Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Only 226 days until the Year 2010
Today is:
Youth and Sports Day in Turkey
On The Way To Today... May 19th
1536 - Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII of England, was
beheaded for adultery.
1588 - King Philip II's Spanish Armada set sail from Lisbon on its
ill-fated attempt to conquer England.
1635 - In the Thirty Years War, France declared war on Spain.
1643 - The French under the Duke of Enghien heavily defeated the
Spanish at the battle of Rocroi, destroying the Spanish infantry.
1643 - The towns of Connecticut, Plymouth and New Haven formed a
Confederation of the United Colonies of New England as protection in
the wars with American Indians.
1796 - The first U.S. game law was approved. The measure called for
penalties for folks hunting or destroying game within Indian
territory.
1802 - In France, Napoleon created the Legion d'Honneur, an order of
distinction for civil or military service.
1847 - The first English-style railroad coach was placed in service on
the Fall River Line in Massachusetts.
1849 - Irishman William Hamilton was arrested after firing blank shots
at Queen Victoria in London.
1857 - William F. Channing and Moses G. Farmer patented the electric
fire alarm, and it was first used in a massive scale in Boston,
Massachusetts. The original system consisted of 40 street fire alarm
boxes connected by telegraph circuits to a central office.
1900 - Britain officially annexed the Tonga (Friendly) islands in the
southwest Pacific.
1906 - The Simplon Tunnel through the Alps between Italy and
Switzerland was officially opened by the King of Italy and the
president of the Swiss Republic.
1906 - The Federated Boys' Clubs, forerunner of the Boys' Clubs of
America, were organized.
1911 - The first person to commit a crime and be convicted through the
use of fingerprints turned out to be Caesar Cella. He had been
1921 - The first broadcast of an opera presented in its entirety was
broadcast over radio station 9ZAF in Denver, Colorado. The opera,
"Martha", was broadcast to listeners from the Denver Auditorium.
1921 - Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act, which established
national quotas for immigrants.
1926 - Thomas Edison spoke at a dinner for the National Electric Light
Association in Atlantic City. When asked to speak into the microphone,
1932 - U.S. Congressman Claude Fuller introduced a resolution that
white and blue death, however.
1955 - The New York Supreme Court authorized the revival of burlesque
shows in New York City after an 18-year ban.
1958 - The United States and Canada formally established the North
American Air Defense Command.
1964 - The State Department disclosed that 40 hidden microphones had
been found in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
1965 - Roger Miller received a gold record for the hit, "King of the
(3/20/65) on the pop charts and stayed on for 12 weeks. It was a
number one country music hit (3/27/65) as well. Miller, a country
singer, humorist, guitarist and composer from Forth Worth, TX and
songwriting career. He wrote songs and played drums for Faron Young in
1962, then won what was an unprecedented, six Grammy Awards in 1965,
had his own TV show in 1966; wrote "Little Green Apples", a huge hit
for O.C. Smith and had five tunes in the top ten in 1968. To top it
off, he composed the music for the Tony Award-winning Broadway
musical, "Big River" in 1985.
Arnold debuted with an array of popular country artists in the Big
Apple.
1974 - In France, Valery Giscard d'Estaing defeated Francois
Mitterrand for the presidency in a runoff vote.
1992 - Two doctors who performed an autopsy on John F. Kennedy
confirmed the U.S. president died from two bullets fired from above
and behind.
1992 - The 27th Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits
Congress from giving itself mid-term pay raises, went into effect.
1997 - A huge cyclone struck Bangladesh, killing 105, damaging 400,000
houses and making more than a million homeless.
1998 - Millions of pagers nationwide stopped working when a
communications satellite suddenly lost track of Earth.
1999 - Following months of media hype, promotional gimmicks, and
thousands of ardent fans camping out in front of theaters to buy
tickets, George Lucas's much-anticipated Star Wars: Episode I - The
Phantom Menace opened in theaters across the U.S. The film starred
Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, and Natalie Portman.
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