August 19th, 1991:

In the Soviet Union, communist hard-liners announce that Mikhail Gorbachev has been removed from power.

But the coup against Gorbachev during his vacation collapses days later. The Soviet Union dissolves by the end of the year.

1934:

Voters in Germany overwhelmingly ratify Adolf Hitler's powers as their Führer or absolute ruler.

The plebiscite caps the Nazi leader's rise to power, a path that leads to World War II and the Holocaust.

1960:

During the Cold War, a Soviet tribunal convicts American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers of espionage.

Powers is sentenced to 10 years in prison. He's exchanged for a Soviet spy nearly two years later.

1906:

Philo T. Farnsworth, one of the pioneering inventors of television, is born in Beaver County, Utah.

And, 1977:

Comedian Groucho Marx, star of silver screen, radio, and TV, dies in Los Angeles at age 86.

Today in History, August 19th,______,The Associated Press.