On September 6

On this day in ...
... 1593 (415 years ago today), in London, my transnational foremother, Grace O’Malley, met, as depicted at right, with England's Queen Elizabeth I. Grace, whose name in Irish is Gráinne Ni Mháille, is said to have extracted concessions permitting her to continue her trade -- piracy -- on the west coast of Ireland.
... 1965, declaring an intention "to prevent a direct attack by Pakistani forces" against it, India ordered its troops to invade West Pakistan, in movements that seemed to be directed at the city of Lahore. A ceasefire would be declared 3 weeks later. The boundary set in the ceasefire has been dubbed the "Line of Control." The dispute over this region continues to this day. (map credit)

On May 19

On this day in ...
... 2006, the U.N. body charged with monitoring states parties' compliance with the Convention Against Torture, the Committee Against Torture, released a conclusions and recommendations, including the closure of Guantánamo, the camp on the island of Cuba where the United States has held suspected terrorists without trial since January 2002. My ASIL Insight on the committee's recommendation is here.
... 1536, Anne Boleyn was beheaded in the Tower of London on orders of her husband, the English King Henry VIII. Three years earlier Henry, angry that he and his 1st wife, Catherine, never had a male heir, had forced an international schism in order to obtain a divorce and marry the already pregnant Anne (right). No son was born to the couple, and so Henry had her arrested, tried on charges including witchcraft and adultery, and executed. Their daughter, Elizabeth I, would rule Britain for nearly 45 years.