1895 China cedes Taiwan to Japan under Treaty of Shimonoseki.
1902 Mount Pelée on the French overseas island of Martinique erupts, wiping out the city of Saint-Pierre, killing 30,000 and leaving only two survivors.
1916 German munitions bunker in Fort Douaumont explodes killing 679 German soldiers.
1916 Irishmen Eamon Kent, Michael Mallin, Con Colbert and Sean Houston are executed by British authorities following the Easter Rising at Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin.
1919 Edward George Honey first proposes the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate The Armistice of World War I, leads to the creation of Remembrance Day.
1941 German Q-ship Pinguin sinks in Indian Ocean.
1942 Aircraft carrier USS Lexington sunk by Japanese air attack in Coral Sea.
1945 German General Wilhelm Keitel formally surrenders to the Allies represented by the United States, the UK, France and the Soviet Union in Berlin.
1945 V-E Day: World War II ends in Europe after Germany signs an unconditional surrender.
1962 Oskar Schindler and his wife Emilie Schindler are honored for saving 1200 Jews during WWII, in a ceremony on the Avenue of the Righteous, Jerusalem.
1980 World Health Organization announces smallpox has been eradicated.
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