Events

• 30 BC – Octavian (later known as Augustus) enters Alexandria, Egypt, bringing it under the control of the Roman Republic.
• AD 69 – Batavian rebellion: The Batavians in Germania Inferior (Netherlands) revolt under the leadership of Gaius Julius Civilis.
• 527 – Justinian I becomes the sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire.
• 902 – Taormina, the last Byzantine stronghold in Sicily, is captured by the Aghlabids army, concluding the Muslim conquest of Sicily.
• 1203 – Isaac II Angelos, restored Eastern Roman Emperor, declares his son Alexios IV Angelos co-emperor after pressure from the forces of the Fourth Crusade.
• 1291 – The Old Swiss Confederacy is formed with the signature of the Federal Charter.
  • National Day, commemorates Switzerland becoming a single unit in 1291.
• 1469 – Louis XI of France founds the chivalric order called the Order of Saint Michael in Amboise.
• 1498 – Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to visit what is now Venezuela.
• 1571 – The Ottoman conquest of Cyprus is concluded, by the surrender of Famagusta.
• 1620 – Speedwell leaves Delfshaven to bring pilgrims to America by way of England.
• 1664 – Ottoman forces are defeated in the battle of Saint Gotthard by an Austrian army led by Raimondo Montecuccoli, resulting in the Peace of Vasvár.
• 1714 – George, Elector of Hanover, becomes King George I of Great Britain, marking the beginning of the Georgian era of British history.
• 1759 – Seven Years’ War: The Battle of Minden, an allied Anglo-German army victory over the French.
  • In Britain this was one of a number of events that constituted the Annus Mirabilis of 1759 and is celebrated as Minden Day by certain British Army regiments.
  • Minden Day (United Kingdom).
• 1774 – British scientist Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen gas, corroborating the prior discovery of this element by German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele.
• 1798 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of the Nile (Battle of Aboukir Bay): Battle begins when a British fleet engages the French Revolutionary Navy fleet in an unusual night action.
• 1800 – The Acts of Union 1800 are passed which merge the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
• 1801 – First Barbary War: The American schooner USS Enterprise captures the Tripolitan polacca Tripoli in a single-ship action off the coast of modern-day Libya.
• 1834 – Slavery is abolished in the British Empire as the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 comes into force, although it remains legal in the possessions of the East India Company until the passage of the Indian Slavery Act, 1843.
• 1849 – Joven Daniel wrecks at the coast of Araucanía, Chile, leading to allegations that local Mapuche tribes murdered survivors and kidnapped Elisa Bravo.
• 1894 – The First Sino-Japanese War erupts between Japan and China over Korea.
• 1907 – The start of the first Scout camp on Brownsea Island, the origin of the worldwide Scouting movement.
• 1914 – The German Empire declares war on the Russian Empire at the opening of World War I. The Swiss Army mobilises because of World War I.
• 1927 – The Nanchang Uprising marks the first significant battle in the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang and Chinese Communist Party.
  • This day is commemorated as the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army.
• 1943 – World War II: Operation Tidal Wave also known as “Black Sunday”, was a failed American attempt to destroy Romanian oil fields.
• 1944 – World War II: The Warsaw Uprising against the Nazi German occupation breaks out in Warsaw, Poland.
• 1946 – Leaders of the Russian Liberation Army, a force of Russian prisoners of war that collaborated with Nazi Germany, are executed in Moscow, Soviet Union for treason.
• 1950 – Guam is organised as a United States commonwealth as the President Harry S. Truman signs the Guam Organic Act.
• 1957 – The United States and Canada form the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD).
• 1960 – Dahomey (later renamed Benin) declares independence from France.
  • National Day, celebrates the independence of Benin from France in 1960.
• 1960 – Islamabad is declared the federal capital of the Government of Pakistan.
• 1961 – US Defence Secretary Robert McNamara orders the creation of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), the nation’s first centralised military espionage organisation.
• 1964 – The former Belgian Congo is renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• 1965 – Frank Herbert’s novel, Dune was published for the first time. It was named as the world’s best-selling science fiction novel in 2003.
• 1974 – Cyprus dispute: The United Nations Security Council authorises the UNFICYP to create the “Green Line”, dividing Cyprus into two zones.
• 1988 – A British soldier was killed in the Inglis Barracks bombing in London, England.
• Armed Forces Day (Lebanon).
• Armed Forces Day (China) or Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Liberation Army (People’s Republic of China).
• Victory Day (Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam).

People (Births)

• 1738 – Jacques François Dugommier, French general (d. 1794).
• 1744 – Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, French soldier, biologist, and academic (d. 1829).
• 1770 – William Clark, American soldier, explorer, and politician, 4th Governor of Missouri Territory (d. 1838).
• 1809 – William B. Travis, American colonel and lawyer (d. 1836).
• 1910 – Gerda Taro, German war photographer (d. 1937).
• 1930 – Lawrence Eagleburger, American lieutenant and politician, 62nd United States Secretary of State (d. 2011).
• 1941 – Ron Brown, American captain and politician, 30th United States Secretary of Commerce (d. 1996).
• 1946 – Richard O. Covey, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut.

People (Deaths)

• 30 BC – Mark Antony, Roman general and politician (b. 83 BC).
• 1098 – Adhemar of Le Puy, French papal legate.
• 1227 – Shimazu Tadahisa, Japanese warlord (b. 1179).
• 1796 – Sir Robert Pigot, 2nd Baronet, English colonel and politician (b. 1720).
• 1798 – François-Paul Brueys d’Aigalliers, French admiral (b. 1753).
• 1812 – Yakov Kulnev, Russian general (b. 1763).
• 1943 – Lydia Litvyak, Russian lieutenant and pilot (b. 1921).
• 1944 – Manuel L. Quezon, Filipino soldier, lawyer, and politician, 2nd President of the Philippines (b. 1878).
• 1973 – Walter Ulbricht, German soldier and politician (b. 1893).
• 1977 – Francis Gary Powers, American captain and pilot (b. 1929).
• 2014 – Charles T. Payne, American soldier (b. 1925).