May 19
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
May 19 is the 139th day of the year (140th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 226 days remaining until the end of the year.
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Events [change]
- 1314 – Visby, on the Swedish island of Gotland, is almost completely destroyed by fire.
- 1445 - John II of Castile defeats the Infantes of Aragon at the First Battle of Olmedo.
- 1499 – Catherine of Aragon is married by proxy to Arthur Tudor.
- 1535 – Jacques Cartier sets sail on his third voyage to North America.
- 1536 – Anne Boleyn is beheaded.
- 1542 - The Prome Kingdom falls to the Taungoo Dynasty in present-day Burma.
- 1568 – Elizabeth I of England orders the arrest of Mary, Queen of Scots.
- 1643 – Thirty Years' War: French forces defeat Spain in the Battle of Rocroi.
- 1649 – An Act of Parliament declares England a Commonwealth in a law passed by the Long Parliament, making England a republic.
- 1655 - The Invasion of Jamaica begins during the Anglo-Spanish War.
- 1743 - Jean-Pierre Christin develops the Centigrade temperature scale, similar to the Celsius scale, which was later flipped round to the same as the centigrade scale.
- 1749 – George II of Great Britain grants a charter of land to the Ohio Company around the Forks of the Ohio River.
- 1780 – New England's Dark Day: thick smoke and heavy cloud causes darkness to fall over parts of Eastern Canada and New England.
- 1802 – Napoleon Bonaparte founds the Legion of Honour.
- 1845 – John Franklin's ill-fated Arctic expedition leaves England.
- 1848 - Mexican-American War: Mexico ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, therefore ending the war and ceding the territories of several current Southwestern United States, including California, Nevada and Utah, to the US for 15 million US Dollars.
- 1864 - American Civil War: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House ends.
- 1897 - Oscar Wilde is released from Reading Gaol Prison.
- 1903 – David Dunbar Buick founds the auto firm the Buick Motor Company.
- 1911 - Parks Canada, the world's first National Park Service, is founded as the Dominion Parks Branch.
- 1919 – Mustafa Kemal Ataturk lands at Samsun, on the Anatolian Black Sea coast.
- 1950 - Egypt closes the Suez Canal to Israeli ships.
- 1959 - The North Vietnamese Army creates Group 559, whose responsibility is to determine how to maintain supply lines to South Vietnam.
- 1961 – The Venera 1 space probe flies by Venus.
- 1962 – Marilyn Monroe sings Happy Birthday, Mr. President to John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden in New York.
- 1971 – The Mars 2 probe is launched by the Soviet Union.
- 1974 – Valery Giscard d'Estaing is elected President of France over Francois Mitterrand, following the death of Georges Pompidou on April 2.
- 1991 – Croatians vote overwhelmingly for independence from Yugoslavia.
- 1993 - Heide Simonis decomes Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein, as the first female Minister-President of a state of the Federal Republic of Germany.
- 1993 - Shortly after take-off from Panama City, on the way to Medellin, Colombia, a Boeing 727 of the SAM Colombia airline crashes against a mountain in poor weather, killing all 133 people on board.
- 1997 - The Sierra Gorda Biosphere, the most ecologically diverse region in Mexico, is created.
- 1997 - A cyclone in Bangladesh kills around 500 people.
- 2001 – China's "One child policy": Zhonghua Sun is put to death by the People's Republic of China government officials because she refused to be sterilized.
- 2004 – Fathers 4 Justice activists hit Tony Blair with purple flour at the House of Commons in London, prompting questions about security.
- 2007 – Romania's President Traian Basescu survives an impeachment attempt and returns to work.
- 2010 – A violent military crackdown ends protests by the anti-government Red Shirts in Thailand.
- 2011 – Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigns as head of the International Monetary Fund, after he was arrested and charged with Sexual Assault in New York.
