The Strategypage is a comprehensive summary of military news and affairs.
 News As History - October 13, 2008



April Military History

Today | January | February | March | April | May | June
July | August | September | October | November | December

Born
1 1283 Ludwig IV of Bavaria, Holy Roman Emperor (1314-47)
  1815 Otto Von Bismarck
  1823 Simon Bolivar Buckner, Lt Gen, C.S.A., d. 1914
  1918 The RAF, created from the Royal Flying Corps & Royal Navy Air Service
  1920 Toshiro Mifune, IJAAF, actor (“Midway”), d. 1997
  1922 William Manchester, Marine, historian ("Goodbye Darkness")
2 323 BC King Alexander IV of Macedon (323-309, son of Alexander the Great
  742 Charlemagne, King of the Franks, Holy Roman Emperor, d. 814
  1725 Giacomo Casanova, who somehow found time to soldier
  1826 Philip Dale Roddey, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1897
  1833 Thomas Howard Ruger, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1907
  1914 Alec Guinness, actor ("Lawrence of Arabia," "Bridge on the River Kwai")
  1920 Jack Webb, actor ("The DI")
  1925 George MacDonald Fraser, soldier, author ("Flashman"), d 2008
3 963 Duke William III of Aquitaine (935-963), b. 915.
  1245 Philip III "the Stout" King of France (1270-1285)
  1367 King Henry IV Bolingbroke of England (1399-1413)
  1783 Washington Irving, historian (“The Conquest of Granada”)
  1798 Charles D Wilkes, explorer, naval officer, U.S, d. 1877
  1822 Edward Everett Hale, author (“The Man Without a Country”)
  1842 Ulric Dahlgren, Col., U.S., kia, 1864
  1866 James Herzog, Boer general
  1893 Leslie Howard, soldier, actor (“The Scarlet Pimpernel”), k. 1943
  1917 Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema, “A Soldier of Orange”; d. 2007
  1926 Virgil Grissom, USAF astronaut (Mercury 4, Gemini 3)
  1955 Aleksander Nikolayevich Yablontsev, cosmonaut
4 186 Roman Emperor Caracalla (211-217), at Lugdunum
  1814 John Blair Smith Todd, Brig Gen. U.S., d. 1872
  1817 John Wilson Sprague, Brig Gen., U.S., d. 1893
  1820 Charles Devens Jr, Brig Gen., U.S., d. 1891
  1823 Robert Byington Mitchell, Brig Gen, U.S.
  1831 Edward Cary Walthall, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1898
  1884 Isoroku Takano, later Yamamoto, k. 1943
  1897 Pierre Fresnay, French actor ("The Grand Illusion")
  1943 Ian Robertson, director, Britain's National Army Museum
5 1643 Duke Charles V Leopold of Lorraine, Imperial Field Marshal
  1795 Henry Havelock, British general, inventor of "the Havelock," d. 1857
  1818 Lewis Baldwin Parsons, Brig Gen, U.S.
  1822 James Nagle, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1866
  1825 David Rumph "Neighbor" Jones, Maj Gen, C.S.A.
  1857 Prince Alexander-Jozef von Battenberg of Bulgaria (1879-1886)
  1900 Spencer Tracy, actor ("Thirty Second Over Tokyo")
  1908 Herbert von Karajan, Austrian Nazi, conductor
  1923 Nguyen Van Thieu, South Vietnamese soldier & president (1965-1975)
  1937 Colin Powell, general, national security advisor, secretary of state
6 1498 Giovanni de’Medici – Giovanni degli Bande Nere – condottiero, d/w 1526
  1630 Chatrapati Shivaji Raje Bhonsle, founder of the Maratha Empire, d. 1680
  1828 Charles William Field, Maj Gen, C.S.A., d. 1892
  1890 Anthony Herman Gerard Fokker, Holland, aircraft designer
  1892 Donald Douglas, aircraft designer (DC-3/C-47, etc.)
  1892 Lowell Thomas, war correspondent
7 1756 King Charles Felix of Sardinia (1821-1831)
  1771 Michele "Fra Diavolo" Pezza, at Itri, Naples, resistance fighter, executed 1806
  1801 Henry Eagle, naval officer, U.S., d. 1882
  1822 Gershom Mott, Maj Gen, U.S.
  1882 Kurt von Schleicher, German chancellor (12/2/32-1/28/33)
  1893 Allan W Dulles, OSS, CIA
8 1460 Ponce de Leon, conquistador and explorer
  1605 King Philip IV of Spain (1621-65)& Portugal (1621-40)
  1726 Lewis Morris, Signer of the Declaration of Independence
  1731 William Williams, Signer of the Declaration of Independence
  1818 King Christian IX of Denmark (1863-1906)
  1828 George Baird Hodge, Brig Gen, C.S.A.
  1832 Count Alfred von Waldersee, Prussian field marshal
  1875 Albert I of Saxe-Coburg, King of Belgium (1909-34)
  1929 Renzo de Felice, historian ("Mussolini"), d. 1996
9 1812 Randolph Barnes Marcy, Brig Gen, U.S.A., d. 1887
  1826 Thomas Hewson Neill, Brig Gen, U.S.A., d. 1885
  1835 King Leopold II of Belgium, Lord of the Congo Free State (1865-1909)
  1865 Erich Ludendorff, German general
  1872 Leon Blum, French Popular Front premier, appeaser
  1898 Paul Robeson, Stalinist stooge, actor, folklorist
  1933 Jean-Paul Belmondo, actor ("Dunkerque")
10 401 Theodosius II the Younger, Roman Emperor (408-450)
  1512 King James I of Scots (1513-42)
  1583 Hugo Grotius, father of international law
  1769 Jean Lannes, Marshal of France, kia 1809
  1783 Hortense de Beauharnais, Napoleon’s step-daughter, Queen of Holland (1806-10), mother of Napoleon III, d. 1837
  1794 Matthew Calbraith Perry, naval officer, who opened Japan
  1806 Leonidas Polk, Episcopal Bishop, inept Lt Gen, C.S.A, KIA 1864
  1823 Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb, Brig Gen, C.S.A.
