Events

• AD 60 – The earliest date for which the day of the week is known. A graffito in Pompeii identifies this day as a dies Solis (Sunday). In modern reckoning, this date would have been a Wednesday.
• 1685 – James II of England and VII of Scotland is proclaimed King upon the death of his brother Charles II.
• 1694 – The warrior queen Dandara, leader of the runaway slaves in Quilombo dos Palmares, Brazil, is captured and commits suicide rather than be returned to a life of slavery.
• 1778 – American Revolutionary War: In Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France signalling official recognition of the new republic.
• 1806 – Battle of San Domingo: British naval victory against the French in the Caribbean.
• 1819 – Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles founds Singapore.
• 1820 – The first 86 African American immigrants sponsored by the American Colonisation Society depart New York to start a settlement in present-day Liberia.
• 1840 – Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, establishing New Zealand as a British colony.
• 1862 – American Civil War: Forces under the command of Ulysses S. Grant and Andrew H. Foote give the Union its first victory of the war, capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee in the Battle of Fort Henry.
• 1899 – Spanish–American War: The Treaty of Paris, a peace treaty between the United States and Spain, is ratified by the United States Senate.
• 1900 – The Permanent Court of Arbitration, an international arbitration court at The Hague, is created when the Senate of the Netherlands ratifies an 1899 peace conference decree.
• 1918 – British women over the age of 30 who meet minimum property qualifications, get the right to vote when Representation of the People Act 1918 is passed by Parliament.
• 1919 – The American Legion is founded.
• 1922 – The Washington Naval Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., limiting the naval armaments of United States, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy.
• 1934 – Far-right leagues rally in front of the Palais Bourbon in an attempted coup against the French Third Republic, creating a political crisis in France.
• 1951 – The Canadian Army enters combat in the Korean War.
• 1952 – Elizabeth II becomes Queen of the United Kingdom and her other Realms and Territories and Head of the Commonwealth upon the death of her father, George VI. At the exact moment of succession, she was in a tree house at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya.
• 1959 – At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile is accomplished.
• 1981 – The National Resistance Army of Uganda launches an attack on a Ugandan Army installation in the central Mubende District to begin the Ugandan Bush War.
• 1989 – The Round Table Talks start in Poland, thus marking the beginning of the overthrow of communism in Eastern Europe.
• 2000 – Second Chechen War: Russia captures Grozny, Chechnya, forcing the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria government into exile.

People (Births)

• 1536 – Sassa Narimasa, Japanese samurai (d. 1588).
• 1732 – Charles Lee, English-American general (d. 1782).
• 1756 – Aaron Burr, American colonel and politician, 3rd Vice President of the United States (d. 1836).
• 1769 – Ludwig von Wallmoden-Gimborn, Austrian general (d. 1862).
• 1772 – George Murray, Scottish general and politician, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies (d. 1830).
• 1781 – John Keane, 1st Baron Keane, Irish general and politician, Governor of Saint Lucia (d. 1844).
• 1797 – Joseph von Radowitz, Prussian general and politician, Foreign Minister of Prussia (d. 1853).
• 1832 – John Brown Gordon, American general and politician, 53rd Governor of Georgia (d. 1904).
• 1833 – J. E. B. Stuart, American general (d. 1864).
• 1834 – Wilhelm von Scherff, German general and author (d. 1911).
• 1875 – Leonid Gobyato, Russian general (d. 1915).
• 1892 – Maximilian Fretter-Pico, German general (d. 1984).
• 1898 – Harry Haywood, American soldier and politician (d. 1985).
• 1908 – Edward Lansdale, American general and CIA agent (d. 1987).
• 1910 – Roman Czerniawski, Polish air force officer and spy (d. 1985).
• 1912 – Eva Braun, German wife of Adolf Hitler (d. 1945).
• 1932 – Camilo Cienfuegos, Cuban soldier and anarchist (d. 1959).
• 1938 – Fred Mifflin, Canadian admiral and politician, 19th Minister of Veterans Affairs (d. 2013).
• 1961 – Yury Onufriyenko, Ukrainian-Russian colonel, pilot, and astronaut.

People (Deaths)

• 1215 – Hōjō Tokimasa, Japanese shikken of the Kamakura bakufu (b. 1138).
• 1807 – John Reid, Scottish general (b. 1721).
• 1899 – Leo von Caprivi, German general and politician, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1831).
• 1942 – Jaan Soots, Estonian general and politician, 7th Estonian Minister of War (b. 1880).
• 1952 – George VI of the United Kingdom (b. 1895).
• 1964 – Emilio Aguinaldo, Filipino general and politician, 1st President of the Philippines (b. 1869).
• 1985 – James Hadley Chase, English-Swiss soldier and author (b. 1906).
• 2004 – Gerald Bouey, Canadian lieutenant and economist (b. 1920).