May Military History

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Born
1 1238 King Magnus VI of Norway (1263-80)
  1245 King Philippe III of France (1270-85)
  1501 Marcello Cervini degli Spannochi - Pope Marcellus II (7 Apr-6 May 1555)
  1764 Benjamin Henry Latrobe, designer of the U.S. Capital
  1769 Arthur Wellsley, the Duke of Wellington
  1800 Thomas Aloysius Dornin, naval officer, U.S., d. 1874
  1807 John Bankhead "Prince John" Magruder, Maj Gen, C.S.A.
  1819 William Steele, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1885
  1830 Marie Harris "Mother" Jones, radical
  1835 Alfred Napoleon Alexander Duffie, Brig Gen, U.S.
  1881 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Jesuit theologian, paleontologist, who earned the Médaille Militaire and Legion of Honor in WW I
  1909 Kate Smith, singer (“God Bless America”)
  1923 Joseph Heller, veteran, novelist ("Catch-22")
2 1729 Tsarina Catherine II “the Great” of Russia (1762-96)
  1810 Giacchino Pecci – Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903)
  1849 Prince Bernhard von Bülow, German Chancellor (1900-09)
  1850 Theodore Herzel, founder of Zionism
  1892 Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen, the Red Baron
  1935 King Faisal II of Iraq (1939-58), murdered 1958
  1935 King Hussein ibn Talal of Jordan (1952-2000)
  1938 Constantine Bereng Seeiso - King Moshoeshoe II of Lesotho (1966-1995)
3 611 Byzantine Emperor Constantine III (Feb 11-May 26 [?] 641)
  1455 King Joao II of Portugal (1481-95), friend to Jews
  1469 Niccolo Machiavelli
  1816 Montgomery Meigs, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1892
  1826 King Charles XV Bernadotte of Sweden and Norway (1859-72)
  1897 Krishna Menon, leftist Indian Minister of Defense
  1898 Golda Meir, Israeli PM (1969-74)
4 1508 Ercole II d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, Modena, & Reggio (1534-59), son of Alfonso I & Lucrezia Borgia, condottiero, d. 1559
  1778 Onorato V Gabriele Grimaldi, Prince of Monaco (1815-1841), Captain of Imperial Dragoons (1810-1814)
  1796 Joseph Pannell Taylor, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1864
  1796 William H. Prescott, historian ("The Conquest of Mexico")
  1810 Count Alexandre Walweski, illegitimate son of Napoleon I, Minister to III
  1889 Francis J Spellman, Vicar General of the U.S. Armed Forces, Archbishop of NY
  1928 Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt (1981-)
5 482 Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Justinianus - Roman Emperor Justinian, at Tauresiurn, Thrace
  1061 Godfrey of Bouillon, Crusader, King of Jerusalem (1099-1100)
  1352 Ruprecht, uncrowned Holy Roman Emperor (1400-1410)
  1818 Karl Marx, who inspired untold slaughter
  1822 Sir Harry Paget Flashman, V.C., etc., etc., d. 1915
  1823 James Allen Hardie, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1870
  1826 Eugenie Maria de Montijo y de Guzman, Mrs. Napoleon III
  1879 Symon Petlyura, Ukrainian nationalist
  1884 Wang Ching-Wei, Premier of China (1932-35), later a Japanese puppet
  1900 Spencer Tracy, actor ("Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo")
  1908 Rex Harrison, actor ("Cleopatra")
  1913 Tyrone Power, actor (“Prince of Foxes")
6 973 Holy Roman Emperor Henry II (1014-1024)
  1574 Giambattista Pamfili - Pope Innocent X (1644-1655)
  1585 John Rolfe, husband of Pocahontas
  1758 Maximilien Robespierre, French demagogue, guillotined, 1794
  1769 Grand Duke Ferdinand III of Tuscany
  1812 Maj. Martin Robinson Delaney, seniormost black Civil War officer
  1813 Joseph Tarr Copeland, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1893
  1825 Joseph Bailey, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1867
  1902 Air Chief Marshal Walter Dawson
  1913 Stewart Granger, actor ("Prisoner of Zenda," "Bohwani Junction")
  1953 Tony Blair, British prime minister
7 1530 Prince Louis I de Conde, Huguenot leader
  1574 Giambattista Pamfili - Pope Innocent X (1644-55)
  1763 Josef Poniatowski, Polish general, Marshal of France, d. 1813
  1827 Francis Engle Patterson, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1862
  1892 Josip Broz Tito, soldier, partisan, Yugoslav dictator, d. 1980
  1901 Gary Cooper, actor ("Sergeant York")
  1919 Evita Duarte, wife to Juan Peron, First Lady of Argentina
8 1629 Niels Juel, Danish admiral
  1737 Capt. Edward Gibbon of the Hampshire Grenadiers
  1753 Fr. Miguel Hidalgo y Castilla, leader of the Mexican Revolution
  1810 James Cooper, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1863
  1814 Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin, revolutionary anarchist
  1824 William Walker, American filibuster, President of Nicaragua (1856-57)
  1833 Frank Wheaton, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1903
  1836 Bryan Morel Thomas, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1905
  1884 Harry S Truman, National Guardsman, veteran
  1899 Jan van Hall, Dutch sculptor and resistance fighter
9 1800 John Brown, abolitionist. Hanged, 1859
  1824 William Edmonson "Grumble" Jones, Brig Gen, C.S.A.
  1843 Belle Boyd, Confederate spy
  1882 Henry J. Kaiser, master ship builder
  1892 Zita, last Empress of Austria & Queen of Hungary
  1907 Baldur von Schirach, Nazi youth leader
  1921 Sophie Scholl, “White Rose” anti-Nazi, executed 1943
  1925 Peter Leng, Master General of the Ordnance
10 214 M. Aurelius Claudius - Emperor Claudius II Gothicus (268-270)
  1536 Thomas Howard, Fourth Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal of England
  1724 Johan Zoutman, Dutch Admiral (Doggerbank)
  1730 George Ross, Signer of the Declaration of Independence
  1769 Marshal of France Jean Lannes, duc de Montebello, kia, 1809
  1770 Marshal of France Louis Nicholas Davout
  1810 James Shields, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1879
  1824 Charles Henry Van Wyck, Brig Gen. U.S., d 1895
  1838 John Wilkes Booth, actor, heartthrob, assassin, k 1865
11 1568 Christian I of Anhalt-Bernburg
  1720 Karl Friedrich Heironymus Freiherr von Munchhausen, soldier, fabulist, d. 1797
  1821 Charles John Stolbrand, Brig Gen, U.S.,
  1830 John Converse Starkweather, Brig Gen, U.S.
  1888 Irving Berlin, Doughboy, composer ("God Bless America")
  1894 Anton A Mussert, Dutch Nazi
  1912 Phil Silvers, actor ("Sergeant Bilko," “Marcus Leicus Leno”)
12 1567 Claudio Monteverdi, soldier, composer
  1670 August II the Strong of Poland, Duke of Saxony, sire of 355 children
  1729 Michael Freiherr von Melas, Austrian general, Revolutionary Wars
  1806 Amos Beebe Eaton, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1877
  1812 Louis Blenker, Brig Gen, U.S., in 1863
  1820 Florence Nightingale
13 1265 Dante Alighieri, cavalryman, traveler, poet, who loved Beatrice
  1655 Michelangelo Dei Conti - Pope Innocent XIII (1721-1724)
  1717 Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria and Bohemia, Queen of Hungary, Empress. d. 1780
  1769 King Joao VI of Portugal (1816-26)
  1792 Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti - Pope St. Pius IX (1846-1878)
  1914 Joe Louis, the “Brown Bomber,” heavyweight, soldier
  1931 Jim Jones, homicidal prophet
14 968 Earl Leofric III of Mercia, husband to Lady Godiva, d. 1057
  1316 King Charles IV of Bohemia (1346-78), Holy Roman Emperor (1355-78)
  1553 Queen Marguerite de Valois of Navarre
  1710 King Adolfus Frederik of Sweden (1751-70)
  1830 George Pierce Doles, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1864
  1836 James Patrick Major, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1877
15 1633 Sebastien Le Prestre, Seigneur de Vauban, fortification master, d. 1707
  1773 Prince Klements Wenzel von Metternich, statesman, d. 1859
  1929 Andrew Willoughby Ninian Bertie, later 78th Grand Mester of the Sovereign Military Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, Rhodes, and Malta, d. 2008
16 1611 Benedetto Odescalchi - Pope Innocent XI (1676-1689), later beatified
  1760 Claude J.R. de Lisle, composer of "La Marseillaise"
  1801 William Henry Seward, Secretary of State (1861-1869)
  1806 George C. Cadwalader, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1879
  1816 Henry Hopkins Sibley, Brig Gen, C.S.A., drunkard, d. 1886
  1819 Daniel Ammen, naval officer, U.S., d. 1898
  1824 Edmund Kirby Smith, General, C.S.A., d. 1893
  1893 Jose Calvo Sotelo, Spanish Minister of Finance, murdered 1936
  1905 Henry Fonda, naval officer, actor ("Mr. Roberts")
  1916 Gregory Peck, actor ("Twelve O'Clock High")
  1936 Philippe de Montebello, Director Metropolitan Museum, heir to Marshal Lannes
17 1451 Count Engelbert II of Nassau-Dillenburg-Dietz, Viceroy of Luxembourg
  1490 Albrecht von Hohenzollern, first Duke of Prussia
  1741 John Penn, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, d. 1788
  1812 Joseph Warren Revere, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1880
  1886 King Alfonso XIII of Spain, born a king, deposed 1931, d. 1941
  1900 Ruhollah Khomeini, evil high priest, d. 1989
  1925 Malcolm X, k. 1965
  1928 Donald Cameron Watt, historian (“How War Came”)
  1928 Pol Pot, Cambodian mass murderer
18 1797 King Frederik Augustus II of Saxony (1836-54)
  1798 Ethan Allen Hitchcock, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1870
  1817 James William Denver, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1892
  1868 Nicholas II, the last Tsar (1894-1917), murdered, 1918
  1869 Crown Prince Ruprecht of Bavaria, German general
  1872 Bertrand Russell, pacifist, when it was convenient
19 1808 Samuel Jameson Gholson, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1883
  1812 Felix Kirk Zollicoffer, Brig Gen, C.S.A., kia 1862
  1815 John Gross Barnard, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1882
  1828 Adin Ballou Underwood, Brig Gen, U.S.
  1860 Victor Emanuel Orlando, Italian premier (1917-19)
  1890 Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese Communist leader (1946-1969)
  1891 Oswald Boelcke, German ace (40 kills), kia 1916
  1897 Frank Luke, American ace (18 kills), kia, 1918
  1939 Francis R. Scobee, USAF, astronaut
  1955 Pierre J. Thuot, USN, astronaut
20 1743 Toussaint L'Ouverture, Liberator of Haiti
  1799 Honoré de Balzac, author ("Droll Stories")
  1828 James William Reilly, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1905
  1883 Faisal ibn Husayn, friend to Lawrence, King of Iraq (1921-1933)
  1915 Moshe Dayan, Israeli general and defense minister
  1944 David M. Walker, USN, astronaut
21 427 BC Plato, wrestler, hoplite, philosopher
  1527 King Philip II of Spain (1556-98) and Portugal (1580-98)
  1775 Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of Canino and Musignano, courtesy of his brother
  1822 Dabney Herndon Maury, Maj Gen, C.S.A., d. 1900
  1822 Mosby Monroe Parsons, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1865
  1825 George Lafayette Beal, Brig Gen, U.S.
  1826 Prince Danilo II of Montenegro
  1835 Newton Martin Curtis, Brig Maj Gen, U.S.
  1851 Leon Bourgeois, French politician, Nobel Peace Prize, 1920
  1878 Glenn Hammond Curtiss, aviation pioneer
  1885 Umberto Nobile, aviation pioneer
  1921 Andrei Sakharov, Father of the Soviet H-Bomb, Nobel Peace Prize, 1975
  1924 Telly Savalas, actor (“The Battle of the Bulge”)
  1942 Robert C. Springer, USMC, astronaut
22 1813 Richard Wagner, composer ("The Flying Dutchman," "The Ring")
  1821 Alfred Sully, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1879
  1859 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author ("Sherlock Holmes)
  1885 Toyoda Soemu, CinC, Combined Fleet, 1944-1945, d. 1957
23 1813 Mason Brayman, Bvt Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1895
