Events

• 217 BC – Battle of Raphia: Ptolemy IV Philopator of Egypt defeats Antiochus III the Great of the Seleucid kingdom.
• 168 BC – Battle of Pydna: Romans under Lucius Aemilius Paullus defeat Macedonian King Perseus who surrenders after the battle, ending the Third Macedonian War.
• 813 – Battle of Versinikia: The Bulgars led by Krum defeat the Byzantine army near Edirne. Emperor Michael I is forced to abdicate in favour of Leo V the Armenian.
• 910 – The Hungarians defeat the East Frankish army near the Rednitz River, killing its leader Gebhard, Duke of Lotharingia (Lorraine).
• 1527 – Fatahillah expels Portuguese forces from Sunda Kelapa, now regarded as the foundation of Jakarta.
• 1593 – Battle of Sisak: Allied Christian troops defeat the Ottomans.
• 1807 – In the Chesapeake-Leopard affair, the British warship HMS Leopard attacks and boards the American frigate USS Chesapeake.
• 1813 – War of 1812: After learning of American plans for a surprise attack on Beaver Dams in Ontario, Laura Secord sets out on a 30 kilometer journey on foot to warn Lieutenant James FitzGibbon.
• 1839 – Cherokee leaders Major Ridge, John Ridge, and Elias Boudinot are assassinated for signing the Treaty of New Echota, which had resulted in the Trail of Tears.
• 1893 – The Royal Navy battleship HMS Camperdown accidentally rams the British Mediterranean Fleet flagship HMS Victoria which sinks taking 358 crew with her, including the fleet’s commander, Vice Admiral Sir George Tryon.
• 1897 – British colonial officers Charles Walter Rand and Lieutenant Charles Egerton Ayerst are assassinated in Pune, Maharashtra, India by the Chapekar brothers and Mahadeo Vinayak Ranade, who are later caught and hanged.
• 1898 – Spanish-American War: In a chaotic operation, 6,000 men of the US Fifth Army Corps begins landing at Daiquirí, Cuba, about 16 miles (26 km) east of Santiago de Cuba.
  • Lieutenant General Arsenio Linares y Pombo of the Spanish Army outnumbers them two-to-one, but does not oppose the landings.
• 1911 – Mexican Revolution: Government forces bring an end to the Magonista rebellion of 1911 in the Second Battle of Tijuana.
• 1940 – World War II: France is forced to sign the Second Compiègne armistice with Germany, in the same railroad car in which the Germans signed the Armistice in 1918.
• 1941 – World War II: Nazi Germany invades the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa.
• 1942 – World War II: Erwin Rommel is promoted to Field Marshal after the Axis capture of Tobruk.
• 1944 – World War II: Opening day of the Soviet Union’s Operation Bagration against the Army Group Centre.
• 1944 – US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs into law the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill.
• 1945 – World War II: The Battle of Okinawa comes to an end.
• 1965 – The Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea is signed.
• 1966 – Vietnamese Buddhist activist leader Thích Trí Quang was arrested as the military junta of Nguyen Cao Ky crushed the Buddhist Uprising.
• 1978 – Charon, the first of Pluto’s satellites to be discovered, was first seen at the United States Naval Observatory by James W. Christy.
• 1990 – Cold War: Checkpoint Charlie is dismantled in Berlin.
• 2012 – A Turkish Air Force McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II fighter plane is shot down by the Syrian Armed Forces, killing both of the plane’s pilots and worsening already-strained relations between Turkey and Syria.
• Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Great Patriotic War (Belarus).

People (Births)

• 1593 – Sir John Gell, 1st Baronet, English politician and Parliamentarian commander during the First English Civil War (d. 1671).
• 1757 – George Vancouver, English lieutenant and explorer (d. 1798).
• 1845 – Tom Dula, American soldier (d. 1868).
• 1861 – Maximilian von Spee, Danish-German admiral (d. 1914).
• 1880 – Johannes Drost, Dutch swimmer (d. 1954).
• 1884 – James Rector, American sprinter and lawyer (d. 1949).
• 1890 – Aleksander Warma, Estonian commander and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Estonia in exile (d. 1970).
• 1892 – Robert Ritter von Greim, German general and pilot (d. 1945).
• 1896 – Leonard W. Murray, Canadian admiral (d. 1971).
• 1898 – Erich Maria Remarque, German-Swiss soldier and author (d. 1970).
• 1899 – Richard Gurley Drew, American engineer, invented Masking tape (d. 1980).
• 1901 – Elias Katz, Finnish runner and coach (d. 1947).
• 1910 – John Hunt, Baron Hunt, Indian-English lieutenant and mountaineer (d. 1998).
• 1930 – Yuri Artyukhin, Russian colonel, engineer, and astronaut (d. 1998).
• 1947 – Jerry Rawlings, Ghanaian lieutenant and politician, President of Ghana (d. 2020).
• 1951 – Brian Cookson, British cyclist and sports administrator.
• 1956 – Alfons De Wolf, Belgian cyclist.
• 1960 – Margrit Klinger, German runner.
• 1966 – Dean Woods, Australian cyclist.
• 1979 – Thomas Voeckler, French cyclist.
• 1983 – Allar Raja, Estonian rower.

People (Deaths)

• 1017 – Leo Passianos, Byzantine general.
• 1634 – Johann von Aldringen, Austrian field marshal (b. 1588).
• 1872 – Rudecindo Alvarado, Argentinian general (b. 1792).
• 1905 – Francis Lubbock, American colonel and politician, 9th Governor of Texas (b. 1815).
• 1933 – Tim Birkin, English racing driver and lieutenant (b. 1896).
• 1945 – Isamu Chō, Japanese general (b. 1895).
• 1945 – Mitsuru Ushijima, Japanese general (b. 1887).
• 1966 – Thaddeus Shideler, American hurdler (b. 1883).
• 2003 – Vasil Bykaŭ, Belarusian war novelist (b. 1924).