Events

• 217 BC – Battle of Raphia: Ptolemy IV Philopator of Egypt defeats Antiochus III the Great of the Seleucid kingdom.
• 168 BC – Battle of Pydna: Romans under Lucius Aemilius Paullus defeat Macedonian King Perseus who surrenders after the battle, ending the Third Macedonian War.
• 813 – Battle of Versinikia: The Bulgars led by Krum defeat the Byzantine army near Edirne. Emperor Michael I is forced to abdicate in favour of Leo V the Armenian.
• 910 – The Hungarians defeat the East Frankish army near the Rednitz River, killing its leader Gebhard, Duke of Lotharingia (Lorraine).
• 1527 – Fatahillah expels Portuguese forces from Sunda Kelapa, now regarded as the foundation of Jakarta.
• 1593 – Battle of Sisak: Allied Christian troops defeat the Ottomans.
• 1774 – The British pass the Quebec Act, setting out rules of governance for the colony of Quebec in British North America.
• 1807 – In the Chesapeake–Leopard Affair, the British warship HMS Leopard attacks and boards the American frigate USS Chesapeake.
• 1813 – War of 1812: After learning of American plans for a surprise attack on Beaver Dams in Ontario, Laura Secord sets out on a 30 kilometre journey on foot to warn Lieutenant James FitzGibbon.
• 1839 – Cherokee leaders Major Ridge, John Ridge, and Elias Boudinot are assassinated for signing the Treaty of New Echota, which had resulted in the Trail of Tears.
• 1893 – The Royal Navy battleship HMS Camperdown accidentally rams the British Mediterranean Fleet flagship HMS Victoria which sinks taking 358 crew with her, including the fleet’s commander, Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon.
• 1898 – Spanish–American War: In a chaotic operation, 6,000 men of the US Fifth Army Corps begins landing at Daiquirí, Cuba, about 16 miles (26 km) east of Santiago de Cuba. Lt. Gen. Arsenio Linares y Pombo of the Spanish Army outnumbers them two-to-one, but does not oppose the landings.
• 1911 – George V and Mary of Teck are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
• 1911 – Mexican Revolution: Government forces bring an end to the Magonista rebellion of 1911 in the Second Battle of Tijuana.
• 1921 – Rif War: The Spanish Army suffers its worst military defeat in modern times to the Berbers of the Rif region of Spanish Morocco.
• 1940 – World War II: France is forced to sign the Second Compiègne armistice with Germany, in the same railroad car in which the Germans signed the Armistice in 1918.
• 1941 – World War II: Nazi Germany invades the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa.
• 1942 – World War II: Erwin Rommel is promoted to Field Marshal after the capture of Tobruk.
• 1942 – The Pledge of Allegiance is formally adopted by US Congress.
• 1944 – World War II: Opening day of the Soviet Union’s Operation Bagration against the Army Group Centre.
• 1944 – US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs into law the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill.
• 1945 – World War II: The Battle of Okinawa comes to an end.
• 1948 – King George VI formally gives up the title “Emperor of India”, half a year after Britain actually gave up its rule of India.
• 1990 – Cold War: Checkpoint Charlie is dismantled in Berlin.
• 2012 – A Turkish Air Force McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II fighter plane is shot down by the Syrian Armed Forces, killing both of the plane’s pilots and worsening already-strained relations between Turkey and Syria.
• Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Great Patriotic War (Belarus).

People (Births)

• 1593 – Sir John Gell, 1st Baronet, English politician and militarian (d. 1671).
• 1757 – George Vancouver, English lieutenant and explorer (d. 1798).
• 1845 – Tom Dula, American soldier (d. 1868).
• 1861 – Maximilian von Spee, Danish-German admiral (d. 1914).
• 1890 – Aleksander Warma, Estonian commander and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Estonia in exile (d. 1970).
• 1892 – Robert Ritter von Greim, German general and pilot (d. 1945).
• 1896 – Leonard W. Murray, Canadian admiral (d. 1971).
• 1898 – Erich Maria Remarque, German-Swiss soldier and author (d. 1970).
• 1899 – Richard Gurley Drew, American engineer, invented Masking tape (d. 1980).
• 1910 – John Hunt, Baron Hunt, Indian-English lieutenant and mountaineer (d. 1998).
• 1910 – Konrad Zuse, German computer scientist and engineer, invented the Z3 computer (d. 1995).
• 1930 – Yury Artyukhin, Russian colonel, engineer, and astronaut (d. 1998).
• 1947 – Jerry Rawlings, Ghanaian lieutenant and politician, President of Ghana.
• 1975 – Urmas Reinsalu, Estonian academic and politician, 28th Estonian Minister of Defence.

People (Deaths)

• 1017 – Leo Passianos, Byzantine general.
• 1634 – Johann von Aldringen, Austrian field marshal (b. 1588).
• 1872 – Rudecindo Alvarado, Argentinian general (b. 1792).
• 1905 – Francis Lubbock, American colonel and politician, 9th Governor of Texas (b. 1815).
• 1933 – Tim Birkin, English racing driver and lieutenant (b. 1896).
• 1945 – Isamu Chō, Japanese general (b. 1895).
• 1945 – Mitsuru Ushijima, Japanese general (b. 1887).
• 2003 – Vasil Bykaŭ, Belarusian war novelist (b. 1924).