YEAR | DAY | EVENT |
715 | May 19 | St. Gregory II began his reign as Catholic Pope. |
988 | May 19 | Dunstanus, English archbishop of Canterbury, died. |
1218 | May 19 | Otto IV (36), Holy Roman Emperor, died. |
1296 | May 19 | Pietro di Murrone, former Pope Celestine V, died in the castle of Fumone, where he was imprisoned by his successor, Boniface VIII. |
1469 | May 19 | Giovanni della Robbia, Italian sculptor, was born. |
1506 | May 19 | Columbus selected his son Diego as sole heir. |
1535 | May 19 | French explorer Jacques Cartier set sail for North America. |
1536 | May 19 | Anne Boleyn, the second wife of England’s King Henry VIII, was beheaded on Tower Green after she was convicted of adultery and incest with her brother, Lord Rochford, who was executed two days before. It was the day before Henry VIII’s marriage to Jane Seymour. |
1568 | May 19 | Defeated by the Protestants, Mary, Queen of Scots, fled to England where Queen Elizabeth imprisoned her. |
1571 | May 19 | Miguel Lopez de Lagazpi founded the city of Manila in the Philippines and encountered Chinese settlements |
1588 | May 19 | The Spanish Armada set sail to Lisbon bound for England; it was soundly defeated by the English fleet the following August. |
1608 | May 19 | The Protestant states formed the Evangelical Union of Lutherans and Calvinists under the direction of the elector of Brandenburg. |
1635 | May 19 | Cardinal Richelieu of France intervened in the great conflict in Europe by declaring war on the Hapsburgs in Spain. |
1643 | May 19 | A French army destroyed Spanish army at the Battle at Rocroi /Allersheim in France |
1749 | May 19 | George II granted a charter to the Ohio Company to settle Ohio Valley. |
1762 | May 19 | Johann Gottlieb Fichte, German philosopher, was born. He developed ethical idealism out of Immanuel Kant’s work. |
1780 | May 19 | A mysterious darkness enveloped much of New England and part of Canada in the early afternoon; the cause has never been determined. |
1786 | May 19 | John Stanley (74), composer, died. |
1792 | May 19 | Russian army entered Poland. |
1795 | May 19 | Johns Hopkins, founder of Johns Hopkins University, was born. |
1796 | May 19 | A game protection law was passed by Congress to restrict encroachment by whites on Indian hunting grounds. |
1798 | May 19 | A French armada of 335 ships carrying nearly 40,000 men set sail for Alexandria, Egypt, which Napoleon planned to conquer. In 2008 Paul Strathern authored “Napoleon in Egypt.” |
1800 | May 19 | French Bosbeeck, veterinarian, robber, was hanged. |
1802 | May 19 | Napoleon established the French Order of Legion d’Honneur award (Legion of Honor). It was a general military and civil order of merit conferred without regard to birth or religion, provided that anyone admitted swore to uphold liberty and equality. |
1845 | May 19 | The HMS Erebus and Terror sailed from England under Sir John Franklin to navigate through the Arctic and find the elusive Northwest passage. Sir John Franklin and his 128-member crew all died on the journey and the ships vanished. By 1847 the British Admiralty had received no reports of Franklin. |
1848 | May 19 | Texas was awarded to the U.S.A. by Mexico thus ending the war. |
1856 | May 19 | Senator Charles Sumner spoke out against slavery. |
1857 | May 19 | William Francis Channing and Moses G. Farmer were granted the first patent for an electric fire alarm system. |
1858 | May 19 | A pro-slavery band led by Charles Hameton executed unarmed Free State men near Marais des Cygnes on the Kansas-Missouri border. |
1862 | May 19 | Homestead Act became law and provided cheap land for settlement of West. |
1863 | May 19 | Union General Ulysses S. Grant’s first attack on Vicksburg, Miss., was repulsed. |
1864 | May 19 | Battle of Port Walthall Junction, VA (Bermuda Hundred). |
1879 | May 19 | Lord Waldorf Astor, British publisher, was born. |
1881 | May 19 | Kemal Ataturk (d.1938), first president (1923-38) of the Republic of Turkey, later set this as his birth date. He did not know the exact day, but favored May 19, tied to his start in 1919 of the war for independence. |
1885 | May 19 | German chancellor Bismarck took possession of Cameroon & Togoland. |
1886 | May 19 | Camille Saint-Saens’ 3rd Symphony in C (“Organ”), premiered. |
1890 | May 19 | Ho Chi Minh, revolutionist and leader of North Vietnam (1946-1969), was born. He fought the Japanese, French and United States to gain independence for his country. |
1892 | May 19 | Charles Brady King of Detroit invented the pneumatic hammer. |
1895 | May 19 | Johns Hopkins, merchant and philanthropist, was born. |
1898 | May 19 | US Congress passed the Private Mailing Card Act which allowed private publishers and printers to produce postcards. |
1900 | May 19 | Simplon Tunnel opened as the world’s longest railroad tunnel at 12 miles; it linked Italy & Switzerland through the Alps. |
