On this day, May 19

1913 California Gov. Hiram Johnson signed the Webb-Hartley Law prohibiting “aliens ineligible to citizenship” from owning farmland, a measure targeting Asian immigrants, particularly Japanese.

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

1925 The fund for the construction of the Cathedral of Learning reached $5.59 million — more than twice as much money as was ever raised in Pittsburgh for an educational or philanthropic purpose.

1959 In the primary election, Joseph Barr and Paul Reinhold won nominations for Pittsburgh mayor on the Democratic and Republican tickets, respectively.

1998 Allegheny County voters narrowly approved a home rule charter, which changed county government from a three -member board of commissioners to a single executive and a 15-member county council.

2006 A key United Nations panel joined European and U.N. leaders in urging the George W. Bush administration to close the prison in Guantanamo Bay, saying the indefinite detention of terror suspects there violated the world’s ban on torture. 2009 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. Some items are from Stefan Lorant’s “Pittsburgh: The Story of an American City” (digital.library.pitt.edu/chronology).

— Compiled by Alyssa Brown

Today’s birthdays: PBS newscaster Jim Lehrer, 85. TV personality David Hartman, 84. Actor James Fox, 80. Actress Nancy Kwan, 80. Rock singer-composer Pete Townshend (The Who), 74. Concert pianist David Helfgott, 72. Singer-actress Grace Jones, 71. Rock singer-musician Dusty Hill (ZZ Top), 70. College Football Hall of Famer and former NFL player Archie Manning, 70. Rock musician Phil Rudd, 65. Actor Steven Ford, 63. Actress Polly Walker, 53. Actor Jason Gray-Stanford, 49. Race car driver Dario Franchitti, 46. TV personality Kim Zolciak Biermann (TV: “Real Housewives of Atlanta”), 41. Country/rock singer Shooter Jennings, 40. Actor-comedian Michael Che (TV: “Saturday Night Live”), 36. Singer Sam Smith, 26. Thought for today: “The most exciting happiness is the happiness generated by forces beyond your control.”

— Ogden Nash, American poet (born in

1902, died this date in 1971)