Events

• 705 – Empress Wu Zetian abdicates the throne, restoring the Tang dynasty.
• 1316 – The Battle of Picotin, between Ferdinand of Majorca and the forces of Matilda of Hainaut, ends in victory for Ferdinand.
• 1495 – King Charles VIII of France enters Naples to claim the city’s throne.
• 1744 – War of the Austrian Succession: The Battle of Toulon causes several Royal Navy captains to be court-martialed, and the Articles of War to be amended.
• 1797 – The last Invasion of Britain begins near Fishguard, Wales.
• 1819 – By the Adams–Onís Treaty, Spain sells Florida to the United States for five million U.S. dollars.
• 1821 – Greek War of Independence: Alexander Ypsilantis crosses the Prut river at Sculeni into the Danubian Principalities.
• 1847 – Mexican–American War: The Battle of Buena Vista: Five thousand American troops defeat 15,000 Mexican troops.
• 1848 – The French Revolution of 1848, which would lead to the establishment of the French Second Republic, begins.
• 1862 – Jefferson Davis is officially inaugurated for a six-year term as the President of the Confederate States of America in Richmond, Virginia. He was previously inaugurated as a provisional president on February 18, 1861.
• 1899 – Filipino forces led by General Antonio Luna launch counterattacks for the first time against the American forces during the Philippine–American War. The Filipinos fail to regain Manila from the Americans.
• 1904 – The United Kingdom sells a meteorological station on the South Orkney Islands to Argentina; the islands are subsequently claimed by the United Kingdom in 1908.
• 1909 – The sixteen battleships of the Great White Fleet, led by USS Connecticut, return to the United States after a voyage around the world.
• 1915 – World War I: The Imperial German Navy institutes unrestricted submarine warfare.
• 1921 – After Russian forces under Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg drive the Chinese out, the Bogd Khan is reinstalled as the emperor of Mongolia.
• 1942 – World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as the Japanese victory becomes inevitable.
• 1943 – World War II: Members of the White Rose resistance, Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl, and Christoph Probst are executed in Nazi Germany.
• 1944 – World War II: American aircraft mistakenly bomb the Dutch towns of Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede and Deventer, resulting in 800 dead in Nijmegen alone.
• 1944 – World War II: The Soviet Red Army recaptures Krivoi Rog.
• 1946 – The “Long Telegram”, proposing how the United States should deal with the Soviet Union, arrives from the US embassy in Moscow.
• 1957 – Ngô Đình Diệm of South Vietnam survives a communist shooting assassination attempt in Buôn Ma Thuột.
• 1958 – Egypt and Syria join to form the United Arab Republic.
• 1972 – The Official Irish Republican Army detonates a car bomb at Aldershot barracks, killing seven and injuring nineteen others.
• 1973 – Cold War: Following President Richard Nixon’s visit to the People’s Republic of China, the two countries agree to establish liaison offices.
• 1986 – Start of the People Power Revolution in the Philippines.
• 1995 – The Corona reconnaissance satellite program, in existence from 1959 to 1972, is declassified.
• 2002 – Angolan political and rebel leader Jonas Savimbi is killed in a military ambush.
• 2011 – Bahraini uprising: Tens of thousands of people march in protest against the deaths of seven victims killed by police and army forces during previous protests.
• Birthday of Scouting and Guiding founder Robert Baden-Powell and Olave Baden-Powell, and its related observance:
  • Founder’s Day or “B.-P. day” (World Organization of the Scout Movement)
  • World Thinking Day (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts)
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Saint Lucia from the United Kingdom in 1979.

People (Births)

• 1732 – George Washington, American general and politician, 1st President of the United States (d. 1799).
• 1857 – Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, English general, co-founded The Scout Association (d. 1941).
• 1897 – Karol Świerczewski, Polish general (d. 1947).
• 1921 – Jean-Bédel Bokassa, Central African general and politician, 2nd President of the Central African Republic (d. 1996).

People (Deaths)

• 1973 – Winthrop Rockefeller, American colonel and politician, 37th Governor of Arkansas (b. 1912).
• 1992 – Markos Vafiadis, Greek general and politician (b. 1906).
• 2002 – Roden Cutler, Australian lieutenant and politician, 32nd Governor of New South Wales (b. 1916).