1 APRIL 1543 François de Bonne, duc de…

1 APRIL
1543 François de Bonne, duc de Lesdiguières (1 April 1543 – 21 September 1626) was a French soldier of the French Wars of Religion and Constable of France. Lesdiguières took up arms for Henry of Navarre in 1585 and, after the truce of 1588–89, secured the submission of Dauphiné. For the next several years he fought to defend France against the Spanish and Savoyards, with the war against the latter proceeding on and off until 1601.
1815 Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg (born von Bismarck-Schönhausen; German: Otto Eduard Leopold Fürst (1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), known as Otto von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman who masterminded the unification of Germany in 1871 and served as its first chancellor until 1890, in which capacity he dominated European affairs for two decades. He had previously been Minister President of Prussia (1862–1890) and Chancellor of the North German Confederation (1867–1871). He provoked three short, decisive wars, against Denmark, Austria, and France. Following the victory against Austria, he abolished the supranational German Confederation and instead formed the North German Confederation as the first German national state, aligning the smaller North German states behind Prussia, and excluding Austria. Receiving the support of the independent South German states in the Confederation’s defeat of France, he formed the German Empire – which also excluded Austria – and united Germany.
1823 Simon Bolivar Buckner ( April 1, 1823 – January 8, 1914) was an American soldier and politician who fought in the United States Army in the Mexican–American War and in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He later served as the 30th governor of Kentucky. After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point, Buckner became an instructor there. He took a hiatus from teaching to serve in the Mexican–American War, participating in many of the major battles of that conflict. He resigned from the army in 1855 to manage his father-in-law’s real estate in Chicago, Illinois. He returned to his native state of Kentucky in 1857 and was appointed adjutant general by Governor Beriah Magoffin in 1861. In this position, he tried to enforce Kentucky’s neutrality policy in the early days of the Civil War. When the state’s neutrality was breached, Buckner accepted a commission in the Confederate Army after declining a similar commission to the Union Army. In 1862, he accepted Ulysses S. Grant’s demand for an “unconditional surrender” at the Battle of Fort Donelson. He was the first Confederate general to surrender an army in the war. He spent five months as a prisoner of war. After his release, Buckner participated in Braxton Bragg’s failed invasion of Kentucky and near the end of the war became chief of staff to Edmund Kirby Smith in the Trans-Mississippi Department.
1880 Petros Elia of Baz (Syriac: ܐܝܠܝܐ ܦܹܛܪܘܼܣ‎) (1 April 1880 – 2 February 1932), better known as Agha Petros, was an Assyrian military leader during World War I.
1918 The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom’s aerial warfare force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS).[3] Following the Allied victory over the Central Powers in 1918, the RAF emerged as the largest air force in the world at the time.[4] Since its formation, the RAF has taken a significant role in British military history. In particular, it played a large part in the Second World War where it fought its most famous campaign, the Battle of Britain
1954 The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a military academy for officer cadets of the United States Air Force and United States Space Force, immediately north of Colorado Springs, Colorado. It is the youngest of the five United States service academies, having graduated its first class 62 years ago in 1959, but is the third in seniority. Graduates of the academy’s four-year program receive a Bachelor of Science degree and are commissioned as second lieutenants in the U.S. Air Force or U.S. Space Force.
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