Today in History

YEARDAYEVENT
715May 19St. Gregory II began his reign as Catholic Pope.
988May 19Dunstanus, English archbishop of Canterbury, died.
1218May 19Otto IV (36), Holy Roman Emperor, died.
1296May 19Pietro di Murrone, former Pope Celestine V, died in the castle of Fumone, where he was imprisoned by his successor, Boniface VIII.
1469May 19Giovanni della Robbia, Italian sculptor, was born.
1506May 19Columbus selected his son Diego as sole heir.
1535May 19French explorer Jacques Cartier set sail for North America.
1536May 19Anne 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.
1568May 19Defeated by the Protestants, Mary, Queen of Scots, fled to England where Queen Elizabeth imprisoned her.
1571May 19Miguel Lopez de Lagazpi founded the city of Manila in the Philippines and encountered Chinese settlements
1588May 19The Spanish Armada set sail to Lisbon bound for England; it was soundly defeated by the English fleet the following August.
1608May 19The Protestant states formed the Evangelical Union of Lutherans and Calvinists under the direction of the elector of Brandenburg.
1635May 19Cardinal Richelieu of France intervened in the great conflict in Europe by declaring war on the Hapsburgs in Spain.
1643May 19A French army destroyed Spanish army at the Battle at Rocroi /Allersheim in France
1749May 19George II granted a charter to the Ohio Company to settle Ohio Valley.
1762May 19Johann Gottlieb Fichte, German philosopher, was born. He developed ethical idealism out of Immanuel Kant’s work.
1780May 19A mysterious darkness enveloped much of New England and part of Canada in the early afternoon; the cause has never been determined.
1786May 19John Stanley (74), composer, died.
1792May 19Russian army entered Poland.
1795May 19Johns Hopkins, founder of Johns Hopkins University, was born.
1796May 19A game protection law was passed by Congress to restrict encroachment by whites on Indian hunting grounds.
1798May 19A 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.”
1800May 19French Bosbeeck, veterinarian, robber, was hanged.
1802May 19Napoleon 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.
1845May 19The 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.
1848May 19Texas was awarded to the U.S.A. by Mexico thus ending the war.
1856May 19Senator Charles Sumner spoke out against slavery.
1857May 19William Francis Channing and Moses G. Farmer were granted the first patent for an electric fire alarm system.
1858May 19A pro-slavery band led by Charles Hameton executed unarmed Free State men near Marais des Cygnes on the Kansas-Missouri border.
1862May 19Homestead Act became law and provided cheap land for settlement of West.
1863May 19Union General Ulysses S. Grant’s first attack on Vicksburg, Miss., was repulsed.
1864May 19Battle of Port Walthall Junction, VA (Bermuda Hundred).
1879May 19Lord Waldorf Astor, British publisher, was born.
1881May 19Kemal 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.
1885May 19German chancellor Bismarck took possession of Cameroon & Togoland.
1886May 19Camille Saint-Saens’ 3rd Symphony in C (“Organ”), premiered.
1890May 19Ho 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.
1892May 19Charles Brady King of Detroit invented the pneumatic hammer.
1895May 19Johns Hopkins, merchant and philanthropist, was born.
1898May 19US Congress passed the Private Mailing Card Act which allowed private publishers and printers to produce postcards.
1900May 19Simplon Tunnel opened as the world’s longest railroad tunnel at 12 miles; it linked Italy & Switzerland through the Alps.
1906May 19The Federated Boys’ Clubs, the forerunner of the Boys’ Clubs of    America, were organized.
1909May 19San 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.
1911May 19Maurice Ravel’s opera “L’Heure Espagnole,” premiered in Paris.
1913May 19The Webb Alien Land-Holding Bill was signed in California, excluding Japanese from owning land.
1918May 19Florence Chadwick, the 1st to swim English Channel both ways, was born.
1919May 19Mustafa Kemal arrived in Samsun, Anatolia, to start the National Struggle.
1920May 19In 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.
1921May 19Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act, which established national quotas for immigrants entering the United States.
1925May 19Pol Pot (d.1998), Cambodian dictator and mass murderer, was born in Prek Sbauv, Cambodia.
1926May 19French air force bombed Damascus, Syria.
1928May 19The 1st annual “Frog Jumping Jubilee” at Angel’s Camp, Ca., drew 51 frogs.