  1824 Ambrose E. Burnside, Maj Gen, U.S.
  1837 James Sanks Brisbin, Bvt Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1892
  1843 Hans Heinrich XIV, Graf von Hochberg, Freiherr zu Fürstenstein, composer
  1957 Princess Caroline of Monaco
24 15 BC Germanicus Caesar, overrated general, d. AD 19
  1738 King George III (1760-1820)
  1743 Jean-Paul Marat, who met Charlotte Corday in the bath
  1751 King Charles Emanuel II of Sardinia (1796-1802)
  1753 Oliver Cromwell, black American patriot
  1803 Charles Bonaparte, son of Lucien, Prince of Canino & Musignano, d. 1854
  1811 Charles Clark, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1877
  1816 Emanuel Leutze, painter ("Washington Crossing the Delaware")
  1816 Robert Seaman Granger, Brig Gen, d. 1894
  1819 Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India
  1854 Louis Battenburg/Mountbatten, British admiral
  1870 Jan C. Smuts, South African general and politician
  1904 Kenneth Buckley, British rear-admiral
  1905 Mikhail Sholokov, novelist ("And Quiet Flows the Don")
25 1550 Camillus de Lellis, Soldier & Saint, d. 1607
  1781 Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Este
  1818 Franz Edvard Todleben, Russian military engineer, defender of Sebastopol
  1852 Louis Franchet d'Espèrey, Marshal of France
  1865 King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony (1904-18)
  1878 Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, drum major, 369th Infantry, WW I, dancer
  1889 Gunther Lutjens, German admiral, kia 1941 in the Bismarck
  1889 Igor Sikorsky, aviation pioneer
  1908 David Lean, British director ("Lawrence of Arabia")
26 1478 Giulio de' Medici - Pope Clement VII (1523-34)
  1566 Sultan Mohammed III of Turkey (1595-1603)
  1799 Alexander Pushkin
  1806 Henry Knox Thatcher, naval officer, U.S., d. 1880
  1835 Edward Porter Alexander, Brig Gen, C.S.A., artilleryman
  1877 Sadao Araki, Japanese Minister of War (1931-34)
  1895 Paul Lukas, actor (“Watch on the Rhine”)
  1907 John Wayne, IV-F actor ("Sands of Iwo Jima")
  1912 Janos Kadar, Communist premier of Hungary (1956-58)
  1968 Prince Frederik of Denmark
27 1626 Prince William II of Orange
  1756 King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria
  1774 Adm Francis Beaufort, devised the wind force scale
  1819 Julia Ward Howe, lyricist (“The Battle Hymn of the Republic")
  1823 John Gray Foster, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1874
  1836 Edwin Gray Lee, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1870
  1837 Robert Frederick Hoke, Maj Gen, C.S.A., d. 1912
  1837 William "Wild Bill” Hickok
  1894 Dashiell Hammett, soldier, novelist ("Maltese Falcon")
  1923 Henry Kissinger, in Germany
  1936 Louis Gossett, Jr., actor (“An Officer & a Gentleman”)
28 970 BC King Solomon of Israel
  1369 Muzio Attendolo Sforza, Condottiero, drowned 1424
  1371 Duke John the Fearless of Burgundy
  1577 Count Floris II van Pallandt of Culemborg
  1660 King George I of England (1714-27)
  1759 William Pitt the Younger, Prime Minister (1783-1801, 1804-06)
  1818 Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, General, C.S.A.
  1819 William Birney, Brig Gen, U.S. d. 1907
  1828 Alpheus Baker, Brig Gen, C.S., d. 1891
  1830 George Lucas Hartsuff, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1874
  1838 Basil Wilson Duke, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1916
  1908 Ian Fleming, British spymaster, author ("James Bond")
29 1439 Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini - Pope Pius III (22 Sep-18 Oct 1503)
  1594 Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim, Imperial general, kia 1632
  1630 King Charles II of England (1660-85)
  1736 Patrick Henry, patriot
  1763 Joseph Fouche, head of Napoleon’s secret police
  1810 Erasmus Darwin Keyes, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1895
  1810 Solomon Meredith, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1875
  1824 Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox, Maj Gen, C.S.A.
  1825 David Bell Birney, Maj Gen, U.S.
  1827 Reuben Lindsay Walker, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1890
  1880 Oswald Spengler, philosopher ("The Decline of the West")
  1903 Bob Hope, USO entertainer
  1917 John F. Kennedy, naval officer, president, k. 1963
30 339 Eusebius of Caesarea, "Father of Ecclesiastical History"
  1220 Alexander Nevski, Prince of Novgorod (1252-63)
  1524 Sultan Selîm II “the Blonde” of Turkey (1566-74)
  1672 Tsar Peter I "the Great" of Russia (1682-1725)
  1812 John Alexander McClernand, Maj Gen, U.S.
  1832 George Doherty Johnston, Brig Gen, C.S.A.
  1845 Duke Amadeo d’Aosta, King of Spain (1870-73)
  1881 George von Kuchler, German field marshal
  1958 Michael Lopez-Alegria, USN, astronaut
31 1469 King Manuel I of Portugal(1495-1521)
  1819 Walt Whitman, war poet ("Beat Drums, Beat!")
  1837 Stephen Dodson Ramseur, Maj Gen, C.S.A., KIA 1864
  1837 William Henry Fitzhugh "Rooney" Lee, Maj Gen, C.S.A.
  1857 Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti – Pope Pius XI (1922-1939)
  1923 Rainier III Grimaldi, Sovereign Prince of Monaco (1949-2005)

Died
1 408 Roman Emperor Arcadius
  1118 Queen Maud of England
  1171 King Dermot MacMurrough, last Irish King of Leinster
  1277 King Stefan IV “the Great” of Serbia (1243-76)
  1281 Ugolino Manfredi, condottiero, kia at Forli
  1282 Count Taddeo of Montefeltro (1266-82), kia against his brother Guido I, from whom he had usurpsed the title in 1266
  1308 Holy Roman Emperor Albrecht I von Hapsburg (1298-1308), assassinated by his nephew
  1447 Duke Ludwig VII of Bavaria (1413-43)
  1572 Pope St. Pius V - Michele Ghisleri (1566-1572)
  1888 Erstwhile Confederate brigadier William Wirt Adams and Mississippi journalist J. H. Martin, the former having ambushed the latter, putting three three bullets into him, while receiving one in the heart
  1896 Shah Naser ed-Din of Persia (1848-96), murdered at 65
  1993 Pres Ranasinghe Premadasa of Sri Lanka (1989-93), 68, & bodyguards, by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber
2 903 Tsar St. Boris I of Bulgaria
  1250 Turanshah, the last Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt, murdered
  1285 Manfredo Manfredi, Lord of Serravalle al Senio, murdered by his brother Alberigo Manfredi, for his lands
  1285 Alberghetto, son of Manfredo, murdered by his uncle Alberigo Manfredi
  1501 Agamennone Marescotti, Patrician of Bologna, murdered by Ermes Bentivoglio, Agesilao Marescotti, Antenore Marescotti, Bedoro de’ Preti, husband to Cornelia Marescotti, Marescotto Marescotti, Scipione Marescotti, & Tideo Marescotti, Bolognese Patricians, murdered by Ermes Bentivoglio for conspiring with Cesare Borgia
  1519 Leonardo from Vinci, military engineer, at 67
  1679 James Sharpe, Archbishop of St. Andrew's in Scotland, assassinated
  1845 August Pauly, scholar (“Real-Encyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft”), at 48
  1849 David Chasse‚ Dutch-Belgian general, at 84
  1945 Martin Bormann, Hitler henchman
  1972 J. Edgar Hoover, at 77
  2002 William T. Tutte, British master codebreaker
3 115 Pope St. Alexander I (c. 106-115), martyr
  1270 King Bela IV of Hungary
  1294 Duke Jan I of Brabant and Limburg
  1410 Pope Alexander V - Pietro Philargi (June 26, 1409—May 3, 1410)
  1442 Count Engelbert I of Nassau-Dillenburg
  1481 Sultan Mohammed II "the Conqueror" of Turkey (1451-81)
  1758 Pope Benedict XIV - Propsero Loreanzo Lambertini (1740-1758), scholar, 83
  1916 Pedraic Pearse, Irish patriot, British firing squad
  1926 Napoleon V Bonaparte, pretender to the throne of France
  2007 Walter M. Schirra, Jr., USN, astronaut, at 84
4 1471 Prince Edward of Wales, son of Henry VI, kia, Tewkesbury, at 17
  1471 Lord Wenlock, axed for ineptitude by the Duke of Somerset, after Tewksbury
  1799 Tipu Sultan, kia at Seringapatam
  1885 King Alexander I Karadjordjevic of Serbia (1842-58), at 78
  1938 Carl von Ossietzky, pacifist, Nobel Peace Prize, 1935, at 52
  1945 Count Franz zu Stolberg-Wernigerode, in the Soviet P/W camp at Gostynia
  1955 Louis Breguet, French aviation pioneer, at 75
  1970 Alisa Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer, & William Schroeder, ROTC cadet, shot at Kent State
  1980 Josip Broz Tito, dictator of Yugoslavia (1943-80), at 87
  2004 Andrew Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire (1950-2004), Military Cross, b. 1920
5 1028 King Alfonso V of Leon & Castille (999-1028), while besieging Viseu
  1194 Grand Duke Casimir II the Just of Poland (1177-94)
  1309 King Charles II of Naples (1285-1309)
  1432 Francesco “Carmagnola” Bussone, condottiero, beheaded by the Serenissima at c. 42
  1525 Duke Frederik III the Wise of Saxony (1486-1525)
  1555 Pope Marcellus II - Marcello Cervini degli Spannochi (7 Apr-6 May 1555)
  1705 Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, at 64
  1786 King Pedro III of Portugal
  1821 The Corsican Ogre, on St. Helena
  1827 King Frederik Augustus I of Saxony (1806-27), at 76
  1921 Alfred H Fried, pacifist, Nobel Peace Prize, 1911
  1981 Bobby Sands, IRA activist, on the 66th day of a hunger strike
6 523 King Thrasamund of the Vandals (496-523)
  988 Count Dirk II of Holland
  1085 King Alfonso VI of León, Liberator of Toledo
  1124 Emir Balak of Aleppo, murdered
  1333 Bertoldo Orsini, Duke of Bracciano, Buccio Ballo, Cecco Ballo, Cola Orsini, Count Francesco dell’Anguillara, Francesco Savelli, Giovanni Annibaldi, Giovanni Orsini, Giovanni Savelli, Guglielmo Savelli, Martino da Porto Stefano, Matteo di Campo dei Fiori, Nuccio Savelli, Pietro d’Amico, & Rinaldo Orsini, in the Ambush of San Cesario
  1501 Pope Marcellus II - Marcello Cervini degli Spannochi (Mar 17 - May 6, 1555)
  1527 Charles de Bourbon, 37, French rebel, Imperial general, shot in the head by Benevenuto Cellini while storming Rome
  1575 Ristoro Ludovico Machiavelli, Patrician of Florence, executed for conspiracy against the Duke of Tuscany.
  1757 Kurt Christoph Graf von Schwerin, Prussian field marshal, 70. cannonballed at Prague, rallying the troops
  1882 Frederick Cavendish & Thomas Henry Burke, shot by the Fenians
  1910 King Edward VII of England (1901-10)
  1987 William J Casey, director of CIA (1981-87), at 73
  1989 Guy Williams, actor (“Zorro”), at 65
7 399 BC Socrates, noted hoplite, stone cutter, busy-body, hemlocked [Alt]
  685 Umayyad Caliph Marwan I ibn al-Hakam of Baghdad (684-685), at c. 62
  973 Holy Roman Emperor Otto I “the Great” (962-973), at 60
  1166 King William I “the Bad” of Sicily (1154-66)
  1205 King Ladislaus III Arpad of Hungary (1204-05), c. 5
  1523 Franz von Sickingen, knight, adventurer, intriguer, kia
  1524 Marquis Oberto Pallavicini, Condottiero, kia Garlasco
  1539 Guru Nanak, founder of Sikhism, at 69
  1884 Judah P Benjamin, Confederate cabinet member
  1915 Elbert Hubbard, author ("A Message to Garcia"), among the 127 Americans killed in the Lusitania
  1932 Albert Thomas, French Minister of Munitions in WW I
  2000 Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Knickerbocker Gray, naval officer, at 90
8 535 Pope John II – the Presbyter Mercurius (533-35)
  615 Pope St. Boniface IV (608-615) [or 25 May]
  1319 King Haakon V of Norway (1299-1319)
  1773 Ali Bey, Egyptian Mameluk leader
  1794 Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, chemist, guillotined at Paris as a war profiteer
  1819 King Kamehameha the Great of Hawaii (c. 1790-1819), at about 62
  1844 King Charles XIV of Sweden, sometime Jean Bernadotte, Marshal of France
  1887 Alexander Ulyanov, Lenin's brother, hanged for treason
  1915 Henry McNeal Turner, first black army chaplain, at 82
  1988 Robert A. Heinlein, sometime naval officer
  1994 George Peppard, actor ("The Blue Max")
9 480 Roman Emperor Julius Nepos (474-475/480)
  1280 King Magnus VI of Norway (1263-80), at 42
  1688 Frederick William “The Great Elector” of Brandenburg, at 67
  1766 The Comte de Lally, executed at Paris
  1864 Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick, kia at 50, though smaller than an elephant
  1949 Prince Louis II Onorato of Monaco (1921-1949), French soldier & general, at 78
  1992 Marlene Dietrich, anti-Nazi, at 91
10 238 Roman Emperor Maximinus Thrax (235-238), beheaded along with his son by mutinous troops
  1632 Mareschal de Marillac, beheaded at Paris
  1774 King Louis XV of France (1715-74)
  1818 Paul Revere, patriot
  1863 Stonewall Jackson, Lt Gen, C.S.A., near Chancellorsville
  1897 Andres Bonifacio,32, & his brother Procopio Bonifacio, Philippine nationalists, executed by the Spanish
  1904 Henry M Stanley, Union & Confederate veteran, explorer, imperialist
  1943 Andre Bertulot & Armand Fraiteur, hanged by the Nazis
11 1610 Matteo Ricci, intrepid & learned Jesuit missionary in China
  1778 William Pitt the Elder, British PM (1756-61, 66-68), at 69
  1812 British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval, assassinated
  1927 Maj Gen Henry M. Robert, U.S., parliamentarian ("Rules of Order"), 90
  1944 Henk Hos, Dutch resistance fighter, executed by the Nazis at 37
  1945 Helga, Hilde, Helmut, Holde, Hedda, & Heide Goebbels, murdered by their parents, Joseph & Magda Goebbels, who commit suicide
  2006 Frankie Thomas, actor (“Tom Corbett, Space Cadet”), at 85
12 912 Byzantine Emperor Leo VI “The Wise” (886-912), at 45
  1003 Pope Sylvester II - Gerbert of Aurillac (999-1003) first French pope
  1012 Pope Sergius IV - Pietro “Bucca Porci” (1009-1012)
  1382 Queen Giovanna I of Naples (1343-1382), murdered, having ruining her kingdom
  1641 Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, executed by Bill of Attainder
  1863 King Radama II of Madagascar (1861-1863), assassinated at 23 for opening the country to Christianity
  1864 J.E.B. Stuart, 31, Confederate cavalryman, d/w from Yellow Tavern, 11th
  1905 Hiram Cronk, last surviving War of 1812 veteran, at 105
  1923 Lt. Col. Earl “Pete” Ellis, USMC, probably of drink, while travelling incognito in the Caroline Is.
  1935 Marshal Joseph Pilsudski, founder of modern Poland, at 67
  1944 Max Brand [Frederick Schiller Faust], pulp western author, war correspondent with the US 351st Infantry, kia at 51 near near Itri.
