May 19 Birthday
On May 19, 1536, Anne Boleyn was executed on Tower Green. She had been queen of England for three years. She wore a grey damask gown and a hood. She made a short speech, asking the crowd to pray for the king and praising his "gentle and merciful" nature — a final act of theater, since she must have known that the charges against her were fabrications. A French swordsman, specially brought from Calais, beheaded her with a single stroke. Her body was placed in an arrow chest and buried in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula. Her daughter Elizabeth would become queen eleven years later and would never mention her mother's name. In 1962, at a Democratic Party fundraiser at Madison Square Garden, Marilyn Monroe sang "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" to John F. Kennedy. She was introduced as "the late Marilyn Monroe" — she had been delayed. She wore a dress so tight she had to be sewn into it. The dress was so sheer that, according to legend, she wore nothing underneath. The performance lasted ninety seconds. Kennedy came to the stage and said, "I can now retire from politics after having had Happy Birthday sung to me in such a sweet, wholesome way." Monroe died three months later. Kennedy died seventeen months later. The dress sold at auction in 2016 for $4.8 million. Malcolm X, born this day in 1925, was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska. His father, a Baptist minister and follower of Marcus Garvey, was killed by a streetcar when Malcolm was six — the family believed he had been pushed by white supremacists. His mother was committed to a mental institution. Malcolm was placed in foster care. He went to prison for burglary at twenty-one, where he discovered the Nation of Islam. He changed his name, replaced his surname with X to signify his lost African heritage, and became the Nation's most effective organizer. He broke with the Nation in 1964, made the hajj to Mecca, and returned with a different view of race. He was assassinated on February 21, 1965, at thirty-nine. People born on May 19 fall under the zodiac sign of Taurus. The birthstone is Emerald and the birth flower is Lily of the Valley. Historical events on May 19 include 1536: Anne Boleyn beheaded at the Tower of London, 1928: Mickey Mouse makes first appearance in cartoon "Plane Crazy", 1962: Marilyn Monroe sings "Happy Birthday" to President Kennedy at Madison Square Garden. Famous people born on May 19 include Malcolm X (1925), Ho Chi Minh (1890), Pete Townshend (1945).