19th May is the 139th day of the year (140th in leap years). 226 days remain until the end of the year. Find out some important events that occurred on this day, 19th May, in history.

 

Historical events

715 — St Gregory II begins his reign as Catholic Pope.

1182 — The high altar of Paris Cathedral Notre Dame is consecrated by Cardinal Henri de Château-Marçay and Maurice de Sully.

1515 — George van Saksen-Meissen sells Friesland for 100,000 gold guilders to arch duke Charles

1536 — Anne Boleyn, the second wife of English King Henry VIII, is beheaded at the Tower of London on charges of adultery, incest and treason.

1568 — English Queen Elizabeth I arrests Mary, Queen of Scots.

1571 — Miguel Lopez de Legazpi founds Manilla in the Philippines.

1635 — France’s First Minister, Cardinal Richelieu declares war on Spain (Franco-Spanish War 1635–59).

1649 — England is declared a Commonwealth by an act of the Rump Parliament making England a republic for the next 11 years.

1780 — About midday, near-total darkness descends on New England, now known to be caused by forest fires in Canada.

 

19th May in the 19th Century

1856 — Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts speaks out against slavery.

1857 — Americans William Francis Channing and Moses G Farmer patent the electric fire alarm.

1885 — The first mass production of shoes (Jan Matzeliger in Lynn, Massachusetts).

1885 — German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck takes possession of Cameroon and Togoland.

1891 — Rice Institute, which became Rice University in Houston, Texas, is chartered.

1892 — Charles Brady King invents pneumatic hammer.

1896 — First auto (Karl Benz) arrives in the Netherlands.

1897 — Writer and poet Oscar Wilde is released from Reading Gaol.

1898 — US Congress passes the Private Mailing Card Act, allowing private publishers and printers to produce postcards. They had to be labelled “Private Mailing Cards” until 1901, known as “souvenir cards”.

 

19th May in the 20th Century

1900 — World’s longest railroad tunnel (Simplon) linking Italy and Switzerland opens.

1902 — Great Britain and Boers resume peace talks in Pretoria.

1905 — Tom Jenkins beats Frank Gotcha for heavyweight wrestling champ.

1906 — Federated Boys’ Club (Boys’ Club of America) organises.

1910 — Passage of Earth through the tail of Halley’s Comet causes near-panic.

1912 — AL President Ban Johnson tells Tigers if they continue protest of Ty Cobb’s suspension, they will be banned from baseball.

1913 — Webb Alien Land-Holding Bill passes, forbidding Japanese from owning land.

1919 — President and founder of the Republic of Turkey Mustafa Kemal Atatürk lands at Samsun on the Black Sea coast, beginning the Turkish War of Independence

1926 — French air force bombs Damascus Syria.

1929 — Cloudburst causes a stampede in Yankee Stadium, crushes two people to death.

1930 — White women win voting rights in South Africa.

1934 — Sherlock Holmes crossword puzzle in “Sat Review of Lit”. Males who solved puzzle became members of Baker Street Irregulars.

1943 — Berlin declared “Judenrein” (free of Jews).

1943 — Churchill pledges Britain’s full support to the US against Japan.

1944 — 240 gipsies transported to Auschwitz from Westerbork, Netherlands.

1946 — Dutch Cooperation for S****l Reform (NVSH) forms in Amsterdam.

1950 — NY Times reports of worlds smallest and dumbest mechanical brain.

1957 — Adone Zoli forms Italian government.

1958 — “South Pacific” soundtrack album goes #1 & stays #1 for 31 weeks.

1959 — The USS Triton, the first submarine with two nuclear reactors, completed.

1960 — Alan Freed and eight other DJs accused of taking radio payola.

1960 — Belgian parliament requires a rest day for self-employed.

 

More dates

1962 — The US performs an atmospheric nuclear test at Christmas Island.

1964 — US diplomats find at least 40 secret microphones in Moscow embassy.

1965 — Patricia R. Harris named first US black female ambassador (Luxembourg).

1968 — 20th Emmy Awards: “Get Smart”, “Mission Impossible” & Barbara Bain win.

1975 — Farm truck packed with wedding party struck by a train, killing 66 in the truck, 40 miles south of Poona, India/

1976 — Gold ownership legalised in Australia.

1983 — Parody singer and comedian Weird Al Yankovic gives a live performance at Wax Museum in Washington, D.C.

1986 — Anti-apartheid activist Hélène Pastoors sentenced to 10 years in South Africa.

1987 — First American Comedy Award: Johnny Carson and Betty White win

1988 — Carlos Lehder Rivas, of Colombia’s Medellin drug cartel, convicted in Florida for smuggling more than three tons of cocaine into the US.

1990 — “Elvis” TV Drama about the early life of singer and cultural icon Elvis Presley last airs on ABC.

1992 — 27th Amendment ratified, prohibits Congress from raising its salary.

1992 — Amy Fisher shoots Mary Jo Buttafuoco in the face. She does this in an altercation over an affair with her husband, in Massapequa, New York.

1992 — Englishman Dave Gauder, 224 lbs, pulls 196-ton jumbo jet, three inches.

1992 — The US VP Dan Quayle attacks Murphy Brown for being a single mother and as a poor example of family values.

1994 — Egyptian actor Omar Sharif suffers a mild heart attack.

1995 — The world’s youngest doctor, Balamurali Ambati, 17, graduates Mount Sinai.

1996 — STS 77 (Endeavour 11), launches into orbit.

1997 — “The Lost World: Jurassic Park”, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Jeff Goldblum and Julianne Moore, premieres in the US.

1999 — Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, directed by George Lucas, starring Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman and Liam Neeson released in cinemas.

 

 

19th May in the 21st Century

2007 — “Sicko” is a documentary on the US health care system directed by Michael Moore. It has its premiere at the Cannes Film festival.

2007 — “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”, directed by Gore Verbinksi, starring Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom, premieres in Anaheim – most expensive film ($300 million) made at the time.

2007 — Coen brothers film “No Country for Old Men”, based on the Cormac McCarthy novel, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin premieres at the Cannes Film Festival (Best Picture 2008).

2009 — Sri Lanka announces victory in its 25-year war against the terrorist organisation, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

2011 — Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a project to search for dark matter, led by Samuel C. C. Ting, installed on the International Space Station.

2013 — 21st Billboard Music Awards: Taylor Swift, Red win.

2018 — American actress Meghan Markle marries Prince Harry at a ceremony in Windsor Castle. This makes her a member of the British royal family.

2018 — Queen Elizabeth II grants the titles of Duke and Duchess of Sussex to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle upon their marriage.

2018 — English FA Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, London: Chelsea beats Manchester United, 1-0; Belgian international Eden Hazard scores 22′ penalty.

2161 — Syzygy: Eight planets (excluding Pluto, no longer considered a planet) will align on the same side of the sun.