  1957 Erich von Stroheim, actor ("The Grand Illusion")
13 1390 King Robert II the Steward of Scotland (1371-90)
  1619 Johan Van Olden Barneveldt, 72, Dutch statesman, beheaded by the Calvinists for advocating religious freedom
  1865 PVT John J Williams, 34th Indiana, reportedly the "last man killed” in the Civil War
  1930 Fridtjof Nansen, diplomat, Nobel Peace Prize, 1922
14 649 Pope Theodore I (642-49)
  964 Pope John XII - Octavianus (955-64), allegedly in the arms of his mistress
  1080 Bishop Walcher of Lorraine and his retinue, murdered
  1608 Duke Charles "the Great" of Lorraine
  1610 King Henry IV of Navarre (1572-1610) and France (1589-1610), assassinated at 56
  1643 King Louis XIII of France (1610-43), at 41
  1906 Carl Schurz, German revolutionary, Maj. Gen., U.S.V., social reformer, at 77
  1912 King Frederik VIII of Denmark (1906-12), at 68
  1940 Emma Goldman, anarchist who first blew the whistle on the glorious “Bolshevik Revolution,” and was totally ignored
  1968 Husband E. Kimmel, who didn't understand "a war warning," at 86
  1991 Jiang Qing, widow of Mao Tse Tung, suicide
  1998 Frank Sinatra, notorious draft-dodger, actor (“Von Ryan’s Express”)
15 392 Roman Emperor Valentinian II (375-392), 21, found hanging in a locked room
  884 Pope Marinus I (882-884)
  1174 Nur-ed-Din, Atabeg of Aleppo (1146-1174)
  1464 The Earl of Somerset, executed by Edward IV
  1470 King Charles VIII of Sweden (1448–1457, 1464-1465, 1467-1470) and of Norway (1449-1450)
  1526 Thomas Munzer, leader of the German Peasants' War, executed
  1591 Dimitri Ivanovitch, son of Tsar Ivan IV, murdered at 9
  1638 Gerrit Jansen, knifed by Jan Gysbertsen in front of Fort Amsterdam; NYC’s first recorded murder victim
  1877 Tajik Bey, Tadjik national hero, at about 57
  1926 Mohammed VI, last sultan of Turkey (1918-22)
  1932 Ki Inukai, Prime Minister of Japan (1931-32), murdered by nationalists
  1976 Samuel Eliot Morison, sailor, historian ("Admiral of Ocean Sea"), 88
16 561 Pope Pelagius I (556-561)
  1412 Duke Giovanni Maria Visconti I of Milan (1402-1412), stabbed while entering the Church of San Gottardo at 24
  1576 Isabella de Medici, Princess of Tuscany, murdered by her husband, Paolo Giordano Orsini, the Duke of Bracciano.
  1691 Jacob Leisler, Jacobite Governor of NY, and Jacob Milborne, his son-in-law, hanged for treason
  1828 Sir William Congreve, inventor of the “Congreve Rocket”, at Toulouse
  1864 Lean Bear, Cheyenne chief, murdered
17 1164 Heloise, who loved Abelard
  1536 Sir Francis Weston, alleged lover of Anne Boleyn, beheaded
  1727 Tsarina Catherine I of Russia
  1838 Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, eely French statesman
18 526 Pope John I (523-26)
  1160 St Erik IX, King of Sweden
  1291 William de Beaujeu, 21st Master of the Templars, kia at Acre
  1807 Marquis Adalberto Pallavicini, 2nd Lt, 1st Royal Italian Infantry, kia Colberg
  1839 Countess Carolina Bonaparte – Mrs. Joachim Murat, at 57
19 526 Pope St. John I (523-526)
  1125 Grand Duke Vladimir Monomakh of Kiev (1113-1125), at c. 76
  1296 Pope St. Celestine V - Pietro di Murrone (5 Jul - 13 Dec 1294, resigned)
  1536 Anne Boleyn, Mrs. Henry VIII No. 2, beheaded
  1536 Lord Rochford, her brother, beheaded
  1777 Button Gwinnet, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, of wounds from a duel on May 16th
  1864 Nathaniel Hawthorne, militiaman, novelist ("The Scarlet Letter”)
  1895 Jose Marti y Perez, poet, Cuban nationalist, kia at 42
  1935 T. E. Lawrence of Arabia, motorcycle accident
  1953 Damasco Berenguer y Fuste, Spanish general and historian, at 79
  2002 Walter Lord, author (“Miracle at Midway”)
20 685 King Ecgfrith of Northumbria (670-685), kia at c. 40, Nechtansmere
  1277 Pope John XXI [XX] - Pedro Julião (Sept 13, 1276-May 20, 1277), at c. 62, from injuries sustained when a roof collapsed – fourth pope to die since Jan 1276
  1285 King John of Jerusalem and Cyprus
  1471 King Henry VI of England (1422-61, 70-71)
  1506 Christopher Columbus, intrepid navigator, inept administrator, in Spain at 55
  1622 Sultan Osman II of the Turks(1618-22), murdered
  1648 King Wladyslaw IV Wasa of Poland
  1834 The Marquis de Lafayette, American
  1943 Adm. Henry A. Wiley, CINCUS, 1927-1929, “Father of the Merchant Marine Academy”
21 879 Count Baldwin “Iron Arm” of Flanders
  987 Louis V, last Carolingian King of France (966-987)
  1076 Earl Waltheof, executed by William the Conqueror
  1118 Pope Paschal II – Cardinal Ranierius of St. Clement’s (1099-1118)
  1471 King Henry VI of England, beheaded in the Tower
  1481 King Christian I of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden
  1542 Hernando de Soto, while searching for gold, Mississippi
  1650 James Graham, the Marquis of Montrose (1612-1650), Royalist commander, hanged by the Convenanters in Edinburgh
  1774 Sultan Mustapha III of Turkey (1757-74), at 56
  1942 Freiherr Robert-Georg von Malapert-Neufville, kia, Russia
  1988 Dino Conte Grandi, Fascist, at 92
  1991 Rajiv Gandhi, Indian Prime Minster (1984-91), assassinated
  1993 John Frost, who held the "Bridge Too Far" in 1944, at 80
22 455 Roman Emperor Petronius Maximus (17 Mar-22 May 455), murdered by a Roman mob
  1336 Count Louis III of Loon
  1540 Francesco Guicciardini, historian, at 57
  1667 Pope Alexander VII - Fabio Chigi (1655-1667)
  1859 King Ferdinand II "Bomba" of Naples and Sicily
  1885 Victor Hugo
  1925 Sir John French, inept Field Marshal
23 230 Pope St Urban I (222-230)
  1002 Otto III, King of the Germans (983-1002), Holy Roman Emperor (996-1002), at 21
  1498 Girolamo Savonarola, radical preacher, barbecued in Florence
  1516 King Ferdinand II Aragon & Sicily, at 63 – widower of Isabella of Spain
  1524 Shah Ismail of Persia
  1570 The Earl of Moray, Regent of Scotland, assassinated
  1701 Captain William Kidd, New Yorker, & 3 henchmen, hanged in London
  1868 Kit Carson, Brevet Brig Gen, U.S.
  1920 Svetozar Boroevic von Bojna, Austro-Hungarian field marshal, at 63
  1945 Heinrich Himmler, Nazi, suicide
24 1153 King David I of Scotland (1107-1153), at c. 68
  1437 Bernardino della Carra, condottiero, Commander of 800 lances.
  1670 Grand Duke Ferdinando II de' Medici of Tuscany (1621-1670), at 59
  1792 Adm. George Brydges, Baron Rodney
  1861 Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth, 11th NY, shot by irate Reb James W. Jackson after pulling down a Confederate flag, Alexandria, Va
  1861 James W. Jackson, shot & bayoneted by an irate Yank after shooting Elmer Elsworth
  1879 William Lloyd Garrison, noted abolitionist, at 73
  1896 Conte Federico Luigi Menabrea, soldier, engineer, inventor, premier of Italy (1867–1869), at 86
  1941 Vice Adm. Lancelot Holland and c. 1,400 others, in his flagship, HMS Hood
  1986 Lt Cdr Stephen D Thorne, astronaut, plane crash, at 33
  1993 Cardinal Juan Jesus Posada Ocampo and six others, murdered, Guadalajara, Mex
  1995 Harold Wilson, Prime Minister (1964-70, 74-76), of cancer at 79
  2004 Alberta Martin, 97, Civil War widow
25 615 Pope Boniface IV (608-15)
  946 King Edmund the Elder of Wessex (939-46)
  1085 Pope Gregory VII - Hildebrand (1073-85)
  1261 Pope Alexander IV - Rinaldo dei Conti di Segni (1254-61)
  1968 George von Küchler, German field marshal, at 86
  1971 Jo Etha Collier, 17, murdered by whites in Drew, Ms.
  1996 Renzo de Felice, historian (“Mussolini”), at 67
26 946 King Edmund I “the Elder” (939-346), in hand-to-hand combat with a party crasher
  946 Leofa, bandit chief, in hand-to-hand combat while crashing Edmund’s party
  1402 Giovanni I Bentivoglio, Lord of Bologna, kia at Casalecchio
  1421 Sultan Mehemet I of Turkey (1413-21), of apoplexy
  1512 Sultan Bajezid II of Turkey
  1703 Samuel Pepys, First Lord of the Admiralty, bon vivant, diarist
  1755 Louis Mandrin, French bandit chieftain, broken on the wheel
  1818 Michael A Barclay de Tolly, Russian field marshal
  1840 Admiral Sir Sidney Smith, G.C.B., who bested Napoleon repeatedly
27 866 King Ordoño I of the Asturias (850-66)
  927 Tsar Simeon I “the Great” of the Bulgars (920-927), at c. 34
  1039 Count Dirk III of Holland
  1508 Ludovico “il Moro” Sforza, sometime Duke of Milan (1494-1499; 1500), patron of the arts, at 55
  1541 Margaret de la Pole, Countess of Salisbury, the last Plantagenet, 67, beheaded for being Catholic & royal
  1569 Francois de Coligny, French general
  1606 The "False Dimitri," lynched in Moscow
  1610 Francois Ravaillac, murderer of Henry IV of France, drawn and quartered
  1661 Marquis Archibald Campbell of Argyll, soldier, beheaded
  1755 The Comte de Loewendhall, Marshal of France
  1916 Joseph Gallieni, who saved Paris at the Marne
  1941 Adm Gunther Lutjens and c. 1,400 other German seamen, kia, Bismarck
  1951 Australian Field Marshal Sir Thomas Blamey
  2008 Franz Kunstler, 107, last veteran of the kaiselich-und-koniglich Armee; survivor of two world wars
28 1259 King Christopher I of Denmark (1252-1259), at c. 40
  1357 King Afonso IV of Portugal (1325-57), at 66
  1509 Caterina Sforza, warrior countess, daughter and mother of condottiere, at 45
  1644 Antonio Maria Marescotti, Patrician of Bologna, assassinated.
  1971 Audie Murphy, air accident
29 1265 Dante, sometime cavalryman, traveler, poet
  1453 Constantine XI, last Byzantine Emperor, kia defending the Romanus Gate, at 49
  1500 Bartholomeu Diaz, explorer, drowned
  1546 Cardinal Beaton, Archbishop of St Andrews, murdered
  1606 Ranuccio Tomassoni, murdered by Caravaggio in a dispute over a tennis game
  1660 Prince Gyorgy Rakoczi II of Transsylvania, kia
  1814 Josephine, Empress of the French (1804-14)
  1866 Bvt Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott, "Old Fuss and Feathers"
  1944 2nd Lt. Allen Brown, kia, Italy; step-son of George C. Marshall
30 542 King Arthur of the Britons, kia [Trad]
  1035 Count Baldwin IV of Flanders (988-1035)
  1249 King Reginald II of the Isle of Man, assassinated
  1252 King St. Ferdinand III of Castilla y Leon
  1305 Captain Roger de Flor & c. 200 knights of the Catalan Company, massacred at Adrianople by Emperor Michael IX
  1431 Joan of Arc, 19, burned as a witch by the English, Rouen
  1574 King Charles IX of France (1560-74)
  1582 Laurence Richardson, Luke Kirby, Thomas Cottam, & William Filbie, hanged, drawn, & quartered in England, for being Catholic
  1593 Christopher Marlowe, gentleman, playwright, spy, stabbed over a tavern bill
  1912 Wilbur Wright, aviation pioneer
  1924 Giacomo Matteotti, Italian Socialist, murdered by Fascists
  1934 Admiral of the Fleet Togo Heihachiro, at 87
  1964 Leo Szilard, nuclear physicist, at 66
  1981 President Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh, assassinated by rebellious officers
31 1329 Albertino Mussato, poet, soldier, historian, ambassador, in exile
  1488 Lord Galeotto Manfredi of Faenza, Condottiero, Captain of Florence, murdered at 48 by his wife Francesca Bentivoglio
  1504 Count Engelbert II of Nassau-Dillenburg-Dietz
  1740 King Frederick-William I of Prussia (1713-1740), at 51
  1806 Michael Freiherr von Melas, inept Austrian general
  1916 B1C John Tavers Cornwell, 16, HMS Chester, kia, Jutland, earning a VC
  1961 President Trujillo of the Dominican Republic, assassinated
  1962 Adolf Eichmann, war criminal, hanged in Israel at 56
92 1424 Ridolgo III da Varano, Lord of Camerino (1399-1424), condottiero with 64 children, at c. 60.

