Events

• 1527 – Spanish and German troops sack Rome; many scholars consider this the end of the Renaissance.
• 1536 – The Siege of Cuzco commences, in which Incan forces attempt to retake the city of Cuzco from the Spanish.
• 1659 – English Restoration: A faction of the British Army removes Richard Cromwell as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth and reinstalls the Rump Parliament.
• 1682 – Louis XIV of France moves his court to the Palace of Versailles.
• 1757 – Battle of Prague: A Prussian army fights an Austrian army in Prague during the Seven Years’ War.
• 1757 – The end of Konbaung-Hanthawaddy War, and the end of Burmese Civil War (1740-1757).
• 1801 – Captain Thomas Cochrane in the 14-gun HMS Speedy captures the 32-gun Spanish frigate El Gamo.
• 1857 – The East India Company disbands the 34th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry whose sepoy Mangal Pandey had earlier revolted against the British in the lead up to the War of Indian Independence.
• 1861 – American Civil War: Arkansas secedes from the Union.
• 1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville ends with the defeat of the Army of the Potomac by the Army of Northern Virginia.
• 1877 – Chief Crazy Horse of the Oglala Lakota surrenders to United States troops in Nebraska.
• 1882 – The United States Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act.
• 1889 – The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris.
• 1910 – George V becomes King of Great Britain, Ireland, and many overseas territories, on the death of his father, Edward VII.
• 1916 – Twenty-one Lebanese nationalists are executed in Martyrs’ Square, Beirut by Djemal Pasha.
• 1916 – Vietnamese Emperor Duy Tân is captured while calling upon the people to rise up against the French, and is later deposed and exiled to Réunion island.
• 1941 – World War II: At California’s March Field, Bob Hope performs his first USO show.
• 1941 – The first flight of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt.
• 1942 – World War II: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.
• 1945 – World War II: Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.
• 1945 – World War II: The Prague Offensive, the last major battle of the Eastern Front, begins.
• 1949 – EDSAC, the first practical electronic digital stored-programme computer, runs its first operation.
• 1954 – Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes.
• 1975 – During a lull in fighting, 100,000 Armenians gather in Beirut for the 60th anniversary commemorations of the Armenian Genocide.
• 1983 – The Hitler Diaries are revealed as a hoax after being examined by new experts.
• 1994 – Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President François Mitterrand officiate at the opening of the Channel Tunnel.
• Earliest day on which Military Spouse Day can fall, while 12 May is the latest; celebrated on Friday before Mother’s Day (United States).

People (Births)

• 1758 – André Masséna, French general (d. 1817).
• 1800 – Roman Sanguszko, Polish general (d. 1881).
• 1872 – Djemal Pasha, Ottoman general (d. 1922).
• 1895 – Fidél Pálffy, Hungarian soldier and politician, Hungarian Minister of Agriculture (d. 1946).
• 1898 – Konrad Henlein, Czech soldier and politician (d. 1945).
• 1932 – Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath, English lieutenant and politician (d. 2020).
• 1943 – Andreas Baader, German terrorist, co-founded the Red Army Faction (d. 1977).
• 1947 – Ljubomir Vračarević, Serbian martial artist, founded Real Aikido (d. 2013).
• 1951 – Samuel Doe, Liberian sergeant and politician, 21st President of Liberia (d. 1990).
• 1955 – John Hutton, Baron Hutton of Furness, English academic and politician, Secretary of State for Defence.
• 1959 – Andreas Busse, German runner.
• 1961 – Oleksandr Apaychev, Ukrainian decathlete and coach.
• 1968 – Worku Bikila, Ethiopian runner.
• 1972 – Naoko Takahashi, Japanese runner.
• 1974 – Bernard Barmasai, Kenyan runner.
• 1977 – Christophe Brandt, Belgian cyclist.
• 1978 – Alexandr Fedorov, Russian bodybuilder.
• 1980 – Brooke Bennett, American swimmer.
• 1997 – Duncan Scott, Scottish swimmer.

People (Deaths)

• 53 BC – Marcus Crassus, Roman Consul and General (b. 115 BC).
• 932 – Qian Liu, Chinese warlord and king (b. 852).
• 1471 – Edmund Beaufort, English commander (b. 1438).
• 1502 – James Tyrrell, English knight (b. 1450).
• 1757 – Kurt Christoph Graf von Schwerin, Prussian field marshal (b. 1684).
• 1840 – Francisco de Paula Santander, Colombian general and politician, 4th President of the Republic of the New Granada (b. 1792).
• 1970 – Alexander Rodzyanko, Russian general (b. 1879).
• 2014 – William H. Dana, American pilot, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1930).
• 2015 – Jim Wright, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 56th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (b. 1922).