1942: The aircraft carrier USS Lexington was sunk by carrier planes from Shokaku and Zuikaku in the Battle of the Coral Sea, a tactical victory but strategic defeat for the Japanese, whose attempt to land troops at Port Moresby, New Guinea, had been repulsed. The Germans launched their summer offensive by attacking Crimea.
Also today in history in the U.S. and around the world:
1846: The first battle of the Mexican War was fought at Palo Alto, Texas. The Americans Army of Occupation under Brig. Gen. Zachary Taylor defeated the Ejercito del Norte under General Mariano Garcia de Arista Nuez.
1861: Richmond, Virginia was made capital of the Confederate States of America.
1864: The Union Army of the Potomac under Maj. Gen. George G. Meade crashed into Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia at the Spotsylvania Court House. In Georgia, Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s troops engaged Confederate troops at Dalton.
1895: China ceded Taiwan to Japan in the Treaty of Shimonoseki.
1941: The German auxiliary cruiser Pinguin was caught and sunk by the heavy cruiser HMS Cornwall in the Indian Ocean.
1945: General Alfred Jodl signed the unconditional surrender for Nazi Germany and the Western Allies proclaimed V-E Day. At Karlshorst, Berlin, Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel signed a separate surrender to Marshal Georgy Zhukov, although the official “Victory Day” for the Russians would be May 9.
Today in history: May 8
