May 19......

May 19 is the 139th (140th in leap years) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 226 days remaining in the year on this date.

Best Liberal Quote of the Day: On God and God's Nature "If the concept of God had any validity or use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him." — James Baldwin

Stupidest Quote from the Right for the Day: On Ineptitude "That's not lie, it's a terminological inexactitude." — Alexander Haig, Ronald Reagan's secretary of state {and often forgotten, Nixon's final chief of staff}

Thought for the day: "Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance."

{Disclaimer: I have attempted to give credit to the many different sources that I get entries. Any failure to do so is unintentional. Any statement enclosed by brackets like these are the opinion of the blogger, A Proud Liberal.}

EVENTS

● 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 sets sail on his second voyage to North America with three ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's two sons (whom Cartier kidnapped during his first voyage).

● 1536 - Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England, is beheaded for 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.

● 1571 - Miguel Lopez de Lagazpi founded Manilla in the Phillipines

● 1585 - Spain confiscates English ships

● 1588 - Spanish Armada sets sail from Lisbon, bound to England

● 1604 - The town of Montreal is founded.

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

● 1608 - Matthias von Habsburgs army reaches Lieben, at Prague

● 1622 - Sultan of Turkey strangled by his own troops in insurrection.

● 1635 - France declares war on Spain

● 1643 - Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut & New Harbor form United Colonies of New England

● 1643 - Thirty Years' War: French forces under the duc d'Enghien decisively defeat Spanish forces at the Battle of Rocroi, marking the symbolic end of Spain as a dominant land power.

● 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 - England's King Charles II approved a bill requiring all ministers to assent publicly to the Anglican "Book of Common Prayer."

● 1662 - Uniformity Act of England goes into effect

● 1713 - Bread riot in Boston.

● 1740 - English revivalist George Whitefield wrote in a letter: 'True faith is not merely in the head, but in the heart.'

● 1749 - King George II of Great Britain grants the Ohio Company a charter of land around the forks of the Ohio River.

● 1780 - New England's Dark Day: never-explained complete darkness falls on Eastern Canada and the New England area of the United States at 2 pm.

● 1792 - Russian army enters Poland

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

● 1796 - Game protection law restricts encroachment on Indian hunting grounds

● 1802 - The Légion d'Honneur is founded by Napoleon Bonaparte.

● 1828 - U.S. President John Quincy Adams signs the Tariff of 1828 into law, protecting wool manufacturers in the United States.

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

● 1848 - Mexican-American War: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo – Mexico ratifies the treaty thus ending the war and ceding California, Nevada, Utah and parts of five other modern-day U.S. states to the USA for USD $15 million.

● 1856 - Senator Charles Sumner, Massachusetts, spoke out against slavery

● 1857 - William Francis Channing & Moses G Farmer patents electric fire alarm

● 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 white settlement of West; 160 acres were to be sold to settlers for $200, or $1.25 an acre.

● 1863 - Siege of Vicksburg, investment of city complete

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

● 1864 - Skirmish at Cassville GA

● 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Spotsylvania Court House ends.

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

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

● 1885 - The complete Old and New Testament English Revised Version (EV or ERV) of the Bible was first published in England. After a promised 20-year wait, U.S. scholars on the ERV committee published an "Americanized" edition in 1905, known afterward as the American Standard Version (ASV) of the Bible.

● 1885 - 1st mass production of shoes (Jan Matzeliger in Lynn MA)

● 1885 - German chancellor Bismarck takes possession of Cameroon & Togoland

● 1890 - Ho Chi Minh, the founder of the Indochina Communist Party and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 1954 to 1969, was born.

● 1892 - Charles Brady King invents pneumatic hammer

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

● 1895 - Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti dies, Dos Rios, Cuba.

● 1896 - 1st auto (Benz) to arrive in Netherlands

● 1898 - Post Office authorizes use of postcards

● 1900 - Great Britain annexes Tonga archipelago

● 1902 - Great Britain & Boers resume peace talks in Pretoria

● 1902 - Explosion in Coal Creek, Tennessee kills 184 miners.

