Events

• 1430 – Joan of Arc is captured by the Burgundians while leading an army to raise the Siege of Compiègne.
• 1568 – Dutch rebels led by Louis of Nassau, defeat Jean de Ligne, Duke of Arenberg, and his loyalist troops in the Battle of Heiligerlee, opening the Eighty Years’ War.
• 1609 – Official ratification of the Second Virginia Charter takes place.
• 1618 – The Second Defenestration of Prague precipitates the Thirty Years’ War.
• 1706 – John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, defeats a French army under Marshal François de Neufville, duc de Villeroy at the Battle of Ramillies.
• 1793 – Battle of Famars during the Flanders Campaign of the War of the First Coalition.
• 1846 – Mexican–American War: President Mariano Paredes of Mexico unofficially declares war on the United States.
• 1900 – American Civil War: Sergeant William Harvey Carney is awarded the Medal of Honour for his heroism in the Assault on the Battery Wagner in 1863.
• 1915 – World War I: Italy joins the Allies, fulfilling its part of the Treaty of London.
• 1934 – The Auto-Lite strike culminates in the “Battle of Toledo”, a five-day melée between 1,300 troops of the Ohio National Guard and 6,000 picketers.
• 1939 – The US Navy submarine USS Squalus sinks off the coast of New Hampshire during a test dive, causing the death of 24 sailors and two civilian technicians. The remaining 32 sailors and one civilian naval architect are rescued the following day.
• 1945 – World War II: Heinrich Himmler, head of the Schutzstaffel, commits suicide while in Allied custody.
• 1945 – World War II: Germany’s Flensburg Government under Karl Dönitz is dissolved when its members are arrested by British forces.
• 1949 – Cold War: The Western occupying powers approve the Basic Law and establish a new German state, the Federal Republic of Germany.
• 1998 – The Good Friday Agreement is accepted in a referendum in Northern Ireland with roughly 75% voting yes.
• 2016 – Two suicide bombings, conducted by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, killed at least 45 potential army recruits in Aden, Yemen.
• 2017 – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law in Mindanao, following the Maute’s attack in Marawi.

People (Births)

• 1730 – Prince Augustus Ferdinand of Prussia, Prussian prince and general (d. 1813).
• 1789 – Franz Schlik, Austrian earl and general (d. 1862).
• 1790 – Jules Dumont d’Urville, French admiral and explorer (d. 1842).
• 1800 – Rómulo Díaz de la Vega, Mexican general and president (1855) (d. 1877).
• 1824 – Ambrose Burnside, American general and politician, 30th Governor of Rhode Island (d. 1881).
• 1896 – Felix Steiner, Russian-German SS officer (d. 1966).
• 1898 – Scott O’Dell, American soldier, journalist, and author (d. 1989).
• 1898 – Josef Terboven, German soldier and politician (d. 1945).

People (Deaths)

• 922 – Li Sizhao, Chinese general and governor.
• 1523 – Ashikaga Yoshitane, Japanese shōgun (b. 1466).
• 1813 – Géraud Duroc, French general and diplomat (b. 1772).
• 1855 – Charles Robert Malden, English lieutenant and explorer (b. 1797).
• 1868 – Kit Carson, American general (b. 1809).
• 1920 – Svetozar Boroević, Croatian-Austrian field marshal (b. 1856).
• 1945 – Heinrich Himmler, German commander and politician, Reich Minister of the Interior (b. 1900).
• 1998 – Telford Taylor, American general and lawyer (b. 1908).
• 2006 – Lloyd Bentsen, American colonel and politician, 69th United States Secretary of the Treasury (b. 1921).
• 2009 – Roh Moo-hyun, South Korean soldier and politician, 9th President of South Korea (b. 1946).
• 2015 – Aleksey Mozgovoy, Ukrainian sergeant (b. 1975).