1536
May 19, Anne Boleyn, the second wife of England's King Henry VIII, was beheaded on Tower Green after she was convicted of adultery and incest with her brother, Lord Rochford, who was executed two days before. It was the day before Henry VIII's marriage to Jane Seymour.

1568
May 19, Defeated by the Protestants, Mary, Queen of Scots, fled to England where Queen Elizabeth imprisoned her.

1879
May 19, Lady Nancy Astor, Nancy Witcher Langhorne, was born. She was the first woman to sit in the British House of Commons.

1982
May 19, Sophia Loren (b.1934) began serving 18 days in an Italian prison for failing to pay her taxes.

2004
May 19, Antonina Presnyakova, Russian Ebola researcher, died following an accidental needle stick containing the deadly virus. She worked at the Vektor State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology outside Novosibirsk in central Siberia.

2010
May 19, The French government decided to impose a $185 fine on women who wear a full-face Islamic veil in public. The legislation was forwarded to Parliament.

2013
May 19, Tunisian feminist Amina Tyler (19), who scandalized her country by posting topless photos of herself online, was arrested after allegedly sneaking into Tunisia's holiest city disguised in a veil, then trying to get undressed during a protest.