● 1905 - Italian King Victor Emmanuel & Swiss President open world's longest railroad tunnel (Simplon) links Iselle Italy & Brig Switzerland

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

● 1909 - Marines land in Nicaragua to "protect U.S. interests."

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

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

● 1919 - In Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk moves to Samsun from Istanbul with a few followers, to oppose the Ottoman government, which eventually leads to the Turkish War of Independence.

● 1920 - The Battle of Matewan. Despite efforts by Matewan, West Virginia police chief (and former miner) Sid Hatfield and Mayor Testerman to protect coal miners from interference in their union drive, Baldwin-Felts detectives hired by the local mining company and 13 company managers arrive to evict miners and their families from the Stone Mountain Mine camp. A gun battle ensues, leaving seven detectives, Mayor Testerman, and two miners dead. Baldwin-Felts detectives assasinated Sid Hatfield 15 months later, sparking off an armed rebellion of 10,000 West Virginia coal miners at "The Battle of Blair Mountain."

● 1921 - Congress sharply curtails immigration to the U.S., setting up a national quota system. {This meant my grandmother who had never left the United States lost her citizenship when she married an Italian. They were "naturalized" a few years later.}

● 1921 - Civil rights leader Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Neb.

● 1922 - Young Pioneer organization of the Soviet Union is established.

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

● 1925 - Birth of Malcolm Little, later known as Malcolm X, African-American liberation leader. Omaha, Nebraska.

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

● 1926 - French air force bombs Damascus Syria

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

● 1929 - Cloudburst causes stampede in Yankee Stadium; 2 people crushed 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 Colonel Damian Veltsjev in Bulgaria

● 1934 - Ten thousand participate in a "No More War" march in New York City.

● 1935 - T. E. Lawrence, also known as "Lawrence of Arabia," died in England from injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash.

● 1939 - Death of Howard B. Grose, 88, U.S. Baptist leader and author of the hymn, "Give of Your Best to the Master." At one time president of South Dakota State University, Grose also worked with American Baptist publications and home missions.

● 1939 - Churchill signs British-Russian anti-Nazi pact

● 1940 - Amsterdam time becomes MET (Middle European Time)

● 1940 - French counter attack at Péronne under General De Gaulle

● 1941 - German occupiers in Holland forbid bicycle taxis

● 1941 - New Nazi battleship Bismarck leaves Gdynia, Poland

● 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.

● 1943 - World War II: 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 would later be delayed over a month due to bad weather).

● 1944 - 240 gypsies transported to Auschwitz from Westerbork Netherlands

● 1944 - German defense line in Italy collapsed

● 1950 - Four barges carrying 467 tons of ammunition blew up at South Amboy, New Jersey, raining shrapnel down upon the town. 30 die and 350 injured.

● 1951 - UN begins counter offensive in Korea

● 1953 - Nuclear explosion in Nevada (fall-out in St George UT)

● 1954 - Postmaster General Summerfield approves CIA mail-opening project

● 1957 - Adone Zoli forms Italian Government

● 1958 - US & Canada form North American Air Defense Command (NORAD)

● 1959 - Jan de Quay becomes premier of Netherlands

● 1960 - Belgian parliament requires rest day for self employed

● 1960 - USAF Major Robert M White takes X-15 to 33,222mph

● 1961 - Venera program: Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly-by another planet by passing Venus (the probe had lost contact with Earth a month earlier and did not send back data).

● 1962 - A birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy takes place at Madison Square Garden, New York. The highlight is Marilyn Monroe's infamous rendition of Happy Birthday.

● 1962 - Indonesian paratroopers land in New Guinea

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

● 1964 - US diplomats find at least 40 secret microphones in the Moscow embassy

● 1965 - Patricia R Harris named 1st US black female ambassador (Luxembourg)

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

● 1967 - USSR ratifies treaty with England & US banning nuclear weapons in space

● 1969 - Riots break out in Newark, New Jersey.