Births [change]
- 1593 - Jacob Jordanes, Flemish painter (d. 1678)
- 1700 - Jose de Escandon, Spanish governor (d. 1770)
- 1724 - Augustus Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol, English admiral and politician (d. 1779)
- 1744 – Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen Consort of Great Britain and Ireland (d. 1818)
- 1762 – Johann Gottlieb Fichte, German philosopher (d. 1814)
- 1767 – George Prevost, British officer and diplomat, Governor-General of Canada (d. 1816)
- 1771 - Rahel Varnhagen, German writer (d. 1833)
- 1773 - Arthur Aikin, English mineralogist (d. 1854)
- 1795 – Johns Hopkins, American university benefactor (d. 1873)
- 1797 – Maria Isabel of Portugal (d. 1818)
- 1827 - Paul-Armand Challemel-Lacour, French statesman (d. 1896)
- 1849 - Adrien Lachenal, Swiss Federal Councillor (d. 1918)
- 1857 - John Jacob Abel, American biochemist and pharmacologist (d. 1938)
- 1860 – Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1952)
- 1861 – Nellie Melba, Australian opera singer (d. 1931)
- 1862 – Joao do Canto e Castro, President of Portugal (d. 1934)
- 1871 – Walter Russell, American artist (d. 1963)
- 1879 – Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor, American-born British politician (d. 1964)
- 1879 – Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor, American-born British politician and newspaper proprietor (d. 1952)
- 1880 – Albert Richardson, English architect, writer and educator (d. 1964)
- 1881 – Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, President of Turkey (d. 1938) (May 19 was official birthday)
- 1882 – Mohammad Mossadegh, Iranian prime minister (d. 1967)
- 1890 – Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese political leader (d. 1969)
- 1891 - Oswald Boelcke, German pilot (d. 1916)
- 1893 - H. Bonciu, Romanian novelist, poet, journalist and translator (d. 1950)
- 1896 – Jorge Alessandri, President of Chile (d. 1986)
- 1897 – Frank Luke, American pilot (d. 1918)
- 1898 - Julius Evola, Italian philosopher (d. 1974)
- 1906 - Bruce Bennett, American actor (d. 2007)
- 1908 - Manik Bandopadhyay, Indian Bengali novelist (d. 1956)
- 1908 – Percy Williams, Canadian athlete (d. 1982)
- 1909 – Nicholas Winton, British man who organised the Czech Kindertransport to save hundreds of Jewish children
- 1910 – Nathuram Godse, assassin of Mahatma Gandhi (d. 1949)
- 1914 - Go Seigen, Chinese-Japanese Go player
- 1914 – Max Perutz, Austrian-British molecular biologist (d. 2002)
- 1916 – Blair Lee III, acting Governor of Maryland (d. 1985)
- 1918 - Abraham Pais, Dutch-American physicist (d. 2000)
- 1919 – Mitja Ribicic, former Prime Minister of Yugoslavia
- 1921 – Yuri Kochiyama, American activist
- 1925 – Malcolm X, American civil rights activist (d. 1965)
- 1925 – Pol Pot, Cambodian dictator (d. 1998)
- 1926 – Peter Zadek, German theatre director (d. 2009)
- 1928 – George Sinner, 29th Governor of North Dakota
- 1932 – Alma Cogan, British singer (d. 1966)
- 1932 – Paul Erdman, American economist and author (d. 2007)
- 1933 – Edward de Bono, Maltese-British lateral thinker
- 1934 - Bill Fitch, American basketball coach
- 1934 - Jim Lehrer, American journalist
- 1938 - Girish Karnad, Indian writer, playwright, screenwriter, actor and film director
- 1938 - Livio Berruti, Italian athlete
- 1939 – Dick Scobee, American astronaut (d. 1986)
- 1939 – Jamie Fox, British actor
- 1941 – Nora Ephron, American screenwriter and film director (d. 2012)
- 1942 - Gary Kildall, American computer scientist (d. 1994)
- 1942 – Robert Kilroy-Silk, British television presenter and politician
- 1944 - Peter Mayhew, English-American actor
- 1945 – Pete Townshend, British musician
- 1946 – John D. Waihee III, 4th Governor of Hawaii
- 1947 – Steve Currie, English musician (T. Rex) (d. 1981)
- 1948 – Grace Jones, Jamaican singer and actress
- 1949 – Dusty Hill, American singer-songwriter and musician (ZZ Top and American Blues)
