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Explore 19 May

Explore 19 May: Anne Boleyn goes to the scaffold on Tower Green, Napoleon creates the Legion of Honour, a strange darkness falls over New England at midday and Mustafa Kemal lands at Samsun to begin Turkey’s fight for independence. Born today: Ho Chi Minh, Nellie Melba and Andrea Pirlo.

This day through time →13 verified events across 5 eras

⌛13Full
Timeline ◈4Historic
Moments ♙8Born
Today ✦5Lives
Remembered ◉1Firsts &
Discoveries ☆1Sporting
Moments ♫1Culture
Stories ☉1Observances
Portrait of Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII
Portrait of Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII
Image creditEnglish school · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1536

Anne Boleyn goes to the scaffold on Tower Green

Less than three years after she was crowned, Anne Boleyn was led out on the morning of 19 May 1536 to a scaffold on Tower Green inside the Tower of London. Henry VIII had turned against the wife he had broken with Rome to marry, and she had been convicted of adultery, incest and plotting against the king on charges most historians now regard as invented.

As a small mercy, Henry sent for an expert swordsman from Calais rather than use the axe. Anne made a short, careful speech praising the king before a single stroke ended her life. She was buried in the Tower’s chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, and within eleven days Henry had married Jane Seymour. Anne’s daughter would one day reign as Elizabeth I.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Historic Royal Palaces: Anne Boleyn ↗
An insignia of the Légion d'honneur in its case, now in the Rijksmuseum
An insignia of the Légion d’honneur in its case, now in the Rijksmuseum
Image creditRijksmuseum · CC0Resized and cropped for display.
1802

Napoleon creates the Legion of Honour

On 19 May 1802 Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul of France, founded the Legion of Honour. Revolutionary France had swept away the old royal orders of chivalry, and Napoleon wanted a new way to reward service to the nation. Unusually for the time, the honour was open to soldiers and civilians alike, whatever their birth or religion.

Critics complained that it brought back the privileges the Revolution had abolished, but Napoleon argued that people are led by such symbols. He went on to make tens of thousands of appointments himself. More than two centuries later the Legion of Honour, with its five grades from knight to grand cross, is still France’s highest award.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: La grande chancellerie de la Légion d’honneur: Founding principles and history ↗
A map of New England and the Maritime Provinces by Rigobert Bonne, published in 1780
A map of New England and the Maritime Provinces by Rigobert Bonne, published in 1780
Image creditRigobert Bonne · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1780

Midday turns to night over New England

On 19 May 1780, as the American Revolutionary War dragged on, the morning sky over New England turned a strange yellow and then grew so dark that people lit candles at noon. Birds went to roost, farm animals headed home and many feared the Day of Judgement had come. Abigail Adams was among those who wrote down what they saw.

The darkness lifted the next day, and the event was remembered as the Dark Day for generations, inspiring sermons and printed poems. Modern researchers, studying scarred tree rings in Ontario, have linked it to huge forest fires far to the north and west, whose smoke combined with fog and heavy cloud to blot out the sun.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Massachusetts Historical Society: New England’s Dark Day of 1780 ↗
The Onur Anıtı (Monument of Honour) in Samsun, an equestrian statue of Atatürk marking his arrival in the city
The Onur Anıtı (Monument of Honour) in Samsun, an equestrian statue of Atatürk marking his arrival in the city
Image creditZeynel Cebeci · CC BY-SA 4.0Resized and cropped for display.
1919

Mustafa Kemal lands at Samsun

After defeat in the First World War, the Ottoman Empire was occupied by Allied forces, and Greek troops had just landed at Izmir. The government in Istanbul sent Mustafa Kemal, one of its most successful generals, to eastern Anatolia on an official mission. He came ashore at the Black Sea port of Samsun on 19 May 1919 and at once began organising national resistance instead.

Turks often date the start of their modern history to that landing. It opened the War of Independence, which ended with the founding of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 with Mustafa Kemal, later known as Atatürk, as its first president. He came to treat 19 May as his own birthday, and the date is now a national holiday.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Britannica: Kemal Atatürk, the nationalist movement and the war for independence ↗
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PEOPLE

Born Today

Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Image creditUnknown · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Born 1762

Johann Gottlieb Fichte

German philosopher who built on Kant’s ideas and whose Addresses to the German Nation, given in French-occupied Berlin, helped shape German national feeling.

Kitarō Nishida
Image creditUnknown author · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Born 1870

Kitarō Nishida

Japanese thinker who blended Zen Buddhist insight with Western philosophy and founded the Kyoto School, the most influential movement in modern Japanese philosophy.

Nellie Melba
Image creditRotary Photo · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Born 1861

Nellie Melba

Australian soprano who became one of the most celebrated opera singers of her age, and who gave her name to peach Melba and Melba toast.

Ho Chi Minh
Image creditUnknown authorUnknown author · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Born 1890

Ho Chi Minh

Vietnamese revolutionary who declared his country’s independence in 1945 and led North Vietnam through wars against France and the United States.

Nicholas Winton
Image creditcs:User:Li-sung · CC BY-SA 3.0Resized and cropped for display.
Born 1909

Nicholas Winton

British stockbroker who organised trains that carried hundreds of mostly Jewish children from Czechoslovakia to safety in Britain on the eve of the Second World War.

Grace Jones
Image creditRaph_PH · CC BY 2.0Resized and cropped for display.
Born 1948

Grace Jones

Jamaican-born singer, model and actor whose bold, sculpted look and hits such as Pull Up to the Bumper made her an icon of 1980s style.

