May 19

Events

• 1535 - French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail on his second voyage to North America with 3 ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's 2 sons (who Cartier kidnapped during his first voyage).
• 1536 - Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England is beheaded for adultery.
• 1568 - Queen Elizabeth I of England arrests Mary Queen of Scots.
• 1643 - Battle of Rocroi: French victory over the Spanish at Rocroi, France.
• 1649 - An Act declaring England to be a Commonwealth is passed by the Long Parliament.
• 1749 - King George II of Great Britain grants the Ohio Company a charter of land around the forks of the Ohio River.
• 1780 - Never-explained complete darkness falls on Eastern Canada and the New England area of America at 2 pm.
• 1802 - The Légion d'Honneur is founded by Napoleon Bonaparte.
• 1828 - U.S. President John Quincy Adams signs the Tariff of 1828 into law, protecting wool manufacturers in the United States.
• 1848 - Mexican-American War: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo - Mexico ratifies the treaty thus ending the war and ceding Texas, California and most of Arizona and New Mexico to the United States for $15 million dollars.
• 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Spotsylvania Court House ends.
• 1897 - Oscar Wilde is released from Reading Gaol.
• 1919 - In Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk moves to Samsun from Istanbul with a few followers, to oppose the Ottoman government, which eventually leads to the Turkish War of Independence.
• 1921 - The Emergency Quota Act passes the U.S. Congress establishing national quotas on immigration.
• 1922 - Young Pioneer organization of the Soviet Union created.
• 1932 - The gangster film opens at the Rialto Theater in Los Angeles, California.
• 1943 - World War II: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt set Monday, May 1, 1944 as the date for the cross-English Channel landing (D-Day would later be delayed over a month due to bad weather).
• 1961 - Venera program: Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly-by another planet by passing Venus (the probe had lost contact with Earth a month earlier and did not send back data).
• 1962 - A birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy takes place at Madison Square Garden, New York. The highlight is Marilyn Monroe's infamous rendition of Happy Birthday. Thirty-four years later, John F. Kennedy, Jr had actress Drew Barrymore pose as Monroe for the cover of George magazine with the heading "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" in honor of then-President Bill Clinton turning 50.
• 1964 - Vietnam War: The United States Air Force begins Operation Yankee Team.
• 1965 - Tui Malila, the oldest living tortoise or living creature ever, dies in Tonga at the age of either 188 or 192.
• 1971 - Mars probe program: Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet Union.
• 1991 - Willy T. Ribbs becomes the first African-American driver to qualify for the Indianapolis 500.
• 1998 - In Fayetteville, Tennessee, three days before graduation, 18-year-old honor student Jacob Davis allegedly confronts, then shoots dead 18-year-old Nick Creson in the parking lot of his school. This is the latest in a rash of so-called school massacres which took place in the United States during the 1990s
• 1999 - Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is released in movie theaters across the United States, setting a new record for opening-day box-office sales at $28.5 million.
• 2001 - One child policy: Zhonghua Sun is put to death by People's Republic of China government officials because she refused to be sterilized.
• 2004 - Shrek 2 is released.
• 2005 - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is expected to be released in movie theaters across the United States.
  

