1178 BC Odysseus returns to Ithaka [Astron]
556 Election of Pope Pelagius I (556-561)
1071 Robert the Weasel captures Bari from the Byzantines after a three year siege
1444 Truce of Tours: pause in the Hundred Year's War (1444-1450)
1746 Battle of Culloden: the Duke of Cumberland defeats the "Young Pretender" and massacres his supporters
1777 Battle of Bennington: Molly Stark does not "find herself a widow"
1796 Battle of Ceva, Day 1: French v. Austro-Piedmontese
1797 Royal Navy "mutiny" at Spithead (ends May 14)
1799 Battle of Mt. Tabor: Bonaparte's French defeat the Turks in Palestine
1809 Battle of Sacile: The Austrians defeat the French
1810 Notorious "War Hawk" Rep. Nathaniel Macon of North Carolina proposes "the whole army ought to be abolished"
1818 Rush-Bagot treaty ratified, creating an unfortified US-Canada border
1862 Abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia
1862 Confederate Conscription Act: extends all prior enlistments for the duration and introduces mandatory service for white men 18-35, with exemptions for slaveowners and some others
1865 Battles of Columbus & West Point, Ga
1916 The French Army forms the Escadrille Americaine.
1917 Lenin arrives at the Finland Station, in Petrograd, to plot the Bolshevik Revolution
1924 Navy begins relief operations for Mississippi Valley floods (to June 16)
1925 Bulgarian Communists blow up St Nedelya Cathedral in Sofia during the funeral of General Konstantin Georgiev, who had been murdered days before; 150 die, including many political and military officials, c. 500 inured
1938 Britain recognizes the Italian annexation of Abyssinia
1942 Burma: Japanese troops occupy Magwe
1942 Philippines: Japanese troops land on Panay
1942 A test mobilization of the New York Guard puts 17,000 militiamen on active duty for one day
1944 US begins planning "Operation Olympic" - the invasion of Japan.
1945 77th Inf Div lands on Ie Shima, off Okinawa
1945 The Red Army initates the Battle of Berlin
1945 US troops enter Nuremberg
1945 USS 'Laffey' (DD-724) survives six kamikaze hits, off Okinawa
1946 US launches captured V-2 rocket, White Sands, NM
1947 Congress grants Navy Nurses full commissioned status
1947 Nitrate-laden ship explodes at Texas City, over 500 die.
1965 Test flight of the Saturn S-1C rocket
1966 The Apartheid regime of Rhodesia breaks diplomatic relations with Britain
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