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 Years' 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 injured

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 initiates 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