Events

• 561 – Following the death of King Chlothar I at Compiègne, his four sons, Charibert I, Guntram, Sigebert I and Chilperic I, divide the Frankish Kingdom.
• 618 – The Tang dynasty scores a decisive victory over their rival Xue Rengao at the Battle of Qianshuiyuan.
• 903 – The Abbasid army under Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Katib defeats the Qarmatians at the Battle of Hama.
• 1612 – The Battle of Swally takes place, which loosens the Portuguese Empire’s hold on India.
• 1776 – During the American Revolutionary War, the Battle of Fort Cumberland, Nova Scotia, comes to an end with the arrival of British reinforcements.
• 1807 – John VI of Portugal flees Lisbon from advancing Napoleonic forces during the Peninsular War, transferring the Portuguese court to Brazil (refer to Napoleonic Wars).
• 1830 – An armed rebellion against Russia’s rule in Poland begins.
• 1847 – The Sonderbund is defeated by the joint forces of other Swiss cantons under General Guillaume-Henri Dufour.
• 1847 – Missionaries Dr. Marcus Whitman, his wife Narcissa, and 15 others are killed by Cayuse and Umatilla Indians, causing the Cayuse War.
• 1850 – The treaty, Punctation of Olmütz, is signed in Olomouc. Prussia capitulates to Austria, which will take over the leadership of the German Confederation.
• 1863 – Union forces under Ambrose Burnside successfully defend Knoxville, Tennessee from Confederate forces under James Longstreet in the Battle of Fort Sanders of the American Civil War.
• 1864 – Colorado volunteers led by Colonel John Chivington massacre at least 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho noncombatants inside Colorado Territory.
• 1864 – The Confederate Army of Tennessee misses an opportunity to crush the Army of the Ohio in the Battle of Spring Hill.
• 1872 – The Modoc War begins with the Battle of Lost River.
• 1890 – The Meiji Constitution goes into effect in Japan, and the first Diet convenes.
• 1929 – US Admiral Richard E. Byrd leads the first expedition to fly over the South Pole.
• 1943 – The second session of the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ), held to determine the post-war ordering of the country, concludes in Jajce (present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina).
• 1944 – Albania is liberated by the Partisans.
• 1945 – The Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia is declared.
• 1947 – The United Nations General Assembly approves a plan for the partition of Palestine.
• 1947 – French forces carry out a massacre at Mỹ Trạch, Vietnam during the First Indochina War.
• 1952 – Korean War: US President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower fulfils a campaign promise by travelling to Korea to find out what can be done to end the conflict.
• 1967 – US Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara announces his resignation.
• 1986 – The Surinamese military attacks the village of Moiwana during the Suriname Guerrilla War, killing at least 39 civilians, mostly women and children.
• 2007 – The Armed Forces of the Philippines lay siege to the Peninsula Manila after soldiers led by Senator Antonio Trillanes stage a mutiny.
• Liberation Day or Dita e Çlirimit (Albania).

People (Births)

• 1831 – Frederick Townsend Ward, American sailor and soldier (d. 1862).
• 1881 – Artur Phleps, Romanian-German general (d. 1944).
• 1900 – Mildred Gillars, American broadcaster, employed by Nazi Germany to disseminate propaganda during WWII (d. 1988).
• 1919 – Joe Weider, Canadian-American bodybuilder and publisher, co-founded the IFBB (d. 2013).
• 1928 – Paul Simon, American soldier and politician, 39th Lieutenant Governor of Illinois (d. 2003).
• 1929 – Woo Yong-gak, North Korean soldier (d. 2012).
• 1932 – Jacques Chirac, French soldier and politician, 22nd President of France (d. 2019).
• 1971 – Steve May, American soldier and politician.
• 1991 – Becky James, Welsh cyclist.

People (Deaths)

• 1330 – Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, English soldier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (b. 1287).
• 1342 – Michael of Cesena, Italian general, priest, and theologian (b. 1270).
• 1594 – Alonso de Ercilla, Spanish soldier and poet (b. 1533).
• 1626 – Ernst von Mansfeld, German commander (b. 1580).
• 1628 – John Felton, English soldier and assassin of the Duke of Buckingham (b. c. 1595).
• 1699 – Patrick Gordon, Scottish-Russian general (b. 1635).
• 1894 – Juan N. Méndez, Mexican general and interim president, 1876-1877 (b. 1820).
• 1941 – Frank Waller, American sprinter and hurdler (b. 1884).
• 1942 – Boyd Wagner, American colonel and pilot (b. 1916).
• 1942 – Ron Middleton, Australian bomber pilot and Victoria Cross Recipient (b. 1916).
• 1967 – Ferenc Münnich, Hungarian soldier and politician, 47th Prime Minister of Hungary (b. 1886).
• 1970 – Robert T. Frederick, American general (b. 1907).
• 1974 – Peng Dehuai, Chinese Communist military leader (b. 1898).
• 1982 – Percy Williams, Canadian sprinter (b. 1908).
• 2013 – Colin Eglin, South African soldier and politician (b. 1925).
• 2014 – Dwayne Alons, American general and politician (b. 1946).
• 2017 – Slobodan Praljak, Croatian general (b. 1945).