7 MAY

1943 - Sizuiti Tanaka, the highest Commander of the Japanese Imperial Army in the Philippines, gives instructions during the First Anniversary of the Fall of Corregidor and Peace and Order Day at Luneta, Manila; Tanaka hails the Fall of Corregidor during World War II as  "a momentous date in Philippine history because it stands for the end of the 40 odd years of American domination and the birthday of the New Philippines," claiming that 18 million Filipinos stand united in marking "the great day with jubilation and thanksgiving or their happy deliverance from the age-long tentacles of Western imperialism."

1902 -La Soufrière volcano in Saint Vincent, West Indies, erupts, emitting a hot ash cloud up into the air that mixed with steam and gas, choking the citizens in the towns below and leading to the death of some 2,000 people either from burns or ash asphyxiation; the volcano's rumbling which began in mid-February of the same year increasingly grew in intensity until an earthquake hit a day before the eruption.

1915 - The British ocean liner Lusitania is torpedoed off Ireland's southern coast by Germany during World War I, sinking it into the Celtic Sea and killing some 1,198 passengers and crew members;  the aggression came without warning, although Germany will defend it by noting how it has issued warnings that it will attack all ships entering the war zone around Britain.

1965 - White voters in Rhodesia, Britain's colony in Africa, backs the demand for independence of Prime Minister Ian Smith by overwhelming electing his Rhodesian Front party; Smith's party takes all the 50 parliamentary seats reserved for white solons, giving it more than the two thirds majority needed to change the constitution.