On This Day…

1429 – English siege of Orleans broken by Joan of Arc and the French army 

1663 – The Theatre Royal, built by the dramatist Thomas Killigrew for his company of actors and now commonly known as the Drury Lane Theatre, opened in London and is the oldest English theatre still in use. 

1912 – Columbia University approves plans for awarding the Pulitzer Prize in several categories, after established by Joseph Pulitzer 

1915 – RMS Lusitania sunk by German submarine off the southern coast of Ireland; 1198 lives lost 

1939 – Germany and Italy announce an alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis 

1945 – World War II: Unconditional German surrender to the Allies signed by General Alfred Jodl at Rheims 

1946 – Sony Corporation, a major Japanese manufacturer of consumer electronics products, was founded by Ibuka Masaru and Morita Akio. 

1952 – The concept of the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey Dummer 

1954 – Viet Minh General Vo Nguyen Giap took the French by surprise at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, surrounding their base with 40,000 men and employing heavy artillery to capture it during the First Indochina War. 

2002 – On the 25th anniversary of his Kentucky Derby win, Seattle Slew, the first undefeated racehorse ever to win the U.S. Triple Crown, died. 

2017 – Emmanuel Macron wins France’s presidential election defeating Marine Le Pen 

Births & Deaths:
1911 – Japanese director Honda Ishirō, perhaps best known for a series of Godzilla movies, was born in Yamagata prefecture. 

Sport:
1992 – Jockey Angel Cordero retires after winning over 7,000 horse races 

Music:
1824 – Ludwig van Beethoven’s 9th (Chorale) Symphony, premieres in Vienna, often regarded as his greatest work 

Via Britannica / On This Day

TV & Film: 2017 “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion” becomes the highest grossing Indian box office film ever earning $120 million