Events

• 1009 – Lombard Revolt: Lombard forces led by Melus revolt in Bari against the Byzantine Catepanate of Italy.
• 1271 – Ninth Crusade, Edward I of England disembarks at Acre.
• 1386 – England and Portugal formally ratify their alliance with the signing of the Treaty of Windsor, making it the oldest diplomatic alliance in the world which is still in force.
• 1450 – ‘Abd al-Latif (Timurid monarch) is assassinated.
• 1540 – Hernando de Alarcón sets sail on an expedition to the Gulf of California.
• 1763 – The Siege of Fort Detroit begins during Pontiac’s War against British forces.
• 1864 – Second Schleswig War: The Danish navy defeats the Austrian and Prussian fleets in the Battle of Heligoland.
• 1865 – American Civil War: Nathan Bedford Forrest surrenders his forces at Gainesville, Alabama.
• 1865 – American Civil War: President Andrew Johnson issues a proclamation ending belligerent rights of the rebels and enjoining foreign nations to intern or expel Confederate ships.
• 1877 – Mihail Kogălniceanu reads, in the Chamber of Deputies, the Declaration of Independence of Romania. This day became the Independence Day of Romania.
• 1915 – World War I: Second Battle of Artois between German and French forces.
• 1918 – World War I: Germany repels Britain’s second attempt to blockade the port of Ostend, Belgium.
• 1920 – Polish–Soviet War: The Polish army under General Edward Rydz-Śmigły celebrates its capture of Kiev with a victory parade on Khreshchatyk.
• 1926 – Admiral Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett claim to have flown over the North Pole (later discovery of Byrd’s diary appears to cast some doubt on the claim.)
• 1936 – Italy formally annexes Ethiopia after taking the capital Addis Ababa on May 5.
• 1940 – World War II: The German submarine U-9 sinks the French coastal submarine Doris near Den Helder.
• 1941 – World War II: The German submarine U-110 is captured by the Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma machine which Allied cryptographers later use to break coded German messages.
• 1942 – Holocaust: The SS executes 588 Jewish residents of the Podolian town of Zinkiv (Khmelnytska oblast, Ukraine). The Zoludek Ghetto (in Belarus) is destroyed and all its inhabitants executed or deported.
• 1945 – World War II: The final German Instrument of Surrender is signed at the Soviet headquarters in Berlin-Karlshorst.
• 1945 – World War II: The German occupation of the Channel Islands comes to an end.
• 1946 – King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates and is succeeded by Umberto II.
• 1950 – Robert Schuman presents his proposal on the creation of an organized Europe, which according to him was indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful relations. This proposal, known as the “Schuman Declaration”, is considered by some people to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union.
• 1955 – Cold War: West Germany joins NATO.
• 1964 – Ngô Đình Cẩn, de facto ruler of central Vietnam under his brother President Ngô Đình Diệm before the family’s toppling, is executed.
• 1969 – Carlos Lamarca leads the first urban guerrilla action against the military dictatorship of Brazil in São Paulo, by robbing two banks.
• 1970 – Vietnam War: In Washington, D.C., 75,000 to 100,000 war protesters demonstrate in front of the White House.
• 1974 – Watergate scandal: The United States House Committee on the Judiciary opens formal and public impeachment hearings against President Richard Nixon.
• 1992 – Armenian forces capture Shusha, marking a major turning point in the Nagorno-Karabakh War.
• 2015 – An Airbus A400M Atlas military transport aircraft crashes near the Spanish city of Seville with three people on board killed.
• 2015 – Russia stages its biggest ever military parade in Moscow’s Red Square to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Victory Day.
• Commemoration of the end of the German occupation of the Channel Islands related observances:
  • Liberation Day, commemorating the end of the German occupation of the Channel Islands during World War II. (Guernsey and Jersey).
  • National Day (Alderney).
• Europe Day, commemorating the Schuman Declaration. (European Union).
• Victory Day observances, celebration of the Soviet Union victory over Nazi Germany (Soviet Union, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan).
  • Victory and Peace Day, marks the capture of Shusha (1992) in the Nagorno-Karabakh War, and the end of World War II. (Armenia).
  • Victory Day over Nazism in World War II (Ukraine).

People (Births)

• 1147 – Minamoto no Yoritomo, Japanese shōgun (d. 1199).
• 1594 – Louis Henry, Prince of Nassau-Dillenburg, military leader in the Thirty Years’ War (d. 1662).
• 1873 – Anton Cermak, Czech-American captain and politician, 44th Mayor of Chicago (d. 1933).
• 1888 – Francesco Baracca, Italian fighter pilot (d. 1918).
• 1912 – Per Imerslund, Norwegian-German soldier and author (d. 1943).
• 1918 – Moisis Michail Bourlas, Greek soldier and educator (d. 2011).
• 1919 – Clifford Chadderton, Canadian soldier and journalist (d. 2013).
• 1926 – John Middleton Murry, Jr., English soldier, pilot, and author (d. 2002).
• 1931 – Vance D. Brand, American pilot, engineer, and astronaut.

People (Deaths)

• 934 – Wang Sitong, Chinese general and governor (b. 892).
• 1747 – John Dalrymple, 2nd Earl of Stair, Scottish field marshal and diplomat, British Ambassador to France (b. 1673).
• 1789 – Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval, French general and engineer (b. 1715).
• 1864 – John Sedgwick, American general and educator (b. 1813).
• 1889 – William S. Harney, American general (b. 1800).
• 1983 – Henry Bachtold, Australian soldier and railway engineer (b. 1891).
• 1997 – Rawya Ateya, Egyptian captain and politician (b. 1926).
• 2003 – Russell B. Long, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician (b. 1918).
• 2007 – Dwight Wilson, Canadian soldier (b. 1901).
• 2013 – George M. Leader, American soldier and politician, 36th Governor of Pennsylvania (b. 1918).