This day in history

[May 19, 2010]  (AP)  Today is Wednesday, May 19, the 139th day of 2010. There are 226 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On May 19, 1935, British Army officer T.E. Lawrence, also known as "Lawrence of Arabia," died in Dorset, England six days after being injured in a motorcycle crash.

On this date:

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

In 1780, a mysterious darkness enveloped much of New England and part of Canada in the early afternoon.

In 1909, the Ballets Russes (Russian Ballets), under the direction of Sergei Diaghilev, debuted in Paris.

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

In 1943, in an address to the U.S. Congress, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill pledged his country's full support in the fight against Japan.

In 1962, during a Democratic fundraiser at New York's Madison Square Garden, actress Marilyn Monroe sang "Happy Birthday to You" to guest-of-honor President John F. Kennedy.

In 1964, the State Department disclosed that 40 hidden microphones had been found in the U.S. embassy in Moscow.

In 1967, the Soviet Union ratified a treaty with the United States and Britain banning nuclear weapons from outer space.

In 1992, the 27th Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits Congress from giving itself pay raises until the next congressional term, went into effect. Mary Jo Buttafuoco of Massapequa, N.Y., was shot and seriously wounded by her husband Joey's teenage lover, Amy Fisher.

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

Ten years ago: China and the European Union reached a market-opening trade deal, clearing Beijing's largest remaining hurdle to joining the World Trade Organization. Masked gunmen launched a coup in Fiji that toppled Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, the country's first ethnic Indian premier.

Five years ago: Republicans and Democrats tangled over President George W. Bush's judicial nominees and the Senate's filibuster rules, with Democrats accusing Bush of trying to "rewrite the Constitution" and Republicans accusing Democrats of "unprecedented obstruction. "Revenge of the Sith," the final chapter of the "Star Wars" epic, opened in the U.S.

One year ago: President Barack Obama asked consumers to back his plan for higher efficiency standards for cars and trucks, saying drivers would make up the higher cost of cleaner vehicles at the gas pump.

Today's birthdays: PBS newscaster Jim Lehrer is 76. TV personality David Hartman is 75. Actor James Fox is 71. Actress Nancy Kwan is 71. Author-director Nora Ephron is 69. Actor Peter Mayhew is 66. Rock singer-composer Pete Townshend (The Who) is 65. Concert pianist David Helfgott is 63. Rock singer-musician Dusty Hill (ZZ Top) is 61. Singer-actress Grace Jones is 58. Rock musician Phil Rudd (AC-DC) is 56. Baseball catcher Rick Cerone is 56. Actor Steven Ford is 54. Rock musician Iain Harvie (Del Amitri) is 48. Actor Jason Gray-Stanford is 40. Rock singer Jenny Berggren (Ace of Base) is 38. Actor Drew Fuller is 30. Christian rock musician Tim McTague is 27. Actor Eric Lloyd is 24.

Thought for today: "If every nation gets the government it deserves, every generation writes the history which corresponds with its view of the world." -- Elizabeth Janeway, American writer and critic (1913-2005)

[Associated Press]

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