1184 BC The Greeks take Troy [Trad]

858 Election of Pope St. Nicholas I 'the Great' (858-867)

1066 Comet Halley makes an appearance

1288 Jews of Troyes, France, are accused of ritual murder

1524 Hapsburg Imperial troops capture Milan from the French

1547 Battle of Muhlberg: Imperialists defeat the Schamlkaldic League

1585 Felice Peretti elected Pope as Sixtus V (1585-1590)

1757 Battle of Reichenberg: Prussians defeat the Austrians

1778 US Sloop-of-War 'Ranger' captures HMS 'Drake'

1792 Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle composes "La Marseillaise"

1849 French Expeditionary Force lands at Civitavecchia, to crush the Roman Republic

1862 Farragut runs the Confederate batteries on the Mississippi below New Orleans

1863 War Department issues GO No 100, The Law of Land Warfare, the first US ROE.

1877 Last US troops leave New Orleans: Reconstruction ends, Jim Crow begins

1895 Joshua Slocum completes the first solo around-the-world voyage in 'Spray'

1898 Spain declares war on the US

1915 Ottoman officials order the arrests of prominent Armenians in Constantinople, initiating the Armenian Genocide

1916 The Irish "Easter Rebellion" begins (to 29th)

1917 US destroyers sail for Europe; 17 days after the war is declared on Germany (see May 4)

1920 Polish troops enter Ukraine

1922 Ticker tape parade on Broadway for Marshal Joseph Joffre

1932 Benito Mussolini (48) meets future mistress Clara Petacci (20) for the first time

1932 Nazis gain 36.3% of votes in Prussian election

1942 Japanese troops advance on all fronts in Burma.

1943 U.S. 7th Infantry Div. having trained for desert warfare, sails from San Francisco for Alaska

1943 Fire in the freighter 'El Estero' at Jersey City threatens to detonate 5,000 tons of ammunition aboard her, two nearby ships, and at dockside; USCG tows the vessel into New York Bay and floods her

1944 1st Boeing B-29 arrives in China over the Himalayas -- "the Hump"

1944 Australian troops occupy Madang in New Guinea.

1953 Queen Elizabeth II knights Winston Churchill

1961 JFK accepts "sole responsibility" for the Bay of Pigs

1961 Swedish warship 'Vasa', sunk on her maiden voyage in 1628, is raised

1968 Lenny Glynn "visits" President's office at Columbia University

1969 US B-52s drop 3,000 tons of bombs on VC positions inside Cambodia

1970 China PR launches its 1st satellite, transmitting song "East is Red"

1980 "Desert One": US operation to save 52 hostages in Iran, fails, 8 die