Events

• 1600 – The Linköping Bloodbath takes place on Maundy Thursday in Linköping, Sweden: five Swedish noblemen are publicly beheaded in the aftermath of the War against Sigismund (1598-1599).
• 1602 – The Dutch East India Company is established.
• 1616 – Sir Walter Raleigh is freed from the Tower of London after 13 years of imprisonment.
• 1815 – Napoleonic Wars: After escaping from Elba, Napoleon enters Paris with a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000, beginning his “Hundred Days” rule.
• 1848 – German revolutions of 1848-1849: King Ludwig I of Bavaria abdicates.
• 1921 – The Upper Silesia plebiscite was a plebiscite mandated by the Versailles Treaty to determine a section of the border between Weimar Germany and Poland (refer to World War I).
• 1922 – The USS Langley is commissioned as the first United States Navy aircraft carrier.
• 1926 – Chiang Kai-shek initiates a purge of communist elements within the National Revolutionary Army in Guangzhou.
• 1933 – Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler ordered the creation of Dachau concentration camp as Chief of Police of Munich and appointed Theodor Eicke as the camp commandant.
• 1942 – World War II: General Douglas MacArthur, at Terowie, South Australia, makes his famous speech regarding the fall of the Philippines, in which he says: “I came out of Bataan and I shall return”.
• 1952 – The US Senate ratifies the Security Treaty Between the United States and Japan.
• 1956 – Tunisia gains independence from France.
• 1972 – The Troubles: The first Provisional IRA car bombing in Belfast kills seven people and injures 148 others in Northern Ireland.
• 1988 – Eritrean War of Independence: Having defeated the Nadew Command, the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front enters the town of Afabet, victoriously concluding the Battle of Afabet.
• 1993 – The Troubles: A Provisional IRA bomb kills two children in Warrington, England.
  • It leads to mass protests in both Britain and Ireland.
• 2003 – Iraq War: The United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Poland begin an invasion of Iraq.
• 2006 – Over 150 Chadian soldiers are killed in eastern Chad by members of the rebel UFDC.
  • The rebel movement sought to overthrow Chadian president Idriss Déby.
• 2015 – Syrian civil war: The Siege of Kobanî is broken by the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Free Syrian Army (FSA), marking a turning point in the Rojava-Islamist conflict.

People (Births)

• 1502 – Pierino Belli, Italian soldier and jurist (d. 1575).
• 1836 – Ferris Jacobs, Jr., American general, lawyer, and politician (d. 1886).
• 1870 – Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, German general (d. 1964).
• 1916 – Pierre Messmer, French lieutenant and politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 2007).
• 1917 – Yigael Yadin, Israeli archaeologist, general, and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1984).
• 1918 – Donald Featherstone, English soldier and author (d. 2013).
• 1919 – Gerhard Barkhorn, German fighter ace (d. 1983).
• 1934 – Willie Brown, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 41st Mayor of San Francisco.
• 1936 – Mark Saville, Baron Saville of Newdigate, English lieutenant, lawyer, and judge.
• 1941 – Kenji Kimihara, Japanese runner.
• 1945 – Henry Bartholomay, American soldier and pilot (d. 2015).
• 1960 – Yuri Shargin, Russian colonel, engineer, and astronaut.
• 1963 – Yelena Romanova, Russian runner (d. 2007).
• 1968 – Carlos Almeida, Cape Verdean runner.
• 1972 – Greg Searle, English rower.
• 1973 – Natalya Khrushcheleva, Russian runner.

People (Deaths)

• 1181 – Taira no Kiyomori, Japanese general (b. 1118).
• 1239 – Hermann von Salza, German knight and diplomat (b. 1179).
• 1549 – Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, English general and politician, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (b. 1508).
• 1865 – Yamanami Keisuke, Japanese samurai (b. 1833).
• 1918 – Lewis A. Grant, American general and lawyer (b. 1828).
• 1929 – Ferdinand Foch, French field marshal (b. 1851).
• 1930 – Arthur F. Andrews, American cyclist (b. 1876).
• 1952 – Hjalmar Väre, Finnish cyclist (b. 1892).
• 2004 – Pierre Sévigny, Canadian colonel and politician (b. 1917).
• 2010 – Stewart Udall, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 37th United States Secretary of the Interior (b. 1920).