The Strategypage is a comprehensive summary of military news and affairs.
 News As History - December 2, 2008



February Military History

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

Born
1 1805 Auguste Blanqui, French radical revolutionary
  1807 William Bowen Campbell, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1867
  1819 Henry Lawrence Eustis, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1885
  1829 John Potts Slough, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1867
  1895 John Ford, director ("She Wore a Yellow Ribbon," etc.)
  1896 Anastasio Somoza President of Nicaragua (1937-56)
  1901 Clark Gable, airman, actor (“Run Silent, Run Deep”)
  1931 Boris Yeltsin, President of the Russian Federation (1991-1999)
2 1208 King Jaime I "the Conqueror" of Aragon (1213-1276), Liberator of Valenica & the Balearics
  1649 Pierfrancesco Orsini - Pope Benedict XIII (1724-1730)
  1650 Nell Gwynne, actress, Charles II’s favorite mistress, d. 1687
  1754 Charles de Talleyrand, "a silk stocking full of shit"
  1803 Albert Sidney Johnston, Gen, C.S.A., KIA in 1862
  1815 Nathaniel Collins McLean, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1905
  1827 Abner Monroe Perrin, Brig Gen, C.S., KIA, 1864
  1859 Havelock Ellis, sexologist (“A Sexual History of the Great War”)
  1861 Sultan Mohammed VI of Turkey (1918-22)
  1890 Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, Marshal of France
  1928 Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, President of France (1974-81)
  2338 Lt. Cdr. Data
3 1368 King Charles VI of France (1380-1422)
  1721 Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, Prussian field marshal, d. 1773
  1805 Samuel Ryan Curtis, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1866
  1807 Joseph Eggleston Johnston, Gen, C.S.A., d. 1891
  1824 George Thomas "Tige" Anderson, Brig Gen, C.S.A.,
  1824 Nathan George "Shanks" Evans, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1868
  1894 Juan Negrín, Premier of the Spanish Republic (1936-39) 
  1904 Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd
  1907 James Michener, naval officer, author ("South Pacific")
4 1747 Tadeusz Kosciuszko, Polish and American patriot
  1819 Joshua Norton, Emperor of America, Protector of Mexico
  1826 Halbert Eleazer Paine, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1905
  1881 Marshal Klimenti Voroshilov, President USSR (1953-60)
  1895 Hans Rauter, German SS police chief in the Netherlands
  1902 Charles A Lindbergh, aviator, isolationist, Nazi dupe
  1904 McKinley Kantor, novelist. historian (“Andersonville”)
  1906 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, anti-Nazi theologian, executed 1945
5 1723 John Witherspoon, Signer of the Declaration of Independence
  1840 Hiram Stevens Maxim, who invented a clever device
  1848 Belle Starr, noted lady outlaw, d. 1889
  1919 Aaron Chwatt - Red Buttons, actor (SGT Joe Kelly in “Sayonara”)
  1919 Andreas Papandreou, USN, WW II, Greek PM, d. 1996
  1942 Roger Staubach, USNA Heisman winner, 1963
6 1536 Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who unified Japan
  1756 Aaron Burr, war hero, VEEP, unindicted traitor
  1830 Marcellus Monroe Crocker, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1865
  1832 John Brown Gordon, Maj Gen, C.S.A., d. 1904
  1833 James Ewell Brown "JEB" Stuart, Maj Gen, C.S.A., KIA, 1864
  1834 William Dorsey Pender, Maj Gen, C.S.A., d/w 1863
  1889 Elmo Lincoln, d. 1952
  1890 Anthony Fokker, aircraft designer
  1908 Gen Edward Lansdale, the not so “Ugly American”
  1912 Eva Braun, mistress & wife of Adolph Hitler, suicide 1945
  1961 Yuri I Onufriyenko, Cosmonaut
7 1740 Count Adam Philippe de Custine, French general
  1817 Frederick Douglass, American
  1817 Leroy Pope Walker, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1884
  1906 Henry Pu-yi, "The Last Emperor"
8 412 St Proclus, Patriarch of Constantinople
  1291 King Afonso IV of Portugal (1325-57)
  1577 Beatrice Cenci, noblewoman, executed 1599 for murdering her father