Event
1 0 International Workers' Day
  0 Law Day
  305 Roman Emperor Diocletian (282-305) retires to grow cabbages at Spoletum
  305 Roman Emperor Maximian (286-305) retires too, under protest
  1006 Supernova in Lupus
  1045 Giovanni Graziani elected Pope as Gregory VI (1045-1046; abdicated, d. 1048)
  1654 Parliament imposes the Pale on Ireland: The Irish are forced west of the Shannon
  1703 Battle at Pultusk: Swedes defeat the Russians & Saxons
  1707 Parliament forms the United Kingdom of Great Britain
  1759 British fleet captures Guadeloupe from the France
  1857 Filibuster William Walker surrenders to USN, Nicaragua
  1861 R.E. Lee orders T. J. Jackson to Harper's Ferry
  1862 David Farragut captures New Orleans
  1863 Battle of Chancellorsville beings (ends on the 4th)
  1863 Confederate Congress urges the killing of captured black soldiers
  1863 Grant's Vicksburg Campaign: Battle of Port Gibson, Mississippi
  1864 Wilderness Campaign begins
  1866 Fenian armed schooner Friend takes a British ship off Canada
  1869 Folies-Bergere opens in Paris, a “must see” for soldiers in three Franco-German wars
  1898 George Dewey says, "You may fire when ready, Mr. Gridley"
  1915 A German u-boat sinks the American tanker Gulflight, 3 killed
  1917 German torpedo plane sinks the British steamer Gena
  1919 Eruption of Mount Kelud, Indonesia, c. 5,000 die
  1919 U.S. anti-radical "May Day Raids"
  1929 Berlin: May Day demonstrators shot by police, 19 killed & injured
  1931 The Empire State Building opens
  1936 Emperor Haile Selassie leaves Ethiopia as the Italians rout his army
  1937 FDR signs the Second Neutrality Act
  1941 German assault on Tobruk
  1942 Japanese troops occupy Mandalay, Burma, and press on westwards.
  1943 Wartime food rationing begins in US
  1944 U.S. Navy bombards Ponape, in the Carolines.
  1945 Australians land on Tarakan, Borneo.
  1947 Vice Adm Roscoe Hillenkoeter becomes 1st CIA director
  1948 Democratic People's Republic of [North] Korea established
  1954 Puerto Rican radicals shoot up the House of Representatives, 4 injured
  1960 Francis Gary Powers' U-2 spy plane shot down over Sverdlovsk
  1961 Fidel Castro announces there will be no more elections in Cuba
  1961 First hijack of an American commercial airliner, to Cuba
  1962 First French underground nuclear blast, in the Sahara
  1992 Rioting in Los Angeles over the Rodney King verdict
  1997 Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain
  2003 GWB declares major combat operations in Iraq over
2 1399 Pope Boniface IX proclaims a Crusade against Count Onorato I of Fondi
  1501 Ermes Bentivoglio, 19, initiates a massacre of the Marescotti at Bologna
  1598 Treaty of Vervins: Spanish & French make peace
  1645 Battle of Mergentheim: Franz von Mercy’s Imperialists defeat Turenne’s French
  1668 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle: War of Devolution ends
  1703 Portugal and England renew their ancient alliance
  1776 France & Spain agree to donate arms to the American rebels
  1808 Madrid rises against the French, igniting the Peninsular War
  1813 Battle of Lutzen: Napoleon defeats the Russo-Prussians
  1848 Battle of Chiapuzza: Italian Nationalists defeat the Austrians
  1863 Stonewall Jackson wounded by his own men at Chancellorsville
  1885 Leopold I of Belgium founds the "Congo Free State"
  1933 Hitler bans labor unions in Germany, as Nazi Storm troopers sack union offices and collect records
  1934 Nazis institute "People's Courts"
  1942 Sub Drum sinks Japanese seaplane carrier Mizuho off Honshu.
  1943 Darwin, Australia, bombed by the Japanese
  1945 Berlin formally surrenders to the Red Army
  1945 German forces in Italy surrender
  1945 Hungary's Crown of St. Stephen is entrusted to the U.S. Army
  1953 Hussein I installed as King of Jordan (1953-1999)
  1964 Aircraft Transport Card sunk by Viet Cong UDT at Saigon
  1982 Falklands War: sub HMS Conqueror sinks Argentine CL Belgrano, c. 300 die
3 0 World “Freedom of the Press” Day
  326 St. Helena, Constantine’s mother, finds the True Cross
  996 Consecration of Pope Gregory V (996-999), first German pope
  1294 John II becomes Duke of Brabant and Limburg
  1342 Count Hartmann II becomes ruler of Vaduz, in Liechtenstein
  1382 Battle of Beverhoudsveld: Ghent defeats Bruges, using firearms
  1515 Portuguese fleet captures Hormuz, Persia
  1568 The French burn the Spanish fort at San Mateo, Florida
  1616 Treaty of Loudun: ends Second League of Princes rebellion against Louis XIII (1615-1616)
  1622 Portguese-held Hormuz, besieged since 18 Feb, surrenders to an Anglo-Persian force
  1678 French fleet attacks Dutch Curaçao, 1200 die
  1800 Second Battle of Stockach: French defeat the Austrians
  1808 The Russians capture Sveaborg from the Swedes
  1809 Battle of Ebelsberg: French defeat the Austrians
  1810 Lord Byron swims the Hellespont
  1811 Five day Battle of the Fuentes de Onoro begins: Wellington defeats the French
  1814 Napoleon arrives on Elba
  1815 Battle of Tolentino: Austrians defeat King Joachim Murat of Naples
  1846 Mexican army invades Texas
  1861 Lincoln orders expansion of Army by 23,000 and Navy by 18,000
  1861 USS Surprise captures Confederate privateer Savannah
  1861 Winfield Scott proposes the "Anaconda Plan"
  1863 Battle of Salem Church, VA
  1898 Marines raise Old Glory over Cavite, the Philippines
  1919 Third Anglo-Afghan War begins
  1936 French Popular Front wins elections
  1938 Vatican recognizes Franco’s government in Spain
  1942 Nazis require Dutch Jews to wear a Star of David
  1942 Solomon Is.: Japanese troops occupy Tulagi, Gavutu, & Tanambogo
  1943 US 1st Armored Div captures Mateur, Tunisia
  1944 Allied aircraft begin mining waters off Rangoon and Bangkok
  1944 Meat rationing ends in US
  1945 Allies arrest German nuclear physicist Werner Heisenberg
  1945 British troops liberate Rangoon
  1945 Polish 1st Armored Brigade captures Wilhelmshafen
  1945 RAF sinks several German prison-ships in Lubeck Bay, c. 7,500 die
  1946 Military Tribunal in Tokyo begins war crimes trials
  1949 First firing of a US Viking rocket, to 80 km
  1982 Falklands War: Argentine exocet sinks HMS Sheffield
  1983 US Catholic bishops condemn nuclear weapons
4 0 Feast of St. Florian, Patron of Poland and of Firemen
  1471 Battle of Tewksbury: Yorkists defeat the Lancastrians, making Edward IV King of England
  1481 Neapolitans liberate Otranto from the Ottomans
  1493 Pope Alexander VI divides America between Spain & Portugal
  1540 Treaty of Constantinople, between Venice and Turkey
  1626 Peter Minuit buys Manhattan from the Indians, for a lot more than $24
  1652 Battle of Etampes: Turenne’s French Royal Army defeats the Fronde rebels
  1799 English capture Seringapatam.
  1814 Bourbon Restoration in France; Louis XVIII "the Unavoidable" becomes king
  1858 Mexican War of Reform begins: Juaristas establish capital at Vera Cruz
  1863 Battle of Chancellorsville: Army of the Potomac withdraws
  1864 U. S. Grant crosses the Rapidan to begin the Overland Campaign
  1865 Battle of Citronville, Al; Richard Taylor surrenders
  1865 Battle of Mobile, Al
  1865 Lincoln is laid to rest in Springfield, Ill
  1886 Haymarket riot in Chicago; bomb kills 7 policemen
  1891 Sherlock Holmes falsely reported dead at Reichenbach Falls
  1898 U.S. landing party skirmishes with Spanish troops at Guanoy, Philippines
  1912 Italians capture Rhodes from the Turks
  1916 Germany abandons unrestricted submarine warfare, at “request” of the US
  1917 "The Mayflower Returns" - US DDs reach Ireland, to join the U-Boat war
  1917 Arab rioters sack the Jewish settlement of Tel Aviv
  1942 Corregidor subject to an intense artillery and aerial bombardment.
  1942 CV Yorktown raids Japanese at Tulagi, damaging a destroyer.
  1945 British ships bombard Japanese in the Sakishimas, off Okinawa.
  1945 German troops in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway surrender
  1946 US Marines recapture Alcatraz from rioting prisoners
  1970 Ohio National Guard kills four students at Kent State
5 614 The Persians take Jerusalem with great slaughter, & capture the True Cross
  1010 Battle of Ringmere: The Danes defeat Ulfkell Snilling of Norfolk 
  1405 Battle of Pwllmelyn: English defeat Owen Glendower’s Welch 
  1430 Jews are expelled from Speyer, Germany
  1576 Peace of Beaulieu: restores the government of Picardy to the Protestant Prince de Condé
  1646 King Charles I surrenders in Scotland
  1789 French King Louis XVI calls the Etats-Generaux
  1789 Louis XVI convenes the Estates General, for the first time since 1614
  1797 Napoleon's sister Elisa marries Prince Felix Bacciochi
  1809 Canton Aargau, Switzerland, denies citizenship to Jews
  1814 British attack Ft Ontario, Oswego, NY
  1833 Turks cede Crete and Syria to Mehemet Ali of Egypt
  1860 Garibaldi and the Thousand sail from Quarto for Sicily
  1861 Confederate troops abandon Alexandria, Va.
  1862 Cinco de Mayo: Mexicans defeat the French at Puebla
  1862 Peninsular Campaign: Battle of Williamsburg, VA
  1863 Battle of Tupelo, MS
  1864 Battle of Wilderness: Germanna Ford/Wilderness Tavern
  1866 Guano War: Spanish fleet bombards Callao, Peru
  1908 The Great White Fleet reaches San Francisco
  1920 Polish troops capture Kiev
  1940 Norwegians form a government-in-exile in London
  1941 Emperor Haile Selassie returns to Addis Ababa
  1942 British land at Diego Suarez, Vichyite naval base in Madagascar.
  1942 Burma: British forces evacuate Akyab.
  1942 Philippines: Japanese troops land on Corregidor
  1942 Southwest Pacific: Japanese CVs Zuikaku & Shokaku enter the Solomons Sea, as US CVs Yorktown and Lexington rendezvous in the Coral Sea
  1942 US begins rationing sugar during WW II
  1944 British release Mahatma Ghandi, imprisoned since August 1942
  1945 Okinawa: 131 Kamikaze sink 17 ships
  1945 Oregon: Japanese balloon bomb kills a pregnant woman and five children
  1952 Herman Wouk's "The Caine Mutiny" wins the Pulitzer Prize
  1954 Paraguay: Military coup by General Alfredo Stroessner
  1961 Alan Shepard makes a suborbital flight in Freedom 7
  1964 Separatist riot in Québec
  1965 First large US ground units arrive in South Vietnam
  1985 At the Bitburg military cemetery, President Reagan & Chancellor Kohl lay a wreath at the base of a brick tower marking the graves of nearly 2,000 German soldiers
6 1249 Reginald II becomes King of the Isle of Man
  1333 The Ambush of San Cesario: Stefano Colonna (20) slaughters the Orsini & Savelli, a deed celebrated by Petrarch
  1456 The Oddi & Corgna families attempt a coup against the Baglioni at Perugia
  1527 Charles V's Spanish and German troops begin the "Sack of Rome"
  1529 Battle of Ghagra: Babur defeats the Sultan of Bengal
  1622 Battle of Wimpfen: Imperial troops under Tilly & Cordoba defeat George Frederick of Baden-Durlach
  1757 Battle of Prague: Frederick the Great defeats the Austrians
  1794 Toussaint L'Ouverture begins the Haitian Revolution against France
  1848 Battle of Santa Lucia: Austrians defeat the Piedmontese
  1861 Arkansas is the 9th state to secede from the Union
  1864 Battle of Port Walthall Junction, VA
  1864 Cherokee Chief Stand Watie is made a Confederate brigadier general
  1864 The Wilderness: James Longstreet is wounded by friendly fire during a counterattack
  1889 Dedicaiton of the Eiffel Tower
  1898 US ships & Spanish batteries exchange fire at Havana & Santiago
  1910 King George V ascends the British throne
  1915 Gallipoli: Allies attack Cape Hellas
  1916 Belgians capture Kigali, German East-Africa
  1919 The 77th Division marches home up Fifth Avenue
  1933 Italo-Soviet trade agreement: Fascists and Communists united
  1937 Hindenburg disaster, Lakehurst, NJ, 36 die
  1941 Bob Hope’s first USO show, March Field, California
  1942 Corregidor and the Philippines surrender to the Japanese
  1945 Axis Sally makes her last broadcast
  1945 German troops in the Netherlands surrender to the Allies
  1948 Greek government executes 43 communist rebels at Athens
  1955 West Germany joins NATO
  1962 SSBN Ethan Allen fires first nuclear warhead from a submerged submarine
7 431 BC Peloponessian War begins [Alt]
