Unix Timestamp: 990230400
Saturday, May 19. 2001, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Five paintings worth €100 million are stolen from the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.ref name=sky

Scientists announce that they have created a functional synthetic genome.

Protests in Bangkok, Thailand, end with a bloody military crackdown, killing 91 and injuring more than 2,100.ref name=deaths

Pro-Tamil Tigers protesters and the Metropolitan Police Service battle, injuring 16 people, in London, England. //news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Pro-Tamil-Protesters-In-Westminster-London-Clash-With-Police-Arrests-Made-And-At-Least-16-Injured/Article/200905315284191?lpos=UK_News_Top_Stories_Header_1lid=ARTICLE_15284191_Pro-Tamil_Protesters_In_Westminster%2C_London%2C_Clash_With_Police%3A_Arrests_Made_And_At_Least_16_Injured (Sky News)

President Mahinda Rajapaksa declares Sri Lanka liberated from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8056752.stm (BBC) //www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE54I0J420090519 (Reuters)

Sri Lanka announces victory in its 27 year war against the terrorist organisation Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad, tenders his resignation from the country's ruling political party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7408020.stm (BBC News)

Jeremy Sivits pleads guilty in a court-martial in connection with alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.

The Indian Air Force launches an attack on intruding Pakistan Army troops and mujahideen militants in Kashmir.

"Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" is released in theaters. It becomes the highest grossing "Star Wars" film.

The first Welsh Assembly in over 600 years opens in Cardiff.

The 1999 UEFA Chions League Final takes place at the C Nou Stadium, Barcelona in which the English side Manchester United defeat German side Bayern Munich 2-1.

The Galaxy IV communications satellite fails, leaving 80–90% of the world's pagers without service.

In the Croatian independence referendum, voters in the Socialist Republic of Croatia vote to secede from Yugoslavia.

Mengistu Haile Mariam, president of the People\'s Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, flees Ethiopia, effectively bringing the Ethiopian Civil War to an end.

In Sriperumbudur, India, former Prime MinisterRajiv Gandhi is assassinated at a public meeting in Sriperumbudur, by suicide bomber Thenmozhi Rajaratnam many others are killed in the explosion.

Cold War: The first post-Communist presidential and parliamentary elections are held in Romania.

An Israeli gunman kills 7 Palestinians, leading to bloody riots in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank.

The US and the USSR agree to end production of chemical weapons and to destroy most of their stockpiles of chemical weapons.

John Anthony Walker Jr., is arrested by the FBI for passing classified Naval communications to the Soviet Union.

May 20 ndash French Foreign Legionparatroopers land in Kolwezi, Zaire, to rescue Europeans in the middle of a civil war.

Secretariat wins the Preakness Stakes.

Three out of 6 bombs explode in the Springer Press building in Hamburg, Germany, injuring 17 the Red Army Faction claims responsibility.

Mars probe program: "Mars 2" is launched by the Soviet Union.

The Nigerian government forbids all political activity in the country until January 17, 1969.

Ugandan army troops arrest Mutesa II of Buganda and occupy his palace.

Explorer program: "Explorer 32" is launched.

Gertrude Baniszewski is found guilty of murdering and torturing Sylvia Likens and is sentenced to life in prison. (she is released on parole in December 1985).

The United States State Department says that more than 40 hidden microphones have been found embedded in the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

Pablo Picasso paints his fourth "Head of a Bearded Man".

Mrs. Madeline Dassault, 63, wife of a French plane manufacturer and politician, is kidnapped while leaving her car in front of her Paris home she is found unharmed the next day in a farmhouse from Paris.

"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).

Winston Churchill addresses a joint session of the U.S. Congress.

The Viet Minh is formed in Vietnam to overthrow the French Army in the nation.

Holocaust: The Nazi German concentration and extermination c Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest of the German concentration cs, opens in occupied Poland near the town of Oświęcim. Between May 1940 and January 1945, around 1.1 million people will be killed here.

General Maxime Weygand replaces Maurice Gamelin as commander-in-chief of all French forces.

WWII: German forces (2nd Panzer division), under General Rudolf Veiel, reach Noyelles on the English Channel.

