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 News As History - December 2, 2008



August Military History

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Born
1 10 BC Claudius, Roman Emperor (AD 41-54)
  126 Publius Helvius Pertinax, Roman Emperor (AD 193), k. 193
  1520 King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland
  1770 William Clark, of the "Corps of Exploration"
  1779 Francis Scott Key, of "The Star Spangled Banner"
  1814 Maxcy Gregg, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d/w 1862
  1815 Richard Henry Dana, sailor, AsstSecNav, author ("Two Years Before the Mast")
  1819 Herman Melville, sailor, author ("White Jacket"), d. 1891
  1843 Robert Todd Lincoln, Capt, U.S.V., Sec War, d. 1926
  1890 King George II of Greece
2 1696 Sultan Mahmud I of Turkey (1730-54)
  1826 William Denison Whipple, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1902
  1868 King Constantine I of Greece
  1932 Peter O'Toole, actor ("Lawrence of Arabia")
3 1770 King Frederick Wilhelm III of Prussia (1797-1840)
  1816 John Eugene Smith, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1897
  1820 William Miller, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1909
  1823 Thomas Francis Meagher, Brig Gen, U.S., Irish Patriot, d. 1867
  1824 William Burnham Woods, Bvt Maj Gen, U.S.,
  1867 Stanley Baldwin, British PM, appeaser
  1872 King Haakon VII of Norway (1905-57), d 1915
  1900 Ernie Pyle, noted war correspondent, kia Okinawa, 1945
  1924 Leon Uris, marine, novelist ("Battle Cry")
4 1521 Giambattista Castagna - Pope Urban VII (15-27 Sep 1590)
  1816 Israel Vogdes, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1889
  1818 Lovell Harrison Rosseau, Maj Gen, U.S.
  1859 Knut Hamsun, Norwegian novelist, Nazi collaborator
  1873 Damasco Berenguer y Fuste, Spanish general and historian
  1912 Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat, honorary American
5 1749 Thomas Lynch, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, d. 1779
  1818 Carnot Posey, Brig Gen, C.S.A., died of wounds, 1863
  1829 Milo Smith Hascall, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1904
  1850 Guy de Maupassant, Volunteer of 1870, author ("Ball of Fat"), d. 1893
  1930 Neil Armstrong, who later took a "small step"
  1957 Andrei Yevgeniyevich Zaitsev, cosmonaut
  1957 Pavel Vinogradov, Russia, cosmonaut
6 966 King Berengarius II of Italy
  1697 Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor (1742-45)
  1775 Duke Louis-Antoine of Angouleme, French general
  1809 Alfred Lord Tennyson, poet ("The Charge of the Light Brigade")
  1811 Judah Philip Benjamin, Confederate statesman, d. in 1884
  1819 Samuel Powhatan Carter, Maj Gen & Rear Adm, U.S.
  1861 Edith Carow Roosevelt, mother of soldiers
  1917 Robert Mitchum, actor ("GI Joe")
7 317 Flavius Julius Constantius II, Roman Emperor (337-361)
  1742 Nathanael Greene, second only to Washington
  1829 Thomas Ewing Jr, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1896
  1833 Powell Clayton, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1914
  1836 Evander McIvor Law, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1920
  1876 Mata Hari
8 1812 John Rodgers II, naval officer, U.S., d. 1882
  1819 Charles Anderson Dana, Asst Secy War, d. 1897
  1820 Winfield Scott "Old Swet" Featherstone, Brig Gen, C.S.A.
  1835 James William Forsyth, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1906
  1839 Nelson Appleton Miles, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1925
  1879 Emiliano Zapata, Mexican revolutionary
  1948 Svetlana Y. Savitskaya, 2nd woman in space (Soyuz T-7)
9 1782 Sir Charles James Napier, Conqueror of the Sind. D. 1853
  1808 William Thomas Ward, Brig Gen, U.S.
  1823 Daniel Marsh Frost, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1900
  1824 Simon Goodell Griffin, Brig Gen, U.S.,
  1888 Hans Oster, German general, anti-Nazi conspirator
  1944 Sam Elliot, actor ("Gettysburg")
10 1296 Jean the Blind, King of Bohemia, Count of Luxembourg, kia, 1346
  1397 King Albert II von Hapsburg of Germany (1438-1439)
  1763 Jean Victor Moreau, French revolutionary general, kia 1813 in Russian serivce
  1772 Viscount Rowland Hill, Peninsular general
  1810 Camilio Benso di Cavour, sometime soldier, the "Brain” of Italian Unification
  1814 John Clifford Pemberton, Lt Gen, C.S.A., d. 1881
  1823 Charles Thomas Campbell, Brig Gen, U.S.
  1874 Herbert C. Hoover, President (1929-1933)
11 1832 Thomas Ogden Osbord, Brig Gen, U.S.
  1882 Rodolfo Graziani, Italian general, Viceroy of Ethiopia
  1892 Wladyslaw Anders, Polish general
  1902 Christian Castries, French general, who lost at Dien Bien Phu
  1921 Alex Haley, Coastguardsman, author ("Roots")
12 1503 King Christian III of Denmark & Norway (1534-59)
  1762 King George IV of England (1820-30)
  1819 Daniel Davidson Bidwell, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1864
  1829 John Horace Forney, Maj Gen, C.S.A., d. 1902
  1833 William Price Sanders, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1863
  1904 Aleksei, the Tsarevich, murdered, 1918
  1909 Maurice Heath, air marshal
13 615 BC Servius Tullius, sixth King of Rome (578-534 BC)
  1489 Francesco Ferrucci, condottiero, Captain of Florence, kia 1530
  1907 Alfred Alwin Felix Krupp, arms manufacturer
  1918 Denis Smallwood, British air chief marshal
  1927 Fidel Castro Ruz, lousy ballplayer, dictator of Cuba (1959-2006)
14 1740 Barnaba Chiaramoni - Pope Pius VII (1800-1823)
  1774 Meriwether Lewis, of the Lewis & Clark Expedition
  1814 Henry Hayes Lockwood, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1899
  1821 Clement Hoffman "Rock" Stevens, Brig Gen, C.S.A.
  1824 William Terry, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1888
  1876 King Alexander I Obrenovic of Yugoslavia (1922-34), assassinated in 1934
15 1688 King Frederick William I of Prussia (1713-1740)
