Events

• 838 – Battle of Anzen: The Byzantine emperor Theophilos suffers a heavy defeat by the Abbasids.
• 1099 – First Crusade: Godfrey of Bouillon is elected the first Defender of the Holy Sepulchre of The Kingdom of Jerusalem.
• 1209 – Massacre at Béziers: The first major military action of the Albigensian Crusade.
• 1298 – Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Falkirk: King Edward I of England and his longbowmen defeat William Wallace and his Scottish schiltrons outside the town of Falkirk.
• 1443 – Battle of St. Jakob an der Sihl in the Old Zürich War.
• 1456 – Ottoman wars in Europe: Siege of Belgrade: John Hunyadi, Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary, defeats Mehmet II of the Ottoman Empire.
• 1484 – Battle of Lochmaben Fair: A 500-man raiding party led by Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany and James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas are defeated by Scots forces loyal to Albany’s brother James III of Scotland; Douglas is captured.
• 1499 – Battle of Dornach: The Swiss decisively defeat the army of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.
• 1587 – Roanoke Colony: A second group of English settlers arrives on Roanoke Island off North Carolina to re-establish the deserted colony.
• 1594 – The Dutch city of Groningen defended by the Spanish and besieged by a Dutch and English army under Maurice of Orange, capitulates.
• 1706 – The Acts of Union 1707 are agreed upon by commissioners from the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, which, when passed by each country’s Parliament, led to the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain.
• 1796 – Surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company name an area in Ohio “Cleveland” after General Moses Cleaveland, the superintendent of the surveying party.
• 1797 – Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Battle between Spanish and British naval forces during the French Revolutionary Wars.
  • During the Battle, Rear-Admiral Nelson is wounded in the arm and the arm had to be partially amputated.
• 1802 – Emperor Gia Long conquers Hanoi and unified Viet Nam, which had experienced centuries of feudal warfare.
• 1805 – Napoleonic Wars: War of the Third Coalition: Battle of Cape Finisterre: An inconclusive naval action is fought between a combined French and Spanish fleet under Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve of Spain and a British fleet under Admiral Robert Calder.
• 1812 – Napoleonic Wars: Peninsular War: Battle of Salamanca: British forces led by Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) defeat French troops near Salamanca, Spain.
• 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Atlanta: Outside Atlanta, Confederate General John Bell Hood leads an unsuccessful attack on Union troops under General William T. Sherman on Bald Hill.
• 1916 – Preparedness Day Bombing: In San Francisco, a bomb explodes on Market Street during a parade, killing ten and injuring 40.
• 1921 – Rif War: The Spanish Army suffers its worst military defeat in modern times to the Berbers of the Rif region of Spanish Morocco.
• 1936 – Spanish Civil War: The Popular Executive Committee of Valencia takes power in the Valencian Community.
• 1942 – World War II: The United States government begins compulsory civilian gasoline rationing due to the wartime demands.
• 1942 – World War II: Grossaktion Warsaw: The systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto begins.
• 1943 – World War II: Allied forces capture Palermo during the Allied invasion of Sicily.
• 1943 – World War II: Axis occupation forces violently disperse a massive protest in Athens, killing 22.
• 1944 – World War II: The Polish Committee of National Liberation publishes its manifesto, starting the period of Communist rule in Poland.
• 1946 – King David Hotel bombing: A Zionist underground organisation, the Irgun, bombs the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, site of the civil administration and military headquarters for Mandatory Palestine, resulting in 91 deaths.
• 1963 – Crown Colony of Sarawak gains self-governance.
• 1976 – Japan completes its last reparation to the Philippines for war crimes committed during imperial Japan’s conquest of the country in the Second World War.
• 1983 – Martial law in Poland is officially revoked.
• 1993 – Great Flood of 1993: Levees near Kaskaskia, Illinois rupture, forcing the entire town to evacuate by barges operated by the Army Corps of Engineers.
• 2003 – Members of 101st Airborne of the United States, aided by Special Forces, attack a compound in Iraq, killing Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusay, along with Mustapha Hussein, Qusay’s 14-year-old son, and a bodyguard.
• 2012 – Syrian civil war: The People’s Protection Units (YPG) captured the cities of Serê Kaniyê and Dirbêsiyê, during clashes with pro-government forces in Al-Hasakah.
• Revolution Day (The Gambia).
• Sarawak Independence Day (Sarawak, Malaysia).

People (Births)

• 1923 – Bob Dole, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (d. 2021).
• 1949 – Lasse Virén, Finnish runner and police officer.
• 1983 – Dries Devenyns, Belgian cyclist.
• 1985 – Jessica Abbott, Australian swimmer.

People (Deaths)

• 1298 – Sir John de Graham, Scottish soldier at the Battle of Falkirk.
• 1824 – Thomas Macnamara Russell, English admiral.
• 1864 – James B. McPherson, American general (b. 1828).
• 1915 – Sandford Fleming, Scottish-Canadian engineer and inventor, developed Standard time (b. 1827).
• 1918 – Indra Lal Roy, Indian lieutenant and first Indian fighter aircraft pilot (b. 1898).
• 1958 – Mikhail Zoshchenko, Ukrainian-Russian soldier and author (b. 1895).
• 2014 – Johann Breyer, German SS officer (b. 1925).