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Lawrence of Arabia dies

Born on This Day

Malcolm X

1925 - 1965

Muslim minister, civil rights activist and Black nationalist. Symbol of resistance to the status quo after his 1965 assassination.

Lorraine Hansberry

1930 - 1965

Pioneering playwright whose award-winning 1959 drama "A Raisin in the Son" depicted a Black family's struggles with injustice.

Grace Jones

1948 -

Jamaican singer, model, actress and style icon whose androgynous look stood out in films like "A View to a Kill."

Malcolm XGetty Images

Lorraine HansberryBettmann Archive

Grace JonesRedferns

1962

MAY19

Marilyn Monroe sings a breathy "Happy Birthday" to John F. Kennedy during his birthday gala. Her iconic sequined dress from the performance becomes the priciest dress ever sold at auction in 2016, fetching $4.8 million.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on May 19th

Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII, is executed

On May 19, 1536, Anne Boleyn, the infamous second wife of King Henry VIII, is executed on charges including adultery, incest and conspiracy against the king. Catherine of Aragon King Henry had become enamored of Anne Boleyn in the mid-1520s, when she returned from serving in the French court and became a lady-in-waiting to his […]

Young Cynthia Anne Parker kidnapped during Native American raid

During a raid, Comanche, Kiowa and Caddo Native Americans in Texas kidnap Cynthia Ann Parker (who was around 9 or 10 years old) and kill her family. Adopted into the Comanche tribe, she eventually married a respected Comanche chief and had three children, including Quanah, who grew up to become the last Comanche leader. Parker lived with the […]

President Lincoln proposes equal treatment of soldiers’ dependents

President Abraham Lincoln writes to anti-slavery Congressional leader Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts on May 19, 1864, proposing that widows and children of soldiers should be given equal treatment regardless of race. Lincoln shared many of his friend Sumner’s views on civil rights. In an unprecedented move, Lincoln allowed a Black woman, the widow of […]

Poet and playwright Oscar Wilde is released after two years in prison

On May 19, 1897, writer Oscar Wilde is released from jail after two years of hard labor. His experiences in prison were the basis for his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898). Wilde was born and educated in Ireland. He studied at Oxford, graduated with honors in 1878, and remained in London. He […]

FDR and Winston Churchill plan D-Day

On May 19, 1943, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt plot the cross-Channel landing that would become D-Day—May 1, 1944. That date will prove a bit premature, as bad weather becomes a factor. Addressing a joint session of Congress, Churchill warned that the real danger at present was the “dragging-out of […]

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Soviets ratify treaty banning nuclear weapons from outer space

One of the first major treaties designed to limit the spread of nuclear weapons goes into effect as the Soviet Union ratifies an agreement banning nuclear weapons from outer space. The United States, Great Britain and several dozen other nations had already signed and/or ratified the treaty. With the advent of the so-called “space race” […]

New York City’s Chinatown shuts down to protest police brutality

New York City’s Chinatown is almost entirely shut down on May 19, 1975, with shuttered stores displaying signs reading “Closed to Protest Police Brutality.” The demonstration is a reaction to the New York Police Department’s treatment of Peter Yew, a Chinese-American architectural engineer who was arrested, viciously beaten and charged with felonious assault after he […]

EgyptAir flight 804 disappears over the Mediterranean Sea

On May 19, 2016, 66 passengers and crew flying from Cairo to Paris on EgyptAir flight 804 disappeared over the Mediterranean Sea. It took a month to find the wreckage. At first the flight was thought to be a casualty of terrorism, but the true cause was revealed the next year. After debate and investigation, French […]

Prince Harry weds Meghan Markle

On May 19, 2018, Prince Harry of Britain marries Meghan Markle, an American actress, in St. George’s Chapel within the grounds of Windsor Castle. Some 600 guests attend the ceremony and nearly 2 billion people worldwide watch the televised event. For the ceremony, Markle wore a white boat-neck dress by British designer Clare Waight Keller, […]

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