  1827 Lewis Wallace, Maj Gen, U.S., author ("Ben Hur")
  1833 David McMurtrie Gregg, Brig Gen, U.S.
  1833 James Edward Rains, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1862
11 146 Septimius Severus, Roman Emperor (193-211)
  1370 Elector Frederick I “the Warlike” of Saxony
  1492 Queen Marguerite d'Angouleme of Navarre
  1794 Edward Everett, long-winded orator at Gettysburg
  1837 Col. Ephraim Elmer Ellsworth, New York Fire Zouaves, k 1861
  1902 Quentin Reynolds, war correspondent, historian ("Custer's Last Stand")
  1919 Hugh Carey, National Guardsman, N.Y. governor
  1942 Anatoli Berezovoi, cosmonaut (Soyuz T-5)
12 1577 King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway
  1579 Francois de Bassompierre, Marshal of France
  1724 Lyman Hall, Signer of the Declaration of Independence
  1793 Ferdinand I, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary
  1831 George Burgwyn Anderson, Brig Gen, C.S.A.
  1831 Grenville Mellen Dodge, Brig. Gen, U.S.
  1871 Ioannis Metaxas, Greek general, dictator (1936-1941)
  1907 Felix de Weldon, sculptor (“The Marine Corps Memorial”), d. 2003
  1937 Igor Petrovich Volk, Russia, cosmonaut
13 1570 Guy Fawkes, the only man who went into Parliament knowing exactly what he wanted to do, executed 1606
  1732 Frederick, Lord North, inept British Prime Minister (1770-82)
  1743 Thomas Jefferson, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, d. 1826
  1822 Leroy Augustus Stafford, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1864
  1822 William Stephen Walker, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1899
  1907 Harold Stassen, naval officer, perennial presidential candidate, d. 2001
  1923 Donald James Yarmy, Guadalcanal marine, actor (Don Adams of “Get Smart”), d. 2005
14 1578 King Philip III of Spain & Portugal (1598-1621)
  1721 Duke William August of Cumberland –“Sweet William” or “Stinking Billy”
  1820 Harry Thompson Hays, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1876
  1832 James Hewett Ledlie, incompetent Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1882
  1907 Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, dictator of Haiti, d. 1971
  1912 Bela Kiraly, Hungarian patriot, soldier, scholar
  1925 Rod Steiger, actor ("Waterloo," “Lion of the Desert”), d. 2002
15 1452 Leonardo from Vinci, sometime military engineer
  1646 King Christian V of Denmark and Norway
  1684 Empress Catherine I of Russia (1725-27)
  1820 Evander McNair, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1902
  1822 Napoleon Jackson Tecumseh Dana, Maj Gen, U.S.
  1837 Horace Porter, Bvt Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1921
  1951 Marsha S Ivins, astronaut (STS 32, 46, SK:66)
  1956 Gregory J Harbaugh, astronaut (STS 39, 54)
16 1652 Lorenzo Corsini – Pope Clement XII (1730-40)
  1816 Edward "Allegheny" Johnson, Maj Gen, C.S.A.,
  1823 Orlando Bolivar Wilcox, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1907
  1867 Wilbur Wright, co-inventor of the airplane, 1903.
  1897 John B Glubb "Pasha" of the Arab Legion
  1940 Queen Margrethe II of Denmark (1972-)
17 1573 Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria
  1788 Joseph Gilbert Totten, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1864
  1809 Philip St George Cocke, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1861
  1813 Henry Washington Benham, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1884
  1894 N. S. Khrushchev, War Commissar (1941-1945), Dictator (1953-64)
  1915 Anthony Quinn, actor (“Back to Bataan”)
  1918 William Holden, actor ("Stalag 17", "Bridge Over River Kwai")
  1958 Sergei Y Vozovikov, cosmonaut
18 359 Flavius Gratianus, Roman Emperor (367-383)
  1480 Lucrezia Borgia, a much maligned woman, d. 1519
  1521 Francois de Coligny, French general
  1590 Sultan Ahmed I (1603-17)
  1797 Louis-Adolphe Thiers, military historian, statesman
  1820 Mariano Melgarejo, Dictator of Bolivia (1865-1870), k. 1871
  1864 Richard Harding Davis, intrepid war correspondent, d. 1916
19 1320 King Pedro I of Portugal (1357-67)
  1757 Edward Pellew, Viscount Exmouth, sea dog
  1821 Mortimer Dormer Leggett, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1896
  1883 Getulio Vargas, general, dictator/president of Brazil (1930-45, 1951-54)
20 1808 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte – Napoleon III, d. 1873
  1809 John Smith Preston, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1881
  1824 Alfred Holt Colquitt, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1894
  1827 John Gibbon, Maj Gen, U.S., who held "The Angle," d. 1896
  1839 King Carol I of Romania (1881-1914)
  1889 Adolph Hitler, Frontsoldat (1914-1918)
21 1713 Louis Duke de Noailles, Marshal of France
  1729 Empress Catharine II the Great of Russia (1762-96)
  1803 Levin Minn Powell, naval officer, U.S., d. 1885
  1816 Louis Trezevant Wigfall, Brig Gen, C. S.A., d. 1874
  1834 William Rufus Terrill, Brig Gen, U.S., KIA 1862
  1926 Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, Queen of the United Kingdom (1952-)
  1962 Sergei Viktorovich Zalyotin, cosmonaut
22 1357 King Jao I of Portugal (1383-1433)
  1451 Queen Isabella I of Castilla-Leon (1479-1504), patron of Columbus
  1515 Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendome, King of Navarre
  1610 Pietro Ottoboni - Pope Alexander VIII (1689-91)
  1818 Cadwallader Colden Washburn, Maj Gen, U.S.,
  1823 Alfred Gibbs, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1868
  1827 William Hopkins Morris, Maj Gen, U.S.. d. 1900
  1831 Alexander McDowell McCook, Maj Gen, U.S., of the "Fighting McCooks"
  1866 Hans von Seeckt, German military reformer
  1870 Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov Lenin, intellectual mass murderer
  1882 Gen. Holland "Howling Mad" Smith, USMC
  1904 J. Robert Oppenheimer, physicist, head of Manhattan Project
  1952 Tamara Sergeyevna Zakharova, cosmonaut
23 1547 Miguel de Cervantes, marine, "Glory of Spanish Literature" (see Deaths) [NS]
  1564 The Bard [OS]
  1598 Maarten Tromp, Dutch admiral, kia, 1653
  1697 George Baron Anson, British admiral
  1775 Joseph Mallord Turner, English artist ("The Fighting Temeraire")
  1791 James Buchanan, volunteer, War of 1812, president, 1857-1861
  1828 King Albert of Saxony (1873-1902)
  1861 Field Marshal Viscount Allenby of Megiddo
  1891 Sergey Prokofiev, composer (“Leningrad Suite”)
  1897 Lucius D. Clay, military governor of West Germany, d. 1978
24 1194 Ezzelino III da Romano, “cruel tyrant,” Ghibelline, d. 1259
  1769 Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington
  1804 Thomas Oliver Selfridge, naval officer, U.S.
  1807 Charles Ferguson Smith, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1862
  1815 James Edward Harrison, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1875
  1822 Erastus Barnard Tyler, Brig Gen, U.S.
  1828 Robert Brank Vance, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1899
  1829 George Peabody Estey, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1881
  1849 Joseph S. Gallieni, Hero of the Marne
  1856 Henri Philippe Petain, Marshal of France, Head of Vichy, d. 1951
  1876 Grand-Adm. Erich Raeder, CinC Kriegmarine (1928-1943), d. 1960
  1882 Hugh Dowding, Air Marshal, Hero of the Battle of Britain, d. 1970
  1903 Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera y Saenz de Heredia, Falangist, murdered, 1936
  1906 William “Lord Haw Haw” Joyce, executed 1946
25 1214 King Louis IX of France (1226-70) - "Saint Louis"
  1228 Holy Roman Emperor Conrad IV (1237-54)
  1284 King Edward II of England (1307-27)
  1599 Oliver Cromwell, "Lord Protector" of England (1653-58), butcher
  1725 Admiral Viscount Augustus Keppel, RN (1726-1786)
  1840 James Dearing, Brig Gen, C.S.A., the last Confederate general KIA, 1865
  1914 Marcos Perez Jimenez, general, dictator of Venezuela
26 121 Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor (161-180)