  1769 Napoleone Bounaparte, Corsican adventurer, d. 1821
  1771 Sir Walter Scott, novelist ("Ivanhoe")
  1823 Orris Sanford Ferry, Brig Gen, U.S.
  1878 Piotr N. Wrangel, Russian "White Guard" Leader
  1888 T.E. Lawrence, "of Arabia"
  1912 Julia Child, OSS agent, chef
16 1622 Tsjerk de Vries, Dutch admiral
  1828 Joseph Bradford Carr, Brig Gen, U.S.
  1831 Edward Payson Chapin, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1863
  1892 Harold Foster, cartoonist ("Prince Valiant")
  1913 Menachem Begin, terrorist, Israeli PM (1977-83), Peace Nobelist, 1978
  1923 Shimon Peres, Israeli PM (1984-1986, 1995-1996)
17 1629 King John I of Poland (1674-1696)
  1786 David Crockett, frontiersman, k. 1836
  1819 James Henry Van Alen, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1886
  1844 Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia (1896-1913)
  1876 Henri G. Winkelman, Dutch Supreme Commander, 1940
  1887 Charles I, last Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary (1916-18), d. 1922
  1887 Marcus Garvey, fascistic African nationalist
  1914 Franklin D Roosevelt, Jr., naval officer [see Deaths]
  1929 Francis Gary Powers, U-2 pilot
18 1587 Virginia Dare
  1813 Benjamin Alvord, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1884
  1818 William Farquhar Barry, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1879
  1830 Franz Josef, Emperor of Austria & King of Hungary (1848-1916)
  1917 Casper Weinberger, sometime soldier, budget cutter who became SecDef (1981-87)
19 232 M. Aurelius Probus, Roman Emperor (276-282)
  1815 John Porter McCown, Maj Gen, C.S.A., d. 1879
  1831 Stephen Gano Burbridge, Brig Gen, U.S.
  1871 Orville Wright, aviation pioneer
  1878 Manuel Quezon, First President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines
  1883 Gabrille "Coco" Chanel, stylish Nazi collaborator
  1921 Gene Roddenberry, B-17 Pilot, creator of "Star Trek", d 1991
20 1778 Bernardo O'Higgins, Chilean patriot
  1802 Cadwalader Ringgold, naval officer, U.S.
  1811 Gilman Marston, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1890
  1824 Absalom Baird, Brig Gen, U.S, d. 1905
  1832 Thaddeus Sobieski Constantine Lowe, Civil War balloonist, d. 1913
  1833 Benjamin Harrison, sometime colonel, 70th Indiana
  1941 Slobodan Milocevic, Serbian nationalist, war criminal
21 1165 King Philip II Augustus of France (1179-1223), the first Capetian
  1579 Duke Henri II de Rohan, French Huguenot leader
  1643 Afonso VI, insane king of Portugal (1656-67)
  1670 James FitzJames, the Duke of Berwick, bastard son of James II and Arabella Churchill, later Marshal of France, kia 1734
  1765 William IV of Great Brtian (1830-1837), the first "Sailor King"
  1810 Thomas Jefferson McKean, Brig Gen, U.S.
  1821 William Barksdale, Brig Gen, C.S.A.,d. in 1863
  1824 John Sanford Mason, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1897
  1880 Johan H Westerveld, leader of the Nazi OD
22 1760 Annibale Francesco Clemente Melchiore Giralamo Nicola della Genga - Pope Leo XII (1823-1829)
  1822 George Stoneman, Maj Gen, US, cavalryman, d. 1894
  1827 Joseph Anthony Mower, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1870
  1834 Nathaniel Harrison Harris, Brig Gen, C.S.A.
  1836 Archibald M Willard, artist ("The Spirit of '76")
  1854 King Milan Obrenovich of Serbia (1882-1889), military reformer, d 1901
  1898 Stephen Vincent Benet, poet ("John Brown's Body")
  1902 Bertha Helene Amalie “Leni” Riefenstahl, Nazi film maker("Triumph of the Will"), d. in 2003at 101
  1904 Deng Xiaoping, Chinese communist dictator (1976-1983)
  1919 Earl Cathcart, British general
  1934 Norman Schwarzkopf
23 1740 Tsar Ivan VI of Russia (1740-41)
  1754 King Louis XVI of France (1774-92), dated Mdm. Guillotine in 1792
  1785 Oliver Hazard Perry, who "met the enemy" on Lake Erie [see Deaths]
  1818 Rufus Ingalls, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1893
  1832 Alexander Chambers, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1888
  1864 Eleftherios K. Venizalos, Greek statesman
  1923 John Eisenhower, soldier, historian ("The Bitter Woods")
  1935 Brendan Jackson, British air marshal
24 1113 Count Geoffrey V of Anjou, the first "Plantagenet", d. 1151
  1750 Letitia Ramolino Buonaparte, mother of Napoleone, d. 1847
  1759 William Wilberforce, England, anti-slavery crusader
  1808 Benjamin G. Humphreys, Brig Gen, C.S.A.
  1808 Thomas F. Drayton, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1891
  1827 Walter H. Stevens, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1867
  1828 George "Maryland" Steuart, Brig Gen, C.S.A.
  1865 Ferdinand I "Tsar" of Bulgaria (1908-1918)
  1886 William F. Gibbs, naval architect (liners America & United States, and most of the WW2 fleet)
25 1109 Afonso "the Conqueror" - first King of Portugal (1139-1185)
  1530 Tsar Ivan IV "the Terrible" (1533-84)
  1786 King Ludwig I of Bavaria, friend to Lola Montez
  1811 Joseph D. Webster, Brig Gen, U.S.
  1812 Percival Drayton, naval officer, U.S., d. 1865
  1819 Allan Pinkerton, detective, inept spymaster
  1823 John Newton, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1895
  1825 Henry W. Birge, Brig Maj Gen, U.S.
  1845 "Mad" King Ludwig II of Bavaria (1864-86)
  1938 Frederick Forsyth, putchist, novelist ("The Dogs of War"), d. 2001
26 1596 King Frederick V of Bohemia
  1676 Robert Walpole, British statesman
  1740 Joseph Montgolfier, France, co-inventor of ballooning
  1802 Mariano Arista, general and President of Mexico (1851-1853), d. 1855
  1811 Danville Leadbetter, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1866
  1819 Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha, Consort to Queen Victoria
  1833 Charles Jackson Paine, Brig Gen, U.S.
  1835 Theodore Washington Brevard, Brig Gen, C.S.A.
  1838 John Wilkes Booth, assassin, heartthrob
  1901 Maxwell D Taylor, sometime commander, 101st A/B Div
27 551 BC Confucius
  1545 Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma, Piacenza, etc. (1586-92), condottiero, Governor of the Netherlands, d. 1592
  1666 Tsar Ivan V of Russia (1682-89)
  1824 Hiram Gregory Berry, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1863
  1826 Frank Stillman Nickerson, Brig Gen, U.S.
  1832 James Alexander Walker, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1901
  1839 Emory Upton, Maj Gen, U.S.V., military theorist, d. 1881
  1869 Karl Haushofer, German soldier, geopolitician
  1889 C.S. Forester, novelist ("Horatio Hornblower")
  1908 Lyndon B Johnson, naval officer, President (1963-1969)
  1910 Mother Teresa
  1912 Peter Gretton, British vice admiral
  1916 Martha Raye, who also served
  1930 John Watts, sometime British Chief of Omani Armed Forces
  1932 Lady Antonia Fraser, biographer ("Wellington")
28 1592 George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham, murdered 1628
  1798 Gershom Jaques Van Brunt, naval officer, U.S. d. 1863
  1828 Count Leo Tolstoy, soldier, novelist ("War and Peace")
  1828 William Alexander Hammond, Brig Gen, d. 1900
29 1387 King Henry V of England (1413-22), Victor of Agincourt
  1619 Jean-Baptiste Colbert, French minister of Marine
  1809 Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., poet ("Old Ironsides")
30 1334 King Pedro "the Cruel" of Castille & Leon (1350-1369), k. 1369
  1748 Jacques-Louis David, artist ("The Oath of the Horatii"), d. 1825
  1772 Henri Count de La Roche-Jacquelin, French counter-revolutionary
  1797 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, author ("Frankenstein")
  1901 John Gunther, journalist, the "Inside" man
  1918 Ted Williams, Marine, outstanding baseball player
31 12 Caligula, maniacal Roman emperor (37-41)