● 1971 - "Godspell" first opened at the Cherry Lane Theater in New York City. The musical by Stephen Schwartz is based on the New Testament Gospel of Matthew, and is still produced by secular and religious theater groups today.

● 1971 - Mars probe program: Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet Union. 1st spacecraft to crash land on Mars.

● 1972 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1974 - Giscard d'Estaing voted French president; Valery Giscard d'Estaing is elected President of France, defeating socialist Francois Mitterrand.

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

● 1976 - Gold ownership legalized in Australia

● 1976 - Senate establishes permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

● 1976 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR

● 1983 - NASA launches Intelsat V

● 1984 - STS 41-D vehicle moves to launch pad

● 1986 - Anti-apartheid activist Hélène Pastoors sentenced to 10 years in South Africa

● 1986 - South African raids wreck peace bid; South African troops attack Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana bringing to an end diplomatic efforts to bring a peaceful end to apartheid.

● 1988 - Tomcat Wilberforce, "Best Mouser in Britain," and companion to four prime ministers, dies at age 15.

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

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

● 1992 - In a speech to the Commonwealth Club of California, Vice President Dan "p-o-t-a-t-o-e" Quayle criticizes television character Murphy Brown for ignoring the importance of fathers and bearing a child alone. {The show later delivers a truckload of potatoes to the Vice President's residence.}

● 1993 - The White House set off a political storm by firing the entire staff of its travel office; five of the seven staffers were later reinstated and assigned to other duties.

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

● 1994 - Former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died in New York at age 64.

● 1996 - STS 77 (Endeavour 11), launches into orbit

● 1997 - Labour to stub out tobacco sponsorship; The sponsorship of sports events by tobacco firms is to be outlawed, says Health Secretary Frank Dobson.

● 1997 - Two international human rights workers, Mario Calderon and Elsa Alvarado, plus Alvarado's parents, are shot dead in Bogota by Colombian paramilitaries.

● 1997 - First annual "Art and Revolution" anti-corporate procession unexpectedly parades through downtown Seattle with hundreds of dancers, giant puppets, stilt-walkers, street theatre participants and general spectacle.

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

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

● 2000 - Ethnic Fijian gunmen storm Fiji's parliament and kidnap ethnic Indian government, Suva, Fiji.

● 2002 - Burmese nonviolent resister Daw Aung San Suu Kyi released from 19 months of house arrest.

● 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.

● 2003 - WorldCom Inc. agreed to pay investors $500 million to settle civil fraud charges.

● 2004 - Angry dads hit Blair with purple flour; Security at the House of Commons comes under scrutiny after Fathers 4 Justice protesters attack the prime minister. {Strange how addressing was their first concern instead of the grievances of the protestors.}

● 2004 - Specialist Jeremy C. Sivits wept and apologized after receiving a year in prison and a bad conduct discharge in the first court-martial stemming from abuse of Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison. {Truly the military believed his bad conduct was getting caught.}

● 2006 - A key U.N. panel joined European and United Nations leaders in urging the Bush administration to close its prison in Guantanamo Bay, saying the indefinite detention of terror suspects there violated the world's ban on torture. {To which the Bush people replied that such bans were "quaint."}

● 2161 - Syzygy - Eight of nine planets aligned on same side of sun. All are against you. Yes, you.

