Events on May 19 44
Year 639
Ashina Jiesheshuai and his tribesmen assaulted Emperor Taizong at Jiucheng Palace.
Year 1445
John II of Castile defeats the Infantes of Aragon at the First Battle of Olmedo.
Year 1499
Catherine of Aragon is married by proxy to Arthur, Prince of Wales. Catherine is 13 and Arthur is 12.
Year 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 had kidnapped during his first voyage).
Year 1536
Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England, is beheaded for adultery, treason, and incest.
Year 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.
Year 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.
Year 1749
King George II of Great Britain grants the Ohio Company a charter of land around the forks of the Ohio River.
Year 1776
American Revolutionary War: A Continental Army garrison surrenders in the Battle of The Cedars.
Year 1780
New England's Dark Day, an unusual darkening of the day sky was observed over the New England states and parts of Canada.
Year 1828
U.S. President John Quincy Adams signs the Tariff of 1828 into law, protecting wool manufacturers in the United States.
Year 1845
Captain Sir John Franklin and his ill-fated Arctic expedition depart from Greenhithe, England.
Year 1848
Mexican-American War: Mexico ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo thus ending the war and ceding California, Nevada, Utah and parts of four other modern-day U.S. states to the United States for US$15 million.
Year 1911
Parks Canada, the world's first national park service, is established as the Dominion Parks Branch under the Department of the Interior.
Year 1919
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk lands at Samsun on the Anatolian Black Sea coast, initiating what is later termed the Turkish War of Independence.
Year 1921
The United States Congress passes the Emergency Quota Act establishing national quotas on immigration.
Year 1934
Zveno and the Bulgarian Army engineer a coup d'état and install Kimon Georgiev as the new Prime Minister of Bulgaria.
Year 1942
World War II: In the aftermath of the Battle of the Coral Sea, Task Force 16 heads to Pearl Harbor.
Year 1950
A barge containing munitions destined for Pakistan explodes in the harbor at South Amboy, New Jersey, devastating the city.
Year 1959
The North Vietnamese Army establishes Group 559, whose responsibility is to determine how to maintain supply lines to South Vietnam; the resulting route is the Ho Chi Minh trail.
Year 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).
Year 1961
At Silchar Railway Station, Assam, 11 Bengalis die when police open fire on protesters demanding state recognition of Bengali language in the Bengali Language Movement.
Year 1962
A birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy takes place at Madison Square Garden, New York City. The highlight is Marilyn Monroe's rendition of "Happy Birthday".
Year 1963
The New York Post Sunday Magazine publishes Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail.
Year 1986
The Firearm Owners Protection Act is signed into law by U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
Year 1997
The Sierra Gorda biosphere, the most ecologically diverse region in Mexico, is established as a result of grassroots efforts.
Year 2007
President of Romania Traian Băsescu survives an impeachment referendum and returns to office from suspension.
Year 2010
The Royal Thai Armed Forces concludes its crackdown on protests by forcing the surrender of United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship leaders.
Year 2012
Three gas cylinder bombs explode in front of a vocational school in the Italian city of Brindisi, killing one person and injuring five others.
Year 2012
A car bomb explodes near a military complex in the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor, killing nine people.
Year 2015
The Refugio oil spill deposited 142,800 U.S. gallons (3,400 barrels) of crude oil onto an area in California considered one of the most biologically diverse coastlines of the west coast.
Year 2016
EgyptAir Flight 804 crashes into the Mediterranean Sea while traveling from Paris to Cairo, killing all on board.