  1228 King Conrad IV of Germany
  1319 King Jean II the Good of France (1350-64)
  1573 Marie de'Medici, Mrs. Henri IV of France, who taught the French to cook
  1648 King Pedro II of Portugal (1683-1706)
  1718 Esek Hopkins, naval officer, U.S.
  1798 Eugene Delacroix, artist (“The Massacre of Chios”)
  1812 Alfred Krupp, German arms merchant
  1827 Charles Edward Hovey, Brig Gen, U.S.
  1839 Cyrus Hamblin, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1867
  1894 Rudolph Hess, Nazi, suicide in prison, 1987
  1903 Geoffrey Worthington, Air Vice-Marshal, RAF
27 1701 King Charles Emanuel I of Sardinia
  1737 Edward Gibbon, Captain of the Hampshire Grenadiers, historian
  1822 Ulysses S Grant, general, 1861-1869, president 1869-1877
  1835 John Murray Corse, Brig Gen, U.S.
  1942 Valeri Vladimirovich Polyakov, Russian cosmonaut
28 32 Marcus Salvius Otho, Roman Emperor (Jan 15-Apr 16, 69)
  1442 King Edward IV of England (1461-70, 1471-83)
  1592 George Villiers, 1st duke of Buckingham, English admiral
  1758 James Monroe, soldier, president, 1817-25
  1810 Daniel Ullmann, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1892
  1812 Daniel Henry Rucker, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1910
  1815 Andrew Jackson Smith, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1897
  1825 James Winning McMillan, Brig Gen, U.S.,
  1888 Henry Crerar, Canadian general, World War II, d. 1965
  1889 Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral, KIA, the Java Sea, Feb 27, 1942
  1908 Oscar Schindler, one of the Righteous, d. 1974
  1937 Saddam Hussein al-Takriti, Dictator of Iraq (1979-2003), executed 2006
  1943 John O Creighton, USN, astronaut
  1949 Jerome "Jay" Apt, astronaut
29 1815 Abram Duryee, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1890
  1818 Tsar Alexander II of Russia (1855-81)
  1875 Rafael Sabatini, author ("The Sea Hawk", "Captain Blood")
  1901 Emperor Hirohito of Japan (1926-89), amateur biologist, unindicted war criminal
  1932 Alexei A Gubarev, cosmonaut (Soyuz 17, 28)
  1953 Nikolai Nikolayevich Budarin, Russia, cosmonaut
30 1309 King Kasimir III “ the Great” of Poland (1333-70)
  1805 William Kerley Strong, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1867
  1830 Davis Tillson, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1895
  1893 Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi, executed 1946
  1909 Queen Juliana of the Netherlands (1948-80)
  1938 Bugs Bunny, sometime U.S. Marine
  1946 King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden (1973- )

Died
1 1204 Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of France, then England, Crusader
  1205 King Amalric II of Cyprus and Jerusalem
  1405 Tamerlane
  1406 King Robert III of Scots
  1548 King Sigismund I of Poland, at 81
  1870 Patrick Gass, last survivor of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, at 98
  1922 Charles, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary (1916-1918)
  1930 Empress Zawditu of Ethiopia (1916-1930), daughter of the great Menelik
  1946 Noah Beery, actor (“Beau Geste”), at 62
  1947 King George II of Greece, at 56
  1965 Gen. Henry Crerar, Canadian First Army, World War II
  1994 Leon Degrelle, Belgian Nazi, in exile
2 1118 King Baldwin I of Jerusalem
  1416 King Ferdinand I “the Just” of Aragon and Sicily, at 52
  1420 Nicolò Malvizzi, Patrician of Bologna, Papal Notary, assassinated.
  1440 Cardinal Giovanni Vitelleschi, condottiero, murdered
  1502 Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales,at 15; elder brother of the later Henry VIII
  1657 Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, at 48
  1702 Jean Bart, French admiral
  1831 King Charles Felix of Sardinia (1821-31), at 74
  1865 Ambrose P. Hill, Confederate general, KIA at 39
  1945 Maurice Rose, highest ranking US Jewish officer, KIA
  1966 C.S. Forester, novelist (“Horatio Hornblower”), b. 1899
  2005 Pope John Paul II (1978-2005), one of the Righteous, at 84
3 33 Jesus [alernative astronomically-based estimate]
  628 Shah Chosroes II of Persia (579-628), murdered by his son
  1192 Marquis Conrad of Montferrat, King of Jerusalem (1192), assassinated in Tyre
  1203 Prince Arthur, Duke of Brittany, c. 15, nephew of Richard Lionheart, heir to the English throne, probably murdered, by his uncle, King John
  1287 Pope Honorius IV - Giacomo Savelli (1283-1287)
  1680 Chatrapati Shivaji Raje Bhonsle, founder of the Maratha Empire, at c. 50
  1838 Dr. Francesco Antommarchi, Napoleon’s personal physician, 57
  1882 Jesse James, shot by Robert Ford, at 34, St Joseph, Mo
  1946 Lt Gen Masaharu Homma, shot for the Bataan Death March
  1988 Milton A Caniff, US cartoonist ("Steve Canyon"), at 81
  1991 Graham Greene, novelist (“Our Man in Havana”), b. 1904
4 636 St. Isidore of Seville, Patron of the Internet, at Seville
  896 Pope Formosus (891-896)
  1284 King Alfonso X "the Wise" of Castilla-Leon (1252-84), c. 62
  1292 Pope Nicholas IV - Girolamo Masci (1288-1292)
  1406 King Robert III of Scots (1390-1406)
  1588 King Frederick II of Denmark & Norway (1559-88) at 53
  1817 Andre Massena, Marshal of France, noted looter
  1841 Pres Wm Henry Harrison, after 30 days in office, at 68
  1953 King Charles II of Romania (1930-40), at 59
  1979 Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, former Pakistani President, hanged at 51
  2003 Sgt. 1st Class Paul Smith, kia, Bagdhad, earning a Medal of Honor
5 1208 Quetzalcoatl
  1356 Colin Doubel, behaded by King John "the Good" of France
  1356 le Comte de Graville, behaded by King John "the Good" of France
  1356 le Comte de Harcourt, behaded by King John "the Good" of France
  1356 Mabue de Mainemares, behaded by King John "the Good" of France
  1697 King Charles XI King of Sweden (1660-97), at 41
  1794 Georges-Jacques Danton, French revolutionary leader, guillotined
  1964 Douglas MacArthur, “Defender of Australia, Liberator of the Philippines, Conqueror of Japan,” at 84
  1972 Brian Donlevy, actor ("Wake Island"), at 73
  1991 Manley L "Sonny" Carter Jr, US astronaut, in an accident
