Today:
1. 1862: The Mexican army defeated the French forces at the Battle of Puebla, celebrated annually as Cinco de Mayo.
2. 1891: Musician Sergei Prokofiev was born. He became one of the major composers of the 20th century, known for works such as “Peter and the Wolf” and “Romeo and Juliet”.
3. 1925: John T. Scopes was arrested in Tennessee for teaching evolution in violation of state law, leading to the famous Scopes Monkey Trial.
4. 1945: The Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria was liberated by American forces during World War II.
5. 1961: Alan Shepard became the first American in space as he piloted the Freedom 7 capsule on a 15-minute suborbital flight.
6. 1980: Operation Nimrod, a successful SAS operation, ended the Iranian Embassy Siege in London, freeing hostages and killing five of the six hostage-takers.
7. 2007: The Scottish National Party won the Scottish Parliament election, becoming the first party other than Labour to win in Scotland since the parliament was reconvened in 1999.
8. 2010: The European Union and International Monetary Fund agreed to a €110 billion bailout for Greece, to address the country’s financial crisis.
9. 2018: NASA’s InSight lander launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, beginning its journey to Mars to study the planet’s interior.
10. 2021: NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity completed its fourth successful flight on the Red Planet, demonstrating the feasibility of powered flight in the Martian atmosphere.