Today in History
1963 Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail is published
The open letter was used by King to defend his nonviolent resistance to racism and segregation. It became one of the foundational texts of the American civil rights movement.
1962 Marilyn Monroe performs her famous rendition of Happy Birthday
Monroe gave her sultry performance, which was to be her last, at a party for U.S. President John F. Kennedy. The two are believed to have been engaged in an affair.
1959 The North Vietnamese Army begins organizing the Ho Chi Minh trail
The “Vietcong” supply route system was “one of the greatest achievements of military engineering of the twentieth century,” according to the US National Security Agency (NSA).
1919 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk sets off the Turkish War of Independence
The fight against the allies of the Triple Entente ended some four years later. The Republic of Turkey was founded, and Atatürk became its first President.
1743 Jean-Pierre Christin invents the Celsius thermometer
The centigrade temperature scale, which is based on the freezing and boiling point of water, is used by most countries around the world. Exceptions include the United State, Belize, and Palau.
Births On This Day, May 19
1945 Pete Townshend
English singer-songwriter, guitarist
1925 Malcolm X
American minister, activist
1898 Julius Evola
Italian philosopher
1893 H. Bonciu
Romanian author, poet, journalist
1881 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Turkish army officer, politician, 1st President of Turkey
Deaths On This Day, May 19
1994 Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
American book editor, 37th First Lady of the United States
1912 Bolesław Prus
Polish writer
1898 William Ewart Gladstone
English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1895 José Martí
Cuban journalist, poet, theorist
1536 Anne Boleyn
English wife of Henry VIII of England
