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 Senatorial and Numidians

403 Battle of Pollentia: Stilicho's Romano-Alan Army defeats Alaric's Visigoths, on Easter Sunday

572 Accession of Kan Bahlam I as Lord of Palenque (572-583)

1250 Battle of Minieh: Ayyubids defeat the Crusaders

1327 Petrarch first sets 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 lays siege to Constantinople (falls May 29th)

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 Battle of Shiloh, Day 1: Confederate success

1906 Massive eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, hundreds die

1916 German parliament OKs unrestricted submarine warfare

1917 US declares war on Germany, entering World War I

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 Okinawa: Massive kamikaze attack on the US fleet sinks 6 ships

1968 USS 'New Jersey' (BB-62) recommissioned, the first battleship in active service since 1958

1973 India invades and annexes Sikkim