Events

• 451 – Attila the Hun sacks the town of Metz and attacks other cities in Gaul.
• 611 – Maya king Uneh Chan of Calakmul sacks rival city-state Palenque in southern Mexico.
• 1141 – Empress Matilda became the first female ruler of England, adopting the title ‘Lady of the English’.
• 1521 – Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Cebu.
• 1541 – Francis Xavier leaves Lisbon on a mission to the Portuguese East Indies.
• 1767 – End of Burmese–Siamese War (1765-1767).
• 1776 – Captain John Barry and the USS Lexington captures the Edward.
• 1788 – American pioneers to the Northwest Territory establish Marietta, Ohio as the first permanent American settlement in the Northwest Territory.
• 1798 – The Mississippi Territory is organised from disputed territory claimed by both the United States and Spain.
  • It is expanded in 1804 and again in 1812.
• 1827 – John Walker, an English chemist, sells the first friction match that he had invented the previous year.
• 1831 – Emperor Pedro I of Brazil resigns. He goes to his native Portugal to become King Pedro IV.
• 1862 – American Civil War: The Union’s Army of the Tennessee and the Army of the Ohio defeat the Confederate Army of Mississippi near Shiloh, Tennessee.
• 1906 – The Algeciras Conference gives France and Spain control over Morocco.
• 1943 – The Holocaust in Ukraine: In Terebovlia, Germans order 1,100 Jews to undress and march through the city to the nearby village of Plebanivka, where they are shot and buried in ditches.
• 1943 – Ioannis Rallis becomes collaborationist Prime Minister of Greece during the Axis Occupation.
• 1945 – World War II: The battleship Yamato, one of the two largest ever constructed, is sunk by American aircraft during Operation Ten-Go.
• 1945 – World War II: Visoko is liberated by the 7th, 9th, and 17th Krajina brigades from the Tenth division of Yugoslav Partisan forces.
• 1948 – The World Health Organisation (WHO) is established by the United Nations (UN).
• 1954 – US President Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his “domino theory” speech during a news conference.
• 1955 – Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom amid indications of failing health.
• 1969 – The Internet’s symbolic birth date: Publication of RFC 1.
• 1971 – Vietnam War: President Richard Nixon announces his decision to quicken the pace of Vietnamisation.
• 1972 – Vietnam War: Communist forces overran the South Vietnamese town of Loc Ninh.
• 1978 – Development of the neutron bomb is cancelled by President Jimmy Carter.
• 1980 – During the Iran hostage crisis, the United States severs relations with Iran.
• 1989 – Soviet submarine Komsomolets sinks in the Barents Sea off the coast of Norway killing 42 sailors.
• 1990 – Iran–Contra affair: John Poindexter is found guilty of five charges for his part in the scandal (the conviction is later reversed on appeal).
• 1994 – Rwandan genocide: Massacres of Tutsis begin in Kigali, Rwanda.
  • Genocide Memorial Day (Rwanda), and its related observance: International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Rwanda Genocide (United Nations).
• 1995 – First Chechen War: Russian paramilitary troops begin a massacre of civilians in Samashki, Chechnya.
• 2003 – US troops capture Baghdad; Saddam Hussein’s regime falls two days later.
• 2009 – Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori is sentenced to 25 years in prison for ordering killings and kidnappings by security forces.
• 2011 – The Israel Defence Forces use their Iron Dome missile system to successfully intercept a BM-21 Grad launched from Gaza, marking the first short-range missile intercept ever.

People (Births)

• 1644 – François de Neufville, duc de Villeroy, French general (d. 1730).
• 1882 – Kurt von Schleicher, German general and politician, 23rd Chancellor of Germany (d. 1934).
• 1886 – Ed Lafitte, American baseball player and soldier (d. 1971).
• 1895 – John Flannagan, American soldier and sculptor (d. 1942).
• 1897 – Erich Löwenhardt, Polish-German lieutenant and pilot (d. 1918).
• 1903 – Edwin T. Layton, American admiral (d. 1984).
• 1913 – Charles Vanik, American soldier, judge, and politician (d. 2007).
• 1929 – Bob Denard, French soldier (d. 2007).
• 1946 – Colette Besson, French runner and educator (d. 2005).
• 1952 – Jane Frederick, American hurdler and heptathlete.
• 1956 – Georg Werthner, Austrian decathlete.
• 1962 – Andrew Hampsten, American cyclist.
• 1963 – Dave Johnson, American decathlete and educator.
• 1968 – Duncan Armstrong, Australian swimmer and sportscaster.
• 1973 – Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, Dutch lawyer and politician, Dutch Minister of Defence.
• 1987 – Eelco Sintnicolaas, Dutch decathlete.
• 1990 – Nickel Ashmeade, Jamaican sprinter.

People (Deaths)

• 1638 – Shimazu Tadatsune, Japanese daimyō (b. 1576).
• 1651 – Lennart Torstensson, Swedish field marshal and engineer (b. 1603).
• 1661 – Sir William Brereton, 1st Baronet, English commander and politician (b. 1604).
• 1804 – Toussaint Louverture, Haitian general (b. 1743).
• 1889 – Youssef Bey Karam, Lebanese soldier and politician (b. 1823).
• 1947 – Henry Ford, American engineer and businessman, founded the Ford Motor Company (b. 1863).
• 1956 – Fred Appleby, English runner (b. 1879).
• 1960 – Henri Guisan, Swiss general (b. 1874).
• 1984 – Frank Church, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (b. 1924).
• 1990 – Ronald Evans, American captain, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1933).
• 1991 – Memduh Ünlütürk, Turkish general (b. 1913).
• 1997 – Georgy Shonin, Ukrainian-Russian general, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1935).
• 2012 – David E. Pergrin, American colonel and engineer (b. 1917).
• 2015 – Tim Babcock, American soldier and politician, 16th Governor of Montana (b. 1919).