  1712 Joseph de Montcalm, French general, KIA, Quebec, 1759
  1788 Robert Peel, Prime Minister of the UK, 1850
  1811 Edwin Denison Morgan, sometime Confederate SecWar, d. 1883
  1817 Richard Stoddert Ewell, Lt Gen, C.S.A., d. 1872
  1820 William Tecumseh Sherman, army officer, U.S., d. 1891
  1824 Barnard Elliot Bee, Brig Gen, C.S.A., KIA 1861
  1828 Jules Verne
  1892 Fritz Todt, head of Hitler's construction service (see Deaths)
9 1409 Constantine XI, the last Byzantine Emperor (1449-1453)
  1773 William Henry Harrison, general, President, 1841
  1826 John Alexander Logan, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1886
  1830 Sultan Abdul Aziz of Turkey (1861-76)
  1903 Brian Donlevy, actor (“Wake Island”)
  1909 Dean Rusk, army officer, Secretary of State (1961-69)
  1912 Adm Thomas H. Moorer, CNO (1967-70), C/JCS (1970-74), d. 2004
10 1609 Sir John Suckling, Cavalier poet
  1807 Abner Clark Harding, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1874
  1821 William Read Scurry, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d/w 1864
  1846 Charles Beresford, boneheaded British Admiral, Member of Parliament, d. 1919
  1891 Gen Sir Harold Alexander - Earl Alexander of Tunis
  1894 Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister of the UK, d. 1986
11 530 BC Aristides “the Just” of Athens, d. 468
  1466 Elizabeth of York, sister to the Princes of the Tower, Mrs. Henry VII
  1535 Niccolo Spondrati - Pope Gregory XIV (1590-1591)
  1805 Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, to Toussaint & Sacajawea Charbonneau, during the Lewis & Clark Expedition, d. 1866
  1812 Alexander Stevens, Vice-President, CSA, d. 1883
  1812 Benjamin Franklin Sands, naval officer, U.S., d. 1883
  1829 William Anderson Pile, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1889
  1840 Samuel Dana Greene, naval officer, U.S., d. 1884
  1847 Thomas A. Edison
  1898 Leo Szilard, nuclear weaponeer, peace activist
  1920 King Farouk I of Egypt (1936-52)
  1938 Gen Manuel Antonio Noriega, Panamanian dictator
12 1211 Henry II/VII von Hohenstaufen, King of Sicily, titular King of the Germans (1220-35)
  1443 Giovanni II Bentivoglio, condottiero, Lord of Bologna (1463-1506) until deposed by Julius II, d. 1508 (see Deaths)
  1768 Francis II, last Holy Roman Emperor (1792-1806)
  1809 Abraham Lincoln, militiaman, volunteer, 1832
  1828 Robert Ransom Jr., Maj Gen, C.S.A., d. 1892
  1838 Charles Carroll Walcutt, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1898
  1893 General of the Army Omar Bradley, 'The GI General'
  1915 Andrew J Goodpaster, American army officer
13 1599 Fabio Chigi - Pope Alexander VII (1655-1667)
  1831 John A. Rawlins, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1869
  1833 William Whedbee Kirkland, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1915
  1849 Lord Randolph Churchill, who had a famous son
  1887 Alvin York, who captured "the whole damned German Army"
  1923 Chuck Yeager, airman
14 1462 Edward I the Great, Earl of East-Friesland (1494-1528)
  1483 Zahir al-Din Mohammed Babur Shah, the First Mogul
  1515 Elector Frederick III “the Pious” of the Palatine
  1813 John McNeil, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1891
  1819 James Green Martin, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1878
  1824 Winfield Scott Hancock, Maj Gen, U.S., "The Superb," d. 1886
  1829 Alfred Iverson Jr., Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1911
  1921 Skeezix Wallet, Pvt, U.S. Army, World War II
  1929 Vic Morrow, actor (“Combat”), d. 1982
  1945 Prince Hans-Adam II of Lichtenstein
  1947 Pham Tuan, first Vietnamese in space, Soyuz 37
15 37 Nero, Roman Emperor (54-68)
  1368 Sigismund, King of Hungary and Bohemia (1410-37), Holy Roman Emperor (1433-1437)
  1483 Babur, first Mughal Emperor of India (1526-30)
  1519 Pedro Menendez de Aviles, Conquistador, founder of St Augustine
  1650 Duke Anne Jules de Noailles, Marshal of France
  1710 King Louis XV the "Well-Beloved" of France (1715-74)
  1726 Abraham Clark, Signer of the Declaration of Independence
