the Treaty of Rawalpindi in 1919, granting independence from Britain (Afghanistan)
 * August Revolution Commemoration Day (Vietnam)
 * Birthday of Crown Princess Mette-Marit (Norway)
 * Christian Feast Day:
 * Bernardo Tolomei
 * Bertulf of Bobbio
 * Saint Calminius
 * Ezequiél Moreno y Díaz
 * Feast of the Transfiguration (Julian calendar), and its related observances:
 * Buhe (Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church)
 * Saviour's Transfiguration, popularly known as the "Apples Feast" (Russian Orthodox Church and Georgian Orthodox Church)
 * Jean-Eudes de Mézeray
 * Louis of Toulouse
 * Maginus
 * Magnus of Anagni
 * Magnus of Avignon
 * Sebaldus
 * August 19 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 * Manuel Luis Quezón Day (Quezon City and other places in the Philippines named after Manuel L. Quezon)
 * National Aviation Day (United States)
 * World Humanitarian Day

title: August 19