This date in history

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1948 Polish war hero Witold Pilecki is executed by communist police after a show trial in Warsaw.

1961 JFK announces US goal of putting a man on the Moon before the end of decade.

2020 Video of African American George Floyd's arrest and murder while restrained in Minneapolis police custody shows he was pinned to the ground by police officer Derek Chauvin's knee for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, ignites widespread condemnation and nationwide protests.

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1954: explosions rock aircraft carrier USS Bennington off Rhode Island, killing 103 sailors. The initial blast is blamed on leaking catapult fluid ignited by jet engine flames. 1981: 14 sailors are killed when a Marine jet crashed into the USS Midway's flight deck off Florida.

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1908 At Masjed Soleyman (مسجد سليمان) in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East is made, rights acquired by the United Kingdom.

1941 Aircraft from HMS Ark Royal sights German battleship Bismarck.

1970 The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 becomes the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2

1982 British ship Atlantic Conveyor carrying Chinook helicopters and destroyer HMS Coventry hit in Falkland war: 39 crew members die.

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1679 Habeaus Corpus Act (strengthening person's right to challenge unlawful arrest & imprisonment) passes in England.

1905 Japanese fleet destroys the Russian East Sea fleet in the Battle of Tsushima, the only decisive clash between modern steel battleships in history.

1940 British and Allied forces begin the evacuation of Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo) during WWII

1940 In the Le Paradis massacre, 97 soldiers from a Royal Norfolk Regiment unit are shot after surrendering to German troops.

1941 FDR declares state of emergency after a German U-boat sinks the American flagged SS Robin Moor.

1941 German battleship Bismarck sunk by British naval forces.

1942 Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich is mortally wounded by a grenade thrown by Czech rebels in Prague during Operation Anthropoid; he would die a week later.

1966 55th German F-104 Starfighter crashes.

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1588 Spanish Armada under the Duke of Medina-Sidonia departs Lisbon to invade England.

1936 Alan Turing submits "On Computable Numbers" for publication, in which he set out the theoretical basis for modern computers.

1940 Belgium surrenders to Germany, King Leopold III gives himself up.

1940 British-French troops capture Narvik, Norway.

1946 US Patent filed for a hydrogen bomb.

1987 Monitor, Civil War warship, is discovered by a deep sea robot.

1998 Nuclear testing: Pakistan responds to a series of Indian nuclear tests with five of its own, prompting the United States, Japan, and other nations to impose economic sanctions.

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1937: On this day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, while seated in the Oval Office, pressed a golden telegraph button to ceremonially open the Golden Gate Bridge to vehicular traffic. The president did so at 3 p.m. EST so that the flow of cars and tracks over the 4,200-foot suspension bridge could begin precisely at noon in San Francisco.
On the previous day, the bridge was opened to the public on Pedestrian Day. More than 200,000 people paid 25 cents(ie: $4.65 at todays inflation rates!!) each to walk a mile across the span. Good thing it was a day early too: 'cause when Ol' FDR pressed the button, there was a small electrical problem: Still my favorite shot of a bridge I cross (in the free direction avoiding the ever-outrageous toll fee$) every other day: taken from the top parapet at Fort Point under the bridge of USS Iowa enroute to it's permanent museum berthing port>

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1849 Lincoln says "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."

1953 Edmund Hillary (NZ) and Tenzing Norgay (Nepal) are first to reach the summit of Mount Everest as part of a British Expedition.

1972 The Official IRA announce a ceasefire.

1989 Student pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square, China construct a replica of the Statue of Liberty, naming it the Goddess of Democracy.

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1868 "Decoration Day", later called Memorial Day is first observed in Northern US states.

1914 The new and then largest Cunard ocean liner RMS Aquitania, 45,647 tons, sets sails on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, England to New York City.

1942 US aircraft carrier Yorktown leaves Pearl Harbor.

1958 Unidentified soldiers killed in WW II & Korean War buried in Arlington.

1982 Spain becomes 16th member of NATO

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1878 German battleship SMS Grosser Kurfürst sinks, 284 killed.

1911 RMS Titanic launched in Belfast.

1916 Battle of Jutland: Largest naval battle of World War I between the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet which killed 8,645 in an inconclusive battle but strategic British victory. German fleet never puts to sea again in WWI

1916 Battle of Jutland: British battle cruiser HMS Invincible explodes, only 6 crew members survive.

1940 Major General Bernard Montgomery leaves Dunkirk.

1940 Winston Churchill flies to Paris to meet with French Marshal Philippe Pétain who announces he is willing to make a separate peace with Germany.

