May 19

804 Alcuin of York (c. 735 – May 19, 804) was an English scholar, who became a leading teacher at Charlemagne the Great's court. Alcuin produced the epitaph for his own gravestone, which reads “My name was Alchuine, and wisdom was always dear to me.” His words “Lord, open our lips. And our mouth shall proclaim your praise,” begin many Anglican services.

1536 Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, was beheaded for adultery, treason, and incest on May 19, 1536. Anne refused to be blindfolded and the executioner found her so disarming he persuaded someone to attract her attention so he could steal up silently behind her to carry out the death penalty. Meanwhile Henry was in Epping Forest taking part in a hunt waiting for a signal to proclaim the news that "it" had been done.

1649 Following the trial and execution of Charles I, an Act of Parliament declaring England a Commonwealth was passed by the Long Parliament on May 19, 1649. England was a republic for the next eleven years.

1655 Upon assuming control over England, Oliver Cromwell sent out the Royal Navy to capture territory from Spain in the Caribbean. The British invasion of Jamaica began on May 19, 1655.
The English were easily able to capture Jamaica from the Spanish because the island had no fortifications. It was a very important territorial gain for the English as it gave them a prime staging ground to launch privateering raids at the Spanish. They ruled the island for the next 300 years.

1743 Jean-Pierre Christin was a French physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and musician. On May 19, 1743, he published the design of a mercury thermometer with the centigrade scale, with 0 representing the freezing point of water and 100 its boiling point. This scale was later adopted by other scientists and eventually became the standard temperature scale in most of the world.

Thermometer of Lyon (1743). By Science Museum of London 

1748 On May 19, 1748 furniture designer Thomas Chippendale married Catherine Redshaw at St George's Chapel, Mayfair, London. They had five boys and four girls. Catherine died in 1772 and Chippendale remarried Elizabeth Davis in 1777, but she passed away two years later.

1780 A combination of thick smoke, fog and heavy cloud cover caused complete darkness to fall on Eastern Canada and the New England area of the United States at 10:30 AM on May 19, 1780. The darkness was so complete that candles were required from noon onwards. It did not disperse until the middle of the next night.

1801 As a reward for his victory at the Battle of Copenhagen, Lord Horatio Nelson was created Viscount Nelson of the Nile and of Burnham Thorpe in the County of Norfolk, on May 19, 1801. The battle was a major victory for the British Navy and helped to secure Britain's position as a leading naval power.

Portrait of Nelson by Lemuel Francis Abbott

1886 Camille Saint-Saëns' renowned Third "Organ" Symphony, which was dedicated to Liszt, was premiered on May 19, 1886. The first performance was given at St James's Hall, London, conducted by the composer. Though its popularly known as the Organ Symphony, it isn't a true symphony for organ, but simply an orchestral symphony where two sections out of four use the pipe organ. 

1897 After serving two years' hard labor for gross indecency with men. Oscar Wilde was released from Reading Gaol on May 19, 1897, Wilde moved to France under the assumed name of 'Sebastian Melmoth', after the central character of the gothic novel Melmoth the Wanderer.

1898 Former UK Prime Minister William Gladstone died on May 19, 1898 at Hawarden Castle, Hawarden, aged 88. The cause of Gladstone's death was failure of the heart and infirmity of advanced old age. The Prince of Wales (the future Edward VII) and the Duke of York (the future George V) acted as pallbearers during Gladstone's state funeral at Westminster Abbey.

Gladstone in old age

1902 Britain’s first motor car race was held on May 19, 1902 in Bexhill-On-Sea in the south of England. The event was organized by the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland and attracted international attention. The race was a one-kilometer event and was won by a Panhard & Levassor driven by Charles Jarrott.

1911 Dominion Parks Canada, the world's first national park service, was established on May 19, 1911 under the Canadian Department of the Interior. Since its creation, its name has changed, known variously as the Dominion Parks Branch, National Parks Branch, Parks Canada, Environment Canada - Parks Branch, and the Canadian Parks Service, before a return to Parks Canada in 1998.

1919 The $25,000 Orteig Prize was designated as an award to the pilot of the first successful nonstop flight made in either direction between New York City and Paris. It was first offered by the French-born New York hotelier (Lafayette Hotel) Raymond Orteig on May 19, 1919. Six well-known aviators had already lost their lives in pursuit of the Orteig Prize when Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field on his successful attempt in 1927.

1924 The first fax was sent on May 19, 1924. Scientists of the AT&T Corporation "by a new process of transmitting pictures by electricity" sent 15 photographs by telephone from Cleveland to New York City, such photos suitable for newspaper reproduction. Édouard Belin's Belinograph of 1913 (see below), which scanned using a photocell and transmitted over ordinary phone lines, formed the basis for the AT&T Wirephoto service.

