TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY

1400	BC	Theseus and the Athenian Youths and Maidens sail for Crete [Trad]
648	BC	Solar eclipse visible in Greece & the Aegean
46	BC	Battle of Thapsus: Caesar defeats the Senatorials and Numidians
0		Feast of King St. Brychan of Brycheiniog
0		Army Day, US
403		Stilicho's Romano-Alan Army defeated Alaric's Visigoths at Pollentia, on Easter Sunday -- Learn More
572		Accession of Kan Bahlam I as Lord of Palenque (572-583)
1250		Battle of Minieh: Ayyubids defeat the Crusaders
1327		Petrarch first set eyes on Laura de Noves [see Deaths]
1362		Battle of Brignais: French forces under Count Jacques De Bourbon are wiped out by the rebel Free Companies
1453		Sultan Mehmet II laid siege to Constantinople (falls May 29th) -- Learn More
1664		France & Saxony conclude an alliance
1672		France declares war on the Netherlands
1712		Slave revolt in New York
1776		US naval squadron captures eight British ships off New England
1859		US recognizes Benito Juarez and the liberal government in Mexico's War of Reform
1862		the Battle of Shiloh began -- Learn More
1906		Massive eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, hundreds die
1916		German parliament OKs unrestricted submarine warfare
1917		the US declared war on Germany, entering World War I -- the United States entered World War I against Germany -- Learn More
1934		Nazis arrest 418 Lutheran ministers
1939		Great Britain & Poland sign military pact
1939		US & UK agree on joint control of Canton & Enderbury Is in the Pacific
1941		Germans bomb Belgrad, 17,000 reportedly die
1941		Germans bomb the Piraeus, two old battleships sink
1941		Italians surrender Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to the British
1942		Chaing Kai-shek agrees to provide additional forces for Burma
1942		Japanese First Air Fleet raids in the Bay of Bengal.
1942		Stilwell's Chinese forces prepare to defend Pyinamana.
1943		USS 'Trout' (SS-202) begins laying mines near Sarawak, Borneo
1944		The Supreme Allied Commander cancels all further military leaves throughout the British Isles, in preparation for D-Day
1945		Coevorden, the Netherlands, liberated from the Nazis
1945		Japanese battleship 'Yamato' sails for Okinawa on a one-way mission
1945		off Okinawa a massive Japanese kamikaze attack sank six U.S. ships -- Learn More
1968		USS 'New Jersey' (BB-62) recommissioned, the first battleship in active service since 1958
1973		India invades and annexes Sikkim

BORN

1498		Giovanni de'Medici - Giovanni degli Bande Nere, condottiero, d/w 1526
1630		Shivaji, founder of the Maratha Empire (r. 1674-1680), d. 1680
1828		Charles William Field, Maj Gen, C.S.A., d. 1892
1866		The Grand Army of the Republic
1890		Anthony Herman Gerard Fokker, Dutch aircraft designer, d. 1939
1892		Donald Douglas, USMA alumnus, aircraft designer (DC-3/C-47, etc.) d. 1981
1892		Lowell Thomas, intrepid war correspondent, d. 1981

DIED

46	BC	Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica, Plaetorius Rustianus, L. Manlius Torquatus, Licinius Crassus Damasippus, & thousands of other Senatorials, plus a few Caesarians, kia, Battle of Thapsus
403		Saul, King of the Alans, Roman general, kia, Pollentia
432		Pope Celestine I (422-432)
1199		King Richard I "Lionheart" of England (1189-99), of wounds at 41 -- -- Learn More
1348		Laura de Noves, Petrarch's beloved, of plague, at c. 40
1362		James of Bourbon-La Marche, c. 42, Count of Ponthieu (1351-1360) & of La Marche (1356-1362)
1490		King Matthias I "the Just" Corvinus, 43, King of Hungary (1458-1490) and of Bohemia (1469-1490), Duke of Austria (1486-1490)
1803		Sir William Hamilton, 72, sometime British ambassador at Naples, husband to Lady Hamilton, friend to Nelson -- Learn More
1992		Isaac Asimov, Boys' High alum, Army veteran, author, at 72
1994		Pres. Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi (b. 1958), Pres. Juvénal Habyarimana of Rwanda (b 1937), and 12 others, when a surface-to-air missile strikes their plane as it is landing at Kigali International Airport
2005		Rainier III Grimaldi, Sovereign Prince of Monaco (1949-2005), French soldier, at 82