Today in History

Today is Tuesday, May 19, the 140th day of 2020. There are 226 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On May 19, 1943, in his second wartime address to the U.S. Congress, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill pledged his country's full support in the fight against Japan; that evening, Churchill met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House, where the two leaders agreed on May 1, 1944 as the date for the D-Day invasion of France (the operation ended up being launched more than a month later).

On this date:

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

In 1649, England was declared a republic by Parliament following the execution of King Charles I. (The monarchy was restored in 1660.)

In 1913, California Gov. Hiram Johnson signed the Webb-Hartley Law prohibiting "aliens ineligible to citizenship" from owning farm land, a measure targeting Asian immigrants, particularly Japanese.

In 1921, Congress passed, and President Warren G. Harding signed, the Emergency Quota Act, which established national quotas for immigrants.

In 1924, the Marx Brothers made their Broadway debut in the revue "I'll Say She Is."

In 1935, T.E. Lawrence, also known as "Lawrence of Arabia," died in Dorset, England, six days after being injured in a motorcycle crash.

In 1967, the Soviet Union ratified a treaty with the United States and Britain, banning nuclear and other weapons from outer space as well as celestial bodies such as the moon. (The treaty entered into force in October 1967.)

In 1981, five British soldiers were killed by an Irish Republican Army land mine in County Armagh, Northern Ireland.

In 1992, in a case that drew much notoriety, Mary Jo Buttafuoco of Massapequa, New York, was shot and seriously wounded by her husband Joey's teenage lover, Amy Fisher.

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

In 1994, former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died in New York at age 64.

In 2003, WorldCom Inc. agreed to pay investors $500 million to settle civil fraud charges.

Ten years ago: President Barack Obama condemned Arizona's crackdown on illegal immigration and pushed instead for a federal fix he said the nation could embrace, showing solidarity with his guest of honor, Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who called Arizona's law discriminatory. Rioters in Bangkok torched the stock exchange and other landmark buildings after a deadly army assault on an anti-government encampment ended a two-month siege.

Five years ago: On a visit to Ireland, Prince Charles shook hands with Sinn Fein party president Gerry Adams in a significant moment for Anglo-Irish relations. NFL owners meeting in San Francisco agreed to move back extra-point kicks and allow defenses to score on conversion turnovers. Margaretta "Happy" Rockefeller, 88, the widow of former U.S. Vice President and New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, died in Tarrytown, New York.

One year ago: Billionaire technology investor Robert F. Smith stunned the graduating class at Morehouse College, an all-male, historically-black college in Atlanta, when he announced in his commencement speech that he would pay off the student loans of the entire class, estimated at $40 million. "Game of Thrones" aired its 73rd and final episode on HBO, with a record-setting number of viewers. After giving up nearly all of his seven-shot lead in the final round, Brooks Koepka won his second straight PGA Championship, joining Tiger Woods as the only back-to-back winners since the tournament went to stroke play in 1958.

Today's Birthdays: TV personality David Hartman is 85. Actor James Fox is 81. Actress Nancy Kwan is 81. Rock singer-composer Pete Townshend (The Who) is 75. Concert pianist David Helfgott is 73. Rock singer-musician Dusty Hill (ZZ Top) is 71. College Football Hall of Famer and former NFL player Archie Manning is 71. Singer-actress Grace Jones is 69. Rock musician Phil Rudd is 66. Actor Steven Ford is 64. Actress Toni Lewis is 60. Rock musician Iain Harvie (Del Amitri) is 58. Actress Polly Walker is 54. Actor Jason Gray-Stanford is 50. Gospel singer Israel Houghton is 49. Rock singer Jenny Berggren (Ace of Base) is 48. Former race car driver Dario Franchitti is 47. TV personality Kim Zolciak Biermann (TV: "Real Housewives of Atlanta") is 42. Country/rock singer Shooter Jennings is 41. Actor Drew Fuller is 40. Actor-comedian Michael Che (chay) (TV: "Saturday Night Live") is 37. Christian rock musician Tim McTague (Underoath) is 37. Rock musician James Richardson (MGMT) is 37. Actor Eric Lloyd is 34. Pop singer Sam Smith is 28. Actor Nolan Lyons is 19.

Thought for Today: "Every moment one lives is different from the other. The good, the bad, hardship, the joy, the tragedy, love, and happiness are all interwoven into one single, indescribable whole that is called life. You cannot separate the good from the bad. And perhaps there is no need to do so, either." -- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929-1994).

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