This Day in History

1940

Troops from Nazi Germany occupy Brussels.

Archived Facts

1991

Queen Elizabeth II is the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.

1948

Hours after declaring its independence, the state of Israel is attacked by five Arab countries.

1955

The Warsaw Pact is established under the initiative of the Soviet Union with eight signatory states.

1888

Under pressure from Britain, Brazil abolishes slavery.

1994

Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as president of South Africa.

1936

Italy annexes Ethiopia during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War.

1945

President Harry Truman announces the end of World War II in Europe.

1974

West German Chancellor Willy Brandt resigns after revelations that one of his closest aides was a Stasi agent.

2001

John Paul II becomes the first Catholic pope to enter a mosque during a visit to Damascus, Syria.

2001

The United States is voted out of the UN Human Rights Commission.

2011

Osama bin Laden is killed in a U.S. special forces raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

1707

The Acts of Union passed by the English and Scottish parliaments go into effect, giving birth to the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

1975

The capital of South Vietnam is captured by Communist forces.

1945

American troops enter the Dachau Concentration camp in Germany.

2005

The last Syrian troops leave Lebanon, ending a twenty-nine-year military occupation.

1982

Following the Camp David Accords of 1978, Israel concludes military withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula.

1898

Spain declares war on the United States.

1941

The Greek army surrenders to Nazi German troops.

1500

A fleet led by Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral reaches the coast of Brazil.