On This Date in History - May 19

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

In the middle of the day on this date in 1780 in New England, a darkness that was almost total suddenly overtook the daylight.  The causes for this remain unknown still to this day! Now, if that's not fascinating, I don't know what is!

That was not the only interesting event to have taken place on this date, historically. The siege at Vicksburg. Bismarck tried to expand the German Empire. Peace talks resumed between the Boers and the British in South Africa. The US Postal Service authorized the use of post cards. The Boys Club formed. White women gained the vote in South Africa, but blacks, both women and men, would remain excluded for another six decades. The National Football league set up it's annual college draft. Churchill promised support for the US in the war against Japan. The Soviet Union, Britain, and the United States agreed that nuclear weapons had no business in space. And finally, on this date in history goes to the future, over one hundred years from now! Some fascinating stuff!

Here are more details for what happened on this date historically:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

May 19, 1935: Lawrence of Arabia dies

T.E. Lawrence, known to the world as Lawrence of Arabia, dies as a retired Royal Air Force mechanic living under an assumed name. The legendary war hero, author, and archaeological scholar succumbed to injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident six days before.  

Thomas Edward Lawrence was born in Tremadoc, Wales, in 1888. In 1896, his family moved to Oxford. Lawrence studied architecture and archaeology, for which he made a trip to Ottoman (Turkish)-controlled Syria and Palestine in 1909. In 1911, he won a fellowship to join an expedition excavating an ancient Hittite settlement on the Euphrates River. He worked there for three years and in his free time traveled and learned Arabic. In 1914, he explored the Sinai, near the frontier of Ottoman-controlled Arabia and British-controlled Egypt. The maps Lawrence and his associates made had immediate strategic value upon the outbreak of war between Britain and the Ottoman Empire in October 1914.  

Lawrence enlisted in the war and because of his expertise in Arab affairs was assigned to Cairo as an intelligence officer. He spent more than a year in Egypt, processing intelligence information and in 1916 accompanied a British diplomat to Arabia, where Hussein ibn Ali, the emir of Mecca, had proclaimed a revolt against Turkish rule. Lawrence convinced his superiors to aid Hussein's rebellion, and he was sent to join the Arabian army of Hussein's son Faisal as a liaison officer.  

Under Lawrence's guidance, the Arabians launched an effective guerrilla war against the Turkish lines. He proved a gifted military strategist and was greatly admired by the Bedouin people of Arabia. In July 1917, Arabian forces captured Aqaba near the Sinai and joined the British march on Jerusalem. Lawrence was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel. In November, he was captured by the Turks while reconnoitering behind enemy lines in Arab dress and was tortured and sexually abused before escaping. He rejoined his army, which slowly worked its way north to Damascus, which fell in October 1918.  

Arabia was liberated, but Lawrence's hope that the peninsula would be united as a single nation was dashed when Arabian factionalism came to the fore after Damascus. Lawrence, exhausted and disillusioned, left for England. Feeling that Britain had exacerbated the rivalries between the Arabian groups, he appeared before King George V and politely refused the medals offered to him.  

After the war, he lobbied hard for independence for Arab countries and appeared at the Paris peace conference in Arab robes. He became something of a legendary figure in his own lifetime, and in 1922 he gave up higher-paying appointments to enlist in the Royal Air Force (RAF) under an assumed name, John Hume Ross. He had just completed writing his monumental war memoir, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, and he hoped to escape his fame and acquire material for a new book. Found out by the press, he was discharged, but in 1923 he managed to enlist as a private in the Royal Tanks Corps under another assumed name, T.E. Shaw, a reference to his friend, Irish writer George Bernard Shaw. In 1925, Lawrence rejoined the RAF and two years later legally changed his last name to Shaw.  

In 1927, an abridged version of his memoir was published and generated tremendous publicity, but the press was unable to locate Lawrence (he was posted to a base in India). In 1929, he returned to England and spent the next six years writing and working as an RAF mechanic. In 1932, his English translation of Homer's Odyssey was published under the name of T.E. Shaw. The Mint, a fictionalized account of Royal Air Force recruit training, was not published until 1955 because of its explicitness.  