1906 | May 19 | The Federated Boys’ Clubs, the forerunner of the Boys’ Clubs of   America, were organized. |
1909 | May 19 | San Francisco Mayor Edward Taylor wrote a letter to Pres. Taft testifying to the valuable aid of the federal government in the city’s recent campaign against bubonic plague. |
1911 | May 19 | Maurice Ravel’s opera “L’Heure Espagnole,” premiered in Paris. |
1913 | May 19 | The Webb Alien Land-Holding Bill was signed in California, excluding Japanese from owning land. |
1918 | May 19 | Florence Chadwick, the 1st to swim English Channel both ways, was born. |
1919 | May 19 | Mustafa Kemal arrived in Samsun, Anatolia, to start the National Struggle. |
1920 | May 19 | In Matewan, West Virginia, a gunbattle between coal company-hired detectives and local townspeople leaving 10 men dead, including mayor Cabell Testerman, 2 miners and 7 detectives. |
1921 | May 19 | Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act, which established national quotas for immigrants entering the United States. |
1925 | May 19 | Pol Pot (d.1998), Cambodian dictator and mass murderer, was born in Prek Sbauv, Cambodia. |
1926 | May 19 | French air force bombed Damascus, Syria. |
1928 | May 19 | The 1st annual “Frog Jumping Jubilee” at Angel’s Camp, Ca., drew 51 frogs. |
1929 | May 19 | Harvey Cox, US theologist (Secular City), was born. |
1934 | May 19 | James Lehrer, broadcast journalist, was born in Wichita, Ks. |
1935 | May 19 | National Football League adopted an annual college draft to begin in 1936. |
1939 | May 19 | In San Francisco a new Safeway grocery store opened at Bush and Larkin at a site once occupied by Lurline baths. |
1940 | May 19 | Amsterdam time became MET (Middle European Time). |
1941 | May 19 | Jane Brody, food and health writer, was born. |
1943 | May 19 | Berlin was declared “Judenrien” (cleansed of Jews). |
1944 | May 19 | The Gustav line, the German defense line in Italy, collapsed under heavy assault by Allied troops. |
1945 | May 19 | Peter Townshend, England, rock guitarist, vocalist, composer (Who-Tommy), was born. |
1951 | May 19 | UN began a counter offensive in Korea. |
1952 | May 19 | John Garfield (39), blacklisted film actor, died. His films included “The Postman Always Rings Twice” (1946). |
1954 | May 19 | Postmaster General Summerfield approved a CIA mail-opening project. |
1955 | May 19 | In Vietnam Maj. Vo Bam, a defense supply specialist, was instructed to find a supply route south. Bam’s route became the Ho Chi Minh Trail. |
1956 | May 19 | R.C., “(You’ve Got) The Magic Touch” by The Platters peaked at #4 on the pop singles chart. |
1958 | May 19 | The movie “Attack of the 50 Foot Woman” was released in the movie theaters in USA. |
1959 | May 19 | Nicole Brown Simpson, Mrs. OJ Simpson (murdered), was born in Frankfurt, Germany. |
1962 | May 19 | R.C., “Shout! Shout! (Knock Yourself Out)” by Ernie Maresca peaked at #6 on the pop singles chart. |
1964 | May 19 | The State Department announced the U.S. embassy in Moscow had been bugged. A network of more than 40 microphones embedded in the walls had been found. |
1966 | May 19 | A tortoise, reportedly given to Tonga’s King by Capt. Cook in 1773), died. |
1967 | May 19 | Aircraft from the US carriers Enterprise, Kitty Hawk, and Bon Homme Richard conducted air strikes against three targets in the vicinity of Hanoi. |
1971 | May 19 | The Russian Mars 2 Orbiter and Lander made it to Mars but the Lander crashed when braking rockets failed. The orbiter returned late until 1972. |
1972 | May 19 | Kathy Boudin and Bernardine Dohrn, members of the Weathermen, set explosives in bathroom of the US Pentagon |
1974 | May 19 | Valeri Giscard d’Estaing won French presidential elections. |
1976 | May 19 | The US Senate established congressional oversight over the CIA with the permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI). |
1977 | May 19 | David Frost, British talk-show host, extracted an on-air apology from former Pres. Richard Nixon regarding his role in Watergate. |
1979 | May 19 | The recording “Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)” by The Jacksons peaked at #5 on the pop singles chart. |
1982 | May 19 | Sophia Loren (b.1934) began serving 18 days in an Italian prison for failing to pay her taxes. |
1984 | May 19 | Michael Larson (1949-1999) won $110,000 on the “Press Your Luck” Game Show. He had memorized the generated game patterns. |
1986 | May 19 | South African commandos struck alleged ANC “operational centers” in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia. |
1987 | May 19 | President Reagan defended America’s presence in the Persian Gulf, two days after 37 American sailors were killed when an Iraqi warplane attacked the U.S. frigate Stark. |
1988 | May 19 | Carlos Lehder Rivas, co-founder of Colombia’s Medellin drug cartel, was convicted in Jacksonville, Fla., of smuggling more than 3 tons of cocaine into the US. |
