On this day …

On+this+day+...

May 19, 2016

  • In 715, Pope Gregory II was elected.
  • In 1536, Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII of England, was beheaded on charges of adultery, treason, and incest.
  • In 1743, Jean-Pierre Christin developed the centigrade temperature scale.

    Michael Larson discovered that prize money was always behind certain spots on the board in Press Your Luck.
    Google image/Creative Commons license
    Michael Larson discovered that prize money was always behind certain spots on the board in Press Your Luck.
  • In 1848, Mexico ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, ending the Mexican-American War and ceding California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of four other future states for $15 million.
  • In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill set May 1, 1944 as the date for the Normandy invasion (weather eventually delayed it for more than a month).
  • In 1950, Egypt announced that the Suez Canal was closed to Israeli ships and commerce.
  • In 1984, Michael Larson exploited a flaw in the electronic prize board on the television game show Press Your Luck to win $110,000.