History in 1st May

Battle of Chancellorsville begins

Union and Confederate forces clash at the Battle of Chancellorsville in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. The battle pitted the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by General Joseph Hooker, against a Confederate Army of Northern Virginia half the size of its Union counterpart.
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Battle of Manila Bay

The American Asiatic Squadron secures complete victory over a Spanish fleet at the Battle of Manila Bay. The battle was the first significant engagement of the Spanish-American War and demonstrated American naval superiority over an aging Spanish fleet.
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U-2 shot down over Soviet Union

American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is shot down by Soviet surface-to-air missiles during a CIA spy mission. Powers, who could not activate the self-destruction, parachuted into Degtyarsk, a town in central Russia, where he was captured by Soviet authorities. The U-2 program had been a highly successful reconnaissance program because Soviet planes could not track the U-2s flying around 70,000 feet.
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