  161 Commodus, maniacal Roman emperor (180-191)
  1396 Duke Philip III of Burgundy (1419-1467), friend to the English
  1569 Shah Jahan, Great Mogul of India (1628-1658), d. 1666
  1811 Goode Bryan, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1885
  1822 Fitz John Porter, Maj Gen, U.S., aeronaut, d. 1901
  1828 George Leonard Andrews, Brig Gen, U.S.
  1879 Emperor Yoshihito of Japan (1912-1926)
  1880 Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands (1898-1948), d. 1962
  1945 Leonid I Popov, Russia, cosmonaut

Died
1 30 BC Marc Antony, suicide
  432 Pope Celestine I
  527 Eastern Roman Emperor Justin I (518-527)
  1137 Louis VI, King of France (1108-1137)
  1190 Count Floris III of Holland
  1358 Stephen Marcel, French rebel, slain at Paris
  1464 Cosimo de' Medici, "Pater Patriae," at Florence
  1503 Cardinal Giovanni Borgia, possibly poisoned by his kinsman Cesare Borgia, for his fortune
  1520 Emperor Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin of the Aztec (1502-1520), of injuries sustained in a riot
  1714 Queen Anne of England (1701-1714)
  1720 Admiral Sir John Leake
  1946 Andrei Vlasov, Russian general, traitor, executed at 45
  1973 Walter Ulbricht, East German communist dictator
  1977 Francis Gary Powers, U-2 pilot, at 47 in a helicopter accident
2 9 Quintilius Varus, kia, the Teutobergerwald
  216 BC One consul, two former consuls, 80 senators, 2 quaestors, 29 military tribunes, and c. 40,000 other Romans, kia, Cannae
  338 BC King Archidamus III of Sparta, in Italy
  640 Pope Severinus (28 May-2 Aug 640)
  686 Pope John V (685-686)
  1100 King William II "Rufus" - a "stray" arrow in the New Forest
  1589 King Henri III of France (1573-1589)
  1799 Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier, pioneer balloonist
  1849 Mehemet Ali of Egypt, slave trader par excellence,
  1876 Wild Bill Hickok, shot by Jack McCall while holding black aces & eights & a jack of diamonds
  1903 "Calamity Jane" - Martha Jane Cannary
  1921 Enrico Caruso
  1934 Paul Von Hindenburg, at 86, leaving Germany in Hitler's hands
  1936 Louis Bleriot, pioneer aviator
  1955 Crown Prince Ruprecht of Bavaria, German general, WW I
  1956 Albert Woolson, drummer boy, USV, last Civil War veteran, at 109
3 772 Pope Stephen III [IV] (768-772) - or the 1st
  1181 Pope Alexander III - Orlando Bandinelli (1159-81)
  1387 King Olaf V Hakonsson of Denmark (1376-1387) & Norway (1380-1387)
  1495 Troilo Malvizzi, Patrician of Bologna, Doctor of Canon Law, Prior of Santa Maria Madallena, murdered
  1530 Francesco Ferrucci, Captain of Florence, in hand-to-hand fighting against the Medici at Gavinana
  1530 Philibert of Chalon, Prince of Orange, Viceroy of Naples, kia, Gavinana, fighting for the Medici
  1578 King Mulai Mohammed of Fez, his enemy Abd el-Malek, Pretender to throne of Fez, and the latter’s ally King Sebastian of Portugal, all kia
  1587 Lamberto dei Malatesti, Count of Montecrodruzzo, decapitated at Rome
  1916 Sir Roger Casement, Irish nationalist, executed
4 946 Pope Martin III
  1060 King Henry I of France (1060), at 27
  1265 Count Simon de Montfort, founder of Parliament, his sons Henry & Peter, and his kinsmen Guy Balliol, Humphrey Bohun, & William Arundel, all kia, Eversham
  1306 King Wenceslaus V of Bohemia, stabbed at Olmutz
  1430 Philip of Saint-Pol, duke of Brabant
  1477 Jacques d'Armagnac, Due de Nemours, beheaded by Louis XI
  1526 Juan Sebastian de el Cano, first man to circumnavigate the globe
  1666 Johan Evertsen, Admiral of Zeeland, lynched in Brielle
  1804 Viscount Adam Duncan, admiral, victory of Camperdown
  1922 Enver Pasha, "Young Turk," kia, Turkestan, at 41
  1999 Victor Mature, Coastguardsman, actor ("Demetrius and the Gladiators"), at 84
5 465 BC King Xerxes I of Persia, murdered
  642 King Oswald of Northumbria (634-642), kia at c. 38
  882 King Louis III of France (879-882), at c. 19
  1063 King Gruffydd ap Llywelyn of Wales, killed by his own troops after losing the Battle of Snowdonia
  1157 Count Dirk VI of Holland
  1600 John, Earl of Gowrie, slain at Perth in an attempt to kill James I
  1792 Frederick, Lord North, British statesman who lost America
  1799 Richard, Admiral Lord Howe,
  1895 Friedrich Engles, capitalist exploiter of the masses, Communist hero, at 74
  1984 Richard Burton, aviation cadet, actor ("Where Eagles Dare", etc.), at 58
6 258 Pope St. Sixtus II (31 Aug 257-6 Aug 258), martyred
  523 Pope St. Hormisdas (514-523)
  1162 Count Ramon Berenguer IV "the Saint" of Barcelona (1131-1154)
  1195 Duke Henry "the Lion" of Saxony and Bavaria
  1272 King Stephan V of Hungary(1270-1272), Prince of Transylvania
  1458 Pope Callistus III - Alfonso de Borja (1455-1458), at 79
  1666 Heinrich de Vries, Dutch naval officer, KIA, at 43
  1746 King Christian VI of Denmark & Norway,
  1820 Elisa, sister to Napoleon, at 43
  1867 Emperor Faustin Soulouque of Haiti
  1890 William Kemmler, having the honor of being first man executed in the electric chair
  1944 Count Alfonso Casati, kia at 26 earning the Medaglia d'Oro while serving with the San Marco
  1973 Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar, erstwhile Cuban dictator (1952-1959)
  1978 Giovanni Montini - Pope Paul VI (1963-1978)
  1987 Ira C Eaker, USAAF WW II "Bomber Baron," at 91
  2000 Alec Guinness, sailor, actor ("Bridge on the River Kwai"), at 86
7 44 King Herod Agrippa of Judea, Caesarea
  117 Trajan, Roman Emperor (98-117), at 65
  461 Roman Emperor Majorian (457-461), assassinated
  480 BC King Leonidas of Sparta, the “300,” and the other Greek heroes, slain at Thermopylae [Alt]
  1106 Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV “the Great” (1184-1105)
  1304 Pope Bl Benedict XI - Nicholas Boccasini (22 Oct 1303-7 Jul 1304)
  1941 Bruno Mussolini, son of the Duce, test flying the Piaggio 108 four-engined bomber
8 869 King Lothar II of Middle France (855-869)