  1795 Charles Niellon, general, Belgian War for Independence, 1831
  1835 Alexander Stuart Webb, Maj Gen, U.S., who held “The Angle,” d. 1911
  1845 Elihu Root, reforming SecWar (1901-05), State (1905-09), Peace Nobelist, d 1937
  1892 James Forrestal, Navy Cross, SecNav, first SecDef
  1922 Herman Kahn, strategist (“Thinking About the Unthinkable”)
  1929 James Schlesinger, SecDef (1973-75)
16 1519 Gaspard de Coligny, French admiral, Huguenot leader
  1620 Frederick William “the Great Elector” of Brandenburg  
  1807 Lysander Cutler, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1866
  1813 Joseph Reid Anderson, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1892
  1822 James Patton Anderson, Maj Gen, C.S.A., d. 1872
  1823 John D Imboden, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1895
  1832 Camille Armand Jules Marie de Polignac, Maj Gen, C.S.A. & French Army
  1904 George F Kennan, inventor of "Containment"
  1942 Kim Jong-Il, “Dear Leader” of North-Korea (1994- )
17 1490 Charles III, Duke of Bourbon-Montpensier, Constable of France, soldier, traitor, mercenary, kia Rome, 1527
  1519 Francois de Guise, who captured Calais for France
  1804 Samuel Read Anderson, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1883
  1821 Lola Montez, adventuress with a talen for orality, d. 1861
  1824 William Farrar "Baldy" Smith, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1903
  1837 Francis Jay Herron, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1902
  1854 Friedrich Krupp, “Merchant of Death”
  1855 Otto Liman von Sanders, Germano-Turkish Commander, 1916-1918
  1877 Andre Maginot, French soldier, War Minister, d. 1932
  1880 Alvaro Obregon, general, President of Mexico (1920-24)
  1892 Theodore Pliver, German novelist (“Moscow”)
  1929 Yasser Arafat, “He never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity” – d. 2004
18 1516 "Bloody" Mary I (1553-58), first Queen Regnant of England
  1805 Louis Malesherbes Goldsborough, Rear Adm, U.S.
  1817 Lewis A. Armistead, Brig Gen, C.S.A., kia, Gettysburg
  1817 Walter Page Lane, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1892
  1829 Jean Jacques Alfred Mouton, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1864
  1833 James Deshler, Brig Gen, C.S.A., KIA, 1863
  1895 Marshal of the Soviet Union Semion Timoshenko, d. 1970
  1899 Sir Arthur Bryant, historian
  1903 Nikolaj V Podgorny, President of the USSR (1965-77)
  1920 Eddie Slovik, PVT, USA, executed, 1945
  1920 Jack Palance, actor (“Attack!”)
  1925 George Kennedy, army officer, actor
19 1683 King Philip V of Spain (1700-24 & 1724-46)
  1817 King William III of the Netherlands (1849-90), last male Dutch sovereign
  1960 Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, naval officer
20 1809 Henry Walton Wessells, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1889
  1820 Mahlon Dickerson Manson, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1895
  1827 Edward Stuyvesant Bragg, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1912
  1838 James Barbour Terrill, Brig Gen, C.S..A., d. 1864
  1844 Joshua Slocum, first solo circumnavigator (1895-1898), lost at sea 1909
  1886 Bela Kun, head of Hungarian Soviet Republic (1919)
21 1417 Duke Louis IX of Bavaria
  1484 Elector Joachim I Nestor of Brandenburg
  1608 Raimondo, Count of Montecúccoli, Imperial Field Marshal, d. 1680
  1688 Queen Ulrike Eleanora of Sweden (1718-1720), abdicated, d. 1741
  1728 Tsar Peter III (1762), unfortunate husband of Catherine the Great
  1794 Antonio López de Santa Anna
  1800 John Henry Winder, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1865
  1802 George Douglas Ramsey, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1882
  1829 Johnson Hagood, Brig Gen, C.S.A, d. 1898
  1937 King Harald V of Norway
22 1403 King Charles VII of France (1422-1461)
  1440 King Ladislaus V “the Posthumus” of Hungary and Bohemia
  1440 Ladislas II, King of Bohemia (1471-1516) and Hungary (1490-1516)
  1514 Shah Tahmasp I of Persia (1524-76)
  1732 "First in war, first in peace, ...."