In February 1935, Lawrence was discharged from the RAF and returned to his simple cottage at Clouds Hill, Dorset. On May 13, he was critically injured while driving his motorcycle through the Dorset countryside. He had swerved to avoid two boys on bicycles. On May 19, he died at the hospital of his former RAF camp. All of Britain mourned his passing.

715 - St Gregory II begins his reign as Catholic Pope

1506 - Columbus selects his son Diego as sole heir

1515 - George van Saksen-Meissen sells Friesland for 100,000 gold guilders to arch duke Charles

1517 - Philip van Bourgondie installed as bishop of Utrecht

1535 - French explorer Jacques Cartier set sail for North America.  

1536 - Anne Boleyn, the second wife of England's King Henry VIII, was beheaded after she was convicted of adultery.  

1547 - Monarch Johan Frederik surrenders to Karel

1568 - After being defeated by the Protestants, Mary the Queen of Scots, fled to England where she was imprisoned by Queen Elizabeth I.

1571 - Miguel Lopez de Lagazpi founded Manilla in the Phillipines

1585 - Spain confiscated English ships

1588 - The 130-ship-strong Spanish Armada set sail from Lisbon, headed for England; where it would be defeated in August.  

1608 - Matthias von Habsburgs army reaches Lieben, at Prague

1608 - The Protestant states formed the Evangelical Union of Lutherans and Calvinists.  

1635 - France declares war on Spain

1643 - Battle at Rocroi/Allersheim: The French army defeated a Spanish army at Rocroi, France.

1643 - Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut and New Harbor met in Boston and formed a confederation - the United Colonies of New England

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

1652 - Spanish troops occupy Grevelingen

1662 - Uniformity Act of England goes into effect

1749 - George II grants charter to Ohio Company to settle Ohio Valley

1780 - About midday, near-total darkness descends on much of New England to this day it's cause is still unexplained

1792 - Russian army enters Poland

1793 - Netherlands captures French island of St Maarten (held until 1795)

1796 - The first U.S. game protection law was approved. The law restricted encroachment on Indian hunting grounds, and called for penalties for hunting or destroying game within Indian territory.

1802 - French Order of Legion d'Honneur formed

1828 - U.S. President John Quincy Adams signs the Tariff of 1828/Tariff of Abominations into law to protect industry in the North

1847 - The first English-style railroad coach was placed in service on the Fall River Line in Massachusetts.  

1848 - First department store opened

1848 - Mexico gives Texas to US, ending the war

1856 - Sen Charles Sumner, Mass, spoke out against slavery

1857 - The electric fire alarm system was patented by William F. Channing and Moses G. Farmer.

1858 - A pro-slavery band led by Charles Hameton executed unarmed Free State men near Marais des Cygnes on the Kansas-Missouri border.

1862 - Homestead Act becomes law provides cheap land for settlement of West

1863 - Siege of Vicksburg, investment of city complete

1864 - Battle of Port Walthall Junction, VA (Bermuda Hundred)

1864 - The Union and Confederate armies launched their last attacks against each other at Spotsylvania in Virginia.  

1864 - Skirmish at Cassville Georgia

1865 - President Jefferson Davis is captured by Union Cavalry in Georgia

1878 - Blanche Kelso Bruce appointed register of treasury by President Garfield

1884 - Ringling Brothers circus premiered

1885 - First mass production of shoes (Jan Matzeliger in Lynn, Massachusetts)

1885 - German chancellor Bismarck takes possession of Cameroon & Togoland

1886 - Camille Saint-Saëns' 3rd Symphony in C, premieres

1891 - Rice Institute, which became Rice University, is chartered

1892 - Charles Brady King invents pneumatic hammer

1892 - National Society of Colonial Dames of America founded

1893 - Heavy rain wash "quick clay" into a deep valley, kills 111 (Norway)

1896 - First auto (Benz) to arrive in Netherlands

1897 - Oscar Wilde is released from Reading Gaol.

