May 19th in History

1445 - John II of Castile defeats the Infantes of Aragon at the First Battle of Olmedo.

1499 - Catherine of Aragon is married by proxy to Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales. Catherine is 13 and Arthur is 12.

1536 - Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England, is beheaded for adultery, treason, and incest.


1568 - Queen Elizabeth I of England orders the arrest of Mary, Queen of Scots.

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 of Parliament declaring England a Commonwealth is passed by the Long Parliament. England would be a republic for the next eleven years.

1655 - The Invasion of Jamaica begins during the Anglo-Spanish War.

1776 - American Revolutionary War: A Continental Army garrison surrenders in the Battle of The Cedars.

1845 - Captain Sir John Franklin and his ill-fated Arctic expedition depart from Greenhithe, England.


1897 - Oscar Wilde is released from Reading Gaol Prison.

1911 - Parks Canada, the world's first national park service, is established as the Dominion Parks Branch under the Department of the Interior.

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 Normandy landings ("D-Day"). It would later be delayed over a month due to bad sweather.

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 any data).

1991 - Croatian's vote for independence in a referendum.


2010 - The Royal Thai Armed Forces concludes its crackdown on protests by forcing the surrender of United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship leaders.

2013 - Sir Alex Ferguson retires as football manager for Manchester United

Famous Birthdays

1744 - Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom

1797 - Maria Isabel of Portugal, Infanta of Portugal and later Queen consort of Spain

1890 - Ho Chi Minh, communist revolutionary leader and President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam)

1910 - Nathuram Godse, assassin of Mahatma Gandhi

1919 - Mitja Ribičič, Prime Minister of Yugoslavia

1925 - Malcolm X, civil rights activist

1925 - Pol Pot, dictator


1946 - Michele Placido, actor and director

1954 - Phil Rudd, drummer

1959 - Nicole Brown Simpson, murder victim, wife of O. J. Simpson

1980 - Drew Fuller, actor and model

1984 - Inna Modja, singer and model

1991 - Jordan Pruitt, American singer-songwriter