Events

• 1240 – Mongol invasion of Rus’: Kyiv under Daniel of Galicia and Voivode Dmytro falls to the Mongols under Batu Khan.
• 1492 – After exploring island of Cuba for gold, surmising it for Japan, Columbus lands on island similar to Castile, naming it Hispaniola.
• 1534 – The city of Quito in Ecuador is founded by Spanish settlers led by Sebastián de Belalcázar.
• 1648 – Colonel Thomas Pride of the New Model Army purges the Long Parliament of MPs sympathetic to King Charles I of England, in order for the King’s trial to go ahead; came to be known as “Pride’s Purge”.
• 1704 – Battle of Chamkaur: During the Mughal-Sikh Wars, an outnumbered Sikh Khalsa defeats a Mughal army.
• 1745 – Charles Edward Stuart’s army begins retreat during the second Jacobite Rising.
• 1803 – Five French warships attempting to escape the Royal Naval blockade of Saint-Domingue are all seized by British warships, signifying the end of the Haitian Revolution.
• 1884 – The Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate George Washington, is completed.
• 1904 – Theodore Roosevelt articulated his “Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine, stating that the US would intervene in the Western Hemisphere should Latin American governments prove incapable or unstable.
• 1916 – World War I: The Central Powers capture Bucharest.
• 1917 – Finland declares independence from the Russian Empire.
  • Independence Day.
• 1917 – Halifax Explosion: A munitions explosion near Halifax, Nova Scotia kills more than 1,900 people in the largest artificial explosion up to that time.
• 1917 – World War I: USS Jacob Jones is the first American destroyer to be sunk by enemy action when it is torpedoed by German submarine SM U-53.
• 1921 – The Anglo-Irish Treaty is signed in London by British and Irish representatives.
• 1922 – One year to the day after the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the Irish Free State comes into existence.
• 1928 – The government of Colombia sends military forces to suppress a month-long strike by United Fruit Company workers, resulting in an unknown number of deaths.
• 1941 – World War II: Camp X opens in Canada to begin training Allied secret agents for the war.
• 1971 – Pakistan severs diplomatic relations with India, initiating the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.
• 1975 – The Troubles: Fleeing from the police, a Provisional IRA unit takes a British couple hostage in their flat on Balcombe Street, London, beginning a six-day siege.
• 1977 – South Africa grants independence to Bophuthatswana, although it is not recognised by any other country.
• 1982 – The Troubles: The Irish National Liberation Army bombs a pub frequented by British soldiers in Ballykelly, Northern Ireland, killing eleven soldiers and six civilians.
• 1990 – A military jet of the Italian Air Force, abandoned by its pilot after an on-board fire, crashed into a high school near Bologna, Italy, killing 12 students and injuring 88 other people.
• 1991 – Yugoslav Wars: In Croatia, forces of the Serb-dominated Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) heaviest bombardment of Dubrovnik during a siege of seven months.
• 2005 – An Iranian Air Force C-130 military transport aircraft crashes into a ten-floor apartment building in a residential area of Tehran, killing all 94 on board and 12 more on the ground.
• Armed Forces Day (Ukraine).

People (Births)

• 1608 – George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (d. 1670).
• 1833 – John S. Mosby, American colonel (d. 1916).
• 1841 – Frédéric Bazille, French painter and soldier (d. 1870).
• 1849 – August von Mackensen, German field marshal (d. 1945).
• 1875 – Albert Bond Lambert, American golfer and military pilot (d. 1946).
• 1886 – Joyce Kilmer, American soldier, author, and poet (d. 1918).
• 1908 – Miklós Szabó, Hungarian runner (d. 2000).
• 1913 – Eleanor Holm, American swimmer and actress (d. 2004).
• 1916 – Yekaterina Budanova, Russian captain and pilot (d. 1943).
• 1917 – Dean Hess, American minister and colonel (d. 2015).
• 1918 – Tauba Biterman, Polish Holocaust survivor (d. 2019).
• 1922 – John Brunt, English captain, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1944).
• 1922 – Benjamin A. Gilman, American soldier and politician (d. 2016).
• 1933 – Donald J. Kutyna, American general.
• 1950 – Guy Drut, French hurdler and politician.
• 1966 – Natascha Badmann, Swiss triathlete.
• 1970 – Jeff Rouse, American swimmer.
• 1974 – Jens Pulver, American mixed martial artist and boxer.
• 1982 – Alberto Contador, Spanish cyclist.
• 1985 – Aristeidis Grigoriadis, Greek swimmer.
• 1991 – Milica Mandić, Serbian taekwondo athlete, two-time Olympic champion.

People (Deaths)

• 762 – Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya, Arab rebel leader (b. 710).
• 1889 – Jefferson Davis, American general and politician, President of the Confederate States of America (b. 1808).
• 1974 – Nikolay Kuznetsov, Soviet naval officer (b. 1904).
• 1997 – Willy den Ouden, Dutch swimmer (b. 1918).
• 2003 – Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio, Guatemalan general and politician, President of Guatemala (b. 1918).
• 2005 – Charly Gaul, Luxembourger cyclist (b. 1932).
• 2005 – William P. Yarborough, American general (b. 1912).
• 2015 – Liu Juying, Chinese general and politician (b. 1917).