This Day in History

On May 7, 1915, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the British liner RMS Lusitania off the southern coast of Ireland, killing 1,198 people, including 128 Americans, out of the nearly 2,000 on board.

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In 1945, Nazi Germany signed an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Rheims, France, ending its role in World War II.

In 1954, the 55-day Battle of Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam ended with Vietnamese insurgents overrunning French forces; it would be the last major battle of the First Indochina War.

In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford formally declared an end to the "Vietnam era." In Ho Chi Minh City — formerly Saigon — the Viet Cong celebrated its takeover.

In 1977, Seattle Slew won the Kentucky Derby, the first of his Triple Crown victories.

In 1984, Monsanto and six other chemical companies agreed to pay a $180 million settlement to Vietnam veterans who were exposed to the chemical herbicide Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.

In 2020, Georgia authorities arrested a white father and son and charged them with murder in the February shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man they pursued in a truck after spotting him running in their neighborhood near the port city of Brunswick. (The two men and a third white man would be convicted of murder in state court and hate crimes in federal court.)

In 2025, cardinal electors began a conclave at the Sistine Chapel in Rome to choose a successor to Pope Francis, who died on April 21 at age 88. Over a two-day gathering, they choose Cardinal Robert Prevost as the first U.S.-born pontiff and he took the name Leo XIV.

Today's Birthdays: Rock musician Bill Kreutzmann (Grateful Dead) is 80. Actor/former boxer Randall "Tex" Cobb is 76. Actor Breckin Meyer is 52. Reggaeton musician J Balvin is 41. Actor-comedian Aidy Bryant is 39. Actor-writer Maya Erskine is 39. Actor Alexander Ludwig is 34. YouTube personality MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) is 28. Actor Elijah Nelson is 27. Boxer Tommy Fury is 27. Actor and model Jake Bongiovi is 24. Actor Julia Antonelli is 23.