6 403 King Saul of the Alans, kia, Pollentia
  1199 King Richard I “Lionheart” of England (1189-99), of wounds at 41
  1348 Laura de Noves, Petrarch's beloved, of plague, at c. 40
  1362 Jacques de Bourbon, Count of Marche, kia
  1490 King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary
  1803 Sir William Hamilton, sometime British ambassador at Naples, husband to Lady Hamilton, friend to Nelson
  1975 Chiang Kai-Shek, Chinese Nationalist leader, at 87
  1992 Isaac Asimov, Boys’ High alum, Army veteran, author, at 72
  1994 Pres. Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi (b. 1958) & Pres. Juvénal Habyarimana of Rwanda (b 1937), by bomb in an airplane
  2005 Rainier III Grimaldi, Sovereign Prince of Monaco (1949-2005), Foreign Legionnaire, at 82
7 30 Jesus [Alt]
  924 Emperor Berengarius I of Italy, murdered
  1498 King Charles VIII of France(1483-98), at 27, concussion from banging his head on a stone door lintel
  1779 Miss Reay, mistress to First Lord of the Admiralty the the Earl of Sandwich, shot twice by the Rev. James Hackman, a frustrated suitor, outside Covent Garden Theatre [see Apr 19]
  1789 Sultan Abdul Hamid I of Turkey (1774-89), at 64
  1803 Toussaint L'Ouverture, liberator of Haiti, in a French prison
  1871 Adm Wilhelm Freiherr von Tegetthoff of Austria (Helgoland, Lissa)
8 217 Caracalla, Roman Emperor (211-17), 29, murdered while relieving himself
  1143 Byzantine Emperor John II "the Good" Comnenus (1118-1143), in an accident at 63
  1364 King Jean II “the Good” of France (1350-64), royal chucklehead, at 44, a prisoner of the English
  1492 Lorenzo "il Magnifico" de’ Medici, Lord of Florence (1469-92)
  1595 Henri II d’Orléans, Sovereign Count of Neuchatel, Duke of Longueville & Estouteville, etc., kia, Amiens
  1697 Niels Juel, Danish admiral (Oland, Moen), at 67
  1973 Pablo Picasso, artistic Nazi collaborator, at 91
  1981 Omar Bradley, last US 5-star officer, at 88
9 340 Roman Emperor Constantine II, assassinated
  491 Roman Emperor Zeno
  715 Pope Constantine (708-715)
  1024 Pope Benedict VIII – Theophylact of Tusculum (1012-24), brother of John XIX (1024-1032)
  1483 King Edward IV of England (1461-70 & 71-83), at 38
  1747 Simon Fraser, 12th Baron Lovat, Jacobite, having the honor of being the last man beheaded in England
  1904 Queen Isabella II of Spain (1833-68), at 73
  1917 Edward Thomas, soldier poet, kia at Arras
  1945 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, theologian, anti-Nazi, hanged by Hitler
  1945 Hans Oster, general, anti-Nazi, hanged by Hitler
  1945 Hans von Dohnanyi, politician, anti-Nazi, hanged by Hitler
  1945 Wilhelm Canaris, admiral, intelligence agent, anti-Nazi, hanged by Hitler
  1961 King Zogu of Albania (1925-39), at 65
10 879 King Louis II “the Stutterer” of France (877-79)
  947 Count Hugo of Arles, King of Italy
  1503 Cardinal Giovanni Michiel (nephew of Pope Paul II), poisoned by Cesare Borgia, to net 150,000 ducats
  1533 King Frederick I of Denmark & Norway (1523-33), at 61
  1559 Duke Ercole II d’Este of Ferrara, Modena, & Reggio (1534-59), son of Alfonso I & Lucrezia Borgia, condottiero, at 50
  1585 Pope Gregory XIII - Ugo Buoncampagni (1572-1585)
  1739 Dick Turpin, noted highwayman, hanged in England
  1919 Emiliano Zapata, Mexican revolutionary, b. 1879, murdered in an ambush
  1940 Capt. Bernard Armitage Warburton-Lee, RN, 44, kia earning a VC
11 678 Pope Donus/Dominus (676-78)
  1034 Byzantine Emperor Romanus III Argyrus (1028-34), slain by his wife
  1240 Prince Llywelyn ab Iorwerth “the Great” of Wales (1194-1240)
  1508 Duke Guidobaldo di Montefeltro, condottiero, connoisseur
  1512 Gaston de Foix, Pretender to the throne of Navarra, kia at Ravenna
  1555 Queen Juana "la loca" of Spain (1504-1506), at 75
  1916 Richard Harding Davis, intrepid war correspondent, at 52, while in OCS
12 238 Gordian II (b. 192), kia, followed by his father, Gordian I (b. c. 160), suicide, Carthage, after 21 days as Roman Co-Emperors
  352 Pope St. Julius I (337-352)
  1312 Rizzardo IV, Lord of Treviso, Belluno, & Feltre, d/w
  1550 Claude of Lorraine, Duke of Guise, claimant to the throne of Naples, at 53
  1864 Thomas Green, Brig Gen, C.S.A., Blair's Landing, La; the only Confederate general kia by the USN
  1912 Clara Barton, war nurse, founder of the American Red Cross, at 90
  1945 FDR, cerebral hemorrhage at 63
  1946 August Borms, Flemish collaborator, executed
  1956 Jose Moscardo Ituarte, Defender of the Alcazar of Toldeo
  1975 Josephine Baker, resistance fighter
  1981 Joe "The Brown Bomber" Louis, veteran, at 66
13 1053 Earl Godwine of Wessex
  1203 Duke Arthur I of Brittany, murdered his uncle, King John of England
  1517 Tuman Bey, the last Mamluke Sultan of Egypt, hanged by the Turks
  1638 Duke Henri II of Rohan-Gié, Huguenot leader, at 58
  1759 George Frederick Handel
  1868 Emperor Theodorus of Abyssinia, suicide to avoid capture by the British
14 711 King Childebert III of French, at about 27
  911 Pope Sergius III (904-911)
  1390 Rinaldo Orsini, Count of Tagliacozzo, murdered at L’Aquila
  1390 Giovanni Orsini, his brother, murdered at L’Aquila
  1471 Earl Richard of Warwick, the "Kingmaker"
  1488 Girolamo Riario, Lord of Imola & Forli, condottiero, husband to Caterina Sforza, murdered at 45 in a coup
  1515 Galeazzo I Sforza, Lord of Pesaro (1510-12), Governor of Cremona (1512-15), kia
  1574 Count Hendrik of Nassau-Dillenburg, murdered
  1941 Jack Edmonson, Australian corporal, KIA at Tobruk, earning the V.C.
15 1257 Mamluke Sultan Aybak of Egypt (1250-1257), murdered by order of his wife
  1595 Torquato Tasso, poet, at 51
  1605 Tsar Boris Godunov of Russia (1598-1605)
  1861 Pvt Richard Hough, killed by a premature explosion during a salute to mark the surrender of Ft Sumter
  1865 Abraham Lincoln, hours after being shot
  1980 Jean-Paul Sartre, existentialist Vichyite Nazi-collaborating communist sympathizer, at 74
  2005 Martin Blumenson, soldier, historian (“Cross Channel Attack”), at 86
16 69 Roman Emperor Otho (Jan 15-Apr 16, 69), suicide at 32 after defeat by Vitellius
