Events

• 307 – Jin Huaidi becomes emperor of China in succession to his father, Jin Huidi, despite a challenge from his uncle, Sima Ying.
• 871 – Alfred the Great leads a West Saxon army to repel an invasion by Danelaw Vikings.
• 1297 – François Grimaldi, disguised as a monk, leads his men to capture the fortress protecting the Rock of Monaco, establishing his family as the rulers of Monaco.
• 1454 – The papal bull Romanus Pontifex awards the Kingdom of Portugal exclusive trade and colonization rights to all of Africa south of Cape Bojador.
• 1746 – Second Jacobite rising: Bonnie Prince Charlie occupies Stirling.
• 1806 – Cape Colony in southern Africa becomes a British colony as a result of the Battle of Blaauwberg.
• 1811 – An unsuccessful slave revolt is led by Charles Deslondes in the north American settlements of St. Charles and St. James, Louisiana.
• 1815 – War of 1812: Battle of New Orleans: Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British.
• 1863 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Springfield.
• 1877 – Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle against the United States Cavalry at Wolf Mountain, Montana Territory.
• 1918 – US President Woodrow Wilson announces his “Fourteen Points” for the aftermath of World War I.
• 1940 – World War II: Britain introduces food rationing.
• 1945 – World War II: Philippine Commonwealth troops under the Philippine Commonwealth Army units enter the province of Ilocos Sur in Northern Luzon and attack invading Japanese Imperial forces.
• 1959 – Charles de Gaulle is proclaimed as the first President of the French Fifth Republic.
• 1961 – In France a referendum supports Charles de Gaulle’s policies in Algeria.
• 1972 – Bowing to international pressure, President of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto releases Bengali leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from prison, who had been arrested after declaring the independence of Bangladesh.
• 1981 – A local farmer reports a UFO sighting in Trans-en-Provence, France, claimed to be “perhaps the most completely and carefully documented sighting of all time”.
• 2005 – The nuclear sub USS San Francisco collides at full speed with an undersea mountain south of Guam. One man is killed, but the sub surfaces and is repaired.

People (Births)

• 1628 – François-Henri de Montmorency, duc de Luxembourg, French general (d. 1695).
• 1821 – James Longstreet, American general and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Turkey (d. 1904).
• 1871 – James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon, Irish captain and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Northern Ireland (d. 1940).
• 1883 – Patrick J. Hurley, American general, politician, and diplomat, 51st United States Secretary of War (d. 1963).
• 1897 – Dennis Wheatley, English soldier and author (d. 1977).
• 1904 – Karl Brandt, German physician and SS officer (d. 1948).
• 1907 – Keizō Hayashi, Japanese general and civil servant (d. 1991).
• 1924 – Benjamin Lees, Chinese-American soldier and composer (d. 2010).
• 1928 – Slade Gorton, American colonel, lawyer, and politician, 14th Attorney General of Washington.
• 1933 – Charles Osgood, American soldier and journalist.
• 1934 – Jacques Anquetil, French cyclist (d. 1987).
• 1961 – Calvin Smith, American sprinter.
• 1984 – Kim Jong-un, North Korean soldier and politician, 3rd Supreme Leader of North Korea (probable).
• 1993 – Sophie Pascoe, New Zealand swimmer.

People (Deaths)

• 1707 – John Dalrymple, 1st Earl of Stair, Scottish soldier and politician, Scottish Secretary of State (b. 1648).
• 1815 – Edward Pakenham, Anglo-Irish general and politician (b. 1778).
• 1825 – Eli Whitney, American engineer and theorist, invented the cotton gin (b. 1765).
• 1854 – William Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford, English field marshal and politician, Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance (b. 1768).
• 1865 – Aimé, duc de Clermont-Tonnerre, French general and politician, French Minister of Defence (b. 1779).
• 1914 – Simon Bolivar Buckner, American general and 30th Governor of Kentucky (b. 1823).
• 1941 – Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, English general (b. 1857).
• 1943 – Andres Larka, Estonian general and politician, 1st Estonian Minister of War (b. 1879).
• 1944 – William Kissam Vanderbilt II, American lieutenant and sailor (b. 1878).
• 1953 – Hugh Binney, English admiral and politician, 16th Governor of Tasmania (b. 1883).
• 1976 – Zhou Enlai, Chinese soldier and politician, 1st Premier of the People’s Republic of China (b. 1898).
• 1983 – Gerhard Barkhorn, German general and pilot (b. 1919).
• 1996 – François Mitterrand, French sergeant and politician, 21st President of France (b. 1916).
• 2014 – Irma Heijting-Schuhmacher, Dutch-Australian swimmer (b. 1925).