BIRTHS

● 1593 - Jacob Jordaens, Flemish painter (d. 1678)

● 1700 - José de Escandón, Spanish colonial governor (d. 1770)

● 1724 - Augustus Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol, British admiral and politician (d. 1779)

● 1744 - Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (d. 1818)

● 1762 - Johann Gottlieb Fichte, German philosopher (d. 1814)

● 1773 - Arthur Aikin, English mineralogist (d. 1854)

● 1795 - Johns Hopkins, American philanthropist (d. 1873)

● 1797 - Maria Isabel of Portugal, queen of Spain (d. 1818)

● 1827 - Paul-Armand Challemel-Lacour, French statesman (d. 1896)

● 1857 - John Jacob Abel, American pharmacologist and physiological chemist (d. 1938)

● 1861 - Dame Nellie Melba, Australian opera singer (d. 1931)

● 1862 - Mikhail Nesterov, Russian painter (d. 1942)

● 1870 - Albert Fish, American serial killer (d. 1936)

● 1874 - Gilbert Laird Jessop, English cricketer (d. 1955)

● 1879 - Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor, American-born politician (d. 1964)

● 1880 - Sir Albert Richardson, English architect (d. 1964)

● 1881 - Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, 1st President of Turkey (d. 1938)

● 1882 - Mohammed Mossadegh, Prime Minister of Iran (d. 1967)

● 1890 - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese leader (d. 1969)

● 1891 - Oswald Boelcke, German World War I pilot (d. 1916)

● 1897 - Frank Luke, American World War I pilot (d. 1918)

● 1898 - Julius Evola, Italian philosopher (d. 1974)

● 1906 - Bruce Bennett, American athlete and actor (d. 2007)

● 1908 - Percy Williams, Canadian athlete (d. 1982)

● 1914 - Max Perutz, Austrian-born molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 2002)

● 1914 - Go Seigen, Japanese Go player

● 1914 - Alex Shibicky, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2005)

● 1918 - Abraham Pais, Dutch-born American physicist (d. 2000)

● 1921 - Yuri Kochiyama, American civil rights activist

● 1921 - Karel van het Reve, Dutch writer (d. 1999)

● 1924 - Sandy Wilson, British composer

● 1925 - Malcolm X, American civil rights activist (d. 1965)

● 1925 - Pol Pot, Cambodian dictator (d. 1998)

● 1925 - Guy Provost, French Canadian actor (d. 2004)

● 1926 - Swami Kriyananda, Indian teacher and author

● 1928 - Colin Chapman, founder of Lotus Cars (d. 1982)

● 1928 - Dolph Schayes, American basketball player and coach

● 1929 - John Stroger Chicago politician

● 1930 - Lorraine Hansberry, American playwright (d. 1965)

● 1931 - Eric Tappy, Swiss tenor

● 1932 - Alma Cogan, English singer (d. 1966)

● 1932 - Paul Erdman, American economist and author (d. 2007)

● 1934 - Jim Lehrer, American television journalist

● 1934 - Ruskin Bond, Indian author

● 1935 - David Hartman, TV personality

● 1935 - Xadir N'Diaye, Senegalese-American Muslim leader

● 1939 - Livio Berruti, Italian athlete

● 1939 - James Fox, English actor

● 1939 - Nancy Kwan, Hong Kong actress

● 1939 - Dick Scobee, American astronaut (d. 1986)

● 1940 - Mickey Newbury, American musician

● 1940 - Jan Janssen, Dutch cyclist

● 1941 - Nora Ephron, American screenwriter

● 1942 - Gary Kildall, American computer programmer (d. 1994)

● 1942 - Robert Kilroy-Silk, British politician/television presenter

● 1944 - Peter Mayhew, British-American actor ("Star Wars")

● 1945 - Pete Townshend, English musician (The Who)

● 1946 - André the Giant, French professional wrestler (d. 1993)

● 1946 - Claude Lelièvre, Belgian commissioner for children's rights

● 1947 - Michele Placido, Italian actor and director

● 1947 - Paul Brady, Northern Ireland singer/songwriter

● 1947 - David Helfgott, Australian pianist

● 1948 - Grace Jones, Jamaican singer and actress

● 1949 - Archie Manning, American football player

● 1949 - Dusty Hill, American blues rock singer/bassist (ZZ Top)

● 1951 - Joey Ramone, American musician (The Ramones) (d. 2001)

