May 17 in Military History

Britain declared war on France, beginning the first truly global conflict fought on five continents.

Napoleon issued a decree from the Austrian palace of Schonbrunn annexing the Papal States to the French Empire. The seizure triggered the imperial crisis with Pope Pius VII that would culminate in the Pope's arrest and a decade of conflict with the Catholic Church across Europe.

Union forces routed Confederate defenders at Big Black River Bridge, Mississippi, the final barrier before Vicksburg. The Confederate retreat was so hasty that men threw away weapons and equipment. Grant's army reached the Vicksburg defenses the next day, beginning the siege that would split the Confederacy.

A British relief column broke through to the besieged garrison town of Mafeking in South Africa after 217 days under siege by Boer forces. The defense, led by Colonel Robert Baden-Powell, made Baden-Powell a national hero and shaped his later founding of the Scout movement.

Congress passed the Selective Service Act, authorizing the federal draft for World War I. The act required all men aged 21-30 to register for military service and eventually raised an army of nearly 4 million. Registration Day on June 5 saw nearly 10 million men sign up.

German troops entered Brussels without resistance as Belgian forces fell back toward the coast. King Leopold III rejected Churchill's plea to fight on from exile and remained with his troops. Belgium surrendered on May 28, exposing the British Expeditionary Force's flank and accelerating the crisis that led to Dunkirk.

The B-17F Flying Fortress Memphis Belle and its crew finished their 25th combat mission over Nazi-occupied Europe, becoming one of the first American heavy bombers to reach that milestone. The aircraft and crew returned to the United States to fly a publicity tour supporting war bond sales.

Nine Catholic activists, including priests Daniel and Philip Berrigan, took 378 draft files from the Selective Service office in Catonsville, Maryland, and burned them in the parking lot using homemade napalm. The protest became one of the defining acts of civil resistance against the Vietnam War.

Loyalist paramilitaries detonated car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan, killing 33 civilians and an unborn child, the deadliest attacks of the Northern Ireland Troubles. Strong evidence linked the attackers to British intelligence, though no one was ever convicted. The bombings remain among the most controversial events of the conflict.

Israel and Lebanon signed a bilateral withdrawal agreement at Khalde, ending the state of war that had existed since 1948 and providing for a phased Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. The agreement collapsed within a year under Syrian pressure and domestic Lebanese opposition.

The U.S. Navy continued rescue operations aboard the heavily damaged frigate USS Stark, struck the previous day by two Iraqi Exocet missiles that killed 37 sailors. The incident led to tighter rules of engagement for U.S. naval forces in the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq War.