1989 | May 19 | The NCAA announced sanctions against the University of Kentucky’s basketball program for recruiting and academic violations. |
1990 | May 19 | The tune “Vogue” by Madonna peaked at #1 on the pop singles chart. |
1991 | May 19 | Martial-law courts in Kuwait began trying people accused of collaborating with Iraqi occupation forces, sentencing one man to life in prison for wearing a Saddam Hussein T-shirt. The trials came under international criticism, and were halted. |
1992 | May 19 | In San Francisco, Vice President Dan Quayle denounced what he called the “poverty of values” in America’s inner cities, and criticized the TV show “Murphy Brown” for having its title character decide to bear a child out of wedlock. |
1993 | May 19 | The US White House set off a political storm by abruptly firing the entire staff of its travel office; five of seven staffers were later reinstated and assigned other duties. |
1994 | May 19 | The final episode of LA Law (b.1986) showed on TV after 8 year run. |
1995 | May 19 | The movie “Die Hard: With a Vengeance” was released in the movie theaters in USA. |
1996 | May 19 | In an astronomical near hit, a large asteroid approached Earth within 279,000 miles, a distance just greater than the moon, in a surprise to astronomers who discovered it in midweek. |
1997 | May 19 | An indictment was filed against NBC sportscaster Marv Albert for biting a woman in an Arlington, Va., hotel on Feb 12 as many as 15 times and forcing her to perform oral sex. At trial, Albert ended up pleading guilty to assault and battery; he served no jail time. |
1998 | May 19 | The PanAmSat Corp. Galaxy 4 communications satellite malfunctioned and disrupted pager services for some 40 million customers. |
1999 | May 19 | The much-anticipated movie prequel “Star Wars: Episode One — The Phantom Menace” opened. The film brought in a record $28,543,549. |
2000 | May 19 | NYC Mayor Giuliani dropped out of the race for a US senate seat due to prostate cancer. He was also beleaguered by a personal scandal. |
2001 | May 19 | “Point Given” won the Preakness as Derby winner “Monarchos” finished out of the money. |
2002 | May 19 | Boston Cardinal Bernard Law said in a letter distributed to parishes that he did not become aware until 1993 of sexual abuse allegations against the Rev. Paul Shanley. |
2003 | May 19 | The US Supreme Court dealt a defeat to the drug industry, ruling 6-3 that a state may try to force companies to lower prices on prescription medications for the poor and uninsured. |
2004 | May 19 | Specialist Jeremy C. Sivits wept and apologized after receiving a year in prison and a bad conduct discharge in the first court-martial stemming from abuse of Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison. |
2005 | May 19 | The film “Star Wars: Episode III ”“ Revenge of the Sith,” premiered. |
2006 | May 19 | The UN panel that monitors compliance with the world’s anti-torture treaty said the United States should close its prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and avoid using secret detention facilities in the war on terror. The report by the Committee Against Torture came as the US military disclosed that prisoners wielding improvised weapons had clashed with guards trying to save a detainee who was pretending to commit suicide. |
2007 | May 19 | Curlin nipped Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense to win the Preakness Stakes. |
2008 | May 19 | The US Justice Department said international investigators have busted a vast Internet fraud network and charged 38 suspects, most of them Romanians living in the US. |
2009 | May 19 | “Glee,” Fox’s new musical comedy, premiered. |
2010 | May 19 | Khalid Ouazzani (32) of Kansas City, Mo., admitted that he sent $23,500 to Al-Qaeda between 2007-2008. The Morocco-born auto parts dealer became a US citizen in 2006. |
2011 | May 19 | President Barack Obama laid out a new US strategy toward a skeptical Arab world, offering fresh aid to promote democratic change as he seeks to shape the outcome of popular uprisings threatening both friends and foes. |
2012 | May 19 | G8 leaders meeting in Maryland backed keeping Greece in the euro zone and vowed to take all steps necessary to combat financial turmoil while revitalizing a global economy increasingly threatened by Europe’s debt crisis. |
2013 | May 19 | More than two dozen tornadoes were spotted in parts of Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas and Illinois. A half-mile wide twister struck near Oklahoma City and at least one person was killed. |
2014 | May 19 | Swiss-based Credit Suisse pleaded guilty to a criminal charge of having helped its customers elude America’s tax authorities. The bank was fined $2.8 billion. |
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