  1090 Sigelgaita, warrior princess, wife of Robert the Weasel, at c. 50
  1115 Grand Prince Sviatopolk II of Kiev
  1828 Francisco Goya, artist (“The Horrors of War”), b. 1746.
  1978 Lucius D Clay, U.S. military governor or West Germany, at 80
17 43 BC Hirtius, Roman Consul, kia at Modena
  43 BC Pansa, Roman Consul, d/w from Forum Gallorum, 15th
  744 Caliph Walid II of Baghdad, murderd
  859 Pope Benedict III (855-859)
  1355 Doge Marino Falieri of Venice(1354-1355), beheaded by the Serenissima for treason
  1433 Stefano Colonna, Co-Lord of Palestrina, Condottiero, murdered by his nephew Salvatore
  1433 Salvatore Colonna, Co-Lord of Palestrina, lynched by popular uprising, for murdering his Uncle Stefano.
  1605 Pope Leo XI - Alessandro Ottaviano de’Medici (1-17 Apr 1605), at 69
  1616 Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate (to 1868)
  1711 Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I von Habsburg (1705-11), at 32
  1790 Benjamin Franklin, sometime militiaman and military engineer, at 84
  1945 Walter Model, Nazi field marshal, suicide at 54, rather than surrender
  1983 Mark W Clark, U.S. general, at 87
  1987 Dick Shawn, actor ("What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?"), at 63
  1997 Chaim Herzog, President of Israel, 1983-93, at 78
18 680 Caliph Mu'awijja, the first Umayyad, at 81
  1592 Troilo Savelli di Polombara, Lord of Poggio Moiano, Aspra, & Montasola, beheaded in the Sant’Angelo at 18.
  1689 George Jeffreys, British Chief Justice, the ultimate “Hanging Judge”, at c. 40
  1690 Duke Charles V Leopold of Lorraine, Imperial field marshal
  1943 Adm. Yamamoto Isoruku, ambushed in the Solomon Islands.
  1945 Ernie Pyle, war correspondent, KIA at 44, Ie Shima, Okinawa
19 1054 Pope St. Leo IX (1049-1054)- Count Bruno of Egesheim-Dagsburg
  1390 King Robert II of Scotland
  1689 Christina, sometime Queen of Sweden (1644-54)
  1779 The Rev. James Hackman, hanged at Tyburn for the murder of Miss Reay, mistress to First Lord of the Admiralty the Earl of Sandwich, on Apr 7th
  1881 Benjamin Disraeli
  1886 Bishop Narciso Martinez Izquierdo of Madrid, shot by a disgruntled priest
  1943 Alexander Schmorell, German resistance fighter, beheaded
  1943 Kurt Huber, German resistance fighter, beheaded
  1943 Willy Grave, German resistance fighter, beheaded
  1956 Lionel "Buster" Crabb, British diver, drowned mysteriously at 47
  1987 Maxwell D Taylor, commander 101st Airborne Division in WW II, at 85
  1989 Daphne du Maurier, author (“The Birds”), wife to Sir Frederick Browing of the Paras, at 81
20 1164 Anti-Pope “Victor IV” - Ottaviano Montecello (1159-64)
  1314 Pope Clement V – Bertrand de Got (1305-1314), who started the “Babylonian Captivity”
  1534 Eliza Barton, 'the Maid of Kent,' executed
  1836 Prince Johan I Jozef of Liechtenstein, Austrian field marshal, at 75
  1947 King Christian X of Denmark (1912-1947), hero of the Resistance
21 323 BC Alexander the Great, noted drunkard
  323 BC Diogenese the Cynic, noted cynic
  586 King Leovigild of the Visgoths
  753 BC Remus, accidentally slain by his brother Romulus
  1073 Pope Alexander II - Anselmo da Baggio (1061-73)
  1509 King Henry VII of England, the first Tudor (1485-1509)
  1574 Grand Duke Cosimo de Medici of Tuscany, c. 54
  1792 “Tiradentes” - Joaquim José da Silva Xavier, Brazilian revolutionary, executed at c. 45
  1910 Mark Twain, noted Confederate Army deserter
  1918 Manfred “The Red Baron” von Richthofen, ground fire, at 25
  1962 Frederick Handley Page, pioneer aircraft designer
  1971 Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, dictator of Haiti, at 64
  1997 Pres Diosdado Macapagal of the Philippines (1961-65)
  2004 Karl Hass, incarcerated Nazi war criminal, at 92
22 296 Pope St Gaius (283-296)
  455 Roman Emperor Petronius Maximus (Mar 17-May 22 455)
  536 Pope Agapitus I (535-36)
  1864 Bvt. Maj. Gen. Joseph G. Totten (USMA 1805), at 76
  1994 Richard M Nixon, sometime naval officer, president, stroke at 81
23 303 St. George, Martyr, beheaded in Cappadocia
  871 King Ethelred I of Wessex (866-871), elder brother of Alfred the Great
  1014 Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, kia at 87
  1016 King Aethelred II "the Unrede" of England (979-1016)
  1374 King Edward III grants Geoffrey Chaucer a pitcher of wine a day
  1521 Don Juan de Padilla, Comunero leader, beheaded after Villalar
  1616 Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, marine, author, on his 69th birthday [NS]
  1616 William Shakespeare, by tradition, on his birthday [OS].
  1625 Prince Maurice of Nassau and of Orange, at 57
  1918 Lt. Cdr Percy Thomson Dean, KIA at Zeebrugge
  1986 Otto Preminger, director (“In Harm’s Way”)
  2007 Boris Yeltsin, first President of post-Soviet Russia, at 76
24 1077 King Geza I of Hungary (1074-7)
  1185 Emperor Antoku Taira of Japan (1180-85), drowned
  1342 Pope Benedict XII - Jacques Fournier (1334-1342)
  1617 Concino Concini, Count della Penna, Marshal of France, murdered on orders of Louis XIII
  1891 Count Helmuth von Moltke
  1967 Vladimir Komarov, first man to die in space, Soyuz 1
25 1295 King Sancho IV “the Brave” Castille & Leon (1287-1295)
  1553 Fabio Malvizzi, Patrician of Bologna, executed
  1607 Adm. Don Juan Alvarez of Spain, kia
  1607 Adm. Jacob van Heemskerck of the Netherlands, kia
  1644 Emperor Chongzhen of China (1627-1644), the last Ming, suicide
  1792 Nicolas Pelletier, highwayman, the first man to date Mdm. Guillotine
  1928 Baron Piotr Wrangel, Russian "White" general
26 757 Pope Stephen II (752-57)