  1797 Wilhelm I, King of Prussia (1861-88), German Emperor (1871-88)
  1798 Charles Mynn Thruston, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1873
  1827 James Barnet Fry, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1894
  1828 Robert Alexander Cameron, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1894
  1857 Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts
  1908 Rómulo Betancourt, Pres of Venezuela (1945-48, 1958-64)
  1932 Edward "Ted" Kennedy, sometime soldier
23 1417 Pietro Barbo - Pope Paul II (1464-71)
  1440 Mathias I, King of Hungary
  1633 Samuel Pepys, Lord of the Admiralty, diarist
  1818 Jeremy Francis Gilmer, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1883
  1824 Lewis Cass Hunt, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1886
  1838 Gilbert Moxley Sorrel, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1901
  1904 William L Shirer, historian ("The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich")
  1915 Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay, d. 2007
  1960 Crown Prince Naruhito of Japan
24 1304 Muhammad ibn Battutah, intrepid world traveller
  1500 Charles V of the HRE (1519-1556), I of Spain (1516-56)
  1545 Don Juan of Austria, Hero of Lepanto, illegitimate son of Charles V
  1556 Ippolito Aldofireini - Pope Clement VIII (1592-1605)
  1557 Mathias, never-crowned Holy Roman Emperor (1612-1619)
  1684 Tsarina Catherine I of Russia (1725-27)
  1811 Edward Dickinson Baker, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1861
  1824 John Crawford Vaughn, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1875
  1827 Charles Davis Jameson, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1862
  1838 Thomas Benton Smith, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1923
  1885 Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, d. 1966
  1898 Kurt Tank, German aircraft designer, WW II
25 1635 Count Walraad “the Old” of Nassau-Usingen, Dutch field marshal
  1643 Sultan Ahmed II of Turkey (1691-95)
  1778 Jose Francisco de San Martin, The Liberator
  1808 James Bowen, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1886
  1809 George Washington Cullum, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1892
  1815 Robert Hall Chilton, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1879
  1833 Clement Anselm Evans, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1911
  1881 William Z. Foster, perennial CPUS presidential candidate (1924-1932)
  1888 John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State (1953-59), Cold Warrior
  1894 Ernst Friedrich, pacifist ("War Against War!")
  1953 Jose Maria Aznar Lopez, Premier of Spain (1996-2004)
26 1361 Wenceslaus, King of Bohemia, of Germany (1378-1400)
  1802 Victor Hugo
  1832 John George Nicolay, Lincoln’s secretary, later SecState
  1845 Tsar Alexander III Russia (1881-94) (3/10 New Style)
  1846 William "Buffalo Bill" Cody, frontiersman
  1861 Ferdinand, Prince (1887-) and Tsar (1908-1918) of Bulgaria,  d. 1948.
  1869 Nadezda K Krupskaia, Revolutionary, Lenin’s wife
  1958 Susan J Helms, USAF, Astronaut
27 273 Constantine the Great, Roman Emperor (312-37)
  1792 Don Joaquin Espartero, Spanish general
  1823 Ferdinand Van Derveer, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1892
  1823 William Buel Franklin, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1903
  1827 Richard W Johnson, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1897
  1886 Hugo L Black, veteran, Senator, Supreme Court Justice
28 1712 Louis Joseph de Montcalm de Saint-Véran, kia, Quebec, 1759
  1797 Prince Frederick of Netherlands, inept commander at Waterloo
  1817 James Craig, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1888
  1822 Matthew Duncan Ector, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1879
  1824 John Creed Moore, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1910
  1825 Quincy Adams Gillmore, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1888
  1833 Count Alfred von Schlieffen, alleged military genius
