History for May 7

History for May 7 - On-This-Day.com:
Johannes Brahms 1833 - Composer and pianist, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 1840 - Composer, Gabby (George Francis) Hayes 1885 - Actor 


Gary (Frank James) Cooper 1901 - Actor ("Sergeant York [1941]", "The Virginian"), Eva (Evita) Peron 1919 - Actress, wife of Argentina President Juan Peron, subject of the Broadway musical and film "Evita", Darren McGavin 1922 - Actor ("Billy Madison", "Airport ’77") 


Johnny Unitas 1933 - Football player , Jimmy Ruffin 1939 - Singer, Tim Russert 1950 - TV host ("Meet the Press") 


1429 - The English siege of Orleans was broken by Joan of Arc. 


1915 - The Lusitania, a civilian ship, was sunk by a German submarine. 1,201 people were killed. 


1939 - Germany and Italy announced a military and political alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis. 






1940 - Winston Churchill became British Prime Minister. 


1945 - Germany signed unconditional surrender ending World War II. It would take effect the next day. 


1946 - Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corp. was founded. The company was later renamed Sony. 


1954 - French Colonial Forces surrendered to the Vietminh at Dien Bien Phu after 55 days of fighting. 


1958 - Howard Johnson set an aircraft altitude record in F-104. 


1977 - Rookie Janet Guthrie set the fastest time on opening day of practice for the Indianapolis 500. Her time was 185.607. 


1998 - Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler Corp. for close to $40 billion. It was the largest industrial merger on record.