  878 Battle of Ethandune: Alfred the Great defeats the Danes
  1342 Pierre Roger elected Pope as Clement VI (1342-1352)
  1355 Massacre of 1,200 Jews at Toledo
  1429 Joan of Arc breaks the English siege of Orleans
  1592 Battle of Yvetot: Spanish defeat the French
  1682 HM Frigate Gloucester wrecked off the English coast, with heavy loss of life
  1727 Tsarina Catherine I of Russia expels Jews from Ukraine
  1748 French capture Maastricht
  1763 Pontiac’s Rebellion: Pontiac attacks the British in Ft. Detroit
  1765 HMS Victory is launched
  1779 USN Sloop-of-War Providence captures HM brig Diligent
  1832 Great Powers recognize Greek independence from Turkey
  1848 Battle of Stretta di Ospitale: Italians defeat the Austrians
  1861 Knoxville, Tn: Riot between Secessionists & Unionists
  1862 Battle of West Point/Eltham's Landing/Barnhamsville, VA
  1866 Otto von Bismarck wounded by an assassin
  1898 US ships & Spanish batteries exchange fire at Havana
  1915 German u-boat torpedoes the liner Lusitania, 1198 die
  1920 Russo-Polish War: The Poles capture Kiev
  1937 German Condor Legion arrives in Spain to help the Nationalists
  1939 Hitler & Mussolini proclaim the Rome-Berlin Axis
  1940 Winston S. Churchill becomes Prime Minister of the UK
  1942 Battle of the Coral Sea, Day 1: US sinks CV Shoho, loses oiler and a destroyer
  1942 British capture Diego Suarez, Madagascar, from the Vichy French.
  1942 Japanese submarine-borne aircraft reconnoiter Aden.
  1942 Nazis order murder of pregnant Jewish women in Kovno
  1943 British troops capture Tunis
  1943 Nazis require all Dutch men 18-35 to report for labor service
  1943 SS G. W. Carver launched, 1st Liberty Ship named for a black American
  1943 US 1st Armored Div captures Ferryville, Tunisia
  1943 US 9th Infantry Div captures Bizerte, Tunisia
  1943 US DDs mine Blackett Strait.
  1944 Heavy Allied air raids on sea routes off Rangoon and Bangkok
  1945 Germany signs preliminary surrender
  1945 SS open fire on crowd in Amsterdam, killing 22
  1945 The Dutch “Princess Irene Bde” liberates the Hague
  1954 Dien Bien Phu: Vietminh overrun the French after a 55-day siege
  1956 Franco-Algerian War: Battle at Oran, 300 die
  1957 USAF F-104 Starfighter reaches 90,000 feet
  1989 Panama: Manuel Noriega seizes power after losing an election
  1992 Maiden voyage of the space shuttle Endeavor
8 1307 Battle of Sanquhar: James “The Black” Douglas defeats the English
  1360 Anglo-French Treaty of Bretigny, suspends the Hundred Years War
  1373 Battle of Montechiari: The Anti-Visconti League defeats the Visconti
  1450 Jack Cade's Rebellion begins: Kentish revolt against King Henry VI
  1721 Michelangelo dei Conti elected Pope as Innocent XIII (1721-1724)
  1846 Mexican War: Battle of Palo Alto, Texas
  1848 Battle of Cornuda: Austrians defeat Veneto-Papal forces
  1859 Battle of Casale: Garibaldi defeats the Austrians
  1862 Valley Campaign: Federals repulsed at Battle of McDowell, Va
  1864 Atlanta Campaign: Severe fighting near Dalton
  1864 Battle of Spotsylvania begins
  1886 Confederate veteran John S. Pemberton invents Coca Cola
  1895 China cedes Taiwan to Japan
  1911 Birth of Naval Aviation: USN orders its first airplane, a Curtiss A-1
  1924 Memel territories given to Lithuania
  1925 French victory over the Riff Rebels in Morocco
  1941 Royal Navy captures U-110, with an intact Engima machine
  1942 Battle of the Coral Sea, Day 2: U.S. loses Lexington, Japanese Shokaku is damaged; Japanese abandon attack on Port Morseby
  1943 BB Yamato sails from Truk, first movement since August 29, 1942.
  1943 Japanese lose 3 DDs to US mines in Blackett Straits.
  1944 Chinese 30th & New 38th Divs advance on Kamaing, Burma.
  1945 V-E Day; Germany signs unconditional surrender
  1952 US conducts the first H-Bomb test, Eniwetok Atoll
  1963 JFK offers Israel assistance against aggression
  1967 Muhammad Ali is indicted for refusing induction into the Army
  1972 Lod Airport, Israel: Sabena aircraft captured by Palestinian terrorists
  1991 CIA director William H Webster resigns
9 48 BC Caesar retreats from Dyracchium
  1386 Treaty of Windsor: England & Portugal initiate the world’s most enduring alliance
  1609 Dutch & Spanish conclude the "Twelve Years' Truce"
  1671 Col. Thomas Blood attempts to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London
  1812 Napoleon leaves Paris to join his army for the invasion of Russia
  1846 Mexican War: Battle of Resaca de la Palma
  1849 Battle of Palestrina: The Garibaldini defeat the Neapolitans
  1861 US Naval Academy moves from Annapolis to Newport, aboard the USS Constitution
  1862 Battle of Farmington, Ms
  1862 Confederates abandon positions near Ft Pickens, Pensacola
  1864 Battle of Cloyd's Mt
  1864 Battle of Dalton, Ga
  1864 Battle of Swift Creek/Drewery's Bluff/Ft Darling, Va
  1864 Naval battle of Helgoland: Tegethoff’s Austrians defeat the Danes
  1898 Havana: US ships & Spanish batteries exchange fire
  1911 Mexican Revolutionaries invest Ciudad Juarez (to May 11)
  1915 Battle of Artois begins
  1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement: Brits & French divide up the Ottoman Empire
  1926 Lt Cdr Richard Byrd & CMM Floyd Bennett fly over the North Pole
  1936 Italian troops occupy Addis Abeba, securing Ethiopia
  1942 USS Wasp launches 47 RAF Spitfires to reinforce Malta
  1944 Japanese capture Lushan & the Peking-Hankow RR
  1945 Czechoslovakia liberated from Nazi occupation
  1945 German troops in the Channel Islands surrender to the British
  1946 Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates in favor of his son Umberto II, who reigns one month
  1949 Accession of Rainier III as Prince of Monaco (1949-2005)
  1955 German Federal Republic joins NATO
  1964 Khrushchev visits Egypt
10 537 Battle of Dover: King Arthur defeats Modred
  946 Election of Pope Agapetus II (946-955)
  1267 Jews of Vienna ordered to wear distinctive clothing
  1278 Jews in England imprisoned on false charges of counterfeiting
  1307 Battle of Loudon Hill: Robert the Bruce defeats the Earl of Pembroke 
  1318 Battle of Dyset o'Dea: The Irish defeat the English & their minions
  1427 Jews are expelled from Bern, Switzerland
  1499 Cesare Borgia marries Carlotta d’Albret, sister to the King of Navarre, cousin to the King of France
  1655 England captures Jamaica from Spain, gaining its first colony
  1676 Bacon's Rebellion begins in Virginia
  1748 John Newton, slaver, sees the light.
  1774 Louis XVI ascends the throne of France
  1775 2nd Continental Congress convenes, to fight the American Revolution
  1775 Benedict Arnold, Ethan Allan, & the Green Mountain Boys capture Ticonderoga
  1796 Battle of Lodi: Bonaparte defeats the Austrians
  1849 “Theater Riot” in Astor, NYC, c. 25 die
  1857 Sepoy uprising at Meerut initiates the Indian Mutiny
  1861 Riot in St. Louis between Secessionists and Loyalists, c. 30 die
  1862 Battle of Plum Run Bend, TN
  1862 Confederates torch & evacuate the Norfolk and Pensacola Navy Yards
  1865 Irwinsville, Ga.: Jefferson Davis captured by Union troops
  1871 Peace of Frankfurt-am-Main: France cedes Alsace-Lorraine to Germany
  1880 War of the Pacific: Chilean fleet bombards Callao, Peru
  1898 Havana: US ships & Spanish batteries exchange fire
  1917 British begin convoying merchant ships against u-boats
  1918 Royal Navy commando raid on Ostend: HMS Vindictive is sunk to block the Harbor
  1919 Race riot in Charleston, 2 blacks killed
  1924 J Edgar Hoover appointed head of FBI
  1933 Chaco War: Paraguay declares war on Bolivia
  1933 Nazis stage book burnings throughout Germany
  1936 Spanish Leftists depose Pres Alcala-Zamora, to install Manuel Azana, making civil war certain
  1940 British form the Home Guard
  1940 Germany invades France, Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg
  1940 Kurt Student becomes the first general to a make combat parachute jump, over Rotterdam
  1940 Luftwaffe bombs Freiburg, Germany, by mistake; Goebbles blames the RAF
  1941 Rudolf Hess, Adolph Hitler's deputy, parachutes into Scotland
  1941 The House of Commons is severely damaged by Luftwaffe fire bombs
  1945 Mindanao: Filipino guerrillas support Eighth Army landings
  1948 Egyptian irregulars attack Kfar Darom, Israel
  1956 France sends 50,000 reservists to Algeria
  1960 USS Triton completes first submerged circumnavigation
  1968 Vietnam War: Paris peace talks begin, as does the Battle of Hamburger Hill
  1972 Vietnam War: Randy “Duke” Cunningham, USN, scores his 5th MiG, is then shot down by an SA2, but rescued
11 330 Constantine founds his city
  878 Battle of Ethandun: King Alfred of Wessex defeats the Danes 
  1189 Regensburg: HRE Frederik I Barbarossa’s Crusaders depart for the Holy Land
  1421 Jews are expelled from Styria, Austria
  1678 French Admiral Jean d'Estrées' fleet wrecked off Curaçao, 30 ships lost, hundreds drown
  1689 Naval Battle of Bantry Bay: French vs English
  1690 English capture Port Royal, Nova Scotia
  1745 War of the Austrian Succession: Battle of Fontenoy
  1815 Neapolitan 12th Infantry ambushes Austrian troops near Itri
  1849 Lts W. S. Hancock & Henry Heth play cards with Maj Gen Winfield Scott, and tactfully lose
  1857 Delhi falls to the mutinous Sepoys
  1860 Garibaldi and the Thousand land at Marsala, Sicily
  1862 CSS Virginia/Merrimac is scuttled in the James River
  1864 Skirmish at Yellow Tavern: J.E.B. Stuart mortally wounded
  1898 USN cable cutting raid at Cienfuegos, Cuba
  1898 USN landing party raids Cardenas, Cuba
  1906 King Alfonso XIII of Spain marries Princess Victoria Eugenia of Great Britain, and survives an assassin’s bomb; 20 k, many w.
  1911 Mexican Rebels take Ciudad Juarez, besieged since the 9th
  1918 Henry Johnson, 369th Infantry, called by T. Roosevelt one of the “five finest soldiers” in the AEF, earns America’s first Croix de guerre, but is still denied a Medal of Honor
  1938 First USCG award of the DFC, LT C. B. Olsen, for a rescue at sea
  1943 RMS Queen Mary arrives at New York with Winston Churchill and the British Chiefs of Staff, en route to Washington, as well as 5,000 Afrika Korps veterans, and the 300 troops guarding them, en route to P/W camps
