19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Today in History: May 19, West Virginia's Matewan Massacre
In 1643, Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven formed the United Colonies of New England, a short-lived military alliance with trade and boundary provisions.
In 1713, more than 200 people rioted on Boston Common over the high price of bread. The lieutenant governor was shot and wounded when he tried to intervene. (Merchants were hoarding grain to drive up prices.)
In 1775, 250 years ago, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress formalized the officers' commissions in the 26 militias raised to lay siege to Boston and to protect assets in the colony against British confiscation. Artemas Ward of Shrewsbury was named commander in chief.
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In 1883, William Cody held the first of his 'Buffalo Bill's Wild West' shows in Omaha, Neb.
In 1885, the mass production of shoes began with the use of an automatic lasting machine created by Jan Matzeliger, a Dutch Guinea immigrant who settled in Lynn.
In 1920, ten people were killed in a gun battle between coal miners, who were led by a local police chief, and a group of private security guards hired to evict them for joining a union in Matewan,
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In 1921, President Warren G. Harding signed the Emergency Quota Act, which established national quotas for immigrants.
In 1943, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House, where the two leaders agreed on May 1, 1944, as the date for the D-Day invasion of France (expansion plans for the invasion caused the date of the landing to be delayed by a month).
In 1962, film star Marilyn Monroe sang 'Happy Birthday to You' to President John F. Kennedy during a Democratic fundraiser at New York's Madison Square Garden.
In 2018, Britain's Prince Harry wed American actor Meghan Markle in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.