  1196 King Alfonso II of Aragon (1162-96)
  1478 Giuliano d’Medici, assassinated by the Pazzi at mass
  1478 Cardinal Francesco Salviati, lynched by a mob for his part in the Pazzi conspiracy
  1478 Francesco Pazzi, lynched by a mob for his part in the Pazzi conspiracy
  1478 Jacopo de' Pazzi, lynched by a mob for his part in the Pazzi conspiracy
  1538 Diego de Almagro, Conquistador, executed by Pizzarro
  1865 John Wilkes Booth, killed, on his 27th birthday
  2004 Gunther Rothenberg, military historian
27 399 BC Socrates, noted hoplite, of poison, at c. 70
  630 Shah Ardashir III of Persia, murdered
  1124 King Alexander I of Scotland(1107-24)
  1404 Duke Philip “the Bold” or “the Stout” of Burgundy, at 62, at Hall, Hainault
  1521 Ferdinand Magellan, explorer, slain by the Filipinos
  1682 Tsar Theodorus III (1676-82)
  1694 Elector Johan Georg IV of Saxony (1691-94), at 25
  1702 Jean Bart, French naval hero
  1792 John James Ankerstrom, assassin of King Gustav III of Sweden, executed
  1813 Zebulon M Pike, army officer and explorer, kia at 34
  1881 Ludwig A Benedek, Austrian general (Koniggratz), at 76
  1893 John Murray Corse, Brig. Gen, U.S., on his 58th birthday
  1965 Edward R. Morrow, war correspondent, Cold Warrior, at 57
28 1192 Conrad I of Montferrat, King of Jerusalem, assassinated at c. 40
  1197 King Rhys ap Gruffydd of South Wales
  1851 Adm Sir Edward Codrington
  1905 Fitzhugh Lee, Maj. Gen., CSA, Brig. Gen, USA, b 1835
  1936 King Fuad of Egypt (1922-36)
  1945 Benito Mussolini & Claretta Petacci, murdered by partisans near Milan.
29 1380 St. Catherine of Siena
  1676 Dutch Adm. Michael Ruyter, cannonballed at 69, Naval Battle of Syracuse
  1862 Timothy Webster, American patriot, executed by the Confederacy
  1918 Gavrilo Princip, who had assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand
30 313 Gaius Maximinus Daia, Roman Emperor (305-313)
  535 Queen Amalasuntha of the Ostrogoths, strangled by order of her husband King Theodahad
  1524 Pierre Terrail, Seigneur de Bayard, "The knight without fear nor equal", shot, the Sesia, Italy, at c. 50
  1632 Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly, Imperial field marshal, kia Ingolstadt
  1632 King Sigismund III of Poland and Sweden, at 65
  1792 John Montague, Earl of Sandwich, naval officer, inventor, at 73
  1828 King Shaka zan Senzagakona of the Zulu, murdered by his brothers
  1847 Archduke Charles of Austria, Napoleon's "Great Enemy"
  1864 Gen W R Scurry, kia
  1945 Adolph Hitler and Eva Braun, suicide
  1945 Col. William O. Darby, of “Darby’s Rangers,” kia at 34 near Lake Garda, while serving as C/S of the 10th Mountain Div
  1972 King Ntare V of Burundi, murdered