  1048 Pope Damasus II (17 July-8 Aug 1048)
  1306 King Wenceslas III of Bohemia & Poland (1305-1306), murdered.
  1648 Sultan Ibrahim "the Mad" of Turkey, murdered,
  1788 Duke Louis de Richelieu, French marshal
  1942 Six Nazi saboteurs, executed in Washington
  1944 Erwin von Witzleben, German marshal, anti-Nazi conspirator, hanged
9 48 BC Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus and thousands of others, kia at Pharsalus
  353 Magnentius, Roman Emperor aspirant, executed at Lyon
  803 Irene, Byzantine empress, wife of Leo IV
  1487 Roberto Sanseverino, Count of Cajazzo & Marquis of Castelnuovo, 69, ambushed at Calliano
  1672 Dutch statesmen John and Cornelius de Witt, lynched at the Hague
  1854 King Frederik Augustus II of Saxony (1836-1854), at 57
  1928 Grand Duke Frederik II of Baden (1907-1918), at 71
  1944 Antoine de Saint-Euxpery, aviator & author ("Le petite prince"), missing over the Mediterranean
  1961 Walter Bedell Smith, Eisenhower's chief of staff
10 955 Duke Konrad of Lorraine, kia
  991 Brithnoth, Anglo-Saxon war leader, kia at Maldon.
  1250 King Erik IV of Denmark, murdered
  1535 Cardinal Ippolito de'Medici, soldier, of poison, at Itri
  1584 Francis, Duke of Alencon and Anjou, who might have married Gloriana, at 30
  1759 King Ferdinand VI the Wise of Spain (1746-1759), at 46
  1822 General Sir Samuel Auchmuty, victor of Monte Video
  1945 Robert Goddard, inventor of the liquid-fueled rocket, 62
11 1241 Kakhan Ogadai of the Mongols
  1259 Kakhan Mongka of the Mongols
  1456 John Hunyadi, Regent of Hungary
  1480 The Martyrs of Otranto: Mohammed the Conqueror slaughters hundreds who refuse conversion to Islam, after sawing the bishop in half
  1689 Pope Bl. Innocent XI - Benedetto Odescalchi (1676-1689), at 78
  1975 Anthony C. McAuliffe, who once said "Nuts!", at 77
12 30 BC Cleopatra VII, asped
  1350 King Philip VI of France
  1484 Pope Sixtus IV - Francesco della Rovere (1471-1484)
  1656 Metacom "King Phillip" of the Wampanoag, kia by Colonial militiamen
  1811 Sir John Francis Edward Acton, 6th Baronet Acton, Tuscan admiral, Neapolitan Minister of War & Marine (1778-1804), at 75
  1914 John Philip Holland, submarine designer
  1935 Maj Gen Tetsuzan Nagata, murdered in his headquarters by Lt Col Saburo Aizawa in a doctrinal dispute
  1964 Ian Fleming, British officer and novelist ("James Bond"), at 56
  1982 Henry Fonda, sometime naval officer, at 77
  1990 USAF SSGT John Campisi, struck by a truck - the first American to die in the Gulf War
13 582 East Roman Emperor Tiberius II, at Constantinople
  662 Maximus Confessor, Greek theologian and crusader
  875 Holy Emperor Louis II, at Milan
  900 King Zwentibold of Lorraine (895-900), at c. 29
  1447 Duke Filipo Maria Visconti of Milan (1412-1447), the last of the line
  1484 Pope Sixtus IV
  1860 Prince Danillo II of Montenegro, of a gunshot wound
  1910 Florence Nightingale, “The Lady with the lamp"
  1946 H. G. Wells, pacifist, wargamer, at 79
  2004 Julia Child, master chef, OSS operative, at 91.
14 1433 King John I of Portugal (1383-1433), at 76
  1464 Pope Pius II - Enea Silvio de' Piccolomini (1458-1464)
  1482 Count Palatine Marc’Antonio Malvizzi, condottiero, kia in Neapolitan service
  1936 Rainey Bethea, in the last public execution in the U.S.
  1941 Josef Jakobs, German spy, the last man executed in the Tower
15 423 Flavius Honorius, Roman Emperor (395-423)
  465 Roman Emperor Libius Severus (461-465)
  778 Roland, kia at Roncevalles
  1038 St. Stefan I Arpad, First King of Hungary (997-1038), at Buda
  1057 King Macbeth of Scotland, slain by Macduff, Thane of Fife
  1118 Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus
  1380 Vettor Pisani, Venetian admiral
  1388 James, Earl of Douglas, kia, Otterbourne
  1528 Odet de Foix, Vicomte de Lautrec, Marshal of France, of plague on campaign in Italy
  1636 Marquis Ranuccio Pallavicino, Captain of Imperial Cuirassiers, kia Rottofreddo
  1935 Will Rogers and Wiley Post, airplane accident
  1975 Sheik Mujibur Rahiman, of Bangladesh, in a military coup
  1992 Giorgio Perlasca, Italian anti-fascist who saved 5,200 Jews
  2003 Jannie Brandes-Brilleslijper, Dutch Resistance fighter, friend to Anne Frank.
16 1153 Bernard de Tremelai, 4th Master of the Templars, kia, Ascalon
  1675 Bogdan Chmilnicki, Cossack hetman, who had murdered 300,000 Jews
  1870 Charles Ardant du Picq, soldier, author ("Battle Studies"), kia at Gravelotte
  1921 King Peter I Karadjordjevic of Serbia/Yugoslavia [8/26 NS]
  1945 Takihiro Onishi, founder of the Kamikaze, on a mission
  1949 Margaret Mitchell, novelist ("GWTW"), a day after being hit by a taxi
  1959 Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey
  2002 Abu Nidal (Sabri al-Banna), Palestinian terrorist, suicide (b. 1937)
  2003 Idi Amin, maniacal dictator of Uganda, in bed, unfortunately
17 310 Pope St Eusebius (Apr 18-Aug 17, 310 - or possibly 309)
  1373 Ambrogio Visconti, condottiero, Lord of Pavia, assassinated at 30
  1553 Duke Charles III of Savoy
  1657 Robert Blake, English “general at sea” at c. 58
  1786 King Frederik II "The Great" of Prussia (1740-86)
  1850 Jose de San Martin, sometime marine, "The Liberator"
  1877 F.P. Cahill, Billy the Kid's first victim
  1915 Leo Frank, Jewish businessman, lynched in Georgia
  1962 Peter Fechter, 18, shot by East German border guards at the Berlin Wall
  1987 Rudolph Hess, Nazi, suicide at 93, after 46 years in Allied custody
  1988 FDR Jr, sometime naval officer, on his 74th birthday
  1988 Pakistani President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, plane crash
  1988 US Ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Raphel, plane crash
18 472 Ricimer, Romano-Barbarian general, emperor-maker, at c. 67
  1222 Genghis Khan, noted mass murderer, in bed
  1276 Pope Hadrian V (Jul 11-Aug 18, 1276
  1500 Alfonso d'Aragona, husband to Lucrezia Borgia, wounded on Jul 15th, "not having died of his wounds, was found strangled in his bed," by order of Cesare Borgia
  1503 Pope Alexander VI - Rodrigo Borja [Borgia] (1492-1503)
  1510 Edmund Dudley & Sir Richard Empson, ministers to Henry VII, executed on Tower Hill
  1559 Pope Paul IV - Giovanni Pietro Caraffa (1555-1559)
  1746 Lord Balmerino and the Earl of Kilmarnock, beheaded as Jacobite traitors, London
  1870 Prince Felix zu Salm-Salm, soldier-of-fortune, d/w, Gravellote-St. Privat
  1940 Hector Bywater, journalist & novelist ("The Great Pacific War"), at 55
  1989 Luis Carlos Galan, Colombian presidential candidate, assassinated
19 14 Augustus, Roman Emperor (27 BC-AD 14)
  1186 Geoffrey Plantagenet, brother of King Richard Lionheart, killed at Paris
  1493 Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III of Innsbruck (1440-1493), at 77
  1601 Voivode Michael "the Brave" of Transylvania
  1693 Patrick Sarsfield, Commander, the French “Brigade Irlandais,” kia, the Battle of Landen, saying "Would it were for Ireland."