1898 - Post Office authorized use of postcards

1900 - Great Britain annexes Tonga archipelago

1900 - World's longest railroad tunnel (Simplon) linked Italy & Switz, opens

1902 - Great Britain & Boers resume peace talks in Pretoria

1905 - Tom Jenkins beats Frank Gotcha for heavyweight wrestling champ

1906 - Dutch King Victor Emmanuel & Swiss president open Simplon tunnel

1906 - Italian King Victor Emmanuel & Swiss president open Simplon tunnel

1906 - Portugal's King Carlos I names Joao Franco premier

1906 - The Federated Boys' Clubs, forerunner of the Boys' Clubs of America, were organized.    

1909 - Jack Johnson fights Jack O'Brien to no decision in 6 for boxing title

1910 - Cleve Indian Cy Young gets his 500th win, beats Wash 5-4 in 11 innings

1911 - The first American criminal conviction that was based on fingerprint evidence occurred in New York City.

1911 - Maurice Ravels opera "L'Heure Espagnole," premieres in Paris

1911 - Phila Athletics are 12½ games back in AL, & will win World Series

1912 - AL Pres Ban Johnson tells Tigers if they continue protest of Ty Cobb's suspension, they will be banned from baseball

1912 - The Associated Advertising Clubs of America held its first convention in Dallas, TX.

1913 - Webb Alien Land-Holding Bill passes, forbidding Japs from owning land

1916 - Escadrille Américaine (Lafayette) transfered to Verdun

1918 - Wash first Sunday game, Senators beat Cleveland 1-0 in 18 innings

1919 - Mustafa Kemal Atatürk landed at Samsun on the Anatolian Black Sea coast, initiating what was later termed the Turkish War of Independence. The anniversary of this event is the official date of commemoration of the Pontic Greek Genocide in Greece and Cyprus.

1921 - The U.S. Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act, which established national quotas for immigrants.  

1923 - 49th Kentucky Derby: Earl Sande aboard Zev wins in 2:05.4

1923 - KPD (communist revolts) in German Ruhr cities occupied by Allies

1926 - Thomas Edison spoke on the radio for the first time.

1926 - Benito Mussolini announced that democracy was deceased. Rome became a fascist state.

1926 - In Damascus, Syria, French shells killed 600 people.

1928 - "Firedamp" explodes in Mather Pa coal mine killing 195 of 273 miners

1928 - 51 frogs enter 1st annual "Frog Jumping Jubilee" (Angel's Camp, Calaveras County, California)

1929 - Cloudburst causes stampede in Yankee Stadium crushes 2 people to death

1929 - General Feng Yu-Xiang of China declares war on Chiang Kai-Shek government

1930 - White woman win voting rights in South-Africa

1931 - Ironclad cruiser Germany launched in Kiel \

1934 - Military coup by Col Damian Veltsjev in Bulgaria

1934 - Sherlock Holmes crossword puzzle in "Sat Review of Lit" Males who solved puzzle became members of Baker Street Irregulars

1935 - British author and soldier, T. E. Lawrence, also known as "Lawrence of Arabia," died from injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash in Great Britain.

1935 - The National Football League (NFL) adopted an annual college draft to begin in 1936.

1937 - John Murray/Allen Boretz' "Room Service," premieres in NYC

1939 - Churchill signs British-Russian anti-Nazi pact

1940 - Amsterdam time becomes MET (Middle European Time)

1940 - French counter attack at Pronne under Gen De Gaulle

1941 - Germany occupiers in Holland forbid bicycle taxis

1941 - New Nazi battleship Bismarck leaves Gdynia, Poland

1942 - Braves Paul Waner is 3rd NLer to get 3,000 hits (Anson & Wagner)

1943 - Berlin is declared "Judenrien" (free of Jews)

1943 - Winston Churchill told the U.S. Congress that his country was pledging their full support in the war against Japan.

