Here's your Today in History
May 19 1536-
In the first public execution of an English queen, Anne Boleyn is beheaded. In her speech, Boleyn has nothing but good things to say about her husband, Henry VIII: "I pray God save the king and send him long to reign over you, for a gentler nor a more merciful prince was there never: and to me he was ever a good, a gentle and sovereign lord." Except of course for this whole beheading thing.
May 19 or 20 1799 -
Honore de Balzac was born in France. The exact date could not be determined as all of France had just started on a drinking binge that only recently just ended. Balzac created a vast body of literature that he called La Comédie Humaine ("A Vast Body of Literature"). Set almost entirely in Paris, it consisted of dozens of novels, short stories, omelette recipes and plays interwoven with many of the same characters and events. One of his most popular characters was the brilliant and great-hearted Dr. Bianchon. Balzac's dying words were reportedly, "If Bianchon were here, he would save me!" The anecdote is probably apocryphal, however, because Balzac didn't speak English.
May 19 1890 -
Nguyen Tat Thanh is born in central Vietnam. After World War I he devotes his life to the Communist cause, adopting a series of pseudonyms along the way. Finally he settles on "The Enlightener," that being the English translation of Ho Chi Minh.
May 19 1928 -
Saloth Sar, one of the world's most successful mass murderers, is born in French Indochina. He later adopts the name Pol Pot in 1976, a year after the Khmer Rouge seizes control of Cambodia.
May 19 1935 -
Thomas Edward Lawrence was killed in a motorcycle accident. Lawrence was a British officer who rose to prominence during the Arabian campaigns of the first World War. Clad in the magnificent white silk robes of an Arab prince ... he hoped to pass unnoticed through London. Alas he was mistaken. He can also be seen in "The Lion in Winter," "Becket," "What New, Pussycat" and "My Favorite Year."
May 19 1987 -
Chet Fleming files for a patent on his method for keeping a severed head alive. The mechanism includes blood filtering, pumping equipment, and nutrient supply. Ultimately, US Patent 4,666,425 is granted. Gee, if this was only around in 1536.
May 19 1992 -
17-year-old Amy Fisher shoots Mary Jo Buttafuoco in the face. Amy had been having an affair with Mary Jo's 38-year-old over weight, hairy, greaseball of a husband Joey. Fisher winds up spending seven years in prison, and Mary Jo winds up with a plate in her head. And just think, they're dated again, 15 years later, for CBS.
What a world!!!
May 19 1994 -
Jackie O., one the many women John F. Kennedy had sex with, dies of lymphatic cancer in her 15-room Manhattan apartment. In accordance with her 36-page will, most of her personal possessions are to be publicly auctioned by Sotheby's two years later. At which, one bidder observes that people are paying "100 times the value for objects that are amazingly mediocre." In fact, the average price for individual pieces of costume jewelry is $18,750.
And so it goes
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