What happened on May 19 ?

Choose another date »

 
 

 

Events

1535 - French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail on his second voyage to North America with three ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's two sons (whom 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 has Mary Queen of Scots arrested.

1604 - The town of Montreal is founded.

1643 - Thirty Years' War: French forces under the duc d'Enghien decisively defeat Spanish forces at the Battle of Rocroi, marking the symbolic end of Spain as a dominant land power.

1649 - An Act declaring England a Commonwealth is passed by the Long Parliament. England would be a republic for the next eleven years.

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 the United States 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 California, Nevada, Utah and parts of five other modern-day U.S. states to the USA for USD $15 million.

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 is established.

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.

1971 - Mars probe program: Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet Union.

1985 - China national football team was eliminated from the preliminary round of FIFA World Cup after being defeated unexpectedly by Hong Kong national football team by 1:2 at Beijing, leading to a local riot by football fans.

 
 

 

Events Births Deaths Holidays