Herma of Aeschylus

Eduard Fraenkel (1888–1970) was a German classical scholar who served as Corpus Christi Professor of Latin at the University of Oxford from 1935 until 1953. Born to a family of assimilated Jews in the German Empire, he studied classics at the Universities of Berlin and Göttingen. He established his academic reputation in 1922 with the publication of a monograph on Plautus, a Roman comedian. In 1934, antisemitic legislation introduced by the Nazi Party forced him to seek refuge in England. He published a three-volume commentary in 1950 on Agamemnon by the Greek playwright Aeschylus (pictured), and a monograph in 1957 on the Roman poet Horace. Biographers place particular emphasis on the impact of his teaching at Oxford, where he led a weekly classical seminar that influenced the intellectual development of many undergraduates. The Hellenist Hugh Lloyd-Jones described Fraenkel as "one of the most learned classical scholars of his time". (Full article...)

Rōki Sasaki

• ... that Rōki Sasaki (pictured) recorded 13 consecutive strikeouts during his April 10 perfect game?
• ... that A. N. Wilson justified fictionalising the life of George Forster for his novel Resolution by saying that Forster "inhabit[ed] a borderline between fact and fiction"?
• ... that bucking bull Spotted Demon won the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Bucking Bull of the Year award at the old age of 10 years?
• ... that Melody, originally composed by Myroslav Skoryk for a 1982 Soviet film, was used in Volodymyr Zelenskyy's broadcast to the U.S. Congress in March 2022?
• ... that Manai Sophiaan asserted in his 1994 memoir that the CIA was involved in the 1965 Indonesian coup attempt?
• ... that half the students of Northern Arizona University left for Christmas early after campus radio station KNAU was pranked?
• ... that Rafflesia meijeri was named after Dutch botanist Willem Meijer for his work on the conservation and study of Rafflesia plants?
• ... that ornithologist Elaina Marie Tuttle discovered that the white-throated sparrow has four sexes?

Hassan Sheikh Mohamud

• Hassan Sheikh Mohamud (pictured) is elected as President of Somalia.
• In the United States, ten people are killed in a mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.
• Ukraine, represented by Kalush Orchestra with the song "Stefania", wins the Eurovision Song Contest.
• Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan inherits the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and becomes President of the United Arab Emirates after the death of Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

May 19: Global Accessibility Awareness Day (2022); Lag BaOmer (Judaism, 2022); Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day in Turkey (1919); Ho Chi Minh's Birthday in Vietnam

Thai soldiers during the crackdown on political protests

• 1655 – Anglo-Spanish War: England invaded Spanish Jamaica, capturing it a week later.
• 1743 – French physicist Jean-Pierre Christin published the design of a mercury thermometer using the centigrade scale, with 0 representing the melting point of water and 100 its boiling point.
• 1828 – The United States Congress passed the largest tariff in the nation's history, which resulted in severe economic hardship in the American South.
• 1997 – The Sierra Gorda Biosphere, which encompasses the most ecologically diverse region in Mexico, was established as a result of grassroots efforts.
• 2010 – In Bangkok, the Thai military (pictured) concluded a week-long crackdown on widespread protests by forcing the surrender of opposition leaders.