  1936 Federico Garcia Lorca, Spanish poet, murdered
  1944 Guther von Kluge, German field marshal, suicide over surrender
  1974 Rodger P. Davies, US Amb to Cyprus, shot in the Embassy during an anti-American demonstration.
20 651 St. Oswin, King of Deria (642-651), Martyr
  984 Pope John XIV (983-984), as a prisoner of Anti-Pope Boniface VII
  1190 Bernard of Clairveaux, who inspired the Second Crusade
  1191 Richard I's Crusaders massacre c. 2,500 Moslem men, women, & childern at Acre
  1672 Johan de Witt, Dutch government official, lynched
  1723 Pope Pius VII - Barnaba Chiaramoni (1800-1823)
  1804 SGT Charles Floyd, of “bilious cholic” - the only fatality on the Lewis & Clark Expedition
  1985 Harchand Singh Longowai, Sikh leader, shot by Sikh extremists
  2006 Joe Rosenthal, who took a famous photograph, at 91
21 1131 King Baldwin II of Jerusalem
  1157 King Alfonso VII of Castille (1126-1157), at c. 52
  1190 Duke Godfried III of Brabant
  1425 Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus (1391-1425), at c. 75
  1482 Roberto "il Magnifico" Malatesta, Lord of Rimini (1468-1482), condottiero, murderer, kia, Campomorto
  1553 John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, beheaded in the Tower
  1940 Leo Trotsky, at 62, a day after being axed in the head
  1982 King Sobhuza II of Swaziland/Ngwane (1921-82)
  1983 Benigno Simeon Aquino, Philippine presidential candidate, assassinated
22 634 Abu Bakr, the first Caliph (632-634), at c. 60
  1188 King Ferdinand II of Castille & Leon
  1241 Pope Gregory IX - Count Ugolino of Segni (1227-1241)
  1280 Pope Nicholas III - Giocanni Gaetani Orsini (1277-1280) at c. 75
  1286 King Erik V of Denmark, murdered
  1350 King Philips VI de Valois of France (1328-50)
  1485 England's Richard III, unable to find a horse
  1711 Louis Francois, duc de Boufflers, Marshal of France
  1793 Louis Duke de Noailles, Marshal of France, at 80
  1818 Warren Hastings, sometime Governor General of India
  1922 Michael "Big Mike" Collins, Irish revolutionary hero, assassinated at 31
  1978 Jomo Kenyatta, President of Kenya, at 83
  2000 Abdufaz Eichibey, first president of Azerbaijan, in a coup attempt
23 93 Gnaeus Julius Agricola, Roman general, father-in-law of Tacitus
  408 Stilicho, Roman general, beheaded by an inept emperor
  1305 William Wallace, Scottish patriot, disemboweled
  1628 George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, murdered at 35
  1819 Oliver Hazard Perry, naval hero, yellow fever on his 34th birthday
  1927 Nicola Sacco & Bartolomeo Vanzetti, executed in Massachusetts
  1973 Eddie Rickenbacker, American ace, at 82
  1999 King Hassan II of Morocco (1961-1999), at 80
24 40 Caius Julius Agricola, Roman general, conqueror of the Iceni, at c. 53
  79 Pliny the Elder, admiral, naturalist, rescuing the victims of Mt. Vesuvius
  1103 King Magnus III of Norway (1093-1103)
  1313 Henry VII, German king & emperor (1308-1313)
  1572 Gaspard de Coligny, French admiral, beheaded
  1680 Col. Thomas Blood, who had stolen the Crown Jewels in 1671
  1954 Getulio Vargas, fascistic dictator of Brazil (1930-45, 51-54), suicide
  1970 Robert Fassnacht, by an "anti-war" bomb, U of Wisconsin
25 383 Flavius Gratianus, Roman emperor (375-383) assassinated at Lyon
  882 King Louis III of France (879-882)
  1270 St Louis IX, King of France (1226-70), of disease on Crusade in Egypt
  1313 Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII, at Siena
  1330 Sir James "the Black" Douglas, Scottish patriot, in Spain at c. 45
  1346 Louis of Nevers, Count of Flanders, in battle
  1942 The Duke of Kent, brother of King George VI, plane crash
  1945 Willis "Ching" Lee, premier USN battleship admiral, heart attack
  1967 George Lincoln Rockwell, fighter ace, Nazi, shot by follower
26 796 King Offa of Mercia (757-796)
  1260 Alberico da Romano, brother of Ezzelino "The Cruel," and his sons Alberico, Giovanni, Romano, Ugolino, drawn & quartered, as well as his wife Margherita and daughters Amabilia, Griselda, and Tornalisce, burned at the stake
  1278 King Ottokar II of Bohemia (1253-78), in battle
  1346 King Jean "the Blind" of Bohemia, kia at Crecy
  1346 Louis of Nevers, Count of Flanders, kia at Crecy
  1486 Ernst I of Saxony (1464-86), at 45
  1813 Karl Theodor Körner, Prussian war poet, kia at 22
  1921 Matthias Erzberger, German Minister of Finance, murdered by nationaists
  1974 Charles Lindbergh, intrepid flyer, enviromentalisst, Nazi dupe, anti-Semite, at 72
  1974 Prince Junio Valerio Borghese, Fascist condottiero, b. 1906
27 479 BC Aristodemos, Spartan survivor of Thermopylae, kia, Plataea, with c. 750 other patriotic Greeks
  479 BC Mardonios, Persian Satrap of Greece, kia, Plataea, with thousands of other Persians and numerous Medizing Greeks
  827 Pope Eugene II (824-827)
  1590 Pope Sixtus V - Felice Peretti (1585-1590)
  1919 Louis Botha, South African soldier and statesman
  1975 Haile Selassie, deposed Emperor of Ethiopia, at 83
  1979 Admiral of the Fleet Lord Louis Mountbatten, killed by the IRA
28 388 Magnus Maximus, usurping Roman Emperor(383-88) & his son Victorius, executed by Theodosius
  876 Louis the German, King of the East Franks (833-76)
  1354 "Fra Moriale" - Giovanni di Montréal du Bar - Captain of the "Great Company", beheaded in Rome by Cola di Reinzo
  1481 King Afonso V of Portugal
  1551 Fabrizio Colonna, Roman Noble, condottiero, kia by the Farnese, Vigolana
  1943 Boris III of Saxe-Coburg, King of Bulgaria (1918-43)
  1944 Ernst Thaelmann, German communist, in Buchenwald
  1955 Emmett Till, 14, lynched in Money, Mississippi
  1978 Bruce Catton, Civil War historian, at 78
29 29 John the Baptist, beheaded [Trad]
  238 Co-Emperors Pupienus & Balbinus (Apr 22-July 29, 238), murdered in the streets of Rome
  886 Byzantine Emperor Basil I "the Macedonian" (867-886)
  1261 Jacques Pantaléon is elected Pope as Urban IV (1261-1264)
  1315 Charles, Prince of Taranto, and his uncle Peter, Count of Eboli, condottiero, kia, Montecatini
  1533 Atahualpa, the last Inca, garotted by Pizarro
  1782 Admiral Kempenfeldt and c. 900 men, women, & children, as HMS Royal George(108) capsizes at dockside in Portsmouth
  1799 Pope Pius VI - Giovanni Anelico Braschi (1775-1799), a prisoner of the French
  1904 Sultan Murad V of Turkey (1876)
  1960 PM Hazza el-Majali of Jordan, assassinated with a bomb
  1972 Lale Anderson, German chanteuse ("Lili Marlene")
  1975 Eamon de Valera, Irish nationalist and president, at 92
  1981 Lowell Thomas, intrepid war correspondent, at 89
  1983 David Niven, soldier, actor ("Dawn Patrol"), at 74
  1987 Lee Marvin, Marine, actor ("The Big Red One"), at 63
30 536 Theodoric the Great, King of the Ostrogoths.
