Events

• 1513 – Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León first sights land in what is now the United States state of Florida.
• 1755 – Commodore William James captures the Maratha fortress of Suvarnadurg on the west coast of India.
• 1800 – The Treaty of Constantinople establishes the Septinsular Republic, the first autonomous Greek state since the Fall of the Byzantine Empire.
• 1801 – French Revolutionary Wars: The British capture the Danish fleet.
• 1863 – American Civil War: The largest in a series of Southern bread riots occurs in Richmond, Virginia.
• 1865 – American Civil War: Defeat at the Third Battle of Petersburg forces the Army of Northern Virginia and the Confederate government to abandon Richmond, Virginia.
• 1885 – Canadian Cree warriors attack the village of Frog Lake, killing nine.
• 1900 – The United States Congress passes the Foraker Act, giving Puerto Rico limited self-rule.
• 1917 – American entry into World War I: President Wilson asks the US Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.
• 1921 – The Autonomous Government of Khorasan, a military government encompassing the modern state of Iran, is established.
• 1975 – Vietnam War: Thousands of civilian refugees flee from Quảng Ngãi Province in front of advancing North Vietnamese troops.
• 1979 – A Soviet bio-warfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk accidentally releases airborne anthrax spores, killing 66 plus an unknown amount of livestock.
• 1982 – Falklands War: Argentina invades the Falkland Islands.
• 1992 – Forty-two civilians are massacred in the town of Bijeljina in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• 2002 – Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, into which armed Palestinians had retreated.
• 2014 – A spree shooting occurs at the Fort Hood army base in Texas, with four dead, including the gunman, and 16 others injured.

People (Births)

• 747 – Charlemagne, Frankish king (d. 814).
• 1565 – Cornelis de Houtman, Dutch explorer (d. 1599).
• 1789 – Lucio Norberto Mansilla, Argentinian general and politician (d. 1871).
• 1792 – Francisco de Paula Santander, Colombian general and politician, 4th President of the Republic of the New Granada (d. 1840).
• 1814 – Henry L. Benning, American general and judge (d. 1875).
• 1827 – William Holman Hunt, English soldier and painter (d. 1910).
• 1910 – Paul Triquet, Canadian general, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1980).
• 1919 – Delfo Cabrera, Argentinian runner and soldier (d. 1981).
• 1920 – Gerald Bouey, Canadian lieutenant and civil servant (d. 2004).
• 1927 – Carmen Basilio, American boxer and soldier (d. 2012).
• 1927 – Howard Callaway, American soldier and politician, 11th United States Secretary of the Army (d. 2014).
• 1943 – Michael Boyce, Baron Boyce, South African-English admiral and politician, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.
• 1952 – Lennart Fagerlund, Swedish cyclist.
• 1953 – Rosemary Bryant Mariner, 20th and 21st-century US Navy aviator (d. 2019).
• 1955 – Michael Stone, Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary.
• 1959 – Gelindo Bordin, Italian runner.
• 1975 – Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski, German rower.

People (Deaths)

• 872 – Muflih al-Turki, Turkish general.
• 991 – Bardas Skleros, Byzantine general.
• 1412 – Ruy González de Clavijo, Spanish explorer and author.
• 1787 – Thomas Gage, English general and politician, Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (b. 1719).
• 1845 – Philip Charles Durham, Scottish admiral and politician (b. 1763).
• 1865 – A. P. Hill, American general (b. 1825).
• 1872 – Samuel Morse, American painter and academic, invented the Morse code (b. 1791).
• 1891 – Albert Pike, American lawyer and general (b. 1809).
• 1923 – Topal Osman, Turkish colonel (b. 1883).
• 1936 – Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne, French general (b. 1860).
• 1953 – Hugo Sperrle, German field marshal (b. 1885).
• 1954 – Hoyt Vandenberg, US Air Force general (b. 1899).
• 1972 – Franz Halder, German general (b. 1884).
• 1972 – Toshitsugu Takamatsu, Japanese martial artist and educator (b. 1887).
• 2008 – Yakup Satar, Turkish World War I veteran (b. 1898).
• 2016 – Robert Abajyan, Armenian Army sergeant (b. 1996).