  1943 US 7th Infantry Division lands on Attu, against stiff resistance
  1945 New Guinea: Australian troops land near Wewak area.
  1955 Israeli raid on Gaza
  1960 Israeli agents capture Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires
12 254 Election of Pope Stephan I (254-257), later canonized
  1082 Battle of Mailberg: Vratislav II of Bohemia defeats Leopold II of Austria
  1167 Battle of Monte Porzio: Frederick Barbarossa defeats the forces of Pope Alexander III
  1264 Three day battle of Lewes begins: Earl Simon de Montfort of Leicester defeats & captures Henry III
  1328 Pietro Rainalducci becomes anti-Pope as “Nicholas V” (1328-30)
  1607 Foundaiton of Jamestown, Virginia
  1629 The Piedmontese capture Trino from the Mantuans
  1649 Naval Battle of Focchies: Venetians defeat the Turks
  1780 British capture Charleston
  1789 NYC Revolutionary War veterans form the Society of St Tammany
  1795 Battle of Nu'uanu: Kamehameha unifies Hawaii [Est]
  1796 Napoleon ends 820 year old Republic of Venice
  1797 Mutiny in the British Fleet at the Nore (subdued June 16)
  1815 Austrians overwhelm Neapolitan 12th Regt, north of Itri
  1863 Battle of Raymond, Miss
  1864 Battle of Todd's Tavern - Sheridan's Raid
  1879 War of the Pacific: Chilean fleet defeats the Peruvians at Iquique
  1881 Treaty of Bardo: Tunis becomes a French protectorate
  1885 Battle of Batoche: French Canadians rebel against Canada
  1888 Brazil abolishes slavery, the last western nation to do so
  1898 US forces land at Cabañas & Punta Arbolitas, Cuba
  1898 US Navy bombards San Juan, P.R.
  1917 Tenth Battle of the Isonzo begins (to May 28)
  1926 Umberto Nobile’s airship Norge flies over the North Pole
  1937 George VI crowned King of England
  1940 French occupy St Maarten, Netherlands West Indies
  1940 Germans force a crossing of the Meuse River near Sedan
  1943 Solomons: USN shells Vila and Munda, mines Kula Gulf
  1943 Trident Conference: Roosevelt and Churchill plan strategy.
  1945 Okinawa: major Kamikaze attack, BB New Mexico badly hit.
  1951 The first H-Bomb test, Eniwetak Atoll
  1975 US merchant ship Mayaguez seized by Cambodian forces
13 535 Accession of Agapetus I to the papacy (535-36), later cononized
  1110 Crusaders capture Beirut amid great slaughter
  1307 Battle of Ayr: Robert Bruce defeats Ralph de Monthermet 
  1568 Battle of Langside: the Earl of Moray defeats the Earl of Argyll 
  1568 English defeat the Scots at Langside
  1572 Ugo Buoncampagni elected Pope as Gregory XIII (1572-1585)
  1779 War of the Bavarian Succession ends
  1846 US declares war on Mexico, two months after fighting begins
  1861 Britain declares neutrality in the American Civil War
  1865 Battle of Palmetto Ranch: Rebs win “the last battle” of the Civil War
  1908 The Navy Nurse Corps is established
  1912 Britain creates the Royal Flying Corps
  1921 Benito Mussolini qualifies as a pilot.
  1940 Churchill promises "blood, toil, tears, and sweat."
  1940 Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands flees to England
  1943 Axis troops in Tunisia, North Africa, surrender.
  1943 The Netherlands: German occupation forces confiscate all radios
  1943 USN Bureau of Navigation becomes the Bureau of Naval Personnel
  1944 U.S. DE sinks a Japanese submarine in the mid-Atlantic
  1945 Kyushu: US carriers begin two day raid against Japanese airfields
  1946 US sentences 58 Mauthausen concentration camp guards to death
  1964 First nuclear-powered TG formed, Enterprise, Long Beach, and Bainbridge
  1981 Pope John Paul II wounded by assailant in St Peter's Square
  1985 Philadelphia police bomb a house held by the radical group "Move", 11 die
14 756 Battle of Cordoba: The Yemenites defeat the Quaisiti
  1004 Emperor Henry II is crowned at Pavia, sparking bloody rioting
  1314 The Earl of Moray captures Edinburgh from the English
  1509 Battle of Agnadello: the French defeat the Venetians
  1559 Battle of Deoraj: Moghul Emperor Aurangzeb defeats Dara Shikon
  1639 "The Trot of Turriff": Lt Col William Johnston, Sir George Ogilvy, & Sir John Gordon rout the Covenanters 
  1643 Louis XIV becomes King of France at 4 (1643-1715)
  1801 Tripoli declares war on the United States
  1804 Lewis & Clark Expedition sets out from St Louis
  1811 Paraguay gains independence from Spain, largely under French occupation
  1836 US authorizes Wilkes Expedition to explore the South Seas
  1845 USS Constitution lands Marines at Danang, Indochina
  1856 USS Supply delivers 50 Turkish camels to the US Army at Indianola, Texas
  1859 Napoleon III assumes command of Franco-Piedmontese forces at Genoa
  1860 Battle of Calatafimini: "Here we make Italy, or we die!" - Garibaldi
  1863 Battle of Jackson, MS
  1864 Maj Arthur MacArthur assumes command of 24th Wisc, at age 18
  1889 Screw frigate Brooklyn (1859) stricken from the Navy List
  1898 US-Spanish naval skirmish outside Havana
  1932 New York: thousands march in "We Want Beer!" demonstration
  1940 Nazis bomb Rotterdam, rumored 30,000 die (c. 800)
  1940 The Netherlands surrender to Germans
  1941 Nazis arrest 3,600 Jews in Paris
  1942 Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) formed
  1943 Solomons: Japanese minesweepers clear Kula Gulf.
  1944 Merrill's Marauders in surprise attack on Japanese airport at Myitkyina.
  1945 Kamikaze strikes carrier Enterprise
  1945 US offensive on Okinawa, Sugar Loaf Hill captured
  1948 Israel declares independence
  1955 Warsaw Pact formed
  1974 Symbionese Liberation Army shoots it out, 6 die
  1975 US raids free Cambodian-held ship Mayaguez with heavy losses
15 756 Abd al-Rahman is proclaimed Emir of Cordoba
  1266 Battle of Chesterfield ends England’s Second Barons' War
  1333 Battle of Ferrara: League of Castebaldo defeats the Papal Army
  1464 Battle of Hexham: the Marques of Montague’s Yorkists beat the Duke of Somerset’s Lancastrians
  1479 BC Battle of Megiddo: Thutmose III defeats the King of Kadesh
  1525 Frankenhausen: German “Peasants’ War” ends as nobles slaughter 5,000
  1614 Treaty of St. Menehould: ends 1st ‘League of Princes’ rebellion against Louis XIII
  1682 Revolt of the Streltsy at Moscow
  1718 James Puckle receives a patent for a machine gun
  1768 Genoa cedes Corsica to France
  1796 French troops occupy Milan
  1796 Peace of Paris between the French Republic and the Kingdom of Sardinia
  1848 King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies stages an absolutist coup
  1851 Coronation of Rama IV as King of Thailand (1851-68) – Anna’s friend
  1862 Battle of Princeton, WVa
  1862 Ben Butler issues his famous "Woman Order," and proves every woman in New Orleans is a lady
  1864 Battle of New Market, Virginia
  1867 Battle of Queretero: The Mexican Republicans defeat the Imperialists, and capture pretend “Emperor” Maximilian von Hapsburg
  1882 Tsar Alexander III bans Jews from living in rural areas
  1883 Austro-German-Italian military convention
  1885 Canadians arrest Louis Riel, insurgent leader
  1904 Japanese BBs Hatsuse & Yashima mined & sunk off Port Arthur
  1916 Austrians capture Asiago from the Italians
  1919 Greeks capture Smyrna, to attempt the conquest of Anatolia
  1939 Dupont introduces nylon; within a year Japanese sales of silk to the US fall 30 percent
  1940 First successful test flight of an American helicopter, Vought-Sikorsky US-300
  1940 German troops occupy Amsterdam as the Dutch Army surrenders
  1941 British attack Halfaya Pass & Fort Capuzzo in Egypt & Libya
  1942 Gasoline rationing introduced by the US
  1943 Cuban Lt. Mario Ramirez Delgado's sub chaser CS-13 gets U-176.
  1944 Eisenhower & Montgomery brief Churchill & George VI on the D-Day plan
  1945 Andamans: Royal Navy raids Japanese installations
  1948 Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, & Saudi-Arabia attack Israel
  1955 Vienna Four-Power Treaty: Wartime allies restore Austria independence
  1957 First British A-bomb explosion, Christmas Island, the Pacific
  1958 USSR launches Sputnik III
  1960 Sputnik IV launched into Earth orbit
  1972 George Wallace shot & paralyzed by Arthur Bremer, Laurel, Md
  1972 Ryukyu Is return to Japan after 27 years of US control
16 0 Feast of St. Brendan, Patron of Sailors
  1152 King Henry II (age 19) weds Eleanor of Aquitaine (30)
  1204 Coronation of Count Baldwin of Flanders as the first Latin Emperor of Constantinople (1204-1205)
  1364 Battle of Cocherel: The French defeat the Navarrese
  1412 Giancarlo Visconti becomes Duke of Milan (May 15-June 12, 1412), by murder
  1527 The Medici again expelled from Florence and a Republic established (to 1530)
  1605 Camillo Borghese elected Pope as Paul V (1506-1621)
  1648 Battle of Zólty Wody: Bohdan Chmielricki's Cossacks defeat John Casimir’s Poles
  1703 Peter the Great founds St. Petersburg [OS]
  1770 Prince Louis [XVI] of France (age 16) weds Archduchess Marie Antoinette of Austria (14)
  1777 Button Gwinnet, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, mortally wounded in a duel, dies the 19th
  1796 French Revolutionaries establish the puppet “Lombard Republic” in northern Italy
  1811 Battle of La Albuera: The Anglo-Portuguese defeat the French
  1820 USS Congress becomes the first American warship to visit China
  1837 The British Legion in the service of the Spanish Crown liberates Irun from the Carlists
  1849 Battle of Velletri: The Garibaldini defeat the Neapolitans
  1861 Kentucky proclaims its neutrality in the Civil War
  1863 Vicksburg Campaign: Battle of Champion's Hill
  1864 Battle of Bermuda Hundred, Va.
  1919 USN flying boats begin trans-Atlantic flight (see 25th)
  1920 Canonization of Joan of Arc
  1929 'Wings' wins the first Oscar for best picture
  1934 Liner Olympic rams the Nantucket lightship, 7 Coastguardsmen die
  1941 Amba Alagi: the Duke of Aosta surrenders the last Italian troops in Ethiopia to the British
  1942 Indian Nationalists demand “U.S. Quit India" as American troops arrive to fight the Japanese
  1943 German troops destroy the main synagogue of Warsaw
  1944 German military police attack gypsies in the Netherlands
  1944 Siege of Kohima ends, as the last Japanese resistance is crushed.
  1975 India invades and annexes Sikkim
  1986 “Top Gun" premieres
  1992 Space Shuttle Endeavor safely completes its maiden voyage
17 352 Accession of Pope Liberius (352-366)
  884 Election of Pope Adrian III (884-885), later canonized
  1102 Second Battle of Ramalah: Crusaders defeat the Fatimids
  1198 Frederick II von Hohenstaufen, age 4, crowned King of Sicily
  1540 Battle of Kanauj: The Afghans defeat the Moghuls
  1648 Battle of Zusmarshausen: Swedes defeat the Imperialists
  1742 Battle of Chotusitz: Prussians defeat the Austrians
  1756 Seven Years' War: Britain declares war on France
  1794 Battle of Tourcoing, Day 1: French v. Austro-English (ends 18th)
  1797 Royal Navy's Sptihead "Mutiny" ends peacefully (from April 16)
  1809 Napoleon annexes the Papal States to his Empire
  1814 Denmark cedes Norway to Sweden
  1849 Great Fire of St. Louis
  1863 Battle of Big Black River Bridge: Grant begins sealing off Vicksburg
  1864 Battle of Adairsville, Ga: Union forces Confederate retreat
  1876 Rosebud Campaign: Custer & the 7th Cavalry leave Fort Lincoln
  1890 Havana: Magazine explosion, 34 die, c. 100 injured
  1900 The Boers besiege Mafeking
  1905 Norway declares independence from Sweden
  1938 Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan lands in Dublin rather than California
  1940 Germans capture Brussels
  1942 Japanese sub I-28 sunk by Tautog, I-164 by Triton
  1944 Burma: Merrill's Marauders take Myitkina airfield in a coup de main.
  1944 Royal Navy raids Surabaya, Java
  1944 Surabaya: American heavy bombers stage nocturnal raid
  1945 Last naval battle of WW II: Jap. CA Haguro sunk by Br DDs, Malacca Str.
  1974 Ulster “Unionist” terrorists detonate four bombs in the Irish Republic, 33 die, including children.
  1980 Race riot in Miami, 16 killed, c. 300 injured
  1987 USS Stark hit by Iraqi missiles, 37 sailors die
  2006 USS Oriskany (CV-34) is sunk as a reef in the Gulf of Mexico
18 1012 A reluctant Theophylact of Tusculum is elected Pope as Benedict VIII (1012-1024)
  1096 Crusaders massacre the Jews of Worms, Germany
  1291 The Mamlukes capture Acre, ending the Kingdom of Jerusalem
  1411 Papal-Angevin force defeats the Neapolitans at Roccasecca, near Cassino
  1452 Battle of Brechin: The Earl of Huntly defeats the Earl of Crawford
  1565 The Turks land on Malta and commence a siege (fails Sept 11)
  1748 Treaty of Abo: England brokers a peace between Russia and Sweden
  1765 Great Fire of Montreal destroys a quarter of the town
  1769 Lorenzo Ganganelli elected Pope as Clement XIV (1769-1774)
  1775 First USS Enterprise, a prize taken by Benedict Arnold on Lake Champlain
  1794 Battle of Tourcoing, Day 2: French defeat the Austro-English
  1798 Benjamin Stoddert becomes the first Secretary of the Navy
  1804 French Senate promotes Napoleon to Emperor
  1828 Battle of Las Piedras: Uruguay secures independence from Brazil
  1846 Mexican War: American troops capture Matamoros
  1861 Battle of Sewall's Point, VA
  1863 Siege of Vicksburg begins (to July 4)
  1864 Battle of Yellow Bayou/Bayou de Glaize/Old Oaks, La
  1864 Great Gold Hoax: Attempted manipulation of the US price of gold
  1898 US ships exchange fire with Spanish batteries at Santiago, Cuba
  1911 Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz flees to Paris, with gold and mistresses
  1917 Congress passes the Selective Service Act
  1922 Sydney and Violet Schiff hold a dinner at the Hotel Majestic in Paris for Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Pablo Picasso, and Sergei Diaghilev to honor Igor Stravinsky and his new ballet