  1483 King Louis XI of France (1461-83), at 60
  1580 Duke Emanuel Philibert of Savoy, Viceroy of the Spanish Netherlands
  1800 Gabriel Prosser and 34 others, hanged at Richmond for “servile insurrection” [See Events]
  1879 John Bell Hood, Gen, C.S.A., who lost Atlanta, yellow fever at 48
  1918 Col. Bertram T. Clayton, Brooklyn cavalryman, air attack in the trenches; the ranking West Pointer (1881) kia in World War I
  1935 Henri Barbusse, WW I veteran, author ("Under Fire")
  1981 Mohammad Ali Rajai, Pres of Iran, a bomb
  1981 Mohammad Javad Bahonar, PM of Iran, a bomb
31 1057 Earl Leofric III of Mercia, husband to Lady Godiva, b. 968
  1158 King Sancho III of Castille
  1186 King Baldwin in V of Jerusalem (1183-1186), age 9.
  1422 Henry V of England (1413-22), at 35
  1888 Mary Ann Nicholls, Jack the Ripper's first victim
  1967 Ilia Ehrenburg, Soviet war poet
  2006 Guy Gabaldon, the “Pied Piper of Saipan,” at 80

Event
1 0 Air Force Day
  2 BC Temple of Mars Ultor is dedicated in Rome
  527 Justinian I becomes sole Roman Emperor (to 565)
  626 Persians & Avars abandon siege of Constantinople (begun June 29)
  939 Battle of Simancas: Asturians defeat the Andalucian Arabs
  1086 Oath of Salisbury: Landowners of England swear fealty to William the Conqueror
  1096 Peter the Hermit & the "Beggars' Crusader" reach Constantinople
  1209 Crusaders besiege Albigenian-held Carcassone (falls, 15th)
  1291 The Everlasting League: Uri, Schwyz, & Unterwalden unite to form Switzerland
  1354 Triumphant restoration of Cola di Rienzo to power in Rome (ousted Oct 8th)
  1423 Battle of Cravant: English longbowmen devastate attacking French
  1498 Christopher Columbus lands in Central America
  1578 Battle of Rimenant: Dutch defeat the Spanish
  1589 Monk Jacques Clement attempts to kill French King Henri III
  1619 First black slaves land at Jamestown, Virginia
  1664 Battle of Szentgotthard: Austrian crush Turkish invaders
  1675 Battle of Altenheim: The French defeat the Imperialists
  1759 Battle of Minden: English infantry attacks & routs French cavalry
  1781 Cornwallis' British army occupies Yorktown, Virginia
  1794 Whiskey Rebellion begins
  1801 U.S. schooner Enterprise captures Tripolitanian ship Tripoli
  1834 Slavery abolished in the British Empire
  1848 Battle of Crotta d'Adda: Austrians defeat the Piedmontese
  1863 Battle of Little Rock, Ark
  1864 Battle of Petersburg, Va
  1864 Phil Sheridan takes command of the Army of the Shenandoah
  1898 US and Spanish troops skirmish outside Manila
  1907 U.S. Signal Corps forms an Aviation Section
  1914 German Emperor Wilhelm II declares war on his nephew Tsar Nicholas II
  1917 Pope Benedict XV urges "an end to useless slaughter" and is totally ignored
  1918 British troops occupy Vladivostok
  1926 Assassination attempt on Spanish dictator Primo de Rivera in Barcelona
  1926 The Druze riot against the French in Damascus
  1936 Hitler opens the Berlin Olympics, the 11th modern games
  1940 Soviets occupy Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia
  1942 Allied fleets begin diversionary moves to mask the Guadalcanal operation
  1942 U.S. battlefleet departs San Francisco for Pearl Harbor
  1943 Blackett Str: "Tokyo Express" to Kolombangara tangles with 15 PT-boats
  1943 Japan declares Burma independent under U Ba Maw
  1943 Kiska: U.S. surface ships shell suspected Japanese positions.
  1944 Chinese hold Japanese before Hengyang.
  1944 George S. Patton's Third Army begins 281 days of operations
  1944 Marines crush Japanese resistance on Tinian.
  1944 The Warsaw Uprising: the Polish Home Army begins a 62-day insurrection against the Nazis, as the Soviets stand idle nearby