Andrea Pirlo
Image creditClément Bucco-Lechat · CC BY-SA 3.0Resized and cropped for display.
Born 1979

Andrea Pirlo

Italian midfielder famed for his calm, precise passing, who won the World Cup with Italy in 2006 and two Champions League titles with AC Milan.

Diego Forlán
Image creditAilura · CC BY-SA 3.0 atResized and cropped for display.
Born 1979

Diego Forlán

Uruguayan striker, born on the same day as Pirlo, who scored five goals at the 2010 World Cup and was voted the tournament’s best player.

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IDEAS THAT CHANGED THINGS

Firsts, Science & Discoveries

A 1972 Soviet stamp honouring the Mars 2 probe
A 1972 Soviet stamp honouring the Mars 2 probe
Image creditUSSR Post · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1971

The Soviet Union launches Mars 2

A Proton rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 19 May 1971 carrying Mars 2, a Soviet spacecraft built both to orbit the red planet and to drop a lander onto its surface. It was part of a busy launch window that also sent its twin, Mars 3, and NASA’s Mariner 9 towards Mars that year.

Mars 2 reached orbit in November 1971, arriving during a planet-wide dust storm. Its lander failed during descent and was destroyed, but it became the first human-made object to reach the surface of Mars. The orbiter kept working until the following August, completing 362 orbits and sending back dozens of pictures.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: NASA NSSDCA: Mars 2 ↗
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SPORTING HISTORY

Sporting Moments

Chelsea players parade the European Cup through London after their 2012 win
Chelsea players parade the European Cup through London after their 2012 win
Image creditJulian Mason from London, UK · CC BY 2.0Resized and cropped for display.
2012

Chelsea win the Champions League in Bayern’s own stadium

Bayern Munich had the rare chance to win Europe’s biggest club prize at home when they met Chelsea in the Champions League final at Munich’s Allianz Arena on 19 May 2012. Bayern dominated for long spells, and Thomas Müller headed them in front with only minutes to go.

Chelsea’s Didier Drogba equalised with a header from a corner in the 88th minute, and the match went to extra time and then penalties. Goalkeeper Petr Čech made key saves, and Drogba stepped up to score the winning kick. Chelsea won 4-3 on penalties to become champions of Europe for the first time, in what had begun as a troubled season.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: UEFA: Bayern München 1-1 Chelsea, 2011/12 final ↗
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MUSIC • FILM • BOOKS • CULTURE

Culture Stories

Marilyn Monroe on stage at Madison Square Garden at the birthday salute to President Kennedy, May 1962
Marilyn Monroe on stage at Madison Square Garden at the birthday salute to President Kennedy, May 1962
Image creditCecil Stoughton, White House Photographs · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1962

Marilyn Monroe sings Happy Birthday, Mr. President

On the evening of 19 May 1962, some 15,000 people packed Madison Square Garden in New York for a Democratic Party fundraiser billed as a birthday salute to President John F. Kennedy, who would turn 45 later that month. The bill was full of stars, but the moment everyone remembered came near the end.

Introduced by Kennedy’s brother-in-law Peter Lawford, Marilyn Monroe stepped into the spotlight in a glittering, skin-coloured gown sewn with thousands of crystals and sang a slow, breathy Happy Birthday. The President joked that he could now retire from politics. It was one of Monroe’s last great public appearances; she died less than three months later.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: JFK Library: Birthday Salute to President Kennedy, Madison Square Garden, 19 May 1962 ↗
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LIVES REMEMBERED

Remembered Today

Pope Celestine V
Image creditNiccolò di Tommaso · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Died 1296

Pope Celestine V

Hermit who was elected pope in old age in 1294 and resigned after five months, one of the very few popes ever to step down of his own will.

Nathaniel Hawthorne
Image creditMathew Benjamin Brady · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Died 1864

Nathaniel Hawthorne

American novelist whose tales of guilt and sin in Puritan New England include The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables.

Jamsetji Tata
Image creditUnknown Publisher · CC BY 4.0Resized and cropped for display.
Died 1904

Jamsetji Tata

Indian industrialist who founded the Tata group and planned the steelworks, power plants and research institute that helped build modern Indian industry.

T. E. Lawrence
Image creditHarris & Ewing · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Died 1935

T. E. Lawrence

British officer and writer, known as Lawrence of Arabia, who fought alongside the Arab Revolt and told the story in Seven Pillars of Wisdom.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Image creditMark Shaw · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Died 1994

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

American First Lady admired for her style and for restoring the White House, who later worked for many years as a book editor in New York.

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AROUND THE WORLD

Observances & Anniversaries

Young people carrying flags at a Youth and Sports festival in Turkey in 1939
Young people carrying flags at a Youth and Sports festival in Turkey in 1939
Image creditUnknown author · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Annual

Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day (Türkiye)

Every 19 May, Türkiye marks the anniversary of Mustafa Kemal’s landing at Samsun in 1919, the moment that began the national struggle for independence. Atatürk dedicated the day to the country’s young people, and it is celebrated as a public holiday with ceremonies, sports displays and youth events in towns and cities across the country.

Source: Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye: Message on 19 May Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day ↗
HISTORY & TIMELINE

Finished the highlights?

Follow 19 May chronologically, from the Middle Ages to the modern day, with 13 verified events and the sources behind them.

This day through time →
Sources & further reading