The opening land battle of the Mexican-American War, fought on flat chaparral prairie near the Rio Grande. General Taylor's Army of Occupation met a larger Mexican force under Arista that had crossed the river. American artillery — particularly the 'flying artillery' batteries of Ringgold and Duncan — proved devastatingly effective against Mexican infantry formations, repeatedly breaking up charges before they could close.
Palo Alto demonstrated the superiority of American mobile artillery and established Taylor's reputation as a bold field commander. The victory secured the disputed territory north of the Rio Grande and opened the way for deeper operations into northeastern Mexico.
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Grant moved south after the Wilderness, racing to cut off Lee at Spotsylvania. Lee won the race and entrenched. On May 12, a massive pre-dawn Union assault overran the 'Mule Shoe' salient, capturing nearly an entire Confederate division including two generals. The fighting at the 'Bloody Angle' — where the salient met the main Confederate line — was among the most savage of the entire war. Men fought hand-to-hand across breastworks for twenty hours in pouring rain. The opposing lines were sometimes separated by only the width of a log wall.
The grinding attrition of the Overland Campaign continued. Grant's refusal to retreat after tactical setbacks was unlike any previous Union commander Lee had faced. Each battle that failed to destroy Lee still moved Grant closer to Richmond while Confederate losses became increasingly irreplaceable.
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Pancho Villa and Pascual Orozco captured the border city of Ciudad Juárez from federal troops in a battle Madero had ordered them NOT to fight — they began it anyway and won. The capture of the largest border crossing between Mexico and the United States was a political earthquake. Within two weeks, Porfirio Díaz had resigned and sailed for exile. The battle lasted three days and cost approximately 600 casualties on both sides.
The fall of Ciudad Juárez demonstrated that the Díaz regime's army would not fight to the last, and the political pressure of losing the premier border crossing made Díaz's position untenable. It was the battle that ended the 35-year Porfiriato.
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On VE Day 1945, as Algerians marched in victory celebrations carrying banners demanding independence, French police fired on the crowd. The resulting violence spread across the Constantine region — Algerian rioters killed 102 Europeans, and the French military, police, and settler militias responded with massive reprisals, killing between 6,000 and 45,000 Algerians over several weeks. Aircraft bombed villages, warships shelled coastal settlements, and settlers organized vigilante massacres.
The Sétif massacres were the decisive turning point in Algerian nationalism. Ahmed Ben Bella later said 'My whole life was changed' by what he witnessed that day. A generation of Algerian men who had fought for France in WWII returned home to watch their people massacred. The nine-year lag between Sétif and the FLN's launch of armed revolt in 1954 represents the period in which moderate nationalism died and armed revolution was born.
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Acting on intelligence, the SAS ambushed an IRA unit as it attacked the Loughgall police station with a bomb-laden digger, killing all eight IRA members — the movement's greatest single loss of the war — along with a passing civilian caught in the crossfire.
Loughgall was a devastating blow to the IRA's East Tyrone Brigade and a demonstration of the effectiveness of British intelligence and special forces. It underlined the growing military stalemate that would eventually push both sides toward a political settlement.
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