History for May 7

History for May 7 - On-This-Day.com

Johnny Unitas 1933 - Football player

• 1915 - The Lusitania, a civilian ship, was sunk by a German submarine. Nearly 2,000 people were killed.
• 1940 - Winston Churchill became British Prime Minister.
• 1942 - In the Battle of the Coral Sea, Japanese and American navies attacked each other with carrier planes. It was the first time in the history of naval warfare where two enemy fleets fought without seeing each other.
• 1954 - French Colonial Forces surrendered to the Vietminh at Dien Bien Phu after 55 days of fighting.
• 1977 - Rookie Janet Guthrie set the fastest time on opening day of practice for the Indianapolis 500. Her time was 185.607.
• 1992 - A 203-year-old proposed constitutional amendment barring the U.S. Congress from giving itself a midterm pay raise was ratified as the 27th Amendment.
• 1998 - Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler Corp. for close to $40 billion. It was the largest industrial merger on record.