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This day in history

Wednesday, May 7, is the 127th day of 2014. There are 238 days left in the year.

Birthdays: Former senator Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) is 82. Singer Jimmy Ruffin is 75. R&B singer Thelma Houston is 71. Singer-songwriter Bill Danoff is 68. Rock musician Bill Kreutzmann (Grateful Dead) is 68. Filmmaker Amy Heckerling is 62. Actor Michael E. Knight is 55. Rock musician Phil Campbell (Motorhead) is 53. Rock singer-musician Chris O’Connor (Primitive Radio Gods) is 49. Actress Traci Lords is 46. Singer Eagle-Eye Cherry is 43. Actor Breckin Meyer is 40. Rock musician Matt Helders (Arctic Monkeys) is 28. Actress-comedian Aidy Bryant (‘‘Saturday Night Live”) is 27.

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In 1763, Pontiac, chief of the Ottawa Indians, attempted to lead a sneak attack on British-held Fort Detroit, but was foiled because the British had been tipped off in advance.

In 1789, America’s first inaugural ball was held in New York in honor of President Washington.

In 1889, the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore opened its doors.

In 1915, nearly 1,200 people died when a German torpedo sank the British liner RMS Lusitania off the Irish coast.

In 1942, US Army General Jonathan Wainwright went on a Manila radio station to announce the Allied surrender of the Philippines to Japanese forces during World War II.

In 1945, Germany signed an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Rheims, 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 1964, Pacific Air Lines Flight 773, a Fairchild F27, crashed near San Ramon, Calif., after a passenger apparently shot both pilots, then himself, killing all 44 people on board.

In 1975, President Ford formally declared an end to the ‘‘Vietnam era.’’ In Ho Chi Minh City — formerly Saigon — the Viet Cong celebrated.

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In 1984, a $180 million out-of-court settlement was announced in the Agent Orange class-action suit brought by Vietnam veterans.

In 1994, Norway’s most famous painting, ‘‘The Scream’’ by Edvard Munch, was recovered almost three months after it had been stolen from an Oslo museum.

In 2004, Army Private First Class Lynndie England was charged by the military with assaulting Iraqi prisoners and conspiring to mistreat them. (England was later convicted of conspiracy, mistreating detainees, and committing an indecent act, and sentenced to 36 months; she served half that term.)

In 2009, a federal jury in Paducah, Ky., convicted a former soldier, Steven Dale Green, of raping and fatally shooting a 14-year-old girl after killing her parents and younger sister while he was serving in Iraq. (Green was sentenced to life without possibility of parole; he hanged himself in prison in February 2014.)