  Births

• 1762 - Johann Gottlieb Fichte, philosopher (d. 1814)
• 1773 - Arthur Aikin, English chemist, mineralogist and scientific writer (d. 1854)
• 1795 - Johns Hopkins, philanthropist (d. 1873)
• 1827 - Paul-Armand Challemel-Lacour, French statesman (d. 1896)
• 1844 - Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (d. 1818)
• 1861 - Dame Nellie Melba, Australian opera singer (d. 1931)
• 1870 - Albert Fish, serial killer (d. 1936)
• 1874 - Gilbert Jessop; English cricketer, known as fastest-scoring batsman of all time (d. 1955).
• 1879 - Nancy Astor, first woman to sit in British House of Commons (d. 1964)
• 1880 - Sir Albert Richardson, architect (d. 1964)
• 1882 - Mohammed Mossadegh, Iranian prime minister (d. 1967)
• 1890 - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese leader (d. 1969)
• 1891 - Oswald Boelcke, World War I fighter ace (d. 1916)
• 1897 - Frank Luke, World War I fighter ace (d. 1918)
• 1906 - Gerd Bucerius, publisher and publicist (d. 1995)
• 1908 - Percy Williams, Canadian athlete (d. 1982)
• 1909 - Bruce Bennett, actor
• 1914 - Go Seigen, Go player
• 1914 - Max Perutz, molecular biologist (d. 2002)
• 1921 - Karel van het Reve, Dutch writer (d. 1999)
• 1921 - Yuri Kochiyama, civil rights activist
• 1924 - Sandy Wilson, British composer
• 1925 - Malcolm X, civil rights activist (d. 1965)
• 1925 - Pol Pot, Khmer Rouge leader(d. 1998)
• 1926 - Peter Zadek, film and theatre director
• 1930 - Lorraine Hansberry, playwright (d. 1965)
• 1931 - Eric Tappy, Swiss tenor
• 1934 - Jim Lehrer, journalist, co-anchor
• 1939 - Dick Scobee, astronaut (d. 1986)
• 1939 - Livio Berruti, Italian athlete
• 1939 - Nancy Kwan, Actress
• 1941 - Nora Ephron, screenwriter
• 1942 - Gary Kildall, computer programmer (d. 1994)
• 1944 - Peter Mayhew, actor Chewbacca
• 1945 - Pete Townshend, guitarist, lyricist
• 1946 - André the Giant, wrestler (d. 1993)
• 1948 - Grace Jones, singer, actress
• 1949 - Archie Manning, American football quarterback
• 1952 - Joey Ramone, singer (d. 2001)
• 1952 - Grace Jones, model
• 1953 - Victoria Wood, British comic actress
• 1956 - James Gosling, the "father" of Java programming language
• 1963 - Yazz, UK singer
• 1973 - Dario Franchitti, automobile racer
• 1975 - London Fletcher, American football player
• 1976 - Kevin Garnett, basketball player
  

  Deaths

• 804 - Alcuin, monk from York, England (b. c. 735)
• 988 - Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 909)
• 1102 - Stephen, Count of Blois (b. c. 1045)
• 1125 - Vladimir Monomakh (b. 1053)
• 1296 - Pope Celestine V (b. 1215)
• 1536 - Anne Boleyn, queen of Henry VIII of England (executed)
• 1645 - Miyamoto Musashi, Japanese swordsman (b. c. 1584)
• 1715 - Charles Montagu, Chancellor of the Exchequer (b. 1661)
• 1786 - John Stanley, English composer (b. 1712)
• 1795 - Josiah Bartlett, signatory of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1729)
• 1795 - James Boswell, Scottish biographer (b. 1740)
• 1821 - Camille Jordan, French politician (b. 1771)
• 1825 - Saint-Simon, founder of French socialism (b. 1760)
• 1864 - Nathaniel Hawthorne, author (b. 1804)
• 1885 - Peter W. Barlow, engineer (b. 1809)
• 1895 - José Martí, Cuban independence leader (b. 1853)
• 1898 - William Ewart Gladstone, British prime minister (b. 1809)
• 1904 - Auguste Molinier, French historian (b. 1851)
• 1907 - Benjamin Baker, English engineer (b. 1840)
• 1909 - Isaac Albéniz, Spanish composer (b. 1860)
• 1918 - Raoul Lufbery, World War I American flying ace (b. 1885)
• 1935 - T. E. Lawrence, English soldier ("Lawrence of Arabia") (b. 1888)
• 1946 - Booth Tarkington, American novelist (b. 1869)
• 1954 - Charles Ives, American composer (b. 1874)
• 1958 - Ronald Colman, actor (b. 1891)
• 1969 - Coleman Hawkins, jazz musician (b. 1901)
• 1971 - Ogden Nash, American poet (b. 1902)
• 1983 - Jean Rey, President of the European Commission (b. 1902)
• 1984 - John Betjeman, English poet (b. 1906)
• 1987 - James Tiptree, Jr, science fiction author (b. 1915)
• 1989 - CLR James, writer and journalist (b. 1901)
• 1994 - Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, First Lady of the United States (b. 1929)
• 1998 - Uno Sosuke, Japanese prime minister (b. 1922)
• 2000 - Yevgeny Khrunov, cosmonaut (b. 1933)
• 2002 - Walter Lord, writer
• 2002 - John Gorton, nineteenth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1911)
• 2003 - Erik Zimen, wolf researcher
• 2004 - Mary Dresselhuys, Dutch actress (b. 1907)
  

  Holidays and observances

• Feast of Saint Dunstan
• Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day in Turkey (1919)
  

  External links

• BBC: On This Day

May 18 - May 20 - April 19 - June 19 -- listing of all days