Anniversaries and commemorations come and go daily. Most of us, even the best historians, miss most occasions. If we think of history as events then we are faced with a continually showering in the grains of sand. Nevertheless, we do pick out certain patterns in the remembrance of historical dates. The blog here reminds us of some dates where the local, state, national, and global perspectives entwine.
What Time is It? It is flow of a sandstorm that will on each day compress somewhere into a structure – sandstone, selected and only remembered in the longue durée.
| 19 May 1896 | Jorge Alessandri born, 27th President of Chile (d. 1986) |
| 19 May 1896 | Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria died, father of Archduke Ferdinand (b. 1833) |
| Thursday, 19 May 1921 | Edward Douglass White died, 9th Chief Justice of the United States (b. 1845) |
| Thursday, 19 May 1921 | The Emergency Quota Act is passed by the United States Congress, establishing national quotas on immigration. |
| Thursday, 19 May 1921 | Karel van het Reve born, Dutch writer (d. 1999) |
| Thursday, 19 May 1921 | Michael Llewelyn Davies died, one of the ‘Lost Boys’ for the Peter Pan book (b. 1900) |
| Sunday, 19 May 1946 | Booth Tarkington died, American novelist (b. 1869) |
| Sunday, 19 May 1946 | Francesco Camero Medici died, Italian diplomat (b. 1886) |
| Sunday, 19 May 1946 | André the Giant born, French professional wrestler (d. 1993) |
| Sunday, 19 May 1946 | Claude Lelièvre born, Belgian Commissioner for Children Rights |
| Sunday, 19 May 1946 | Roger Sloman born, English actor |
| Sunday, 19 May 1946 | Ángel Ossorio y Gallardo died, Spanish lawyer and statesman (b. 1873) |
| Friday, 19 May 1961 | Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly-by another planet by passing Venus (however, the probe had lost contact with Earth a month earlier and does not send back any data). |
| Wednesday, 19 May 1971 | Ogden Nash died, American poet (b. 1902) |
| Wednesday, 19 May 1971 | Mars probe program: Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet Union. |
| Wednesday, 19 May 1971 | Peter Boström born, Swedish music producer and songwriter born, co-writer of Euphoria |
| Wednesday, 19 May 1971 | Bernard Wagenaar died, Dutch/American composer, conductor and violinist (b. 1894) |
| Tuesday, 19 May 1981 | Sani Bečirovič born, Slovenian basketball player |
| Tuesday, 19 May 1981 | Bong Tae-gyu born, South Korean actor |
| Tuesday, 19 May 1981 | Klaas-Erik Zwering born, Dutch swimmer |
| Tuesday, 19 May 1981 | Georges St-Pierre born, Canadian mixed martial arts fighter |
| Sunday, 19 May 1991 | In the Croatian independence referendum, voters in the Socialist Republic of Croatia vote to secede from Yugoslavia. |
| Sunday, 19 May 1991 | Brittani Kline born, American model |
| Sunday, 19 May 1991 | Jordan Pruitt born, American recording artist |
| Sunday, 19 May 1996 | Lakshmi Menon born, Indian film actress |
| Sunday, 19 May 1996 | John Beradino died, American baseball player and actor (b. 1917) |
| Thursday, 19 May 2011 | Garret FitzGerald died, 7th Taoiseach of Ireland (b. 1926) |
| Thursday, 19 May 2016 | EgyptAir Flight 804 with 66 people on board crashes into the Mediterranean Sea en route from Paris to Cairo. |
| Thursday, 19 May 2016 | Alexandre Astruc died, French film critic and director (b. 1923) |
| Thursday, 19 May 2016 | Marco Pannella died, Italian politician (b. 1930) |
| Thursday, 19 May 2016 | Alan Young died, British-born Canadian-American actor (b. 1919) |
Images Citations in Composite: ID 17208541 © Anhong | Dreamstime.com; ID 35001957 © DiversityStudio1 | Dreamstime.com; ID 156394527 © Gerd Zahn | Dreamstime.com
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Neville Buch
Professional Historian at Professional Historians Association (Queensland) Inc.
Neville Buch (Pronounced Book) Ph.D. is a certified member of the Professional Historians Association (Queensland). Since 2010 he has operated a sole trade business in history consultancy. He was a Q ANZAC 100 Fellow 2014-2015 at the State Library of Queensland. Dr Buch was the PHA (Qld) e-Bulletin, the monthly state association’s electronic publication, and was a member of its Management Committee. He is the Managing Director of the Brisbane Southside History Network.
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