● 1952 - Grace Jones, Singer, actress, model

● 1952 - Bert van Marwijk, Dutch football manager

● 1953 - Victoria Wood, British comic actress

● 1953 - Dawud M. Mu'Min, American convicted murderer (d. 1997)

● 1953 - Shavarsh Karapetyan, Soviet Armenian finswimmer

● 1954 - Phil Rudd, Australian drummer (AC/DC)

● 1956 - James Gosling, Canadian computer programmer

● 1956 - Steven Ford, American actor

● 1957 - Bill Laimbeer, American basketball player and coach

● 1962 - Iain Harvie, Rock musician (Del Amitri)

● 1963 - Yazz, British singer

● 1966 - Polly Walker, British actress

● 1968 - Kyle Eastwood, American actor; son of Clint Eastwood

● 1970 - Jason Gray-Stanford, Actor ("Monk")

● 1971 - Dionicio Castellanos, Mexican professional wrestler

● 1972 - Jenny Berggren, Swedish singer (Ace of Base)

● 1973 - Dario Franchitti, Scottish race car driver

● 1974 - Andrew Johns, Australian rugby league footballer

● 1975 - London Fletcher, American football player

● 1975 - Masanobu Ando, Japanese actor

● 1976 - Ed Cota, American basketball player

● 1976 - Kevin Garnett, American basketball player

● 1977 - Manuel Almúnia, Spanish footballer

● 1977 - Brandon Inge, American baseball player

● 1978 - Marcus Bent, English footballer

● 1979 - Diego Forlán, Uruguayan footballer

● 1979 - Andrea Pirlo, Italian footballer

● 1980 - Drew Fuller, American actor/model

● 1980 - Tony Hackworth, English footballer

● 1981 - Georges St. Pierre, Mixed Martial Arts Fighter

● 1981 - Luciano Figueroa, Argentinian footballer

● 1981 - Klaas-Erik Zwering, Dutch swimmer

● 1982 - Kevin Amankwaah, English footballer

● 1982 - Pål Steffen Andresen, Norwegian footballer

● 1983 - Eve Angel, Hungarian model/porn star

● 1983 - Jessica Fox, British actress

● 1984 - Marcedes Lewis, American football player

● 1986 - Eric Lloyd, American actor

● 1987 - David Edgar, Canadian-born footballer

● 1988 - Lily Cole, English model/actress

● 1991 - Jordan Pruitt, American singer

DEATHS

● 804 - Alcuin, English monk (b. c. 735)

● 988 - Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 909)

● 1102 - Stephen, Count of Blois (b. c. 1045)

● 1125 - Vladimir Monomakh, Russian prince (b. 1053)

● 1296 - Pope Celestine V (b. 1215)

● 1319 - Louis d'Évreux, son of Philip III of France (b. 1276)

● 1389 - Dmitri Donskoi, Grand Prince of Muscovy (b. 1350)

● 1526 - Emperor Go-Kashiwabara of Japan (b. 1464)

● 1531 - Jan Łaski, Polish statesman and diplomat (b. 1456)

● 1536 - Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII of England

● 1601 - Costanzo Porta, Italian composer

● 1610 - Thomas Sanchez, Spanish theologian (b. 1550)

● 1637 - Isaac Beeckman, Dutch scientist and philosopher (b. 1588)

● 1715 - Charles Montagu, Chancellor of the Exchequer (b. 1661)

● 1786 - John Stanley, English composer (b. 1712)

● 1795 - Josiah Bartlett, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1729)

● 1795 - James Boswell, Scottish biographer (b. 1740)

● 1798 - William Byron, 5th Baron Byron, English dueler (b. 1722)

● 1821 - Camille Jordan, French politician (b. 1771)

● 1825 - Claude Henri de Rouvroy, Comte de Saint-Simon, French political philosopher (b. 1760)

● 1864 - Nathaniel Hawthorne, American author (b. 1804)

● 1876 - Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer, Dutch politician (b. 1801)

● 1885 - Peter W. Barlow, English engineer (b. 1809)

