Today in history

On May 19, 1536,

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

In 1588

the Spanish Armada set sail for England.

In 1643

delegates from four New England colonies met in Boston to form a confederation.

In 1795

Johns Hopkins, the millionaire philanthropist who endowed the Maryland university and hospital that bear his name, was born in Anne Arundel County, Md.

In 1906

the Federated Boys’ Clubs, forerunner of the Boys’ Clubs of America, were organized.

In 1921

Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act, which established national quotas for immigrants.

In 1925

black nationalist leader Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha.

In 1930

playwright Lorraine Hansberry (“A Raisin in the Sun”) was born in Chicago.

In 1935

T.E. Lawrence, the British archeologist, soldier and writer who became known as Lawrence of Arabia, died in Dorset, England, from injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash; he was 46.

In 1943,

in an address to the U.S. Congress, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill pledged his country’s full support in the war against Japan.