Events

• 1091 – Battle of Levounion: The Pechenegs are defeated by Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos.
• 1386 – Battle of the Vikhra River: The Principality of Smolensk is defeated by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and becomes its vassal.
• 1429 – Joan of Arc arrives to relieve the Siege of Orléans.
• 1483 – Gran Canaria, the main island of the Canary Islands, is conquered by the Kingdom of Castile.
• 1521 – Swedish War of Liberation: Swedish troops defeat a Danish force in the Battle of Västerås.
• 1624 – French king Louis XIII names Cardinal Richelieu chief minister of France.
• 1760 – French forces commence the siege of Quebec which is held by the British.
• 1770 – James Cook arrives in Australia at Botany Bay, which he names.
• 1781 – American Revolutionary War: British and French ships clash in the Battle of Fort Royal off the coast of Martinique.
• 1852 – Roget’s Thesaurus, created by Peter Roget, was released to the public.
• 1861 – Maryland in the American Civil War: Maryland’s House of Delegates votes not to secede from the Union.
• 1862 – American Civil War: The Capture of New Orleans by Union forces under David Farragut.
• 1864 – Theta Xi fraternity is founded at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the only fraternity to be founded during the American Civil War.
• 1910 – The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the People’s Budget, the first budget in British history with the expressed intent of redistributing wealth among the British public.
• 1916 – World War I: The UK’s 6th Indian Division surrenders to Ottoman Forces at the Siege of Kut in one of the largest surrenders of British forces up to that point.
• 1916 – Easter Rising: After six days of fighting, Irish rebel leaders surrender to British forces in Dublin, bringing the Easter Rising to an end.
• 1944 – World War II: New Zealand-born SOE agent Nancy Wake, a leading figure in the French Resistance and the Gestapo’s most wanted person, parachutes back into France to be a liaison between London and the local maquis group.
• 1945 – World War II: The Surrender of Caserta is signed by the commander of German forces in Italy.
• 1945 – World War II: Airdrops of food begin over German-occupied regions of the Netherlands.
• 1945 – World War II: HMS Goodall (K479) is torpedoed by U-286 outside the Kola Inlet, becoming the last Royal Navy ship to be sunk in the European theatre of World War II.
• 1945 – World War II: Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler marries his long-time partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker and designates Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor; Hitler and Braun both commit suicide the following day.
• 1945 – Dachau concentration camp is liberated by United States troops.
• 1945 – The Italian commune of Fornovo di Taro is liberated from German forces by Brazilian forces.
• 1946 – The International Military Tribunal for the Far East convenes and indicts former Prime Minister of Japan Hideki Tojo and 28 former Japanese leaders for war crimes.
• 1951 – Tibetan delegates arrive in Beijing and sign a Seventeen Point Agreement for Chinese sovereignty and Tibetan autonomy.
• 1967 – Vietnam War: After refusing induction into the US Army the previous day, Muhammad Ali is stripped of his boxing title.
• 1970 – Vietnam War: United States and South Vietnamese forces invade Cambodia to hunt Viet Cong.
• 1975 – Vietnam War: Operation Frequent Wind: The US begins to evacuate US citizens from Saigon before an expected North Vietnamese takeover.
  • US involvement in the war comes to an end.
• 1975 – Vietnam War: The North Vietnamese army completes its capture of all parts of South Vietnamese-held Trường Sa Islands.
• 1986 – The United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Enterprise becomes the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to transit the Suez Canal, navigating from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea to relieve the USS Coral Sea.
• 1997 – The Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993 enters into force, outlawing the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons by its signatories.
• Day of Remembrance for all Victims of Chemical Warfare (United Nations).

People (Births)

• 912 – Minamoto no Mitsunaka, Japanese samurai (d. 997).
• 1665 – James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde, Irish general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (d. 1745).
• 1758 – Georg Carl von Döbeln, Swedish general (d. 1820).
• 1762 – Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, French general and politician, French Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 1833).
• 1837 – Georges Ernest Boulanger, French general and politician, French Minister of War (d. 1891).
• 1880 – Fethi Okyar, Turkish military officer, diplomat and politician (d. 1943).
• 1882 – Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman, Dutch printer, typographer, and Nazi resister (d. 1945).
• 1887 – Raymond Thorne, American swimmer (d. 1921).
• 1900 – Concha de Albornoz, Spanish feminist and intellectual, exiled during the Spanish Civil War (d. 1972).
• 1901 – Hirohito, Japanese emperor (d. 1989).
• 1927 – Dorothy Manley, English sprinter (d. 2021).
• 1934 – Peter de la Billière, English general.
• 1934 – Erika Fisch, German sprinter and hurdler.
• 1947 – Jim Ryun, American runner and politician.
• 1962 – Rob Druppers, Dutch runner.
• 1965 – Larisa Turchinskaya, Russian-Australian heptathlete and coach.
• 1969 – Jack Mackenroth, American swimmer, model, and fashion designer.
• 1977 – Attila Zsivoczky, Hungarian decathlete and high jumper.
• 1981 – Émilie Mondor, Canadian runner (d. 2006).
• 1984 – Kirby Cote, Canadian swimmer.
• 1988 – Taoufik Makhloufi, Algerian athlete.

People (Deaths)

• 643 – Hou Junji, Chinese general and politician, Chancellor of the Tang dynasty.
• 1630 – Agrippa d’Aubigné, French soldier and poet (b. 1552).
• 1676 – Michiel de Ruyter, Dutch admiral (b. 1607).
• 1854 – Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey, English field marshal and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (b. 1768).
• 1920 – William H. Seward Jr., American general and banker (b. 1839).
• 1945 – Matthias Kleinheisterkamp, German SS officer (b. 1893).
• 1956 – Harold Bride, English soldier and operator (b. 1890).
• 1956 – Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, German field marshal (b. 1876).
• 1959 – Kenneth Anderson, India-born English soldier and Governor of Gibraltar (b. 1891).
• 2000 – Phạm Văn Đồng, Vietnamese lieutenant and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Vietnam (b. 1906).
• 2003 – Janko Bobetko, Croatian Army general and Chief of the General Staff (b. 1919).
• 2007 – Milt Bocek, American baseball player and soldier (b. 1912).