1929May 19Harvey Cox, US theologist (Secular City), was born.
1934May 19James Lehrer, broadcast journalist, was born in Wichita, Ks.
1935May 19National Football League adopted an annual college draft to begin in 1936.
1939May 19In San Francisco a new Safeway grocery store opened at Bush and Larkin at a site once occupied by Lurline baths.
1940May 19Amsterdam time became MET (Middle European Time).
1941May 19Jane Brody, food and health writer, was born.
1943May 19Berlin was declared “Judenrien” (cleansed of Jews).
1944May 19The Gustav line, the German defense line in Italy, collapsed under heavy assault by Allied troops.
1945May 19Peter Townshend, England, rock guitarist, vocalist, composer (Who-Tommy), was born.
1951May 19UN began a counter offensive in Korea.
1952May 19John Garfield (39), blacklisted film actor, died. His films included “The Postman Always Rings Twice” (1946).
1954May 19Postmaster General Summerfield approved a CIA mail-opening project.
1955May 19In 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.
1956May 19R.C., “(You’ve Got) The Magic Touch” by The Platters peaked at #4 on the pop singles chart.
1958May 19The movie “Attack of the 50 Foot Woman” was released in the movie theaters in USA.
1959May 19Nicole Brown Simpson, Mrs. OJ Simpson (murdered), was born in Frankfurt, Germany.
1962May 19R.C., “Shout! Shout! (Knock Yourself Out)” by Ernie Maresca peaked at #6 on the pop singles chart.
1964May 19The 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.
1966May 19A tortoise, reportedly given to Tonga’s King by Capt. Cook in 1773), died.
1967May 19Aircraft from the US carriers Enterprise, Kitty Hawk, and Bon Homme Richard conducted air strikes against three targets in the vicinity of Hanoi.
1971May 19The Russian Mars 2 Orbiter and Lander made it to Mars but the Lander crashed when braking rockets failed. The orbiter returned late until 1972.
1972May 19Kathy Boudin and Bernardine Dohrn, members of the Weathermen, set explosives in bathroom of the US Pentagon
1974May 19Valeri Giscard d’Estaing won French presidential elections.
1976May 19The US Senate established congressional oversight over the CIA with the permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI).
1977May 19David Frost, British talk-show host, extracted an on-air apology from former Pres. Richard Nixon regarding his role in Watergate.
1979May 19The recording “Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)” by The Jacksons peaked at #5 on the pop singles chart.
1982May 19Sophia Loren (b.1934) began serving 18 days in an Italian prison for failing to pay her taxes.
1984May 19Michael Larson (1949-1999) won $110,000 on the “Press Your Luck” Game Show. He had memorized the generated game patterns.
1986May 19South African commandos struck alleged ANC “operational centers” in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia.
1987May 19President 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.
1988May 19Carlos 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.
1989May 19The NCAA announced sanctions against the University of Kentucky’s basketball program for recruiting and academic violations.
1990May 19The tune “Vogue” by Madonna peaked at #1 on the pop singles chart.
1991May 19Martial-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.
1992May 19In 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.
1993May 19The 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.
1994May 19The final episode of LA Law (b.1986) showed on TV after 8 year run.
1995May 19The movie “Die Hard: With a Vengeance” was released in the movie theaters in USA.
1996May 19In 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.
1997May 19An 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.
1998May 19The PanAmSat Corp. Galaxy 4 communications satellite malfunctioned and disrupted pager services for some 40 million customers.
1999May 19The much-anticipated movie prequel “Star Wars: Episode One — The Phantom Menace” opened. The film brought in a record $28,543,549.
2000May 19NYC Mayor Giuliani dropped out of the race for a US senate seat due to prostate cancer. He was also beleaguered by a personal scandal.
2001May 19“Point Given” won the Preakness as Derby winner “Monarchos” finished out of the money.
2002May 19Boston 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.
2003May 19The 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.
2004May 19Specialist 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.
2005May 19The film “Star Wars: Episode III ”“ Revenge of the Sith,” premiered.
2006May 19The 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.
2007May 19Curlin nipped Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense to win the Preakness Stakes.
2008May 19The 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.
2009May 19“Glee,” Fox’s new musical comedy, premiered.
2010May 19Khalid 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.
2011May 19President 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.
2012May 19G8 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.
2013May 19More 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.
2014May 19Swiss-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.
Source: Timelines of History 

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