On this day in hitory

On 1st May 1455, at the Battle of Arkinholm, the Black Douglases were defeated by the Red Douglases

The Battle of Arkinholm was fought at Arkinholm near Langholm in Scotland, during the reign of King James II of Scotland.

Although a small action, involving only a few hundred troops, it was the decisive battle in a civil war between the king and the Black Douglases, the most powerful aristocratic family in the country. As the king's supporters won it was a significant step in the struggle to establish a relatively strong centralized monarchy in Scotland during the Late Middle Ages.

The Black Douglases had already suffered some losses before the battle. The king's supporters had taken their castle at Abercorn, and some allies such as the Hamiltons had defected. The head of the family, James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas, had gone to England to rally support, but his three younger brothers were at the battle.

The royal army was led by George Douglas, 4th Earl of Angus, head of the Red Douglas family, a senior aristocrat, and third cousin to the Earl of Douglas.

Of the three Black Douglas brothers: Archibald Douglas, Earl of Moray was killed in the battle and his head presented to the king, Hugh Douglas, Earl of Ormonde was captured and executed shortly afterwards, and John Douglas, Lord of Balvenie escaped to England.

The result was the end of the Black Douglases. After the battle an act of parliament gave Angus the lordship of Douglas with the original possessions of his ancestors in Douglasdale.

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In 1945, Adolf Hitler's death is announced

As the Soviet flag is raised over the Reich Chancellery, the German people are informed that “our leader, Adolf Hitler, has fallen for Germany, fighting to his last breath against Bolshevism.”

In 1769, the future Duke of Wellington was born

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington was a British soldier and Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as Prime Minister. His victory against Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 puts him in the first rank of Britain's military heroes.

In 1328, The Wars of Scottish Independence ended

The Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton between the Kingdoms of England and Scotland brought an end to the First War of Scottish Independence, which had begun with the English invasion of Scotland in 1296.

Births

1720 - Douglas, Richard
1823 - Douglas, Frances A.
1823 - Douglas, Francis
1823 - Douglas, Margaret
1839 - Douglass, Mary Elizabeth
1849 - Douglas-Pennant, Mary Georgiana
1880 - Douglas, William Dodds Simpson
1903 - Douglas, Leonard Aubrey
1939 - Douglas, Dennis Raymond
1962 - Douglas, Shona Fay
1970 - Douglas, Tanis Aletta

Births on this day

Deaths

1892 - Douglas, Jessie
1905 - Douglass, Joseph S.
1918 - Douglass, Arthur Boone
1929 - Douglas, William Woodson
1986 - Douglas, George Victor
2013 - Douglas, Bill

Deaths on this day

Events

1169 – Norman mercenaries land at Bannow Bay in Leinster, marking the beginning of the Norman invasion of Ireland.
1328 – Wars of Scottish Independence end: By the Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton the Kingdom of England recognises the Kingdom of Scotland as an independent state.
1455 – Battle of Arkinholm, Royal forces end the Black Douglas hegemony in Scotland.
1707 – The Act of Union joining the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain takes effect.
1794 – War of the Pyrenees: The Battle of Boulou ends, in which French forces defeat the Spanish and regain nearly all the land they lost to Spain in 1793.
1915 – The RMS Lusitania departs from New York City on her 202nd, and final, crossing of the North Atlantic. Six days later, the ship is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland with the loss of 1,198 lives.
1919 – German troops enter Munich to squash the Bavarian Soviet Republic.
1945 – World War II: A German newsreader officially announces that Adolf Hitler has "fallen at his command post in the Reich Chancellery fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism and for Germany". The Soviet flag is raised over the Reich Chancellery, by order of Stalin.
2011 – War on Terror: Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is shot and killed by U.S. Navy seals.

Events on this day