On This Day

19th May

1499 – Catherine of Aragon, was married by proxy to Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales. Catherine was just 13 and Arthur 12.

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

1568 – Queen Elizabeth I of England ordered the arrest of Mary Queen of Scots.

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

1890 – Ho Chi Minh, the1st President of Vietnam was born.

1897 – Oscar Wilde was released from Reading Prison.

1943 – British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt set Monday, May 1, 1944 as the date for the cross-English Channel landing (D-Day). It would be delayed over a month due to bad weather.

1962 - Marilyn Monroe sang "that" birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden, New York City.

1984 – Poet John Betjeman, who had been Britain's Poet Laureate since 1972, died.

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