19th May has often been a day for momentous political events. On this day in 1536, Ann Boleyn met her fate and the executioner’s axe. In 1649, England became a commonwealth on this day and stayed that way for eleven years.

On 19th May 1921, the U.S. Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act. It limited the number of immigrants who could enter the US from any one European country to 3% of the total number already in the US, in an atmosphere of post-war isolationism and worries about high immigration. That it didn’t apply to Latin American countries may have set the foundations for a radical change in the ethnic make-up of the USA.

2 Big stories

All change in the chamber

MPs took their seats in the House of Commons for the first time since the General Election, with Lib Dems and Tories mingling on the Government benches and Labour sharing the opposition benches with the smaller parties.

The Guardian had a minute-by-minute account, including reports of tweets:

From Lib Dem MP Jo Swinson:

rather disorientating sitting on the other side of the house – where @tomharrismp used to sit

From Labour MP Tom Watson:

In the house of commons, looking at these new MPs and feeling like a gnarled up old veteran at the age of 43.

From Paul Waugh:

The story of the opening day? The strange silence of the Lib Dem benches. Speeches from Tories, Labour, even SNP, but no LDs

Tensions rise in Thai protests

The Telegraph paints events in Bangkok as the heavy-handed state moving in on largely peaceful protestors, whilst some other sources talk about armed insurgents. As usual, we’ve really no way of knowing.

Under a banner proclaiming “Peaceful Protestors not terrorists” the remaining protestors, including a few hundred women and children, vowed not to leave, but hours later troops were seen clearing parts of the camp, removing banners and leftover food.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

• Mutterings of a Liberal has the Amnesty ad the FT refused to publish. Sadly, we aren’t given any information on the background to it being rejected, assuming the story is accurate – more digging needed.
• Calling all Liberal Demcocrat Doctor Who geeks. You mean there are some? Who knew.

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.