- 1951 – Joey Ramone, American singer (The Ramones) (d. 2001)
- 1952 – Bert van Marwijk, Dutch football manager
- 1953 – Victoria Wood, British comedienne
- 1955 – James Gosling, Canadian computer scientist
- 1956 - Oliver Letwin, British politician
- 1959 – Nicole Brown Simpson, American murder victim (d. 1995)
- 1960 - Yazz, British singer and model
- 1964 – Miloslav Mecir, Slovakian tennis player
- 1966 – Jodi Picoult, American writer
- 1972 – Jenny Berggren, Swedish singer (Ace of Base)
- 1973 – Dario Franchitti, Scottish racing driver
- 1977 – Manuel Almunia, Spanish footballer
- 1978 – Marcus Bent, English footballer
- 1979 – Diego Forlan, Uruguayan footballer
- 1979 – Andrea Pirlo, Italian footballer
- 1981 – Luciano Figueroa, Argentine footballer
- 1982 - Rebecca Hall, British actress
- 1985 - Chris Loudon, Scottish darts player
- 1986 – Mario Chalmers, American basketball player
- 1987 – Mariano Torres, Argentine footballer
- 1987 - David Edgar, Canadian footballer
- 1988 – Lily Cole, British model and actress
- 1989 - Jasmine, Japanese singer-songwriter and producer
- 1991 – Jordan Pruitt, American singer
- 1992 - Heather Watson, British tennis player
- 1992 - Ola John, Dutch footballer
Deaths [change]
- 804 – Alcuin, English monk and scholar (b. 735)
- 988 – Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 909)
- 1125 – Vladimir II Monomakh, Russian prince (b. 1053)
- 1218 - Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1175)
- 1296 – Pope Celestine V (b. 1215)
- 1526 - Pope Go-Kashiwabara of Japan (b. 1464)
- 1531 - Jan Laski, Polish statesman and diplomat (b. 1456)
- 1536 – Anne Boleyn, wife of Henry VIII (b. 1501)
- 1601 - Constanzo Porta, Italian composer (b. 1528)
- 1648 - Stefan Potocki, Polish nobleman (b. 1624)
- 1715 – Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, English politician and poet (b. 1661)
- 1795 – Josiah Bartlett, signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1729)
- 1795 - James Boswell, Scottish biographer (b. 1740)
- 1840 - John Adair, Governor of Kentucky (b. 1757)
- 1864 – Nathaniel Hawthorne, American writer (b. 1804)
- 1865 - Sengge Rinchen, Mongol nobleman and general (b. 1811)
- 1895 – Jose Marti, Cuban writer and revolutionary (b. 1853)
- 1896 – Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria (b. 1833)
- 1898 – William Ewart Gladstone, British Prime Minister (b. 1809)
- 1898 – Oran M. Roberts, 18th Governor of Texas (b. 1815)
- 1901 – Marthinus Wessel Pretorius, South African politician (b. 1819)
- 1904 - Jamsetji Tata, Indian industrialist (b. 1831)
- 1912 - Boleslaw Prus, Polish writer (b. 1842)
- 1935 – T. E. Lawrence, English soldier known as Lawrence of Arabia (b. 1888)
- 1943 – Kristjan Raud, Estonian painter (b. 1865)
- 1950 - Daniel Ciugureanu, Moldovan politician and Prime Minister (b. 1884)
- 1954 – Charles Ives, composer (b. 1874)
- 1963 – Walter Russell, American artist (b. 1880)
- 1965 – Tu'i Malila, world's oldest tortoise (b. 1877)
- 1969 – Coleman Hawkins, American jazz saxophonist (b. 1901)
- 1971 – Ogden Nash, American poet (b. 1902)
- 1975 – Robert E. Quinn, Governor of Rhode Island (b. 1894)
- 1983 – Jean Ley, Belgian lawyer and politician (b. 1902)
- 1984 – John Betjeman, British poet (b. 1906)
- 1994 – Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, First Lady of the United States (b. 1929)
- 1998 – Sosuke Uno, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1922)
- 2000 – Yevgeny Khrunov, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1933)
- 2001 – Susannah McCorkle, American singer (b. 1946)
- 2002 – John Gorton, Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1911)
- 2006 – Freddie Garrity, English singer and actor (b. 1940)
- 2009 – Robert F. Furchgott, American scientist (b. 1916)
- 2011 – Garret FitzGerald, Irish Taoiseach (b. 1926)
Observances [change]
- Youth and Sports Day (Turkey)
- Greek Genocide Remembrance Day (Greece)
- Ho Chi Minh's birthday (Vietnam)
- Malcolm X Day (United States)
