Today in history

On May 7, 1942, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright went on a Manila radio station to announce the Allies' surrender of the Philippines to Japanese forces during World War II.

In 1789, America's first inaugural ball was held in New York in honor of President George Washington, who'd taken the oath of office a week earlier.

In 1824, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, had its premiere in Vienna.

In 1915, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the British liner RMS Lusitania off the southern coast of Ireland, killing 1,198 people, including 128 Americans, out of the nearly 2,000 on board.

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

In 1941, Glenn Miller and His Orchestra recorded “Chattanooga Choo Choo” for RCA Victor.

In 1945, Germany signed an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Rheims (rams), France, ending its role in World War II.

In 1954, the 55-day Battle of Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam ended with Vietnamese insurgents overrunning French forces.

In 1963, the United States launched the Telstar 2 communications satellite.

In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford formally declared an end to the “Vietnam era.” In Ho Chi Minh City — formerly Saigon — the Viet Cong celebrated its takeover.

In 1977, Seattle Slew won the Kentucky Derby, the first of his Triple Crown victories.

In 1984, a $180 million out-ofcourt settlement was announced in the Agent Orange class-action suit brought by Vietnam veterans who charged they'd suffered injury from exposure to the defoliant.

In 1992, the latest addition to America's space shuttle fleet, Endeavour, went on its first flight. A 203-year-old proposed constitutional amendment barring Congress from giving itself a midterm pay raise received enough votes for ratification as Michigan became the 38th state to approve it.

Ten years ago: President George W. Bush welcomed Britain's Queen Elizabeth II to the White House, drawing laughter when he mistakenly started to say that the queen had previously helped the U.S. celebrate its bicentennial in “17...,” then quickly corrected himself to say “1976.” Six Muslim immigrants from the former Yugoslavia and the Middle East were arrested and accused of plotting to massacre U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix, New Jersey. (Five were later convicted in federal court of conspiring to kill military personnel; the sixth was charged only with gun offenses, and pleaded guilty.)

“There is only one thing more painful than learning from experience, and that is not learning from experience.” — Archibald MacLeish, American poet and writer (born this date in 1892, died 1982).