Events

• 1009 – Lombard Revolt: Lombard forces led by Melus revolt in Bari against the Byzantine Catepanate of Italy.
• 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.
• 1540 – Hernando de Alarcón sets sail on an expedition to the Gulf of California.
• 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 05 May.
• 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 – The Holocaust in Ukraine: The SS executes 588 Jewish residents of the Podolian town of Zinkiv (Khmelnytska oblast. 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.
• 1946 – King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates and is succeeded by Umberto II.
• 1948 – Czechoslovakia’s Ninth-of-May Constitution comes into effect.
• 1950 – Robert Schuman presents the “Schuman Declaration”, considered by some to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union.
• 1955 – Cold War: West Germany joins NATO.
• 1969 – Carlos Lamarca leads the first urban guerrilla action against the military dictatorship of Brazil in São Paulo, by robbing two banks.
• 1992 – Armenian forces capture Shusha, marking a major turning point in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.
• 2002 – The 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem comes to an end when the Palestinians inside agree to have 13 suspected terrorists among them deported to several different countries.
• 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 First 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).
• 1882 – Henry J. Kaiser, American shipbuilder and businessman, founded Kaiser Shipyards (d. 1967).
• 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).
• 1918 – Orville Freeman, American soldier and politician, 16th United States Secretary of Agriculture (d. 2003).
• 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.
• 1941 – Dorothy Hyman, English sprinter.
• 1958 – Graham Smith, Canadian swimmer.
• 1968 – Marie-José Pérec, French sprinter.
• 1973 – Tegla Loroupe, Kenyan runner.
• 1973 – Leonard Myles-Mills, Ghanaian sprinter.
• 1977 – Svein Tuft, Canadian cyclist.
• 1980 – Grant Hackett, Australian swimmer.
• 1983 – Alan Campbell, British sculler.

People (Deaths)

• 893 – Shi Pu, warlord of the Tang Dynasty.
• 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).
• 1915 – François Faber, Luxembourgian-French cyclist and soldier (b. 1887).
• 1933 – John Arthur Jarvis, English swimmer (b. 1872).
• 1983 – Henry Bachtold, Australian soldier and railway engineer (b. 1891).
• 1997 – Rawya Ateya, Egyptian captain and politician (b. 1926).
• 2007 – Dwight Wilson, Canadian soldier (b. 1901).
• 2011 – Wouter Weylandt, Belgian cyclist (b. 1984).
• 2013 – George M. Leader, American soldier and politician, 36th Governor of Pennsylvania (b. 1918).
• 2013 – Ottavio Missoni, Italian hurdler and fashion designer, founded Missoni (b. 1921).
• 2015 – Kenan Evren, Turkish general and politician, 7th President of Turkey (b. 1917).