1944 - 240 gypsies transported to Auschwitz from Westerbork, Netherlands

1944 - German defense line in Italy collapsed

1945 - Start of the first Victory Test Cricket between England & Aust Services

1946 - Dutch Cooperation for Sexual Reform (NVSH) formed in Amsterdam

1950 - NY Times reports of worlds smallest & dumbest mechanical brain

1951 - 77th Preakness: Eddie Arcaro aboard Bold wins in 1:56.4

1951 - UN begins counter offensive in Korea

1953 - Nuclear explosion in Nevada (fall-out in St George, Utah)

1954 - Postmaster General Summerfield approves CIA mail-opening project

1955 - Atkinson & Depeiaza make 347 stand for 7th wkt WI v Australia

1956 - 82nd Preakness: Bill Hartack aboard Fabius wins in 1:58.4

1956 - Pirate Dale Long hits 9th-inning HR, 1st HR in 8 straight games

1957 - Adone Zoli forms Italian government

1958 - Premiere of Harold Pinter's "Birthday Party," in London

1958 - South Pacific soundtrack album goes to #1 & stays #1 for 31 weeks

1958 - Canada and the U.S. formally established the North American Air Defense Command. (NORAD)

1959 - Jan de Quay becomes premier of Netherlands

1960 - Alan Freed & eight other DJ accused of taking radio payola

1960 - Belgian parliament requires rest day for self employed \

1960 - Juan Marichal debuts as SF Giant pitcher, beats Phillies on 1 hitter

1960 - USAF Maj Robert M White takes X-15 to 33,222 m

1961 - New pier opens in Scheveningen

1962 - Marilyn Monroe performed a sultry rendition of "Happy Birthday" for U.S. President John F. Kennedy. The event was a fund-raiser at New York's Madison Square Garden.

1962 - "Bravo, Giovanni" opens at Broadhurst Theater NYC for 76 performances

1962 - "John Birch Society," by Chad Mitchell Trio hits #99

1962 - 88th Preakness: John Rotz aboard Greek Money wins in 1:56.2

1962 - Indonesian paratroopers land in New Guinea

1962 - Stan Musial breaks Honus Wagner's NL hit record with 3,431

1962 - US performs nuclear test at Christmas Island (atmospheric)

1964 - The U.S. State Department reported that diplomats had found about 40 microphones planted in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.  

1965 - Patricia R Harris named first US black female ambassador (Luxembourg)

1965 - West Ham United wins 5th Europe Cup II

1967 - The Soviet Union ratified a treaty with the United States and Britain that banned nuclear weapons from outer space.  

1967 - U.S. planes bombed Hanoi for the first time.

1968 - 20th Emmy Awards: Get Smart, Mission Impossible & Barbara Bain

1968 - Frank Howard fails to homer, after hitting 10 in 6 consecutive games

1968 - Pirate Radio Brumble of Northern England 1st heard

1971 - USSR launches Mars 2, 1st spacecraft to crash land on Mars

1972 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1972 - WMAV TV channel 18 in Oxford, MS (PBS) begins broadcasting

1973 - "Daisy" A Day by Jud Strunk hits #14

1973 - "Smith" opens at Eden Theater NYC for 17 performances

1973 - 99th Preakness: Ron Turcotte aboard Secretariat wins in 1:54.4

1974 - Stanley Cup: Phila Flyers beat Boston Bruins, 4 games to 2

1974 - Valeri Giscard d'Estaing wins French presidential election

1975 - 27th Emmy Awards: Mary Tyler Moore Show, Robert Blake & Jean Marsh

1975 - Farm truck packed with wedding party struck by a train, killing 66 in truck, 40 miles south of Poona, India

1975 - Junko Tabei is 1st woman to climb to the top of Mount Everest

1976 - Gold ownership legalized in Australia

1976 - Liverpool won 5th UEFA Cup at Bridge

1976 - Senate establishes permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

1976 - USSR performed nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

1977 - "Smokey & the Bandit," premieres

1979 - "In The Navy" by Village People hits #3

1979 - 105th Preakness: Ron Franklin aboard Spectacular Bid wins in 1:54.2

1980 - "Blackstone" opens at Majestic Theater NYC for 104 performances

1980 - Ringo & Barbara Bach are involved in a car crash

1981 - Pirate Jim Bibby gives up a leadoff single to Brave Terry Harper, then retires next 27 batters