Event
1 0 Fool's Day
  286 Maximian becomes co-Emperor of Rome with Diocletian (286-305)
  705 Election of Pope John VII
  1605 Alessandro Ottaviano de’Medici elected Pope as Leo XI (1-17 Apr 1605)
  1793 Eruption of Mt. Unsen, Japan, 53,000 die
  1862 Shenandoah Valley campaign, Jackson's Battle of Woodstock, VA
  1863 Federal conscription goes into effect
  1865 Battle of Five Forks, Lee's line of communications is severed
  1893 USN establishes the rate of Chief Petty Officer
  1924 Hitler gets five years for the Munich "Beer Hall" putsch
  1933 Heinrich Himmler becomes Police Commander of Germany
  1933 Nazi Germany enacts anti-Semitic legislation
  1939 US recognizes the Franco government in Spain
  1941 CNO orders "special precautions against surprise attack on weekends and holidays."
  1941 Coup ousts PM Abdulullah of Iraq
  1941 Navy takes over Treasure Island, San Francisco Bay
  1942 Bataan: Fil-American troops go on quarter rations
  1942 Japanese First Air Fleet refuels south of Java
  1942 Japanese troops capture Jessami, Netherlands East Indies
  1943 Japanese aircraft attack the Russell Islands
  1944 Adm Toyoda becomes commander of Combined Fleet
  1944 TF 58 completes three days of raids in the western Carolines
  1944 The Admiralties: 1st Cav Div begins mop up of outlying islands
  1945 Okinawa: 60,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines land on Easter Sunday
  1945 US First & Ninth Armies meet to form the Ruhr pocket
  1954 Air Force Academy established
  1954 First army helicopter battalion formed, Fort Bragg, NC
  1955 EOKA-bomb attacks against British facilities in Cyprus
  1957 Leaders of the '56 Hungarian Revolution are tried in Budpest
  1960 French detonate their 2nd atom bomb in the Sahara
  1960 US launches Tiros I, first weather satellite
  1979 Islamic Republic is proclaimed in Iran
  1986 SSBN Nathanael Greene grounds in the Irish Sea
  1991 Warsaw Pact officially dissolves
  1992 USS Missouri (BB-63) decommissioned for the last time
2 0 Feast of St Francis de Paola, Patron of Naval Officers
  999 Gerbert of Aurillac elected Pope as Sylvester II (999-1003)
  1118 Baldwin II becomes King of Jerusalem
  1194 Richard Lionheart meets Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest [Trad]
  1283 Giacomo Savelli is elected Pope as Honorius IV (1283-1287)
  1416 Alfonso V succeeds to the throne of Aragon and Sicily
  1513 Juan Ponce de Leon claims Florida for Spain
  1550 Jews are expelled from Genoa
  1781 US Frigate Alliance captures British privateers Mars and Minerva
  1801 Nelson “Copenhagens” the Danish Fleet
  1827 Construction of the first Naval Hospital begins at Portsmouth, Va
  1865 Battles of Petersburg/Ft Gregg/Sutherland's Station, Va
  1865 Confederates evacuate Richmond
  1865 US Maj Gen James H Wilson's cavalry captures Selma
  1912 Sun Yat Sen forms the Kuomintang Party
  1916 Zeppelin bombs Rosyth distillery, causing a flood of fine malt
  1917 Pres Wilson asks Congress to declare war against Germany
  1941 Nazi occupiers disband the Dutch Boy Scouts
  1942 Burma: the British abandon Prome.
  1942 CV Hornet sails from San Francisco, carrying 16 Army B-25Bs
  1942 Singapore: Japanese 18th Div sails for Rangoon.
  1942 US bombers from India attack Japanese shipping in the Andaman Islands.
  1943 Italian blockade runner Orseolo reaches Bordeaux from Kobe
  1944 Fifth Air Force raids Hansa Bay, New Guinea.
  1944 Merrill's Marauders heavily engaged at Nhpum Ga, Burma
  1964 President Goulart of Brazil replaced by Castello Branco in a coup
  1972 Israeli PM Menachem Begin visits Pres Sadat of Egypt
  1982 Argentina invades the Falkland Is, initiating a 72 losing war with Britain
  1986 Terrorist bomb at the Athens airport, 4 Americans die
3 1376 Battle of Navarrete: AN Anglo-Spanish army defets a Franco-Spanish army
  1559 Treaty of Le Cateau-Cambrensis: end of the Franco-Spanish “Italian Wars” (1494-1559)
  1860 First ride of the Pony Express
  1865 Union forces occupy Richmond & Petersberg, to the tune of "Dixie"
  1896 Battle of Tucruf: Sudanese Mahdists defeat the Italians
  1922 Stalin named Secretary-General of Central Committee of the CPUSSR
  1930 Ras Tafari ascends the throne of Ethiopia as Emperor Haile Selassie
  1941 Putsch installs pro-Nazi Rashid Ali al-Ghailani as PM of Iraq, who initiates attacks on Britons & Jews
  1942 Bataan: Japanese launch a major offensive.
  1942 Burma: Stilwell orders the Chinese to stand at Pyinamana.
  1943 Elms 41st Div land at Morobe, near the Waria River, without opposition
  1944 British bombers attack battleship Tirpitz in Norwegian waters
  1944 Burma: British juggle forces to stem the Japanese drive on Imphal
  1944 Hollandia: major Fifth AF raid on Japanese base.
  1945 USSR renounces Apr '41 non-aggression pact with Japan
  1948 Harry Truman signs Marshall Plan
  1982 Security Council demands Argentina withdraw from the
4 0 Feast of St. Isidore of Seville, Patron of the Internet
  1081 Alexius I Comnenus becomes Byzantine Emperor
  1541 Ignatius of Loyola is appointed the first Superior-General of the Jesuits
  1581 Frances Drake completes the second circumnavigation of the world
  1588 Christian IV ascends the throne of Denmark & Norway
  1655 Battle at Porto Farina, Tunis: English fleet defeats the Barbary pirates
  1745 Battle of Hohenfriedberg: Prussians defeat the Austrians & Dutch
  1776 First American victory at sea: USS Columbus captures HM Tender Hawke
  1854 Sloop Plymouth lands party to protect U.S. citizens in Shanghai
  1862 Yorktown: First serious fighting of the Peninsular Campaign
  1865 Lincoln sits in Jeff Davis' chair, in the Confederate White House
  1898 First Chief of USN's Bureau of Yards and Docks appointed, Mordecai Endicott
  1918 Battle of the Somme ends
  1920 Jerusalem: Arab rioters attack Jews
  1933 USN Airship Akron crashes off New Jersey, 73 die
  1939 King Faisal II ascends to throne of Iraq (murdered 1958)
  1941 RAdm Claude Bloch warns Midway against Japanese surprise attack
  1941 Rommel takes Benghazi
  1942 Indian O: Japanese CV a/c sink British CAs Cornwall and Dorsetshire
  1942 Bataan: Fil-American forces fall back after Japanese break through
  1943 4th Marine Div is activated at San Diego
  1944 Burma: Heavy fighting around Nhpum Ga
  1944 Japanese move on Kohima, having cut the road from Imphal.
  1945 Heavy fighting begins in southern Okinawa.
  1945 Hungary liberated from Nazi occupation
  1949 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) formed
  1958 Aldermaston, England: 1st anti-nuclear weapons demonstration
5 823 Pope Paschal I crowns Lothar I Co-Emperor of the HRE
  1242 Battle of the Neva: Prince Alexander of Novgorod defeats the Teutonic Knights
  1614 Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe
  1654 Treaty of Westminster: First Anglo-Dutch War ends (1652-54)
  1762 British capture Greneda from French
  1799 Battle of Magnano: Austrians defeat the French
  1811 Battle of Barrosa: English defeat the French
  1812 British take Badajoz, Spain, from the French by storm
  1861 U.S. troops abandon Ft Quitman, Tx
  1863 Richmond Bread Riot: Jeff Davis threatens to fire on women & children
  1881 Transvaal regains independence from Britain
  1887 Lord Acton writes, "Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely."
  1896 Athens: 1st modern Olympic Games begin
  1915 French begin Woevre offensive
  1939 Germany: "Aryan" youth ordered to join the Hitlerjugend
  1942 Bataan: Japanese troops capture Mt. Samat
  1942 Colombo, Ceylon: Japanese First Air Fleet inflicts heavy damage
  1943 Burma: Br 6th Bde HQ is overrun by advancing Japanese in the Arakan
  1943 Poon Lim (1917-1991) lands near Belem, Brazil, follownig 133 days in a lifeboat in the Atlantic after the Ben Lomond was torpedoed