1942 U-boats sink and damage 146 allied ships this month (722,666 tons)

1943 42 U-boats sunk by the Allies this month.

1968 Movie star James Stewart retires from the US Air Force after 27 years of service.

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1968 Movie star James Stewart retires from the US Air Force after 27 years of service.

That's Brigadier General James Stewart!! Seen here as a WWII major at East Anglia Station 124> https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/jim...ion-air-force/

The sound of the impact is deafening. More than 18,000 feet above the German city of Fürth, the World War II B-24 bomber they call Dixie Flyer has just delivered its full payload onto a German manufacturer, devastating its ability to build military aircraft and turning the airfield into a scrap heap. But even before making the full turn out of Bavaria, Dixie Flyer’s copilot and the leader of this bombing group, Maj. James Stewart (Jimmy Stewart to his fans), is nearly lifted out of his chair.

That’s because a German shell (or flak) has pierced directly through the center of his B-24 Liberator. The whiplash is so intense that only harnesses keep him in his seat. Still, Stewart rises in the air; pilot Capt. Neil Johnson’s hands are briefly shaken from the controls; and for a moment, the entire plane is consumed with smoke as it violently ascends. When Stewart finally gets his bearings, he’s able to look down and see the hole in the aircraft—the edge of it is inches from his boot. Almost two feet in width, the gap offers a clear view through the plane’s fuselage and straight on to the German landscape below.

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1796 Last of Britain's troops withdraws from USA

1918 Canadian ace Billy Bishop downs 6 aircraft over a three-day span, including German ace Paul Bilik, reclaiming his top scoring title from James McCudden.

1939 British submarine "Thetis" sinks in Liverpool Bay with all 99 aboard.

1944 Allied generals Bernard Montgomery, George S. Patton, Omar Bradley, Miles Dempsey and Harry Crerar meet in Portsmouth, England just prior to D-Day

1962 SS officer Adolf Eichmann is executed in Israel after being found guilty of war crimes.

1998 European Central Bank is founded in Brussels to define and execute the European Union's monetary policy.

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1896 Italian engineer and inventor Guglielmo Marconi applies for the first ever patent for a system of wireless telegraphy in the United Kingdom.

1902 British naval officer David Beatty is appointed captain of the cruiser HMS Juno.

1917 Canadian ace Billy Bishop undertakes a solo mission behind enemy lines, shooting down three aircraft as they were about to take off and several more on the ground, for which he is awarded the Victoria Cross.

1953 Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey, London, England.

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1896 British naval officer David Beatty is seconded to the Egyptian government and appointed second in command of the river flotilla.

1940 Last British and French troops evacuated from Dunkirk.

1943 A mob of 60 from the Los Angeles Naval Reserve Armory beat up everyone perceived to be Hispanic, starting the week-long Zoot Suit Riots.

1946 International Military Tribunal opens in Tokyo against 28 Japanese war criminals.

1989 Beginning of the Tiananmen Square Massacre as Chinese troops open fire on pro-democracy supporters in Beijing.

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1940 British complete the "Miracle of Dunkirk" by evacuating 338,226 allied troops from France via a flotilla of over 800 vessels including Royal Navy destroyers, merchant marine boats, fishing boats, pleasure craft and even lifeboats.

1940 Winston Churchill's speech "We shall fight on the seas and oceans"

1944 U505 becomes the first German submarine captured and boarded on high seas.

1944 General Eisenhower cancels planned D-Day invasion on June 5th after receiving unfavourable weather reports.

1945 US, Soviet Union, Britain and France agree to divide up occupied Germany.

1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre: Chinese troops clear the square of student protesters, unofficial figures place death toll near 1,000

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1906 Determined to keep pace with Britain as a major naval power, the German Reichstag passes new navy legislation, increasing the total tonnage in Germany's fleet.

1917 10 million US men begin registering for draft in WW I

1944 As part of Operation Tonga, the 1st British gliders touch down on French soil to prepare for the D-Day invasion.

1944 German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel goes on leave just before WWII D-Day landings by the Allies.

1944 After receiving favorable weather reports, General Eisenhower decides to proceed with the D-Day invasion on June 6

1968 Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan shoots Robert F. Kennedy three times, who dies the next day. and wounds 5 others at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California.