1982 - IFK Göteborg wins 11th UEFA Cup at Göteborg

1982 - Sophia Loren jailed in Naples for tax evasion

1983 - NASA launches Intelsat V satellite, no. 506

1983 - Weird Al Yankovic gives live performance at Wax Museum in Wash DC

1984 - "King Of Suede" by Weird Al Yankovic hits #62

1984 - 110th Preakness: Angel Cordero Jr aboard Gate Dancer wins in 1:53.6

1984 - STS 41-D vehicle moves to launch pad

1984 - Stanley Cup: Edmonton Oilers beat NY Islanders, 4 games to 1

1984 - Pat LaFontaine scores 2 goals within 22 sec in an NHL playoff game

1986 - Anti-apartheid activist HClane Pastoors sentenced to 10 yrs in South Africa

1987 - 1st American Comedy Award 1988 - Red Sox retire Bobby Doerr's #1

1988 - Carlos Lehder Rivas, of Colombia's Medellin drug cartel, is convicted in Florida for smuggling more than 3 tons of cocaine into US

1988 - In Jacksonville, FL, Carlos Lehder Rivas was convicted of smuggling more than three tons of cocaine into the United States. Rivas was the co-founder of Colombia's Medellin drug cartel.  

1989 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average passed 2,500 for the first time. The close for the day was 2,501.1.

1989 - Sue Ellen (Linda Gray) last appearance on Dallas

1990 - 116th Preakness: Pat Day aboard Summer Squall wins in 1:53.6

1990 - General Elvis, TV Drama last airs on ABC

1991 - "Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story" closes at Shubert NYC after 225 perfs

1991 - Willy T Ribbs becomes 1st black driver to make Indianapolis 500

1992 - Englishman Dave Gauder, 224 lbs, pulls 196 ton jumbo jet, 3 inches

1992 - Ric Flair wins NWA wrestling title

1992 - U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle criticized the CBS sitcom "Murphy Brown" for having its title character decide to bear a child out of wedlock and as a poor example of family values

1992 - In Massapequa, NY, Mary Jo Buttafuoco was shot and seriously wounded by Amy Fisher. Fisher was her husband Joey's teen-age lover.  

1992 - The 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect. The amendment prohibits Congress from giving itself midterm pay raises.  

1993 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed about 3,500 (3,500.03) for the first time.

1993 - Boeing 727 crashes into mountain at Medellin Colombia, kills 132

1993 - Juventus wins 22th UEFA Cup at Torino

1994 - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died in New York.    

1994 - Final Episode of LA Law after 8 year run

1994 - Omar Sharif suffers a mild heart attack

1994 - Tennis star Jennifer Capriati (18), checks into a drug rehab center

1995 - World's youngest doctor, Balamurali Ambati, 17, graduates Mount Sinai

1996 - STS 77 (Endeavour 11), launched into orbit

1998 - In Russia, strikes broke out over unpaid wages.  

1998 - Bandits stole three of Rome's most important paintings from the National Gallery of Modern Art.  

1999 - "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" was released in the U.S. It set a new record for opening day sales at 28.5 million.  

1999 - Rosie O'Donnell and Tom Selleck got into an uncomfortable verbal issue concerning gun control on O'Donnell's talk show.  

2000 - The bones of the most complete and best-preserved Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton went on display in Chicago.  

2000 - Disney released the movie "Dinosaur."  Disney movies, music and books

2003 - It was announced that Worldcom Inc. would pay investors $500 million to settle civil fraud charges over its $11 billion accounting scandal.  

2003 - Hundreds of Albert Einstein's scientific papers, personal letters and humanist essays were make available on the Internet. Einstein had given the papers to the Hebrew Universtiy of Jerusalem in his will.  

2005 - "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" brought in 50.0 million in its opening day.

2009 - Sri Lanka announces victory in its 27 year war against the terrorist organisation, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

2012 - Chelsea defeated Bayern Munich in penalty shootout to win the UEFA Champion's League

2161 - Syzygy: 8 of 9 planets aligned on same side of sun        


Here are the webpages that I used to complete this blog entry:

http://www.historyorb.com/day/may/19

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history