  1945 Japanese cabinet resigns.
  1950 Prague espionage trial against bishops & priests begins
  1951 Julius & Ethel Rosenberg, atomic spies, sentenced to death
  1955 Winston Churchill resigns as British PM, succeeded by Anthony Eden
  1962 NASA civilian pilot Neil A Armstrong takes X-15 to 54,600 m
  1986 Berlin: two US servicemen & a Turkish woman die in a bombing
  1991 Iraq: US begins relief air drops to Kurds in the north
6 0 Army Day
  46 BC Caesar defeats Cato and Juba at Thapsus, Africa
  403 Battle of Pollentia: Stilicho's Romano-Alan Army defeats Alaric's Visigoths, on Easter Sundy
  1250 Battle of Minieh: Ayyubids defeat the Crusaders
  1327 Petrarch first sets eyes on Laura de Noves [see Deaths]
  1400 BC Theseus and the Athenian Youths and Maidens sail for Crete
  1453 Sultan Mehemet II lays siege to Constantinople (falls May 29th)
  1664 France & Saxony conclude an alliance
  1672 France declares war on the Netherlands
  1712 Slave revolt in New York
  1776 Improvised US naval squadron captures eight British ships off New England
  1859 US recognizes Benito Juarez’s liberal government in Mexico's War of Reform
  1862 Battle of Shiloh, Day 1: Confederate success.
  1866 Union veterans form the Grand Army of the Republic
  1916 German parliament OKs unrestricted submarine warfare
  1917 US declares war on Germany, enters World War I
  1934 Nazis arrest 418 Lutheran ministers
  1939 Great Britain & Poland sign military pact
  1939 US & UK agree on joint control of Canton & Enderbury Is in the Pacific
  1941 Germans bomb Belgrad, 17,000 reportedly die
  1941 Germans bomb the Piraeus, two old battleships sink
  1941 Italians surrender Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to the British
  1942 Chaing Kai-shek agrees to provide additional forces for Burma
  1942 Japanese First Air Fleet raids in the Bay of Bengal.
  1942 Stilwell's Chinese forces prepare to defend Pyinamana.
  1943 Sub Trout begins laying mines near Sarawak, Borneo
  1945 Coevorden, the Netherlands, liberated from the Nazis
  1945 Japanese battleship Yamato sails for Okinawa on a one-way mission
  1945 Okinawa: Massive kamikaze attack on the US fleet sinks 6 ships
  1968 USS New Jersey recommissioned; first BB in service since 1958
  1973 India annexes Sikkim
7 451 Attila's Huns sack Metz
  1118 Pope Gelasius II excommunicates Emperor Henry V
  1381 2nd treaty of Guerande: Yann IV of Brittany and Charles VI of France
  1509 France declares war on Venice
  1528 French troops defeat Cardinal Pompeo Colonna outside Gaeta, to begin a siege (fails)
  1555 Marcello Cervini degli Spannochi elected Pope as Marcellus II (7 Apr-6 May 1555)
  1625 Albrecht von Wallenstein appointed supreme commander by the HRE
  1652 The Fronde: Battle of Bleneau - Royalists defeat the Frondists
  1655 Fabio Chigi elected Pope as Alexander VII (1655-1667)
  1776 Continental brig Lexington captures British Edward
  1818 Gen Andrew Jackson seizes St Marks, Fla, from Seminole Indians
  1831 Dom Pedro II crowned Emperor of Brazil
  1836 Skirmish between Texian rear guards and advancing Mexican troops at San Felipe Ford
  1862 Battle of Shiloh: Grant defeats the Confederates
  1863 Battle of Charleston, SC
  1865 Battle of Farmville, Va
  1917 USN takes over all wireless stations for the duration of WW I
  1933 Nazis bar Jews from law & public service
  1939 Italy invades Albania; first combat by an armored division, the Centauro
  1941 Battleship USS North Carolina commissioned
  1942 Bataan: Fil-Am troops fail to form a new defensive line
  1942 Heavy Axis air attack on Malta
  1942 Japanese 18th Div lands at Rangoon.
  1942 Solomons: Japanese land on Bougainville
  1942 USN agrees to accept black Americans for general service
  1943 Japanese a/c inflict heavy losses on Allied shipping around Guadalcanal
  1944 Japanese cut water supply of Anglo-Indian forces at Kohima.
  1945 First Navy Nurses land on Iwo Jima: Lt, jg, Ann Purvis & Ens Jane Kendeigh
  1945 Japanese BB Yamato sunk off Okinawa by TF 58 a/c.
  1945 Massive kamikaze attack on the US fleet off Okinawa
  1946 Part of East Prussia is incorporated into the Russian SFSR
  1949 Rogers & Hammerstein's "South Pacific" opens at the Majestic for 1928 performances
  1966 US recovers lost H-bomb from sea off Palomares, Spain
  1978 President Jimmy Carter defers production of neutron bomb
  1980 President Jimmy Carter breaks relations with Iran over the hostage crisis
  1989 Soviet sub sinks in Norwegian Sea, c. 12 die
8 0 Feast of St Walther Gautier of Pontnoise, Patron of Prisoners-of-War
  1195 Alexius III Angelus ousts his brother Isaac II as Byzantine Emperor
  1341 Petrarch is crowned “Poet Laureate” on the Capitoline in Rome
  1378 Bartolomeo Prignano of Itri elected Pope as Urban VI (1378-1389)
  1455 Alfonso Borja elected Pope as Callistus III (1455-1458)
  1500 Battle of Novara: King Louis XII beats Duke Ludovico Sforza of Milan
  1595 Battle of Amiens
  1801 Riot in Bucharest, 128 Jews slain
  1861 US mint at Dahlonega, Georgia, seized by Confederate officials
  1864 Battle of Mansfield, La; U.S. forces routed by Lt Gen Richard Taylor
  1865 Lee's retreat cut off near Appomattox Court House
  1898 Battle of the Atbara River, Anglo-Egyptian forces crush Sudanese
  1904 France & Britain conclude the Entente Cordiale
  1925 First planned night landings on a carrier, USS Langley, by VF-1
  1945 Okinawa: Marines probe Japanese lines on the Motobu Peninsula
  1950 Unarmed USN patrol plane downed over the Baltic Sea by Soviet aircraft
  1956 Parris Is, SC: Six Marine recruits drown during an unauthorized night exercise
  1961 Persian Gulf: Explosion in the British liner Dara, 236 die
9 30 The Crucifixion [the first Friday following the the first night of Passover on a Thursday]
  1002 Battle of “Hocktide”: Saxon women defeat Danish raiders
  1097 Norman-Italian Crusaders under Bohemund & Tancred reach Constantinople
  1241 Battle of Liegnitz/Wahlstadt: Mongol armies defeat the Poles & Germans
  1260 Battle of Montaperti: The Sienese Ghibellines defeat the Florentine Guelfs
  1388 Battle of Naefels: The Swiss defeat the Hapsburgs
  1454 Peace of Lodi: ends Milanese-Venetian war
  1534 Turkish corsair Khair Ed-Din (Barbarossa) captures Sperlonga
  1621 Twelve Years’ Truce (1609-1621) between Spain and the Netherlands expires
  1770 Capt James Cook discovers Botany Bay, Australia
  1783 Tippu Sahib expels the English from Bednore, India
  1848 Battle of Sorio: The Austrians defeat Venetian Insurgents
  1848 Battle of the Ponte di Goito: Piedmontese defeat the Austrians
  1864 Battle of Pleasant Hill, La
  1865 Appomattox: Robert E Lee & the Army of Northern Virginia pack it in.
  1865 Union troops capture Ft Blakely, Alabama
  1898 Lt Andrew S. Rowan leaves for Cuba with "a message for Garcia."
  1913 Ebbet’s Field opens
  1914 Tampico Incident: US sailors arrested in Mexico
  1917 Battle of Arras begins; Canadians storm Vimy Ridge
  1918 Latvia proclaims independence from Russia
  1940 Germany invades Denmark, which promptly surrenders
  1940 Germany invades Norway
  1942 Bataan: c. 75,000 U.S. & Filipino troops surrender to the Japanese
  1942 British CV Hermes lost to Japanese naval aircraft off Ceylon
  1942 First Air Fleet sinks 12 merchant ships off India, raids Tricomalee
  1942 Manila Bay: U.S. troops hold out on Corregidor and Ft. Drum
  1942 RAdm William F. Halsey, sails from Pearl Harbor in CV Enterprise
  1943 Japanese DD Isonami sunk south east of Celebes by the U.S. sub Tautog
  1944 Japanese abandon Nhpum Ga in Burma.
  1944 Japanese encircle Imphal
  1944 Japanese offer to mediate peace between Germany and Russia.
  1945 Philippines: U.S. forces land on Jolo in the Sulu Sea
  1945 RAF sinks Pocket Battleship Admiral Scheer in port
  1959 NASA names seven astronauts for Project Mercury
  1981 SSBN George Washington rams Japanese freighter Nisso Maru
  1991 Georgia votes to secede from the USSR
  1992 John Major becomes PM of the UK
10 847 Consecration of Pope Leo IV (847-55), who fortifies the Vatican against the Moors & is later canonized
  879 Coronation of King Louis III of France
  1241 Battle of the Sajo River, Day 1: The Hungarians hold the Mongols
  1500 Duke Ludovico “Il Moro” Sforza of Milan is deposed and imprisoned by the French, after being back in power for only two months.
  1534 Khair Ed-Din Barbarossa’s Turkish corsairs sack Fondi, Naples
  1734 Great Fire of Montreal: c. 50 buildings burn, a black woman is lynched
  1741 Battle of Mollwitz: Prussians defeat the Austrians
  1815 Austria declares war on King Giacchino Murat of Naples
  1845 Great fire of Pittsburgh, c. 1,000 buildings damaged
  1848 Battle of Castelnuovo: Austrians defeat Italian Nationalists
  1864 Austrian Archduke Maximilian becomes Emperor of Mexico
  1865 Appomattox: Gen Lee issues Gen Order #9, his last
  1868 British defeat King Theodorus of Abyssinia at Magdala
  1880 War of the Pacific: Chilean fleet blockades Callao, Peru