1975 – Hubert van Es takes the famous picture of a helicopter airlift from a Saigon rooftop. The image shows South Vietnamese civilians employed by the U.S. trying to escape Saigon on the day before the city’s fall. It came to symbolize the American defeat in Vietnam.
1091 – Battle at Monte Levunium: Byzantium Emperor Alexius I beats Petshegene force invading from the north
1289 – Qala’un, the Sultan of Egypt, captured Tripoli.
1429 – Joan of Arc led Orleans, France, to victory over Britain.
1550 – Emperor Charles V gives inquisiters additional authority
1623 – 11 Dutch ships depart for the conquest of Peru
1661 – The Chinese Ming dynasty occupied Taiwan.
1672 – King Louis XIV of France invaded the Netherlands.
1701 – Drenthe, Netherlands, adopts Gregorian calendar, tomorrow is May 12, 1701
1707 – English and Scottish parliaments accept Act of Union; creates the United Kingdom of Great Britain (comes into being 1st May)
1781 – French fleet stops the Britain from seizing the Cape of Good Hope
1813 – Rubber was patented by J.F. Hummel.
1852 – The first edition of Peter Roget’s Thesaurus was published.
1861 – The Maryland House of Delegates voted against seceding from Union.
1879 – In Cleveland, OH, electric arc lights were used for the first time.
1894 – The 500-strong Commonwealth of Christ (Coxey’s Army) arrives in Washington, D.C., to protest against unemployment; Coxey arrested for trespassing at Capitol
1902 – Congress extends the Chinese Exclusion Act (of 1882) prohibiting immigration of Chinese laborers from territories to the mainland, a rule clearly aimed at Chinese in the Philippines
1916 – Irish republicans abandon the post office in Dublin and surrender unconditionally, marking the end of the Easter Rising
1916 – Irish nationalists surrendered to British authorities in Dublin.
1918 – Germany’s Western Front offensive ended in World War I.
1924 – An open revolt broke out in Santa Clara, Cuba.
1941 – The Boston Bees agreed to change their name to the Braves.
1942 – Jews forced to wear a Jewish Star in Netherlands & Vichy-France
1945 – The German Army in Italy surrendered unconditionally to the Allies.
1945 – In a bunker in Berlin, Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun were married. Hitler designated Admiral Karl Doenitz his successor.
1945 – The Nazi death camp, Dachau, was liberated.
1946 – Twenty-eight former Japanese leaders were indicted in Tokyo as war criminals.
1951 – China seizes the assets of the Asiatic Petroleum Company, a joint venture between the Shell and Royal Dutch oil companies in retaliation for the Hong Kong Government’s requisitioning of the tanker Yung Hao
1952 – IBM President Thomas J. Watson, Jr., informed his company’s stockholders that IBM was building “the most advanced, most flexible high-speed computer in the world.” The computer was unveiled April 7, 1953, as the IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machine.
1957 – 1st military nuclear power plant dedicated at Fort Belvoir, Virginia
1961 – ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” premiered.
1968 – The musical Hair goes to Broadway. As a portrait of the 1960s hippie counterculture and sexual revolution, it was highly controversial at the time. Some of the musical’s songs became anthems of the peace movement during the Vietnam War.
1974 – U.S. President Nixon announced he was releasing edited transcripts of secretly made White House tape recordings related to the Watergate scandal.
1975 – The U.S. embassy in Vietnam was evacuated as North Vietnamese forces fought their way into Saigon.
1975 – Hubert van Es takes the famous picture of a helicopter airlift from a Saigon rooftop. The image shows South Vietnamese civilians employed by the U.S. trying to escape Saigon on the day before the city’s fall. It came to symbolize the American defeat in Vietnam.
1982 – American mafia hitman Richard Kuklinski murders pharmacist Paul Hoffman by beating him with a tire iron
1984 – In California, the Diablo Canyon nuclear reactor went online after a long delay due to protests.
1988 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev promised more religious freedom.
1990 – The destruction of the Berlin Wall began.
1992 – Exxon executive Sidney Reso was kidnapped outside his Morris Township, NJ, home by Arthur Seale. Seale was a former Exxon security official. Reso died while in captivity.
1992 – Deadly riots erupt in Los Angeles. 53 people died in the riots, which started after the acquittal of the 4 Los Angeles police officers accused of the brutal beating of Rodney King.
1994 – Israel and the PLO signed an agreement in Paris which granted Palestinians broad authority to set taxes, control trade and regulate banks under self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
1996 – Former CIA Director William Colby was missing and presumed drowned after an apparent boating accident in Maryland. Colby’s body was later recovered.
1997 – Staff Sgt. Delmar Simpson, a drill instructor at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, was convicted of raping six female trainees. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison and was dishonorably discharged.
1998 – The U.S., Canada and Mexico end tariffs on $1 billion in NAFTA trade.
1998 – Brazil announced a plan to protect a large area of Amazon forest. The area was about the size of Colorado.
2004 – Oldsmobile builds its final car ending 107 years of production
2009 – NATO expelled two Russian diplomats from NATO headquarters in Brussels over a spy scandal in Estonia. Russia’s Foreign Ministry criticized the expulsions.
2015 – The White Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles 8-2 at Camden Yards. The game was played without a crowd present due to the ongoing riots and protests in Baltimore. This was the first time a Major League Baseball game was played in front of an empty house.
2015 – German Measles is declared eradicated from North and South America – 1st world region to do so
2019 – Islamic State releases video showing leader Bakr al-Baghdadi for first time in five years
2019 – Over 300 people declared to have died through overwork in Indonesia’s one-day election on April 17th, with over 2,000 fallen sick
2019 – Over 700 people infected with measles in the US, highest number for 25 years
2020 – US GDP falls 4.8% for the financial quarter, officially ending the country’s growth streak. Worst contraction since 2008.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