  1945 B-29s raid Toyama, Japan
  1945 The Yangtze: U.S. air dropped mines sink or damage 47 Japanese ships.
  1946 Office of Naval Research is established
  1950 King Leopold of Belgium abdicates in favor of his son Baudouin
  1958 USS Nautilus passes beneath the Arctic ice-pack [See Aug 3]
  1961 East Germany limits traffic to West Berlin, Cold War intensifies
  1966 Britain disbands the Colonial Office - the Empire is over
  1966 UT Austin: former Marine Charles Whitman leaves 13 dead, 31 wounded
  1975 Helsinki Pact guaranteeing boundaries and civil rights in Europe
2 47 BC “Veni, Vidi, Vici”; Caesar defeats Pharnaces at Zela
  216 BC Battle of Cannae: Hannibal crushes a Roman Army
  1057 Federick of Lorraine elected Pope as Stephen X [IX] (1057-1058)
  1247 HR Emperor Frederick II besieges Parma (lifted Feb 18, 1248)
  1492 Jews are expelled from Spain by King Ferdinand & Queen Isabella
  1530 Battle of Gavinara: Spanish-Medician forces defeat the Florentines
  1554 Battle of Marciano: Spanish-Medician forces defeat the Franco-Sienese near Florence
  1740 First public performance of Thompson's & Arne's "Rule, Britannia!"
  1770 Battle of the Pruth: Russians defeat the Turks, who lose 20,000
  1776 Formal signing of the Declaration of Independence begins
  1776 Royal Navy lands 32,000 British & Hessians on Staten I, off New York
  1802 Napoleon Bonaparte declares hiimself "Consul for Life"
  1819 First parachute jump in the US, from a balloon
  1831 Dutch invade secessionist Belgium (withdraw Aug 12)
  1832 Battle of the Bad Axe River: final action of the Black Hawk War, many Indians slain
  1861 Skirmish at Dug Springs, Mo
  1865 C.S.S. Shenandoah learns the Civil War is over - four months late
  1867 Wagon Box Fight: c. 30 army woodcutters defeat c. 1000 Sioux
  1887 Rowell Hodge receives a patent for barbed wire
  1903 Macedonians began an unsuccessful uprising against the Turks
  1904 British capture Lhasa, Tibet
  1911 Dictator Antoine Simon flees Haiti in a US warship
  1914 German troops invade Luxembourg
  1914 Russian troops invade Eastern Prussia
  1917 Sqn Cdr Edwin Harris Dunning, DSC, becomes the first man to land an airplane on a moving ship, a Sopwith Pup on HMS Furious at Scapa Flow
  1928 Mussolini signs peace treaty with Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
  1931 Albert Einstein urges scientists to refuse military work
  1934 German Armed Forces swear a "Holy Oath" to the unholy Adolf Hitler
  1941 Jews are expelled from Hungarian Ruthenia
  1943 Blackett Str: JFK's PT-109 rammed & sunk by HIJMS Amagiri.
  1943 New Georgia: 27th RCT arrives to reinforce U.S. troops.
  1943 Riot at Treblinka Concentration Camp
  1944 Burma: Chinese troops heavily engaged at Teng-chung.
  1944 Turkey breaks diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany
  1945 B-29s drop 6,600 tons of bombs on five Japanese cities.
  1950 The 1st Marine Provisional Bde lands at Pusan
  1964 Gulf of Tonkin: North Vietnamese PT boats attack USS Maddox
  1990 Iraq invades & occupies Kuwait - onset of Desert Shield/Desert Storm
3 9 Tiberius defeats the Pannonian Pirustae & Desidiates
  1108 Louis VI crowned King of France
  1460 Scots capture & raze Roseburgh.
  1492 Columbus sails from Palos on the most momentous voyage in history
  1529 Treaty of Cambrai ("The Lady's Peace"): Francis I accepts Spanish domination of Italy, temporarily
  1530 The Medici return to Florence
  1578 "Battle of the Three Kings" - Wadi Al-makhazin: Moroccans defeat Portuguese & rebels
  1601 Battle of Guruslau: Michael the Brave's Imperial-Romanian forces defeat the Poles
  1644 First Battle of Freiburg: French defeat the Bavarians
  1645 Battle of Allersheim
  1692 Battle of Steenkerken: The French defeat the English & Germans
  1758 Naval Battle of Negapatam: English defeat the French off India
  1796 Battle of Lonato: The French defeat the Austrians
  1797 Bohemia: Emperor Francis I permits Jewish veterans to marry non-Jews
  1804 USN squadron bombards Tripoli
  1812 US Frigate Essex captures the British brig Brothers
  1848 Battle of Milan: Austrians defeat the Piedmontese
  1849 Roman Republic surrenders to the French
  1861 First manned balloon ascent from a ship, USS Fanny, Hampton Roads
  1861 Navy authorizes three ironclads: Monitor, Galena, & New Ironsides
  1861 Skirmish at Massila, NM
  1914 Germany declares war on France
  1914 Germany invades Belgium, besieges Liege
  1914 Germany invades Luxembourg
  1914 Great Britain declares war on Germany
  1915 Second Battle of the Isonzo ends (from July 18)
  1917 N.Y. Guard established
  1919 Romanians capture Budapest, to oust the “Hungarian Soviet Socialist Republic”
  1940 Italian troops attack British Somaliland
  1940 Lithuania is annexed by the USSR
  1942 Japanese Army begins forming armored divisions in Manchuria.
  1942 Mildred McAffee becomes the first woman officer in the Naval Reserve.
  1943 New Georgia: Fijian and Solomons join US forces.
  1943 Patton slaps Pvt Charles H. Kuhl,1st Infantry Division at the 15th Evac Hospital, near Nicosia, Sicily
  1944 Auschwitz-Birkenau: 4,000 gypsies murdered
  1944 Burma: Allied troops conquer Myitkyina, reopening the Burma Road
  1958 "Nautilus 90 North"
  1990 US announces commitment of naval forces to the Persian Gulf
4 0 Coast Guard Day
  1135 Pisans sack Amalfi
  1265 Battle of Evesham: Prince Edward [I] defeats Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, to end the 2nd Baron's War
