Events

• 1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: A naval battle between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany ends with the French vessel running aground, resulting in over 900 deaths.
• 1815 – War of 1812: British troops capture Fort Peter in St. Marys, Georgia, the only battle of the war to take place in the state.
• 1833 – United States President Andrew Jackson writes to Vice President Martin Van Buren expressing his opposition to South Carolina’s defiance of federal authority in the Nullification Crisis.
• 1842 – Dr. William Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British East India Company Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole survivor of an army of 4,500 men and 12,000 camp followers when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
• 1847 – The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican-American War in California.
• 1849 – Establishment of the Colony of Vancouver Island.
• 1849 – Second Anglo-Sikh War: Battle of Chillianwala: British forces retreat from the Sikhs.
• 1893 – US Marines land in Honolulu, Hawaii from the USS Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution.
• 1895 – First Italo-Ethiopian War: The war’s opening battle, the Battle of Coatit, occurs; it is an Italian victory.
• 1898 – Émile Zola’s J’accuse…! exposes the Dreyfus affair.
• 1900 – To combat Czech nationalism, Emperor Franz Joseph decrees German will be language of the Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces.
• 1935 – A plebiscite in Saarland shows that 90.3% of those voting wish to join Nazi Germany.
• 1942 – World War II: First use of an aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter.
• 1950 – British submarine HMS Truculent collides with an oil tanker in the Thames Estuary, killing 64 men.
• 1951 – First Indochina War: The Battle of Vĩnh Yên begins.
• 1958 – The Moroccan Army of Liberation ambushes a Spanish patrol in the Battle of Edchera.
• 1963 – Coup d’état in Togo results in the assassination of president Sylvanus Olympio.
• 1972 – Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia and President Edward Akufo-Addo of Ghana are ousted in a bloodless military coup by Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong.
• 1991 – Soviet Union troops attack Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius, killing 14 people and wounding around 1,000 others.
• 1993 – The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is signed.
• 1993 – Operation Southern Watch: US Air Force, US Navy, RAF and French Air Force jets attack AAA and SAM sites in Southern Iraq.
• 2018 – A false emergency alert warning of an impending missile strike in Hawaii causes widespread panic in the state.

People (Births)

• 1651 – Henry Booth, 1st Earl of Warrington, English soldier and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (d. 1694).
• 1883 – Nathaniel Cartmell, American runner and coach (d. 1967).
• 1893 – Charles Arnison, English lieutenant, military pilot, and flying ace (d. 1974).
• 1905 – Jack London, English sprinter and pianist (d. 1966).
• 1923 – Willem Slijkhuis, Dutch runner (d. 2003).
• 1938 – Dave Edwards, US naval captain and politician (d. 2013).
• 1949 – Rakesh Sharma, Indian commander, pilot, and astronaut.
• 1970 – Marco Pantani, Italian cyclist (d. 2004).
• 1978 – Mohit Sharma, Indian Army Officer (d. 2009).
• 1984 – Kamghe Gaba, German sprinter.
• 1987 – Daniel Oss, Italian cyclist.
• 1997 – Egan Bernal, Colombian cyclist, winner of the 2019 Tour de France.

People (Deaths)

• 86 BC – Gaius Marius, Roman general and politician (b. 157 BC), refer to Marian Reforms.
• 1147 – Robert de Craon, Grand Master of the Knights Templar.
• 1790 – Luc Urbain de Bouëxic, French admiral (b. 1712).
• 1882 – Wilhelm Mauser, German engineer and businessman, co-founded the Mauser Company (b. 1834).
• 1916 – Victoriano Huerta, Mexican military officer and president, 1913-1914 (b. 1850).
• 2014 – Waldemar von Gazen, German general and lawyer (b. 1917).