  1935 Giant Soviet airplane "Maxim Gorky" crashes, heavy loss of life
  1944 Japanese and Chinese forces engage in street fighting in Loyang.
  1944 Polish II Corps storms Monte Cassino
  1945 Chinese troops liberate the port of Foochow
  1951 US General J. Lawton Collins predicts use of atom bomb in Korea
  1969 Apollo 10 (Stafford/Cernan/Young) launched to a lunar orbit
  1974 India becomes sixth nation to explode an atomic bomb
19 715 Accession of Pope Gregory II (715-731), later canonized
  1579 Peace of Arras: Reconciliation of the Southern Netherlands to Philip II of Spain
  1588 Spanish Armada sets sail from Cadiz for Lisbon
  1639 Battle of Thionville: Imperialists defeat the French
  1643 Battle of Allersheim
  1649 Parliament declares England a Commonwealth (Republic)
  1652 Spanish capture Gravelines
  1793 Dutch capture St Maarten from France
  1796 Battle of Lodi: Bonaparte's French defeat the Austrians
  1802 First Consul Bonaparte institutes the Legion of Honor
  1849 Battle of Velletri: Neapolitans beat off Garibaldi's Roman troops
  1864 Battle of Port Walthall Junction/Bermuda Hundred, Va
  1864 Battle of Spotsylvania ends
  1929 General Feng Yu-Xiang declares war on Chinese government
  1931 "Pocket Battleship" Deutschland launched in Germany
  1934 Military coup in Bulgaria by Col. Damian Veltsjev
  1940 De Gaulle’s 4th Arm Div counterattacks the Germanbs at Péronne
  1943 Berlin is declared "Judenrien - Free of Jews”
  1943 Winston Churchill addresses Congress for the second time
  1944 US 88th Inf Div liberates Itri
  1944 US troops overrun most of Wakde, begin repairing the airfield.
  1949 Ticker tape parade on Broadway for General Lucius D. Clay
  1951 UN begins counter offensive in Korea
  1958 NORAD is formed
  1960 USAF Maj Robert M White takes X-15 to 33,222 m
  1964 Over 40 "bugs" found in the U.S. embassy in Moscow
  1967 US bombs Hanoi
  1997 USS The Sullivans (DDG-68) commissioned in New York
20 685 Battle of Nechtansmere/Dunnichen Moss: King Bruide of the Picts defeats King of Ecgfrith of Northumbria
  1217 Battle of Lincoln: Earl of Pembroke defeats the French
  1347 Cola di Rienzo proclaimed Tribune of a new Roman Republic (to Dec 15th)
  1495 Charles VIII of France leaves Naples for home
  1498 Vasco da Gama reaches Calicut, India
  1520 Battle of Vera Cruz: Cortes defeats Panfilo de Narvaez, agent of the Governor of Cuba
  1521 Battle of Pamplona: The French oust the Spanish, wounding Ignatius Loyola in the process
  1571 Pope Pius V organizes the Holy League with Venice and Spain, to fight the Turks
  1591 The Dutch capture Zutphen from the Spanish
  1635 Battle of Avein: French defeat the Spanish
  1741 Lord Vernon's British expedition retreats from Cartagena de las Indias
  1796 Battle of Borghetto: The French defeat the Austrians
  1825 Charles X becomes King of France (1825-1830)
  1848 First Battle of Vicenza: Austrians defeat Veneto-Papal forces
  1859 Battle of Montebello: Franco-Piedmontese defeat the Austrians
  1902 US military occupation of Cuba (since June of 1898) ends
  1912 SMS Moltke reaches Hampton Roads, on the only visit to the US by a German capital ship
  1930 Pres. Hoover reviews the US Fleet off the Virginia Capes
  1932 Engelbert Dollfuss becomes chancellor of Austria
  1936 Neptunus Rex inducts 29,751 USN polliwogs into the Order of Shellbacks, and personally decorates CNCUS Joseph M. Reeves
  1938 Chinese Air Force Martin 139s conduct leafleting raids over Nagasaki and Sasebo
  1940 German tanks reach the Channel
  1941 Max Schmeling and thousands of other German paratroopers invade Crete
  1942 Japanese submarine-borne aircraft reconnoiter Durban, South Africa
  1944 US Army Engineers blow up the remnants of the Nofi residence, Itri
  1970 NYC: 100,000 march to support US policies in Vietnam
  1971 Pentagon reports blacks constitute 11% of US soldiers in SE Asia
21 1077 Canossa: HRE Henry IV begs forgiveness from Pope Gregory VII
  1420 Treaty of Troyes: Charles VI of France recognizes Henry V of England as his heir, and gives him his daughter Catherine to wed
  1421 Murad II becomes Sultan of the Turks (1421-1451)
  1438 The Bentivoglio capture Bologna in a coup
  1511 Battle of Casalecchio: French defeat the Papal Army
  1522 Adrian Florisz Boeyens elected Pope as Adrian VI (1522-23)
  1674 John Sobieski is elected King of Poland-Lithuania (1674-1796)
  1856 Lawrence, Kansas captured, sacked by pro-slavery forces
  1861 Richmond, Va, is designated the Confederate Capital
  1863 Siege on Port Hudson, Louisiana, begins
  1864 US Maj Gen David Hunter takes command of Dept of West Virginia
  1871 French troops attack the Commune of Paris; 17,000 reportedly die in a week
  1879 Naval Battle of Iquique: Peru loses an ironclad, Chile a gunboat.
  1881 Clara Barton founds the American Red Cross
  1917 Leo Pinckney is the first American drafted during WW I
  1941 SS Robin Moore is sunk off Brazil, first u-boat kill of an American ship in WW II
  1942 Philippines: Japanese troops occupy Samar and Leyte
  1943 China: Japanese open a new offensive across the Yangtze River
  1944 Pearl Harbor: ammo-laden LST blows up, 6 LSTs lost, c. 200 die
  1944 Wadke, New Guinea: Japanese crushed, c. 750 dead to 43 US
  1956 US explodes the first airdropped hydrogen bomb, Bikini Atoll
  1964 US begins intelligence flights above Laos
  1968 US submarine Scorpion sinks off Azores, 99 die
  1991 Marxist dictator of Ethiopia Mengistu Haile Mariam resigns
22 0 National Maritime Day
  334 BC Battle of the Granicus: Alexadner defeats the Persians [Alt]
  415 BC Descration of the Herms at Athens [Alt]
  871 Battle of Basing: The Danes defeat Ethelred “the Unrede” of Wessex
  1176 Attempted assassination of Saladin at Aleppo
  1200 Treaty of Le Goulet: between King John of England and Philip of France
  1276 Pierre de Tarantaise elected Pope as Innocent V, later beatified (Jan 21 – June 22, 1276)
  1370 Jews are expelled from Brussels
  1371 Coronation of King Robert II Stuart of Scots
  1455 First Battle of St. Albans: The Yorkists defeat the Lancastrians
  1499 Battle of Calven Gorge: The Swiss defeat the Hapsburgs
  1511 The French capture Bologna
  1526 War of the League of Cognac: Francis I breaks his word & resumes war against Spain for contorl of Italy, helped by the Pope & England
  1760 Battle of Wandewash, India: British defeat the French
  1771 Spain cedes the Falkland Islands to Britain
  1790 Russians blockade the Swedish fleet in Viborg harbor (Swedes break out July 3)
  1794 Battle of Tournai: Austro-Dutch defeat the French
  1809 Battle of Aspern-Essling, Day 1: Napoleon v. the Austrians
  1848 Battle of the Ponte di Caffaro: Italian Nationalists defeat the Austrians
  1848 Second Battle of Vicenza: Veneto-Papal forces defeat the Austrians
  1856 Slavocrat Rep. Preston Brooks brutaly beats Sen. Charles Sumner in the Senate
  1863 War Dept establishes Bureau of Colored Troops
  1864 Battle of North Anna River/Totopotamy River/Haw's Shop/Hanovertown, Va
  1872 Grant signs the Amnesty Act, restoring full civil rights to most former Confederates
  1890 José Marti forms La Liga Cubana nationalist organization, NY
  1915 Gretna, Scotland: Local train collides with trooper, 226 die
  1941 British troops take Baghdad, deposing pro-Nazi Iraqi regime
  1942 Mexico declares war on Nazi Germany and Japan
  1943 Stalin disbands the Comintern
  1947 "Truman Doctrine" goes into effect, aiding Turkey & Greece
  1959 Benjamin O Davis Jr. (USMA '36) becomes the first black major general
  1962 Robert A Rushworth, USAF major, takes X-15 to 30,600m
  1967 Egyptian president Nasser closes Straits of Tiran to Israel
  1969 Stafford & Cernan pilot Apollo 10 LEM 9.4 mi (15km) above lunar surface
  1970 Arab terrorist attacks school bus in Israel; 9 children, 3 adults die
  1985 US sailor Michael L Walker arrested for spying for USSR
  1992 India launches its Agni rocket
23 0 Roman Festival of the Tubilustrium: Purification of the War Trumpts
  878 Alfred the Great defeats the Danes at Edington, imposing peace
  1430 Burgundians capture Joan of Arc, for the English
  1475 Battle of Neuss: The Burgundians defeat the Imperialists
  1493 Peace of Senlis
  1533 King Henry VIII invalidates his marriage to Catherine of Aragon
  1555 Giovanni Pietro Caraffa elected Pope as Paul IV (1555-1559)
  1579 Union of Utrecht: Protestant provinces of the Netherlands form the Dutch Republic
  1618 The Second Defenestration of Prague: initiates the Thirtsy Years’ War
  1660 King Charles II returns to England from exile in the Netherlands
  1706 Battle of Ramillies: Marlborough defeats French
  1775 Patrick Henry says "Give me Liberty or give me death!"
  1809 Battle of Aspern-Essling, Day 2: Austrians draw with Napoleon
  1859 Garibaldi’s Cacciatori delle Alpi occupy Sesto Calende & Varese
  1861 White Virginian men vote 3 to 1 for secession – a month after the state secedes
  1862 Valley Campaign: Stonewall Jackson takes Front Royal, Virginia
  1864 Battle of Dallas, GA
  1864 Battle of North Anna, Va, 1st of 3 days of fighting
  1865 Grand Review of the Union Army begins in Washington, DC
  1873 Canada establishes the North West Mounted Police
  1878 German ironclad Konig Wilhelm rams & sinks ironclad Grosser Furfurst
  1911 Dedicaton of the main building of the New York Public Library
  1915 Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary
  1928 Bomb attack on Italian embassy in Buenos Aires, 22 die
  1939 Britain's George Cross presented for the first time
  1939 US sub Squalus sinks off Portsmouth, NH; 26 die, 33 rescued next day
  1945 German island of Helgoland in North Sea surrenders to British
  1958 Mao Tse-tung starts "the Great Leap Forward" in China, millions die
  1960 Israel announces capture of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina
24 1086 Abbott Desiderius of Monte Cassino becomes Pope - Bl Victor III (1086-1087)