  1347 English troops capture Calais
  1645 Battle of Nordlingen: French defeat the Imperialists
  1693 Dom Perignon invents champagne
  1735 Journalist John Peter Zenger cleared of slander charges
  1753 George Washington becomes a Master Mason
  1790 Revenue Cutter Service formed, the origins of the USCG
  1846 USS Congress captures Santa Barbara, Ca
  1870 Battle of Weissenburg: Prussians defeat the French
  1900 Battle of Elands River: 400 Australians defeat 2,500 Boers
  1903 Giuseppe Sarto elected Pope as Pius X (1903-1914), later canonized
  1914 Germany invades Belgium, Britain enters the war
  1914 Siegfried Sassoon enlists in the Sussex Yeomanry
  1916 US agrees to buy the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million
  1917 Pravda calls for killing of capitalists, priests, & officers
  1917 US takes title to the Virgin Islands from Denmark
  1918 Adolph Hitler earns an Iron Cross, First Class
  1927 Peace Bridge between US & Canada opened
  1929 60,000 Nazi Storm Troopers march in Munich
  1936 Ioannis Metaxas names himself dictator of Greece
  1942 G. C. Kenney takes command of Allied AF SW Pacific, under MacArthur.
  1942 U.S. destroyer Tucker is mined at Espiritu Santo.
  1943 Kiska: USAAF bombers drop 152 tons of bombs
  1943 Munda, New Georgia: U.S. troops close in on Japanese airfield.
  1944 Anne Frank and her family are betrayed to the Nazis
  1944 Burma: Chinese troops finally break into Teng-chung on the Salween.
  1944 Guam: Army and Marine forces cut Japanese defenders into two groups.
  1944 T. D. Dean, RAF, scores the first V-1, by "tipping" it's wing
  1964 Gulf of Tonkin: US DDs report second attack by North Vietnamese PT boats
5 54 BC Caesar defeats the Britons under Cassivellaunus in Hertsfordshire
  135 Romans capture last Jewish stronghold of the Bar Kochba Revolt
  642 Battle of Maserfeld: King Penda of Mercia defeats King Oswald of Northumbria
  1063 Battle of Snowdonia: Harold Godwinson defeats King Gruffydd ap Llywelyn of Wales
  1192 Battle of Jaffa: a greatly outnumbered Richard Lionheart defeats Saladin
  1264 Anti-Jewish riots in Arnstadt, Germany
  1391 Arsonists kill c. 200 Jews in Barcelona
  1435 Battle of Ponza: Franco-Genovese fleet defeats the Aragonese off Gaeta
  1598 Battle of Traigh Gruinart: Sir James MacDonald of Islay defeats Sir Lachlan MacLean of Duart
  1600 Battle of Perth: King James VI of Scotland defeats the Earl of Gowrie
  1620 The Mayflower & Speedwell sail from Plymouth.
  1644 Second Battle of Freiburg: Bavarians defeat the French
  1716 Battle of Peterwardein: Austria's Eugene of Savoy (40,000) routs 150,000 Turks
  1763 Battle of Bushy Run: Henry Bosquet defeats Pontiac
  1772 First Partition of Poland: Austria, Prussia & Russia annex vast areas
  1781 Battle of Dogger Bank: Royal Navy defeats the Dutch
  1796 2nd Battle of Castiglione: Austrians defeat Bonaparte, but surrender anyway.
  1812 Battle of Brownstone Creek: Tecumseh routs Col Thomas Van Horn's Americans
  1830 Algiers surrenders to the French
  1832 1st Royal visit to a U.S. warship; USS Potomac hosts King Kamehameha III of Hawaii
  1857 HMS Agamemnon & USS Niagara commence laying the first Atlantic cable, at Valentia, Ireland
  1858 After many vicissitudes, HMS Agamemnon & USS Niagara complete first Atlantic cable
  1861 Skirmish at Athens, Mo
  1861 US Army abolishes flogging
  1861 US levies first income tax; 3% on incomes over $800.
  1862 Battle of Baton Rouge, LA
  1864 Battle of Mobile Bay: Farragut "damns" the torpedoes
  1873 Massacre Creek: Sioux slay 350 Pawnee men, women, & children
  1884 Work begins at Ft. Wood, in New York harbor, for the erection of the Statue of Liberty
  1898 US and Spanish troops skirmish outside Manila
  1898 US landing party goes ashore at Cape San Juan, Puerto Rico
  1898 US troops land at Guayamo, Puerto Rico
  1915 German troops capture Warsaw
  1921 Yangtze River Patrol Force established within the Asiatic Fleet.
  1936 Berlin Olympics: Jesse Owens wins his third medal
  1940 Nazis blow up the Zandvoortse Synagogue, Netherlands
  1942 Blockade running Japanese submarine I-30 arrives at L'Orient, France.
  1942 Japanese convoy leaves Rabaul with reinforcements for Buna.
  1942 Japanese superbattleship Musashi is commissioned.
  1943 Soviet forces liberate Orel & Belgorod
  1944 TF 58 raids Iwo Jima and Chichi Jima.
  1945 China: Chinese forces recapture Tanchuk and Hsinning
  1947 India and Pakistan become independent, and promptly go to war
  1963 Britain, US, & USSR sign a limited nuclear test ban treaty
  1964 US begins bombing of North Vietnam
6 761 Battle of Aedwiresclif: King Moll of Northumbria defeats King Oswine of Deira
  910 Battle of Tettenhall: King Edward the Elder of Wessex defeats the Danes
  1187 Saladin takes Beirut
  1284 Naval Battle of Meloria: Genoese defeat the Pisans
  1534 Turkish corsair Khairaidin Barbarossa sacks Fondi
  1623 Battle of Stadtlohn: Tilly's Imperials defeat Christian of Brunswick
  1623 Maffeo Barberini elected Pope as Urban VIII (1623-1644)
  1734 Austrian-held Gaeta (invested July 15), surrenders to Carlo IV of Naples
  1780 Battle of Hanging Rock: Tarleton’s dragoons annihilate an American column – Andrew Jackson (13) becomes a P/W
  1806 Holy Roman Empire is dissolved
  1813 Battle of Caracas: Columbian patriots under Bolivar defeat the Spanish
  1825 Bolivia gains independence from Peru
  1848 HMS Daedelus spots a sea serpent in the South Atlantic
  1862 CSS Arkansas is blown up to prevent capture by US
  1864 Rebels evacuate Ft Powell, Mobile Bay
  1870 Battle of Spicheren: Prussians force French to retreat
  1870 Battle of Worth: Prussians defeat outnumbered French in eight hour fight
  1914 Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia
  1914 Serbia declares war on Germany
  1914 The first air raid of WWI: German Zeppelins bomb Antwerp.
  1916 Sixth Battle of the Isonzo begins (to Aug 16)
  1918 Ferdinand Foch promoted to Marshal of France
  1919 Romanians capture Budapest, to destroy Bela Kun's Hungarian Communist Republic
  1927 Bombs explode in two NYC subway stations, one dead, many injured.
  1930 "Where is Judge Crater?" - Joseph F. Crater disappears forever.
  1937 Spanish Nationalists shell Madrid for the first time
  1942 MacArthur creates the New Guinea Force, under Aussie Gen Thomas Blamey.
  1943 New Georgia: U.S. troops pursue Japanese forces into the interior.
  1943 U.S. engineers begin to repair the Munda airstrip.
  1943 Vella Gulf: "Tokyo Express" bound for Kolombangara loses 3 of 4 DDs.
  1944 German counter attack at Avranches fails
  1944 Japanese troops advance on Hengyang, against heavy Chinese resistance.
  1944 Lodz, Poland: Nazis begin deportation of 70,000 Jews to Auschwitz
  1944 US aircraft begin raiding the Philippines from bases in New Guinea.
  1945 A-Bomb destroys Hiroshima, over 75,000 die.
  2001 Pres. Bush briefed on threat of Al Qaeda air hijackings (See 9/11)
7 480 BC Thermopylae [Alt]
  768 Consecration of Pope Stephen III [IV] (768-772)
  1297 Battle of Lochmabe: Henry Percy defeats the Scots
  1316 Jacques d'Euse is elected Pope as John XXII (1316-1334)
  1479 Battle of Guinegate: Emperor Maximilian I defeats King Louis XI of France
  1495 Worms: the Diet abolishes private warfare in the Holy Roman Empire
  1498 Pope Alexander VI grants his son Cesare Borgia dispensation from Holy Orders, provided he forfeit ecclessiastical benefices totalling 35,000 gold florins annually
  1594 Battle of the Biscuits: Irish defeat English, who abandon their rations
  1750 Slave uprising in Curacao
  1760 Ft Loudon, Tennessee, surrenders to Cherokee Indians
  1777 Americans win two day battle at Oriskany, New York
  1782 George Washington creates the Badge of Military Merit - the Purple Heart
  1789 US War Department established
  1819 Battle of Boyaca: Bolivar defeats Spanish in Colombia
  1830 Louis Philippe becomes "Citizen-King" of France (1830-1848)
  1861 Skirmis