Events

• 1016 – The Danes defeat the English in the Battle of Assandun.
• 1081 – The Normans defeat the Byzantine Empire in the Battle of Dyrrhachium.
• 1540 – Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto’s forces destroy the fortified town of Mabila in present-day Alabama, killing Tuskaloosa.
• 1561 – In Japan the fourth Battle of Kawanakajima is fought between the forces of Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen, resulting in a draw.
• 1565 – Ships belonging to the Matsura clan of Japan fail to capture the Portuguese trading carrack in the Battle of Fukuda Bay, the first recorded naval battle between Japan and the West.
• 1599 – Michael the Brave, Prince of Wallachia, defeats the Army of Andrew Báthory in the Battle of Șelimbăr, leading to the first recorded unification of the Romanian people.
• 1748 – Signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the War of the Austrian Succession.
• 1775 – American Revolutionary War: The Burning of Falmouth (now Portland, Maine).
• 1779 – American Revolutionary War: The Franco-American Siege of Savannah is lifted.
• 1797 – Treaty of Campo Formio is signed between France and Austria.
• 1860 – The Second Opium War finally ends at the Convention of Peking with the ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin, an unequal treaty.
• 1867 – United States takes possession of Alaska after purchasing it from Russia for $7.2 million. Celebrated annually in the state as Alaska Day.
• 1898 – The United States takes possession of Puerto Rico from Spain.
• 1912 – First Balkan War: King Peter I of Serbia issues a declaration “To the Serbian People”, as his country joins the war.
• 1922 – The British Broadcasting Company (later Corporation) is founded by a consortium, to establish a nationwide network of radio transmitters to provide a national broadcasting service.
• 1944 – World War II: Soviet Union begins the liberation of Czechoslovakia from Nazi Germany.
• 1944 – World War II: The state funeral of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel takes place in Ulm, Germany.
• 1945 – The USSR’s nuclear programme receives plans for the United States plutonium bomb from Klaus Fuchs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
• 1945 – A group of the Venezuelan Armed Forces, led by Mario Vargas, Marcos Pérez Jiménez and Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, stages a coup d’état against president Isaías Medina Angarita, who is overthrown by the end of the day.
• 1945 – Argentine military officer and politician Juan Perón marries actress Eva Duarte.
• 1991 – The Supreme Council of Azerbaijan adopts a declaration of independence from the Soviet Union.

People (Births)

• 1741 – Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, French general and author (d. 1803).
• 1862 – Mehmet Esat Bülkat, Ottoman general (d. 1952).
• 1880 – Ze’ev Jabotinsky, Ukrainian-Russian general, journalist, and theorist (d. 1940).
• 1882 – Lucien Petit-Breton, French cyclist (d. 1917).
• 1887 – Takashi Sakai, Japanese general and politician, Governor of Hong Kong (d. 1946).
• 1903 – Lina Radke, German runner and coach (d. 1983).
• 1919 – Ric Nordman, Canadian captain and politician (d. 1996).
• 1921 – Jesse Helms, American soldier, journalist, and politician (d. 2008).
• 1939 – Lee Harvey Oswald, former US Marine and American assassin of John F. Kennedy (d. 1963).
• 1952 – Bảo Ninh, Vietnamese soldier and author.
• 1954 – Nick Houghton, English general.

People (Deaths)

• 1081 – Nikephoros Palaiologos, Byzantine general.
• 1508 – Patrick Hepburn, 1st Earl of Bothwell, Lord High Admiral of Scotland.
• 1561 – Yamamoto Kansuke, Japanese samurai (b. 1501).
• 1770 – John Manners, Marquess of Granby, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire (b. 1721).
• 1865 – Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, English soldier and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1784).
• 1871 – Charles Babbage, English mathematician and engineer, invented the mechanical computer (b. 1791).
• 1908 – Nozu Michitsura, Japanese field marshal (b. 1840).
• 1931 – Thomas Edison, American engineer and businessman, invented the light bulb and phonograph (b. 1847).
• 1947 – Michiaki Kamada, Japanese admiral (b. 1890).
• 1948 – Walther von Brauchitsch, German field marshal (b. 1881).
• 1959 – Boughera El Ouafi, Algerian-French runner (b. 1898).
• 2006 – Laurie Taitt, Guyanese-English hurdler (b. 1934).
• 2007 – William J. Crowe, American admiral and diplomat, United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom (b. 1925).