● 1895 - José Martí, Cuban independence leader (b. 1853)

● 1898 - William Ewart Gladstone, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1809)

● 1904 - Auguste Molinier, French historian (b. 1851)

● 1907 - Benjamin Baker, English engineer (b. 1840)

● 1912 - Bolesław Prus, Polish writer (b. 1847)

● 1918 - Raoul Lufbery, French-American World War I fighter pilot and flying ace (b. 1885)

● 1935 - T. E. Lawrence, English soldier (b. 1888)

● 1943 - Kristjan Raud, Estonian painter (b. 1865)

● 1946 - Booth Tarkington, American novelist (b. 1869)

● 1954 - Charles Ives, American composer (b. 1874)

● 1958 - Ronald Colman, English actor (b. 1891)

● 1965 - Tui Malila, world's oldest tortoise (b. 1773 or 1777)

● 1969 - Coleman Hawkins, American musician (b. 1901)

● 1971 - Ogden Nash, American poet (b. 1902)

● 1983 - Jean Rey, President of the European Commission (b. 1902)

● 1984 - John Betjeman, English poet and Poet Laureate (b. 1906)

● 1986 - Jimmy Lyons, American musician (b. 1931)

● 1987 - James Tiptree, Jr, American author (b. 1915)

● 1989 - CLR James, West Indian writer and journalist (b. 1901)

● 1994 - Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, First Lady of the United States (b. 1929)

● 1994 - Luis Ocaña, Spanish cyclist (b. 1945)

● 1998 - Uno Sosuke, Japanese prime minister (b. 1922)

● 2000 - Yevgeny Khrunov, cosmonaut (b. 1933)

● 2001 - Susannah McCorkle, American singer (b. 1946)

● 2002 - John Gorton, nineteenth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1911)

● 2002 - Walter Lord, American writer (b. 1917)

● 2004 - Mary Dresselhuys, Dutch actress (b. 1907)

● 2005 - Henry Corden, American actor and voice artist (b. 1921)

● 2006 - Alexandrina van Donkelaar-Vink, oldest Dutch citizen (b. 1895)

● 2006 - Freddie Garrity, English lead singer from the band Freddie and the Dreamers (b. 1940)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● Sts. Calocerus & Parthenius
● St. Celestine
● St. Ciarán mac Colga
● St. Cyriaca & Companions
● St. Dunstan
● St. Emiliana
● St. Hadulph
● St. Ives
● St. Peter Celestine
● St. Philoterus
● St. Pudentiana
● St. Theophilus of Corte
● Bl. Alcuin
● Bl. Peter de Duenas
● Bl. Peter Wright

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for May 6 (Civil Date: May 19)
● Righteous Job the Long-suffering St. Job, abbot and wonderworker of Pochaev.
● Martyrs Barbaruldier, Bacchus, Callimachus, and Dionysius, in Morea.
● Martyr Barbarus in Thessaly.
● Translation of the Relics of St. Pachomius of Nerekhta.

● Greek Calendar:
● Sts. Mamas, Pachomius and Hilarion, monks.
● Martyrs Demetrius, Danax, Mesiurs, Therin, and Donatus.
● St. Seraphim of Mt. Domvu.
● Birthday of Royal Martyr Tsar Nicholas II.

● Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day in Turkey (1919).

● Commemoration of Pontian Greeks Genocide in Greece (1919).

● Finland : Flag Day of the Army

● Vietnam : Ho Chi Minh's Birthday (1890)

● These Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
● Canada : Victoria Day (1819) - ( Monday )
● US : Armed Forces Day - ( Saturday )


Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.

Additional facts taken from:

On this day in the New York Times

The BBC’s Take on the day

On This Day Website

Geov Parrish's this Day in Radical History, things that happened on this day that you never had to memorize in school.

Scope Systems Any Day Website

Roman Catholic Saint of the Day

Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar

Quotes of the Day taken from The Best Liberal Quotes Ever: Why the Left Is Right Compiled by William P. Martin ©2004

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