MAPS OF HISTORY · ON THIS DAY · May 7

THE DAY IN HISTORY · MAY 7

May 7 in history

1864 — The Wilderness

5–7 May 1864 — Grant’s first battle against Lee is a two-day inferno in burning scrub: 18,000 Union casualties. Then, at the Brock Road crossroads, the army turns south instead of back — and the men cheer. This general does not retreat.

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1915 — The Lusitania

7 May 1915 — U-20 torpedoes the liner off the Irish coast: 1,198 civilians drown, 128 of them American. The dead of the submarine war deserve their own memory — and the outrage begins the countdown on American neutrality.

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1945

At a schoolhouse in Reims, Germany signs unconditional surrender. The war in Europe is over at one minute past midnight tomorrow.

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1954 — Dien Bien Phu

13 Mar–7 May 1954 — Giap’s peasant army hauls artillery up jungle mountains and destroys a French fortress of 15,000. A European empire is beaten in open battle; Geneva partitions Vietnam within weeks.

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