  1153 Malcolm IV becomes King of Scotland (1153-1165)
  1370 Peace treaty between the Hanseatic League and Denmark
  1487 The Pseudo-Edward VI (Lambert Simnel) crowned King of England, in Ireland
  1568 Battle of Groningen: Dutch defeat the Spanish
  1658 Battle of the Dunes: Anglo-French troops defeat the Spanish near Dunkirk
  1689 Parliament guarantees freedom of religion, for Protestants
  1764 James Otis coins the phrase "no taxation without representation."
  1818 Andrew Jackson captures Pensacola from the Spanish
  1822 Battle of Pichincha: Bolivar secures independence of Peru
  1846 Mexican War: Zachary Taylor captures Monterey
  1861 Alexandria, VA, occupied by Federal troops
  1861 Benjamin Butler declares slaves "contraband of war"
  1871 The Paris Commune begins massacre of Catholic clergy
  1877 The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) meets Lillie Langtry
  1883 The Brooklyn Bridge opens
  1900 Britain annexes Orange Free State
  1915 Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary
  1916 Britain introduces conscription
  1916 Germans capture Ft. Douaumont, Verdun, from the French
  1921 British Legion formed by World War I veterans
  1930 Amy Johnson becomes the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia
  1939 McCann Rescue Chamber saves 33 from sunken sub Squalus
  1941 Battle of the Denmark Straits: Bismarck sinks Hood, 1,416 killed – only 3 survivors
  1944 Enver Hoxha becomes head of Albanian anti-fascist movement
  1944 US carrier aircraft raid Wake Island.
  1958 Pres Batista opens offensive against Fidel Castro's rebels
  1959 Pleasant Hills, Pa: first home with built-in bomb shelter exhibited
  1962 Scott Carpenter goes into earth orbit aboard Aurora 7
  1980 Iran rejects a call by World Court to release US hostages
  1989 French war criminal Paul Touvier arrested in a monastery in Nice
25 451 Battle of Avarayr: Armenians are defeated by the Persians
  585 BC Thales’ Eclipse, first predicted eclipse
  1085 Alfonso VI of Castille liberates Toledo from the Moors
  1241 Rioters attack the Jews of Frankfort-on-the-Main
  1571 Stephen Bathory is elected Prince of Transylvania (1571-75)
  1626 Battle of Dessau: Imperialists defeat the Protestants
  1632 Albrecht von Wallenstein’s Imperial troops recapture Prague from the Saxons
  1784 Marshal Mnizzek expels the Jews from Warsaw
  1787 Constitutional Convention opens
  1810 Argentina declares independence from Spain, largely under French ocucpation
  1836 Attempted assassination of King Louis Philippe of France
  1862 Battle of Winchester, VA
  1864 Battle of New Hope Church, GA
  1865 Magazine explosion in Mobile, c. 300 die
  1870 Fenians raid Eccles Hill, Québec, from the US
  1878 Gilbert & Sullivan’s "HMS Pinafore" premieres in London
  1919 Navy NC-4 flying boat completes Atlantic flight to Portugal (from 16th)
  1925 Scopes "Monkey Trial" begins, Dayton, Tennessee
  1940 German troops reach the Channel near Boulogne
  1949 Chinese Red army occupies Shanghai
  1953 First – and only – live test firing of the “Atomic Cannon,” Nevada
  1961 JFK pledges the US will put a man on the moon by 1970
  1961 NASA pilot Joseph A Walker takes X-15 to 32,770 m
  1979 Israel pulls out of Sinai, implementing peace with Egypt
  1991 Israel completes rescue of 14,000 Ethiopian Jews
26 0 Feast of St. Augustine of Hippo
  17 Triumph of Germanicus for his victories in Germany
  107 Triumph of Trajan for his conquest of Dacia
  1249 Battle of Fossalta: The Bolognese capture Enzio, son of Frederick II, and lock him up for 25 years
  1402 Battle of Casalecchio: the Visconti defeat the Bentivogli of Bologna
  1532 France, Bavaria, Saxony, & Hesse form an alliance against Ferdinand of Hapsburg
  1538 John Calvin is expelled from Geneva
  1642 Battle of Honnecourt: Spanish defeat the French
  1647 Massachusetts bars Catholic priests, on penalty of death
  1694 Battle of Ter: The Spanish defeat the French
  1736 Battle of Ackia, La: British & Chickasaw defeat French
  1789 Col. The Duke of York of the Coldstream Guards refuses to return fire though slightly wounded in a duel with LtCol Charles Lenox, of the same regiment
  1805 Napoleon crowns himself King of Italy
  1824 Mexico’s Constituent Congress declares Chiapas free to choose its own future
  1861 Union begins blockade of Confederate Gulf ports
  1896 Tsar Nicholas II is crowned
  1905 Pogrom against Jews in Minsk, Belorussia
  1922 Lenin suffers a stroke, which unfortunately isn’t fatal
  1938 House Un-American Activities Comm begins investigating fascistic groups
  1940 The Crown detains British Fascist Oswald Moseley
  1941 HMS Ark Royal a/c damage battleship Bismarck
  1941 Netherlands: Germans begin conscripting young men for labor
  1942 Belgium: Nazis require Jews to wear a Star of David
  1942 North Africa: Rommel attacks the Gazala Line.
  1945 Chinese reoccupy Nanning, cut off 200,000 Japanese troops in Indochina
  1945 US fire bomb raid on Tokyo
  1946 US Patent filed for the H-Bomb
  1954 Explosion & fire in CV Bennington, 103 die, over 200 injured
  1961 USAF bomber flies Atlantic in a record of just over three hours
  1972 US-USSR sign SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty)
  1981 USMC jet crashes on flight deck of USS Nimitz, 14 died
27 0 Imperial Japanese Navy Day
  1529 Jews of Poching, Hungary, charged with blood ritual, 30 burned alive
  1606 Russians overthrow the "False Dimitri"
  1607 Battle of Jamestown: English settlers repulse an attack by c. 200 Indians
  1813 Col. Winfield Scott captures Ft George, Canada
  1832 Egyptians capture Acre, Palestine, from the Turks
  1859 Battle of San Fermo: The Garibaldini defeat the Austrians
  1860 The Garibaldini capture Palermo
  1862 Battle of Hanover Court House/Slash Church/Peake's Station, Va.
  1863 Explosion in CSS Chattahoochie, on the Chattahoochie River, 18 die
  1905 Battle of Tsu-Shima Strait: Japanese Fleet destroys the Russian Fleet
  1918 Battle of the Aisne: Allies begin pressing back Germans
  1927 Japan intervenes in the Chinese Civil War
  1936 RMS Queen Mary begins her maiden voyage, Southampton-New York
  1940 German troops massacre 97 men of the Royal Norfolk Regiment, near Dunkirk
  1940 Operation Dynamo: Dunkirk Evacuation begins
  1941 FDR proclaims an "unlimited national emergency"
  1941 The Royal Navy sinks the Bismarck
  1944 Allied landing on Biak, off New Guinea
  1952 European Defense Community forms
  1966 French aerobatic fighters collide over Spain, 6 die
  1993 Florence: Uffizi Gallery bombed, 5 dead, 24 injured, much art lost
28 0 Feast of St. Bernard, Patron of Travelers
  585 BC Solar eclipse interrupts a battle between Cyaxerxes of Media and Alyattes of Lydia
  640 Consecration of Pope Severinus (elected 638, reigned 28 May-2 Aug 640)
  861 The Vikings burn Paris
  1156 Naval Battle of Brindisi: William II’s Norman-Sicilians defeat the Byzantines
  1349 Anti-Semitic outbreak at Breslau, 60 die
  1358 Saint-Leu begins the "Jacquerie" French peasant uprising
  1731 Papal States orders confiscation of all Hebrew books
  1754 Battle of Jumonville Glen: George Washington & a small band of militiamen and Indians defeats the French and Indians near Ft Duquesne
  1774 First Continental Congress convenes
  1813 Second Battle of Sackett’s Harbor: Americans defeat a British attack
  1813 USS Essex and prize capture 5 British whalers in the Pacific
  1830 Congress authorizes Indian removal from the Eastern states
  1849 Spanish troops land at Gaeta, to fight the Roman Republic
  1900 Britain annexes the Orange Free State
  1910 Austrian Lt. Adolf Hofrichter gets ten years for using poison to speed up promotions.
  1917 Tenth Battle of the Isonzo ends (from May 12)
  1926 Portugal: Military coup by Gen Manuel Gomes da Costa
  1937 Neville Chamberlain becomes PM of Great Britain
  1940 King Leopold III surrenders Belgium to the Germans
  1940 Norway: Anglo-French forces capture Narvik
  1945 Okinawa: c. 100 kamikaze raid Allied fleet, one U.S. DD sunk
  1961 The American Republican Army (membership 2) blows up communications facilities in Nevada and Utah.
  1967 Sir Francis Chichester completes the first non-stop circumnavigation of the globe, at Plymouth
  1971 USSR Mars 3 launched, first spacecraft to make a soft landing on Mars
  1974 Neo-Fascist terror bombing in Brescia, 6 die
  1980 First 55 women graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy
  1987 German Mathias Rust, 19, lands a light plane in Red Square
  1991 Ethiopian rebels seize Addis Ababa
29 363 Battle of Ctesiphon: Emperor Julian defeats Shah Shapur II, but fails to take the city
  757 Accession of Pope Paul I (757-67), later canonized
  1108 Battle of Ucles: The Almoravids defeat the Castillians
  1167 Battle of Monteporzio: Imperialists defeat the Romans
  1176 Battle of Legnano: Lombards defeat Frederick Barbarossa
  1217 Vlerdingen, the Netherlands: 1st contingent of the Fifth Crusade sets out
  1405 Battle of Skipton Moor: Henry IV defeats Archbishop Richard Scrope of York 
  1416 Battle of Gallipoli: Venetian fleet annihilates the Turkish fleet
  1453 Byzantine Empire falls: Sultan Mehemet II captures Constantinople amid great slaughter
  1652 Battle of Godwin Sands: Blake’s English fleet defeats Tromp’s Dutch off Dover
  1660 The Restoration: Charles II ascends the English throne
  1724 Pietro Francesco Orsini elected Pope as Benedict XIII (1724-1730)
  1781 US frigate Alliance captures HMSs Atalanta & Trepassy off Nova Scotia
  1848 Battles of Curtatone & Montanara: Tuscans & Neapolitans defeat The Austrians
  1859 Garibaldi liberates Como from the Austrians
  1864 Archduke Maximilian of Austria arrives in Mexico to become Emperor
  1877 HMS Shah captures mutinous Peruvian ironclad Huascar; first use of mobile torpedo in combat, a miss
  1899 Iosip Dzhugashvili is expelled from the Orthodox Seminary at Tiblisi, for failure to take exams.
  1905 Pogrom in Brisk, Lithuania
  1914 SS Empress of Ireland, rammed, sinks in the St Lawrence, 1024 die
  1940 Arthur Seyss-Inquart made Reichscommissar of The Hague, Netherlands
  1943 Attu: Japanese make a major "Banzai" attack
  1943 US initiates meat and cheese rationing
  1944 Biak: Japanese lose tank clash with American troops.
  1945 Okinawa: 1st Marine Division Captures Shuri Castle
  1957 Algerian Rebels kill 336 "collaborators"
  1989 Student protesters in China erect a replica of the Statue of Liberty
  1993 Neo-Nazis kill five Turkish women in Solingen, Germany
30 0 Feast of St. Ferdinand III of Castille & Leon, Patron of Military Engineers
  0 Feast of St. Joan of Arc, Patron of France, of French and American Soldiers, and of Women in Military Service
  17 BC Augustus celebrates the Ludi Saeculares, 36-years belatedly commemorating Rome’s 700th anniversary
  47 Emperor Claudius celebrates the Ludi Saeculares, commemorating Rome’s 800th anniversary, reverting to the original chronology
  88 Domitian celebrates the Ludi Saeculares, commemorating Rome’s 900th annivesary (out of sync with any other calculation)
  148 Emperor Antoninus Pius celebrates the Ludi Saeculares, commemorating Rome’s 900th anniversary, using the original chronology
  204 Septimius Severus celebrates the Ludi Saeculares, commemorating Rome’s 900th anniversary (out of sync with any other calculation)
  248 Emperor Philip the Arabian celebrates the Ludi Saeculares, commemorating Rome’s 1000th anniversary, using the original chronology – last celebration of the festival
  542 Battle of Badon: Arthur vs. Modred
  1035 Baldwin V becomes Count of Flanders
  1213 English raid Damme, on the Zwyn Estuary in Flanders, burning French ships
  1434 Battle of Lapin: Hussite Ultras defeated by Borek of Miletinek
  1522 Popular uprising expels the French from Genoa
  1559 Battle of Konia: Prince Selim of Turkey defeats his half-brother Bayazid
  1574 Henry III succeeds to the throne of France
  1588 The Spanish Armada sails from Lisbon for the Netherlands
  1635 Treaty of Prague: unsuccessful effort at ending the Thirty Years War.
  1808 Napoleon annexes Tuscany to his empire
  1814 First Treaty of Paris ending the Napoleonic Wars, following Bonaparte's first abdication
  1814 US gunboats capture 3 British ones on Lake Ontario
  1822 Denmark Vesey’s slave conspiracy betrayed, 37 blacks slain
  1842 Assassination attempt on Queen Victoria
  1848 Battle of Goito: Piedmontese defeat the Austrians
  1849 Battle of Palestro: Austrians defeat Sardinians by the 31st
  1849 Battle of San Pancrazio: Garibaldi defeats the French near Rome
  1854 Battle of Cienquilla: Apache ambush the 1st Dragoons, 22 die.
  1861 CS Post Office Department set up, as US PO ceases deliveries in the South
  1862 Battle of Booneville Ms: Gen Beauregard evacuates Corinth
  1862 Battle of Front Royal, Va.
  1864 Battle of Bethesda Church, Va.
  1867 Frédéric Passy & Henri Dunant form the Ligue internationale et permanente de la Paix, at Geneva.
  1868 The First "Decoration Day" (Memorial Day), Columbus, Ms
  1901 Memorial Day becomes a national observance
  1913 Treaty of London ends the First Balkan War
  1915 Turkish government orders deportation of Armenians
  1916 Battle of Jutland: Grand Fleet sails, 37 BBs, 120 other ships
  1937 Chicago police fire on union marchers at Republic Steel, 10 die
  1941 The Luftwaffe bombs Dublin.
  1942 Diego Suarez: Japanese mini-sub torpedoes BB Ramilles & a tanker
  1942 First Allied air raid on Cologne
  1943 US troops complete recapture of Attu
  1958 Unknown soldiers of WWII & Korean War buried in Arlington
  1962 Premiere of Sir Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem", London
  1962 USS Arizona Memorial dedicated in Pearl Harbor
  1966 300 US airplanes bomb North Vietnam
  1967 Biafra secedes from Nigeria, initiating a bloody civil war
  1972 Japanese terrorists kill 24, wound 72 at Tel Aviv's Lod Airport
  1982 Spain becomes the 16th member of NATO
31 1020 Lady Godiva does her thing
  1223 Battle of Kalka: Subotai's Mongols defeat the Russians
  1257 Battle of Pontargottn: the Welch defeat the English
  1859 Battle of Palestro: Franco-Piedmontese defeat the Austrians
  1862 Battle of Seven Pines/Fair Oaks, Va
  1866 Fenians invade Ontario (c. 600) & Quebec (c. 1800) from the US
  1898 Santiago: US ships and Spanish batteries exchange fire
  1900 Boxer Rebellion: Multinational relief force reaches Peking
  1902 Treaty of Vereeniging: Boer War ends, Britain annexes Transvaal
  1906 Madrid: Bomb kills 29, injures 90.
  1910 Union of South Africa formed
  1915 Zeppelin LZ-38 makes an air raid on London
  1921 Tulsa "Race Riot": scores –perhaps hundreds- of blacks slain
  1934 Aboard the USS Indianapolis (CA-35), FDR reviews the US Fleet as it enters NY harbor
  1937 German ships bombard Almeria, Spain, retaliating for an air attack
  1942 Japanese mini-sub causes panic Sydney harbor, little damage.
  1947 Communists seize power in Hungary
  1961 Apartheidist South Africa declares itself a republic outside the British Commonwealth
  1974 Israel & Syria sign an agreement on the Golan Heights
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