T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") dies in a motorcycle accident in Dorset, England.

Kimon Georgiev stages a coup d'etat in Bulgaria.

The All-Russian Young Pioneer Organisation is established.

Mexican Revolution: Álvaro Obregón's troops enter Mexico City.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk lands at Samsun on the Anatolian Black Sea coast, marking the start of the Turkish War of Independence. The anniversary of this event is also an official day of Turkish Youth.

Oscar Wilde is released from prison.

Battle of Yemoja River: British troops defeat Ijebu infantry in modern-day Nigeria, using a maxim gun.

The Marais des Cygnes massacre is perpetrated by pro-slavery forces in Bleeding Kansas.

Taiping Rebellion: The siege of Guilin is lifted.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the Mexican-American War, is ratified by the Mexican government. (cf. February 2, above.)

HMS \\\\\\'\\\\\\'Erebus\\\\\\'\\\\\\' and HMS \\\\\'\\\\\'Terror\\\\\'\\\\\' with 134 men, comprising Sir John Franklin's expedition to find the Northwest Passage, sail from Greenhithe on the Thames. They will last be seen in August entering Baffin Bay.

HMS "Erebus" and HMS "Terror" with 134 men, comprising Sir John Franklin's expedition to find the Northwest Passage, sail from Greenhithe on the Thames. They will last be seen in August entering Baffin Bay.

Dorr Rebellion: Militiamen supporting Thomas Wilson Dorr attack the arsenal in Providence, Rhode Island, but are repulsed.

Fort Parker massacre: Among those captured by Native Americans is nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker she later gives birth to a son named Quanah, who becomes the last chief of the Comanche.

Master Malati, a Coptic Christian leader, is beheaded by a Muslim mob in Cairo, Egypt.

Napoleon Bonaparte establishes the French "Légion d'honneur" (Legion of Honour).

Napoleon Bonaparte establishes the French "Légion d'honneur" (Legion of Honour).

New England's Dark Day: An unaccountable darkness spreads over New England, regarded by some observers as a fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

New England\'s Dark Day: An unaccountable darkness spreads over New England, regarded by some observers as a fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

Pope Clement XIV succeeds Pope Clement XIII as the 249th pope.

King George II of Great Britain grants the Ohio Company a charter of land around the forks of the Ohio River.

July ndash The British Parliament votes to offer a reward for such person or persons as shall discover the Longitude. (£10,000 for any method capable of determining a ship's longitude within 1 degree £15,000, within 40 minutes, and £20,000 within 1/2 a degree)

Queen Anne of Great Britain refuses to allow members of the House of Hanover to settle in Britain during her lifetime.ref name=CBH

Peter the Great moves the capital of the Russia from Moscow to St. Petersburg.

Battle of Villmergen: Reformed cantons of Switzerland defeat the Catholic cantons.

Battle of Denain: The French defeat a combined Dutch-Austrian force.

"An act declaring England to be a Commonwealth" is passed by the Rump Parliament.

Battle of Rocroi: The French defeat the Spanish at Rocroi, France.

Spain seizes English ships in Spanish ports,ref name=CBH precipitating the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604).

Queen Elizabeth I of England arrests Mary, Queen of Scots.

Anne Boleyn, Queen Consort of Henry VIII of England is executed in the Tower of London.

French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail for his second voyage to North America with three ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's two sons (taken by Cartier during his first voyage).

Paris is captured by John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy.

The Portuguese lift the Siege of Ceuta.

Mircea I of Wallachia is succeeded by Michael I of Wallachia.

The first Portuguese settlers move to the Madeira Islands.

The Council of Constance ends.

September ndash The EnglishSiege of Rouen begins.

Martin I succeeds his brother, John I, as King of Aragon (now north-east Spain).

Vasili I becomes Grand Prince of Moscow after the death of his father, Dmitri Donskoi.

Henry I of France marries Anne of Kiev at the cathedral of Reims.

William of Normandy fights for his life and crown in Normandy.

Pope Gregory II succeeds Pope Constantine as the 89th pope.