What Happened On This Day ? May 19
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1963
Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail is published
King used the open letter to defend his nonviolent resistance against racism and segregation. It became one of the central texts for the civil rights movement in the United States.
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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.
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1959
The North Vietnamese Army begins organizing the Ho Chi Minh trail
According to the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), the system of supply routes used by the “Vietcong” was “one of the greatest achievements of military engineering of the 20th century.”
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1919
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk 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 Ataturk became its first President.
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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.
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1945
Pete Townshend
English singer-songwriter, guitarist
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1925
Malcolm X
American minister, activist
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1898
Julius Evola
Italian philosopher
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1893
H. Bonciu
Romanian author, poet, journalist
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1881
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
Turkish army officer, politician, 1st President of Turkey
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1994
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
American book editor, 37th First Lady of the United States
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1912
Bolesław Prus
Polish writer
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1898
William Ewart Gladstone
English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
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1895
Jose Marti
Cuban journalist, poet, theorist
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1536
Anne Boleyn
English wife of Henry VIII of England