Reg Saunders (1920–1990) was the first Aboriginal Australian to be commissioned as an officer in the Australian Army. He came from a military family, his forebears having served in the Boer War and the First World War. Enlisting as a soldier in 1940, he saw action during the Second World War in North Africa, Greece and Crete, before being commissioned as a lieutenant and serving as a platoon commander in New Guinea in 1944 and 1945. His younger brother Harry also joined the Army, and was killed in 1942. After the war, Saunders was demobilised and returned to civilian life. He later served as a company commander with the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, during the Korean War, where he fought at the Battle of Kapyong. Saunders left the Army in 1954 and worked in the logging and metal industries, before joining the Office (later the Department) of Aboriginal Affairs as a liaison officer in 1969. In 1971, he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for his community service. He died in 1990, aged 69. ( Full article...)

Recently featured: Gary Cooper – The Sinking of the Lusitania – 2002 Pacific typhoon season

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

• ... that 100 soldiers compete against a single elephant in a tug of war during the Surin Elephant Round-up (procession pictured)?
• ... that Barack Obama is the first U.S. President since Lyndon B. Johnson who has not given a Landon Lecture?
• ... that " Ladders" is the first episode of Community to be broadcast on Yahoo! Screen instead of NBC?
• ... that the endangered honey blue-eye is threatened by urban development and possibly mosquitofish?
• ... that the 2015 DFB-Pokal Final will be Jürgen Klopp's final match as manager of Borussia Dortmund?
• ... that Ernst Pepping's 1948 Missa Dona nobis pacem (Grant Us Peace) for unaccompanied eight-part choir may have been the composer's "personal plea"?
• ... that Robert Desrosiers' dance Blue Snake included three-dimensional sets, automated mechanical structures, and surrealistic costumes?
• ... that after its deconsecration, Rome's twelfth-century church of the Santi Simone e Giuda was a cinema, then a restaurant, and finally a theater?

• Pakistan declares a national day of mourning after a helicopter crash kills eight people including two ambassadors to Pakistan.
• The UK's Conservative Party, led by David Cameron (pictured), wins a majority of seats in the House of Commons.
• A newly discovered species of prehistoric bird, Archaeornithura meemannae, becomes the oldest known Ornithuromorph, a clade that contains all modern birds.
• In snooker, Stuart Bingham wins the World Championship.
• In association football, Chelsea win the Premier League.
• Violent protests occur in Burundi after the country's president, Pierre Nkurunziza, announces that he will seek a third term.
• In boxing, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. defeats Manny Pacquiao to unify the WBA, WBC, WBO and The Ring welterweight titles.

Ongoing: Nepal earthquake – Yemeni Civil War
Recent deaths: Ruth Rendell – Maya Plisetskaya

May 9: Europe Day/Schuman Day in the European Union

• 1671 – Irish-born Colonel Thomas Blood (pictured) was caught trying to steal the English Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.
• 1873 – Panic of 1873: The Vienna Stock Exchange crashed, following two years of overexpansion in the German and Austro-Hungarian economies.
• 1915 – British forces launched the Battle of Aubers Ridge, an offensive on the Western Front which was part of the larger French Second Battle of Artois.
• 1961 – In a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters, FCC chairman Newton N. Minow described commercial television programming as " a vast wasteland".
• 2005 – Pope Benedict XVI began the beatification process for his predecessor Pope John Paul II, waiving the standard five years required after the nominee's death.

More anniversaries: May 8 – May 9 – May 10