Quote from Andrew Marshall on 19/05/2022, 05:00

Events

• 639 – Ashina Jiesheshuai and his tribesmen assaulted Emperor Taizong at Jiucheng Palace.
• 1445 – John II of Castile defeats the Infantes of Aragon at the First Battle of Olmedo.
• 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 had kidnapped during his first voyage).
• 1542 – The Prome Kingdom falls to the Taungoo Dynasty in present-day Myanmar.
• 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 of Parliament declaring England a Commonwealth is passed by the Long Parliament.
  • England would be a republic for the next eleven years.
• 1655 – The Invasion of Jamaica begins during the Anglo-Spanish War.
• 1743 – Jean-Pierre Christin developed the centigrade temperature scale.
• 1749 – King George II of Great Britain grants the Ohio Company a charter of land around the forks of the Ohio River.
• 1776 – American Revolutionary War: A Continental Army garrison surrenders in the Battle of The Cedars.
• 1802 – Napoleon Bonaparte founds the Legion of Honour (the highest French order of merit, both military and civil).
• 1845 – Captain Sir John Franklin and his ill-fated Arctic expedition depart from Greenhithe, England.
• 1848 – Mexican-American War: Mexico ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo thus ending the war and ceding California, Nevada, Utah and parts of four other modern-day US states to the United States for US$15 million.
• 1900 – Great Britain annexes Tonga Island.
• 1900 – Second Boer War: British troops relieve Mafeking.
• 1919 – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk lands at Samsun on the Anatolian Black Sea coast, initiating what is later termed the Turkish War of Independence.
• 1933 – Finnish cavalry general C. G. E. Mannerheim was appointed the field marshal (Refer to Stars & Generals, Part Six).
• 1934 – Zveno and the Bulgarian Army engineer a coup d'état and install Kimon Georgiev as the new Prime Minister of Bulgaria.
• 1942 – World War II: In the aftermath of the Battle of the Coral Sea, Task Force 16 heads to Pearl Harbour.
• 1945 – Syrian demonstrators in Damascus are fired upon by French troops injuring twelve, leading to the Levant Crisis.
• 1950 – A barge containing munitions destined for Pakistan explodes in the harbour at South Amboy, New Jersey, devastating the city.
• 1950 – Egypt announces that the Suez Canal is closed to Israeli ships and commerce.
• 1959 – The North Vietnamese Army establishes Group 559, whose responsibility is to determine how to maintain supply lines to South Vietnam; the resulting route is the Ho Chi Minh trail (Refer to Vietnam War).
• 1991 – Croatians vote for independence in a referendum.
• 2010 – The Royal Thai Armed Forces concludes its crackdown on protests by forcing the surrender of United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship leaders.
• 2012 – A car bomb explodes near a military complex in the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor, killing nine people.
• Greek Genocide Remembrance Day (Greece).
• Hồ Chí Minh's Birthday (Vietnam).

People (Births)

• 1400 – John Stourton, 1st Baron Stourton, English soldier and politician (d. 1462).
• 1639 – Charles Weston, 3rd Earl of Portland, English soldier and noble (d. 1665).
• 1700 – José de Escandón, 1st Count of Sierra Gorda, Spanish sergeant and politician (d. 1770).
• 1724 – Augustus Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol, English admiral and politician, Chief Secretary for Ireland (d. 1779).
• 1881 – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (official birthday), Turkish field marshal and statesman, 1st President of Turkey (d. 1938).
• 1884 – David Munson, American runner (d. 1953).
• 1887 – Ion Jalea, Romanian soldier and sculptor (d. 1983).
• 1890 – Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese politician, 1st President of Vietnam (d. 1969).
• 1891 – Oswald Boelcke, German captain and pilot (d. 1916).
• 1897 – Frank Luke Jr., American lieutenant and pilot, Medal of Honour recipient (d. 1918).
• 1908 – Percy Williams, Canadian sprinter (d. 1982).
• 1919 – Mitja Ribičič, Italian-Slovenian soldier and politician, 25th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (d. 2013).
• 1920 – Tina Strobos, Dutch psychiatrist known for rescuing Jews during World War II (d. 2012).
• 1921 – Leslie Broderick, English lieutenant and pilot (d. 2013).
• 1921 – Harry W. Brown, American colonel and pilot (d. 1991).
• 1925 – Pol Pot, Cambodian general and politician, 29th Prime Minister of Cambodia (d. 1998).
• 1928 – Thomas Kennedy, English air marshal (d. 2013).
• 1939 – Livio Berruti, Italian sprinter.
• 1940 – Jan Janssen, Dutch cyclist.
• 1952 – Charlie Spedding, English runner.
• 1981 – Sina Schielke, German sprinter.
• 1981 – Klaas-Erik Zwering, Dutch swimmer.
• 1982 – Klaas Vantornout, Belgian cyclist.

People (Deaths)

• 1798 – William Byron, 5th Baron Byron, English lieutenant and politician (b. 1722).
• 1865 – Sengge Rinchen, Mongolian general (b. 1811).
• 1901 – Marthinus Wessel Pretorius, South African general and politician, 1st President of the South African Republic (b. 1819).
• 1915 – John Simpson Kirkpatrick, English-Australian soldier (b. 1892).
• 1918 – Gervais Raoul Lufbery, French-American soldier and pilot (b. 1885).
• 1935 – T.E. Lawrence, British colonel and archaeologist, commonly known as Lawrence of Arabia (b. 1888).
• 1945 – Philipp Bouhler, German soldier and politician (b. 1889).
• 1994 – Luis Ocaña, Spanish cyclist (b. 1945).
• 1998 – Sōsuke Uno, Japanese soldier and politician, 75th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1922).
• 2001 – Alexey Maresyev, Russian soldier and pilot (b. 1916).
• 2012 – Gerhard Hetz, German-Mexican swimmer (b. 1942).
• 2012 – Phil Lamason, New Zealand soldier and pilot (b. 1918).
• 2017 – Stanislav Petrov, Lieutenant Colonel in Soviet Air Defence Forces (b. 1939).