May 19 - Definition and Overview

May 19 is the 139th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (140th in leap years). There are 226 days remaining.

Events

1500-1899

• 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 byNapoleon 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.

1900-1999

• 1919 - Mustafa Kemal Atatürk moves to Samsun from Istanbul by an old ship called Bandirma with his few friends to work separately from |Ottoman Government in order to prepare the nation for the Independence War.
• 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.
• 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.
• 1999 - Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is released movie theaters across the United States setting a new record for opening day sales at $28.5 million.

2000-2099

• 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

1700-1899

• 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 Amand 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)
• 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)

1900-1999

• 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)
• 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
• 1989 - Rebecca Glass, Nerd
• 1953 - Victoria Wood, British comic actress
• 1956 - James Gosling, the "father" of Java programming language
• 1973 - Dario Franchitti, automobile racer
• 1975 - London Fletcher, American football player
• 1976 - Kevin Garnett, basketball player

Deaths

800-1899

• 804 - Alcuin, monk from York, England (b. c. 735)
• 1102 - Stephen, Count of Blois (b. c. 1045)
• 1125 - Vladimir Monomakh (b. 1053)
• 1296 - Pope Celestine V (b. 1215)
• 1536 - Anne Boleyn (b. c. 1507)
• 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, a 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)

1900-1999

• 1904 - Auguste Molinier, French historian (b. 1851)
• 1907 - Benjamin Baker, English engineer (b. 1840)
• 1909 - Isaac Albéniz, Spanish composer (b. 1860)
• 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)
• 1994 - Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, First Lady of the United States (b. 1929)
• 1998 - Uno Sosuke, Japanese prime minister (b. 1922)

2000-2099

• 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)

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