On this date in history:

In 1718, the French established the city of New Orleans on land inhabited by the Chitimacha tribe. The actual date of the city's founding is unknown, but the anniversary is traditionally observed May 7.

In 1789, the first U.S. presidential inaugural ball, celebrating the inauguration of George Washington, was conducted in New York City.

In 1824, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony was performed for the first time.

In 1913, homemade bombs found under the bishop's throne in St. Paul's Cathedral and opposite the offices of Evening Star in Bouverie Street, were deemed by police to have been the work of suffragettes.

In 1915, a German U-boat sank the British liner Lusitania off the coast of Ireland, killing nearly 1,200 people.

In 1921, in an exclusive interview with the United Press, Sun Yat Sen, president of the Canton Chinese government, outlined his policy proposals as he sought recognition for his fledgling government.

In 1945, U.S. Army Gen. Dwight Eisenhower accepted the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany from Gen. Alfred Jodl.

In 1954, rebel Viet Minh forces overran the French stronghold of Dien Bien Phu, bringing about the end of French control in Indochina and creating the division of Vietnam.

In 1987, Rep. Stewart McKinney, R-Conn., died at age 56, the first member of Congress identified as a victim of AIDS. McKinney contracted the virus following a tainted blood transfusion.

In 1994, The Scream, Edvard Munch's famed expressionist painting, was found in a hotel room south of the Norwegian capital of Oslo three months after it was stolen. Thieves stole the painting again in 2004 and it was recovered a second time in 2006.

In 2000, Vladimir Putin was sworn in as Russia's second president in the first democratic transfer of executive power in the nation's 1,000-year history.

In 2007, officials reported no survivors in the crash of a Kenyan Airlines plane that went down in a Cameroon mangrove swamp with 114 people aboard.

In 2014, a Thai court, in an abuse-of-power ruling, removed Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra from office.

In 2017, France elected Emmanuel Macron, of La République En Marche! Party, president over Marine Le Pen of the National Front.

In 2023, Arab League members agreed to reinstate Syria back into the coalition and urged the country to take action to end its nearly 12-year civil war. The league ousted Syria in 2011 after President Bashar al-Assad's strong-armed response to protesters sank the nation into a civil war.

Copyright 2024 by United Press International