1915 Canadian physician Cluny MacPherson first presents his gas mask invention to the British War Office.

1917 Atlantic ships get destroyer escorts to stop German attacks.

1918 HMS Vindictive sunk to block entrance of Ostend Harbour.

1940 Winston Churchill succeeds Neville Chamberlain as British Prime Minister.

1940 The first German bombs of the war fall on England at Chilham and Petham, in Kent.

1941 Adolf Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess escapes to Britain to open secret negotiations with the Allies, parachuting into Scotland.

1960 US atomic submarine USS Triton completes first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.

1969 US troops begin attack on Hill 937 ("Hamburger Hill"), Vietnam.

A GOLDEN MOMENT IN TIME
 

1921 The Allied Supreme Council warns Germany to pay reparations or the entire Ruhr Valley will be occupied; Germany agrees.

1941 First Messerschmidt 109F shot down above England.

1943 US 7th div lands on Attu, Aleutian, (1st US territory recaptured).

1960 Israeli soldiers capture Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires.

1967 Great Britain, Ireland & Denmark apply for membership of the EEC.

1985 56 die and at least 265 are injured at Bradford City football ground in the worst fire in English football history.

1797 Nore Mutiny: British Royal Navy sailors mutiny on the Thames, England and blockade London.

1937 Coronation of King George VI of Great Britain (and his other realms and territories beyond the sea) at Westminster Abbey, London.

1940 Nazi blitzkrieg and conquest of France begins with the crossing of the Muese River.

1941 Martin Bormann succeeds Rudolf Hess as Adolf Hitler's deputy.

1942 1,500 Jews gassed in Auschwitz.

1951 First H Bomb test, on Enewetak Atoll.

1965 Israel & West Germany exchange letters beginning diplomatic relations.

1787 Arthur Phillip sets sails with 11 ships of criminals to Botany Bay, Australia.

1912 Royal Flying Corps forms in Great Britain.

1915 US Secretary of State Bryan sends a note to Germany demanding that Germany disavow the attacks on the Lusitania and make immediate reparations; however, the note is written only to 'pacify exited public opinion', according to Bryan.

1940 Winston Churchill says "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat" in his first speech as Prime Minister to British House of Commons.

1946 US sentences 58 camp guards of Mauthausen concentration camp to death.

1949 First British-produced jet bomber, the Canberra, makes its 1st test flight.

1787 Arthur Phillip sets sails with 11 ships of criminals to Botany Bay, Australia.

1912 Royal Flying Corps forms in Great Britain.

1915 US Secretary of State Bryan sends a note to Germany demanding that Germany disavow the attacks on the Lusitania and make immediate reparations; however, the note is written only to 'pacify exited public opinion', according to Bryan.

1940 Winston Churchill says "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat" in his first speech as Prime Minister to British House of Commons.

1946 US sentences 58 camp guards of Mauthausen concentration camp to death.

1949 First British-produced jet bomber, the Canberra, makes its 1st test flight.

1787 Delegates gather in Philadelphia to draw up US constitution.

1890 British sailor David Beatty is promoted to sub-lieutenant.

1943 Sinking of the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur off the coast of Queensland, by a Japanese submarine.

1944 General Rommel, Speidel & von Stulpnagel attempt to assassinate Hitler.

1945 Kamikaze Zero strikes US aircraft carrier Enterprise.

1886 British sailor David Beatty is promoted to midshipman.

1911 The Georgios Averof cruiser is bought by Greece.

1914 US Colonel Edward House sails for Europe to persuade major powers to reduce armies and navies; from Germany, House reports: 'Everybody's nerves are tense; it only needs a spark to set the whole thing off'

1917 The first officer's training camp is opened in the US, as the country prepares for war.

1940 USS Sailfish (SS-192) recomisioned, origionally the Squalus.

1944 Eisenhower, Montgomery, Churchill & George VI discuss D-Day plan.

1945 World War II: The final skirmish in Europe is fought near Prevalje, Slovenia.

1957 Operation Grapple: Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb near Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean.

1943 Operation Chastise: No. 617 Squadron RAF begins the famous dambusters Raid, bombing the Möhne and Eder dams in the Ruhr valley with bouncing bombs.

1943 SS General Jürgen Stroop orders the burning of the Warsaw Ghetto, ending a month of Jewish resistance. 13,000 Jews have died, about half burnt alive or suffocated, German casualties less than 300.

1957 US launches its third nuclear submarine, USS Skate, at Groton, Connecticut.

1969 US nuclear submarine USS Guitarro sinks off San Francisco.

1792 24 merchants form New York Stock Exchange at 70 Wall Street.

1897 The first successful submarine that can run submerged for any considerable distance and combines electric and gasoline engines is launched in the USA by its designer John Philip Holland.

1938 US Congress approves Vinson Naval Act, which funds a two-ocean navy.

1942 Dutch SS vows loyalty to Hitler.

1944 General Eisenhower sets D-Day for June 5th.

1987 USS Stark hit by Iraqi missiles, 37 sailors die.

1917 First units of the American Expeditionary Force, commanded by General John J. Pershing, is ordered to France.

1944 Polish 2nd Army corps captures convent of Monte Cassino, Italy.

1974 India becomes the sixth nation to explode an atomic bomb.

1963 Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail is published

1962 Marilyn Monroe performs her famous rendition of Happy Birthday

1959 The North Vietnamese Army begins organizing the Ho Chi Minh trail

1919 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk sets off the Turkish War of Independence

1743 Jean-Pierre Christin invents the Celsius thermometer

1916 Escadrille Américaine (Lafayette) transfered to Verdun.

1941 New German battleship Bismarck leaves Gdynia, Poland.

1943 Berlin is declared "Judenrien" (free of Jews)

1943 Churchill pledges Britain's full support to US against Japan.

1959 The USS Triton, the first submarine with two nuclear reactors, is completed.

1964 US diplomats find at least 40 secret microphones in Moscow embassy.

1845 HMS Erebus and HMS Terror with 134 men under John Franklin sail from the River Thames in England, beginning a disastrous expedition to find the Northwest Passage. All hands are lost.

1918 First electrically propelled warship (New Mexico).

1969 US troop capture Hill 937/Hamburger Hill in Vietnam.