May 19 in History
1499 — Catherine of Aragon, 13, is married by proxy to Arthur, Prince of Wales, 12. They’re officially married at St Paul’s Cathedral on November 14 1501. Arthur dies on April 2 1502, aged 15. After the death of their father, Henry VII, Arthur’s younger brother ascends to the throne on April 22 1509. Henry VIII, 17, marries Catherine, 23, on June 11. She fails to give him a male heir, Henry has his eye on Anne Boleyn and makes a case for an annulment based on Leviticus 20:21. Henry secretly marries Anne on November 14 1532 and publicly on January 25 1533 . His marriage to Catherine is annulled on May 23 1533 and that to Anne declared valid five days later.
1536 — Anne Boleyn is beheaded on Tower Green after being convicted of treason, adultery (with Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston, William Brereton and
Mark Smeaton) and incest with her brother, George Boleyn (Lord Rochford); charges they all denied. On May 12, four of the men were convicted. On the 14th, her marriage to Henry VIII was annulled. On the 15th, Anne and George were convicted. On the 17th, the five men were beheaded on Tower Hill. Henry, still obsessed with a male heir, marries Jane Seymour on the 30th. Jane’s son Edward VI succeeds his father in January 1547 at age nine, but dies at 15 in July 1553. Ironically, the next two monarchs are Catherine’s daughter Mary I (until November 1558) and Anne’s daughter Elizabeth I (until March 1603).
1849 — About 7,000 people gather on the Grand Parade in Cape Town to protest against the decision of Earl (Henry) Grey, British colonies minister, to use the Cape as a penal colony.
1910 — Alan Melville, SA cricketer, is born in Carnarvon. He plays his first Test on December 24 1938 and last on January 5 1949 (interrupted by World War 2). He scores 894 runs at an average of 52.58 in 11 Tests, 10 as captain,
1930 — White women in SA receive the right to vote (first executed in the 1933 elections).
1941 — German occupiers in the Netherlands forbid bicycle taxis.
1961 — Venera 1, a Soviet spacecraft, becomes the first man-made object to fly by another planet, within 100,000km of Venus.
1962 — Marilyn Monroe sings her evocative “Happy Birthday (Mister President)” at JF Kennedy’s 45th birthday celebrations at Madison Square Garden. 1965 — Tu’i (King) Malila, a female radiated tortoise from Madagascar traditionally said to have been given to Tonga’s royal family by Captain James Cook in 1777, dies of natural causes.
1994 — Former US first lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, 64, dies of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in New York City.