Édouard Belin and his Belinograph

1935 Pope Pius XI canonized Sir Thomas More on May 19, 1935, and More's feast day was established as July 9th. Saint Thomas More is venerated as a martyr for his unwavering commitment to his Catholic faith and refusal to endorse the marriage of King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn. His steadfastness and principles led to his execution in 1535. In 2000, Pope John Paul II declared More, "the heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians.”

1935 Returning home from Bovingdon Barracks to his cottage, T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia" was involved in a motorcycle accident two miles from Clouds Hill. A dip in the road obstructed his view of two boy cyclists; he swerved to avoid them, lost control, and was thrown over the handlebars. Lawrence was not wearing a helmet and suffered serious head injuries that left him in a coma; He died six days later in hospital at Bovington Camp on May 19, 1935.

1935 One of the doctors attending Lawrence in hospital was the neurosurgeon, Hugh Cairns. As a result of Lawrence's death, Cairns began a long study of what he saw as the unnecessary loss of life by motorcycle dispatch riders through head injuries and his research led to the use of crash helmets by both military and civilian motorcyclists.

1943 Lauren Bacall became an overnight star when cast opposite Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not (1944). She and Bogart married a year later. An early mention of Lauren “Betty" Bacall came in the May 19, 1943 edition of Variety, with an item suggesting that director Howard Hawks scooped the model off the street in midtown Manhattan. “Could actress Betty Bacall be slated for screen stardom. Howard Hawks nabbed her for fast buildup, right off 44th Street, too.”

1946 André René Roussimoff was born on May 19, 1946, Best known as André the Giant, he was a French professional wrestler, actor and giant who grew to the height of 7 ft 4 in (224 cm).
André the Giant grew so fast that his own parents didn't recognize him. He left home at 14 and returned at 19, having already become a professional wrestler. As he explained his career choice, they realized they had seen him wrestle on TV under his alias, without knowing it was their son.

1961 Venera 1 became the first man-made object to fly-by another planet when it passed Venus on May 19, 1961. The Russian probe had lost contact with Earth a month earlier and did not send back any data. The Mariner 4 flyby of Mars took the first close-up photos of another planet in 1965.

1962 The actress Marilyn Monroe performed her infamous rendition of "Happy Birthday to You" during a televised birthday celebration for American president John F. Kennedy at New York City's Madison Square Garden on May 19, 1962. 

1963 On May 19, 1963, The New York Post Sunday Magazine published Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail, drafted four days after his arrest on April 12th during the Birmingham campaign advocating for civil rights and an end to segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. The letter was in response to "A Call for Unity," a statement made by eight white Alabama clergymen against King and his methods, following his arrest.

1965 The oldest tortoise ever recorded was Tu'i Malila, which was presented to the Tongan royal family by the British explorer Captain James Cook shortly after its birth in 1777. A female radiated tortoise from Madagascar, Tu'i Malila remained in the care of the Tongan royal family until its death by natural causes on May 19, 1965, at the age of 188.

A photo of the tortoise's preserved body, 2002.

1994 Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died of cancer (lymphoma) on May 19, 1994 at her home in New York City, at the age of 64. She was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, next to President Kennedy, their stillborn daughter and infant son.

1999 On May 19, 1999 when Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was released into theaters, an estimated 2.2 million full time employees missed work in America to watch the Star Wars movie. it cost the US an estimated $293 million dollars from loss of productivity.

2004 When a farmer was injured by a fallen tree branch in 2003, an eastern grey kangaroo which had been hand-reared, named Lulu saved his life by alerting his family members to his location. She received the RSPCA Australia National Animal Valour Award on May 19, 2004.

2010 The Opportunity Rover broke the record for the longest Mars surface mission of 2,307 days (formerly held by Viking 1) on May 19, 2010. Opportunity was the second of the two rovers launched in 2003 to land on Mars and begin traversing the Red Planet in search of signs of past life. Opportunity landed on Mars the following year to begin missions planned to last three months, but has far exceeded expectations and and remains active.

2012 Monmouthpedia (stylised as MONMOUTHPEDIA) is a collaboration project linking Wikipedia and the town of Monmouth in South Wales. It was formally launched on May 19, 2012, and led to Monmouth being described as the "world's first Wikipedia town".

2018 The press began to report Prince Harry's relationship with American actress Meghan Markle in October 2016 and their engagement was announced on November 27, 2017. Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex's marriage ceremony took place on May 19, 2018, at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.