Events

• 617 – Battle of Huoyi: Li Yuan defeats a Sui dynasty army, opening the path to his capture of the imperial capital Chang’an and the eventual establishment of the Tang dynasty.
• 1380 – Battle of Kulikovo: Russian forces defeat a mixed army of Tatars and Mongols, stopping their advance.
• 1514 – Battle of Orsha: In one of the biggest battles of the century, Lithuanians and Poles defeat the Russian army.
• 1522 – Magellan–Elcano circumnavigation: Victoria arrives at Seville, technically completing the first circumnavigation.
• 1565 – St. Augustine, Florida is founded by Spanish admiral and Florida’s first governor, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés.
• 1565 – The Knights of Malta lift the Ottoman siege of Malta that began on 18 May.
• 1655 – Warsaw falls without resistance to a small force under the command of Charles X Gustav of Sweden during The Deluge, making it the first time the city is captured by a foreign army.
• 1755 – French and Indian War: Battle of Lake George.
• 1756 – French and Indian War: Kittanning Expedition.
• 1775 – The unsuccessful Rising of the Priests in Malta.
• 1781 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Eutaw Springs in South Carolina, the war’s last significant battle in the Southern theatre, ends in a narrow British tactical victory.
• 1793 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Hondschoote.
• 1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Bassano: French forces defeat Austrian troops at Bassano del Grappa.
• 1810 – The Tonquin sets sail from New York Harbor with 33 employees of John Jacob Astor’s newly created Pacific Fur Company on board.
  • After a six-month journey around the tip of South America, the ship arrives at the mouth of the Columbia River and Astor’s men establish the fur-trading town of Astoria, Oregon.
• 1831 – November uprising: The Battle of Warsaw effectively ends the Polish insurrection.
• 1862 – Millennium of Russia monument is unveiled in Novgorod.
• 1863 – American Civil War: In the Second Battle of Sabine Pass, a small Confederate force thwarts a Union invasion of Texas.
• 1888 – Isaac Peral’s submarine is first tested.
• 1892 – The US Pledge of Allegiance is first recited.
• 1914 – World War I: Private Thomas Highgate becomes the first British soldier to be executed for desertion during the war.
• 1916 – In a bid to prove that women were capable of serving as military dispatch riders, Augusta and Adeline Van Buren arrive in Los Angeles, completing a 60-day, 5,500 mile cross-country trip on motorcycles.
• 1923 – Honda Point disaster: Nine US Navy destroyers run aground off the California coast.
  • Seven are lost, and twenty-three sailors killed.
• 1925 – Rif War: Spanish forces including troops from the Foreign Legion under Colonel Francisco Franco landing at Al Hoceima, Morocco.
• 1941 – World War II: German forces begin the Siege of Leningrad.
• 1943 – World War II: The Armistice of Cassibile is proclaimed by radio. OB Süd immediately implements plans to disarm the Italian forces.
• 1944 – World War II: London is hit by a V-2 rocket for the first time.
• 1945 – The division of Korea begins when United States troops arrive to partition the southern part of Korea in response to Soviet troops occupying the northern part of the peninsula a month earlier.
• 1946 – The referendum abolishes the monarchy in Bulgaria.
• 1954 – The Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) is established.
• 1966 – The landmark American science fiction television series Star Trek premieres with its first-aired episode, “The Man Trap“.
• 1975 – Gays in the military: US Air Force Tech Sergeant Leonard Matlovich, a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, appears in his Air Force uniform on the cover of Time magazine with the headline “I Am A Homosexual”.
  • He is given a general discharge, later upgraded to honourable.
• 1978 – Black Friday, a massacre by soldiers against protesters in Tehran, results in 700–3000 deaths, it marks the beginning of the end of the monarchy in Iran.
• 1991 – The Republic of Macedonia becomes independent.
  • Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Macedonia from Yugoslavia in 1991.
• 2005 – Two Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft from EMERCOM land at a disaster aid staging area at Little Rock Air Force Base; the first time Russia has flown such a mission to North America.
• Day of the Battle of Borodino (Russia).
• Victory Day (Pakistan).
• Victory Day, also the feast of Our Lady of Victories or il-Vittorja (Malta).

People (Births)

• 1442 – John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, English commander and politician, Lord Great Chamberlain of England (d. 1513).
• 1828 – Joshua Chamberlain, American general and politician, 32nd Governor of Maine (d. 1914).
• 1869 – José María Pino Suárez, Mexican politician, Vice President of Mexico, murdered in a military coup (d. 1913).
• 1886 – Siegfried Sassoon, English captain, journalist, and poet (d. 1967).
• 1894 – John Samuel Bourque, Canadian soldier and politician (d. 1974).
• 1921 – Dinko Šakić, Croatian concentration camp commander (d. 2008).
• 1924 – Wendell H. Ford, American lieutenant and politician, 53rd Governor of Kentucky (d. 2015).
• 1927 – Robert L. Rock, American soldier and politician, 42nd Lieutenant Governor of Indiana (d. 2013).
• 1930 – Nguyễn Cao Kỳ, Vietnamese general and politician, 16th Prime Minister of the Republic of Vietnam (d. 2011).
• 1931 – John Garrett, English soldier and politician (d. 2007).
• 1936 – Roy Newman, English admiral.
• 1970 – Nidal Malik Hasan, American soldier, psychiatrist, and mass murderer.

People (Deaths)

• 394 – Arbogast, Frankish general.
• 1755 – Ephraim Williams, American soldier and philanthropist (b. 1715).
• 1780 – Enoch Poor, American general (b. 1736).