Events

• 880 – Battle of Lüneburg Heath: King Louis III of France is defeated by the Norse Great Heathen Army at Lüneburg Heath in Saxony.
• 1141 – The Battle of Lincoln, at which Stephen, King of England is defeated and captured by the allies of Empress Matilda.
• 1207 – Terra Mariana, eventually comprising present-day Latvia and Estonia, is established.
• 1438 – Nine leaders of the Transylvanian peasant revolt are executed at Torda.
• 1461 – Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Mortimer’s Cross is fought in Herefordshire, England.
• 1536 – Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza founds Buenos Aires, Argentina.
• 1645 – Scotland in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms: Battle of Inverlochy.
• 1653 – New Amsterdam (later renamed The City of New York) is incorporated.
• 1709 – Alexander Selkirk is rescued after being shipwrecked on a desert island, inspiring Daniel Defoe’s adventure book Robinson Crusoe.
• 1848 – Mexican-American War: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed.
• 1850 – Brigham Young declares war on Timpanogos in the Battle at Fort Utah.
• 1868 – Pro-Imperial forces captured Osaka Castle from the Tokugawa shogunate and burned it to the ground.
• 1901 – Funeral of Queen Victoria.
• 1920 – The Tartu Peace Treaty is signed between Estonia and Russia.
• 1942 – The Osvald Group is responsible for the first, active event of anti-Nazi resistance in Norway, to protest the inauguration of Vidkun Quisling.
• 1943 – World War II: The Battle of Stalingrad comes to an end when Soviet troops accept the surrender of the last organised German troops in the city.
  • Victory of the Battle of Stalingrad (Russia).
• 1966 – Pakistan suggests a six-point agenda with Kashmir after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.
• 1971 – Idi Amin replaces President Milton Obote as leader of Uganda.
• 1982 – Hama massacre: The government of Syria attacks the town of Hama.
• 1987 – After the 1986 People Power Revolution, the Philippines enacts a new constitution.
• 1989 – Soviet–Afghan War: The last Soviet armoured column leaves Kabul.

People (Births)

• 1695 – François de Chevert, French general (d. 1769).
• 1717 – Ernst Gideon von Laudon, Austrian field marshal (d. 1790).
• 1754 – Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, French general and politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 1838).
• 1782 – Henri de Rigny, French admiral and politician, French Minister of War (d. 1835).
• 1803 – Albert Sidney Johnston, American general (d. 1862).
• 1880 – Frederick Lane, Australian swimmer (d. 1969).
• 1883 – Johnston McCulley, American author and screenwriter, created Zorro (d. 1958).
• 1889 – Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, French general (d. 1952).
• 1893 – Damdin Sükhbaatar, Mongolian soldier and politician (d. 1924).
• 1917 – Mary Ellis, British World War II ferry pilot (d. 2018).
• 1922 – Robert Chef d’Hôtel, French athlete (d. 2019).
• 1933 – Than Shwe, Burmese general and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Burma.
• 1967 – Laurent Nkunda, Congolese general.
• 1976 – James Hickman, English swimmer.
• 1979 – Fani Chalkia, Greek hurdler and sprinter.
• 1983 – Carolina Klüft, Swedish heptathlete and jumper.
• 1985 – Masoud Azizi, Afghan sprinter.

People (Deaths)

• 1529 – Baldassare Castiglione, Italian soldier and diplomat (b. 1478).
• 1580 – Bessho Nagaharu, Japanese daimyō (b. 1558).
• 1688 – Abraham Duquesne, French admiral (b. 1610).
• 1919 – Julius Kuperjanov, Estonian lieutenant (b. 1894).
• 1926 – Vladimir Sukhomlinov, Russian general and politician (b. 1848).
• 1932 – Agha Petros, Assyrian general and politician (b. 1880).
• 1948 – Bevil Rudd, South African runner and journalist (b. 1894).
• 2007 – Masao Takemoto, Japanese gymnast (b. 1919).
• 2011 – Edward Amy, Canadian general (b. 1918).
• 2013 – Chris Kyle, American soldier and sniper (b. 1974).
• 2013 – Lino Oviedo, Paraguayan general and politician (b. 1943).