May 7 1936
Pilot Amy Mollison landed at Cape Town after a 3 day, 6 hour, and 26 minute flight from England which took her along the west coast of Africa.
In the early hours of 7 May 1945, the Chief-of-Staff of the German Armed Forces High Command, General Alfred Jodl, signed unconditional surrender documents to the Allies at the SHAEF headquarters in Rheims, France.
General Franz Bohme also announced the unconditional surrender of German troops in Norway on 7 May. It included the phrase "All forces under German control to cease active operations at 23:01 hours Central European Time on 8 May 1945." These documents of surrender ended the European conflict of World War II.
This most terrible of all wars was characterized by unspeakable atrocities, germ warfare, enormous civilian casualties, the genocide of 5,5 million European Jews, and the use of a new and terror-laden weapon of war, the atomic bomb. Estimates of the death toll attributable to the war for military and civilian losses have ranged upward to 60 million, with civilian losses at or more than 50 percent of that total. This is a stark contrast with the losses of WWI, in which such losses were no more than five percent.
The war had a far greater global reach than its predecessor, and over 50 countries or dependencies were listed as having some degree of involvement. This included South Africa, who fought on the side of the Allies. The South African force suffered approximately 9000 casualties and 14 000 injuries, and many soldiers were simply declared missing.
South Africa's contribution to World War II consisted mainly of supplying troops, men and material for the North African and Italian campaigns, with numerous volunteers who worked as pilots for the Royal Air Force.
It is important to note that almost all sources differ greatly on the exact number of casualties during the war.
May 7 1954: French defeated at Dien Bien Phu
In northwest Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Minh forces decisively defeated the French at Dien Bien Phu, a French stronghold besieged by the Vietnamese communists for 57 days. The Viet Minh victory at Dien Bien Phu signaled the end of French colonial influence in Indochina and cleared the way for the division of Vietnam along the 17th parallel at the conference of Geneva.
On September 2, 1945, hours after the Japanese signed their unconditional surrender in World War II, communist leader Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam, hoping to prevent the French from reclaiming their former colonial possession. In 1946, he hesitantly accepted a French proposal that allowed Vietnam to exist as an autonomous state within the French Union, but fighting broke out when the French tried to reestablish colonial rule. Beginning in 1949, the Viet Minh fought an increasingly effective guerrilla war against France with military and economic assistance from newly Communist China. France received military aid from the United States.
The first Viet Minh assault against the 13,000 entrenched French troops came on March 12, and despite massive air support, the French held only two square miles by late April. On May 7, after 57 days of siege, the French positions collapsed. Although the defeat brought an end to French colonial efforts in Indochina, the United States soon stepped up to fill the vacuum, increasing military aid to South Vietnam and sending the first U.S. military advisers to the country in 1959.
May 7 1970
Muhammad Siyad Barre, the Chairman Supreme Revolutionary Council (a military junta) ordered the nationalization of all foreign banks and oil companies in Somalia.
A three days' long International Conference on Women and Children under Apartheid was held in Arusha, Tanzania. The conference was organised by the Special Committee against Apartheid in cooperation with the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania.
Source: history.com
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