Events

• 69 – The Roman legions on the Rhine refuse to declare their allegiance to Galba, instead proclaiming their legate, Aulus Vitellius, as emperor.
• 1777 – American War of Independence: American General George Washington defeats British General Lord Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton.
• 1815 – Austria, the United Kingdom, and France form a secret defensive alliance against Prussia and Russia.
• 1833 – Captain James Onslow, in the Clio, reasserts British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.
• 1861 – American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the United States.
• 1868 – Meiji Restoration in Japan: The Tokugawa shogunate is abolished; agents of Satsuma and Chōshū seize power.
• 1871 – In the Battle of Bapaume, an engagement in the Franco-Prussian War, General Louis Faidherbe’s forces bring about a Prussian retreat.
• 1885 – Sino-French War: Beginning of the Battle of Núi Bop.
• 1911 – A gun battle in the East End of London leaves two dead.
  • It sparked a political row over the involvement of then-Home Secretary Winston Churchill.
• 1944 – World War II: US flying ace Major Greg “Pappy” Boyington is shot down in his Vought F4U Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Mitsubishi A6M Zero.
• 1958 – The West Indies Federation is formed.
• 1961 – A protest by agricultural workers in Baixa de Cassanje, Portuguese Angola, turns into a revolt, opening the Angolan War of Independence, the first of the Portuguese Colonial Wars.
• 1990 – United States invasion of Panama: Manuel Noriega, former leader of Panama, surrenders to American forces.
• 1993 – In Moscow, Russia, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
• 2002 – Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Israeli forces seize the Palestinian freighter Karine A in the Red Sea, finding 50 tons of weapons.
• 2015 – Boko Haram militants destroy the entire town of Baga in north-east Nigeria, starting the Baga massacre and killing as many as 2,000 people.
• 2020 – Iranian General Qasem Soleimani is killed by an American airstrike near Baghdad International Airport, igniting global concerns of a potential armed conflict.
• Anniversary of the 1966 Coup d’état (Burkina Faso).

People (Births)

• 1710 – Richard Gridley, American soldier and engineer (d. 1796).
• 1731 – Angelo Emo, Venetian admiral and statesman (d. 1792).
• 1836 – Sakamoto Ryōma, Japanese samurai and rebel leader (d. 1867).
• 1862 – Matthew Nathan, English soldier and politician, 13th Governor of Queensland (d. 1939).
• 1883 – Clement Attlee, English soldier, lawyer, and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1967).
• 1912 – Federico Borrell García, Spanish soldier (d. 1936).
• 1915 – Jack Levine, American painter and soldier (d. 2010).
• 1974 – Alessandro Petacchi, Italian cyclist.
• 1980 – Bryan Clay, American decathlete.
• 1980 – Mary Wineberg, American sprinter.
• 1986 – Dana Hussain, Iraqi sprinter.

People (Deaths)

• 1543 – Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, Portuguese explorer and navigator (b. 1499).
• 1670 – George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (b. 1608).
• 1777 – William Leslie, Scottish captain (b. 1751).
• 1826 – Louis-Gabriel Suchet, French general (b. 1770).
• 1916 – Grenville M. Dodge, American general and politician (b. 1831).
• 1931 – Joseph Joffre, French general (b. 1852).
• 1958 – Cafer Tayyar Eğilmez, Turkish general (b. 1877).
• 1975 – James McCormack, American general (b. 1910).
• 2013 – Alfie Fripp, English soldier and pilot (b. 1913).
• 2013 – William Maxson, American general (b. 1930).
• 2016 – Igor Sergun, Russian general and diplomat (b. 1957).
• 2020 – Qasem Soleimani, Iranian major general, commander of the Iranian Quds Force (b. 1957).