Events

• 851 – Battle of Jengland: Erispoe defeats Charles the Bald near the Breton town of Jengland.
• 1138 – Battle of the Standard between Scotland and England.
• 1485 – The Battle of Bosworth Field, the death of Richard III and the end of the House of Plantagenet.
• 1639 – Madras (now Chennai), India, is founded by the British East India Company on a sliver of land bought from local Nayak rulers.
• 1642 – Charles I raises his standard in Nottingham, which marks the beginning of the English Civil War.
• 1717 – Spanish troops land on Sardinia.
• 1770 – James Cook names and lands on Possession Island, and claims the east coast of Australia for Britain as New South Wales.
• 1777 – British forces abandon the Siege of Fort Stanwix after hearing rumors of Continental Army reinforcements.
• 1780 – James Cook’s ship HMS Resolution returns to England (Cook having been killed on Hawaii during the voyage).
• 1791 – Beginning of the Haitian Slave Revolution in Saint-Domingue, Haiti.
• 1798 – French troops land at Kilcummin, County Mayo, Ireland to aid the rebellion.
• 1827 – José de la Mar becomes President of Peru.
• 1846 – The Second Federal Republic of Mexico is established.
• 1849 – The first air raid in history. Austria launches pilotless balloons against the city of Venice.
• 1864 – Twelve nations sign the First Geneva Convention, establishing the rules of protection of the victims of armed conflicts.
• 1875 – The Treaty of Saint Petersburg between Japan and Russia is ratified, providing for the exchange of Sakhalin for the Kuril Islands.
• 1910 – Korea is annexed by Japan with the signing of the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910, beginning a period of Japanese rule of Korea that lasted until the end of World War II.
• 1922 – Michael Collins, Commander-in-chief of the Irish Free State Army, is shot dead in an ambush during the Irish Civil War.
• 1941 – World War II: German troops begin the Siege of Leningrad.
• 1942 – Brazil declares war on Germany, Japan and Italy.
• 1944 – World War II: Holocaust of Kedros in Crete by German forces.
• 1962 – The OAS attempts to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle.
• 1963 – X-15 Flight 91 reaches the highest altitude of the X-15 program (107.96 km (67.08 mi) (354,200 feet)).
• 1971 – J. Edgar Hoover and John Mitchell announce the arrest of 20 of the Camden 28.
• 1973 – The Congress of Chile votes in favour of a resolution condemning President Salvador Allende’s government and demands that he resign or else be unseated through force and new elections.
• 1991 – Iceland is the first nation in the world to recognize the independence of the Baltic states.

People (Births)

• 1778 – James Kirke Paulding, American poet, playwright, and politician, 11th United States Secretary of the Navy (d. 1860).
• 1800 – William S. Harney, American general (d. 1889).
• 1836 – Archibald Willard, American soldier and painter (d. 1918).
• 1844 – George W. De Long, American Naval officer and explorer (d. 1881).
• 1881 – James Newland, Australian soldier and policeman (d. 1949).
• 1891 – Henry Bachtold, Australian soldier and railway engineer (d. 1983).
• 1895 – László Almásy, Hungarian captain, pilot, and explorer (d. 1951).
• 1904 – Deng Xiaoping, Chinese soldier and politician, 1st Vice Premier of the People’s Republic of China (d. 1997).
• 1913 – Leonard Pagliero, English businessman and pilot (d. 2008).
• 1929 – Ulrich Wegener, German police officer and general (d. 2017).
• 1932 – Gerald P. Carr, American engineer, colonel, and astronaut.
• 1934 – Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr., American general and engineer (d. 2012).

People (Deaths)

• 408 – Stilicho, Roman general (b. 359).
• 1553 – John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, English admiral and politician, Lord President of the Council (b. 1504).
• 1572 – Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland, English leader of the Rising of the North (b. 1528).
• 1652 – Jacob De la Gardie, Estonian-Swedish soldier and politician, Lord High Constable of Sweden (b. 1583).
• 1701 – John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath, English soldier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (b. 1628).
• 1711 – Louis François, duc de Boufflers, French general (b. 1644).
• 1793 – Louis de Noailles, French general (b. 1713).
• 1797 – Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser, French-Austrian field marshal (b. 1724).
• 1922 – Michael Collins, Irish rebel, counter-intelligence and military tactician, and politician; 2nd Irish Minister of Finance (b. 1890).
• 1933 – Alexandros Kontoulis, Greek general and diplomat (b. 1858).
• 1946 – Döme Sztójay, Hungarian general and politician, 35th Prime Minister of Hungary (b. 1883).
• 1960 – Johannes Sikkar, Estonian soldier and politician, Prime Minister of Estonia in exile (b. 1897).
• 1980 – James Smith McDonnell, American pilot, engineer, and businessman, founded McDonnell Aircraft (b. 1899).
• 1991 – Boris Pugo, Russian soldier and politician, Soviet Minister of Interior (b. 1937).
• 2004 – Angus Bethune, Australian soldier and politician, 33rd Premier of Tasmania (b. 1908).
• 2008 – Gladys Powers, English-Canadian soldier (b. 1899).