  1893 Col. John W. Thomason, USMC, "The Kipling of the Corps", d. 1944
  1907 Milton Caniff, cartoonist (“Terry & the Pirates”, “Steve Canyon”)
  1912 Clara Petacci, lover of Mussolini, k. 1945
  1926 Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin’s daughter, American
29 1468 Alessandro Farnese - Pope Paul III (1534-1549)
  1784 John E. Wool, Maj.; Gen., U.S., d. 1869
  1792 Gioacchino Rossini, composer (“Guillaume Tell“)
  1828 Antonio Guzman Blanco, president Venezuela
  1840 John P Holland, inventor of the true submarine, d. 1912
  1908 Dee Brown, author (“Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee”), d. 2002

Died
1 656 King Sigebert III of Austrasia, at about 25
  1204 Emperor Alexius IV Angelus of Byzantium (1203-04), murdered
  1248 Duke Hendrik II of Brabant (1235-48)
  1294 Margraf Louis II “the Stern” of Upper-Bavaria
  1328 King Charles IV "the Fair" of France(1322-28)
  1666 Shah Jahan, Mogul of India, who built the Taj Mahal
  1691 Pope Alexander VIII - Pietro Ottoboni - (1689-91), at 80
  1733 Augustus II "the Strong" of Poland and Saxony, leaving c. 350 childre
  1851 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, mother of “Frankenstein,” at 53
  1873 Matthew Maury, oceanographer, Confederate naval officer
  1898 Pedro Antonio Zia Martinez, last Spanish veteran of Trafalgar, at 109, in Texas
  1908 Carlos I, King of Portugal (1889-1908), killed by a mob in Lisbon
  1908 Luis Phillip, Crown Prince of Portugal, killed by a mob in Lisbon
  1945 Johan Huizinga, Dutch medievalist, at 72
  1957 Field Marshal Friedrich von Paulus, at 66
  1986 Alva Myrdal, Nobel peace laureate, 1982, at 84
  2003 David M. Brown, Space Shuttle Columbia
  2003 Ilan Ramon, first Israeli astronaut, Space Shuttle Columbia
  2003 Kalpana Chawla, Space Shuttle Columbia
  2003 Laurel Clark, Space Shuttle Columbia
  2003 Michael P. Anderson, Space Shuttle Columbia
  2003 Rick D. Husband, pilot of Space Shuttle Columbia
  2003 William C. McCool, Space Shuttle Columbia
2 1014 King Sweyn I "Forkbeard" of Denmark (987-1014), at c. 48
  1032 King Rudolf III of Burgundy
  1435 Queen Giovanna II of Naples (1414-35), at 61, after a risqué reign
  1451 Sultan Murad II of the Ottomans
  1556 Over 800,000 people, earthquake in Shaaxi and Henan, China
  1685 King Charles II of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1660-85)
  1769 Pope Clement XIII - Carlo Rezzonico - (1758-69), at 75 
  1828 Vice-Adm Count Frederik Sigismund of Bylandt, RNN, at 78
  1836 Letitia Bonaparte-Ramolino, Napoleon's mother, at 85
  1945 Karl Goerdeler, anti-Nazi Mayor of Leipzig, hanged at 60
  1970 Bertrand Russell, pacifist, weather permitting, at 98
  1981 Donald W Douglas, designer of the DC-3, at 88
  1987 Alistair MacLean, novelist (“The Guns of Navarrone”)
  2004 Max Schmeling, Hitler’s heavyweight, Fallschirmjaeger, at 99
3 474 Byzantine Emperor Leo I (457-474)
  1116 King Koloman of Hungary (1095-1116), at c. 45
  1399 John of Gaunt, son of Edward III, at 58
  1451 Sultan Murad II of Turkey (1421-51)
  1924 Thomas Woodrow Wilson, President (1913-21)
  1943 Fr. John P. Washington (b. 1908), in the Dorchester
  1943 Rabbi Alexander Goode (b. 1911), in the Dorchester
  1943 Rev. Clark V. Poling (b. 1910), in the Dorchester
  1943 Rev. George Fox (b. 1900), in the Dorchester
  1969 Eduardo C Mondlane, president FRELIMO, Mozambique, murdered
  1984 Ravindara Mhatrem, Indian diplomat, murdered in England
4 211 Roman Emperor Septimius Severus (193-211), at 64
  708 Pope Sisinnius (15 Jan- 4 Feb 708)
  999 Pope Gregory V (996-999), the first German pope
  1699 350 Streltsi, executed in Moscow by Peter the Great
  1781 Willem Crul, Dutch Admiral, kia at 59, the West Indies
5 46 BC Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica and thousands of other Optimates, kia at Thapsus
  1597 The Japanese Martyrs: 26 Christian missionaries & converts, executed
  1807 Pasquale Paoli, Corsican patriot, in exile in Britain, at 80
  1822 Ali Pasha of Ianninia, Turkish governor
  1911 Petrus A Cronje, Transvaal Boer general
  1922 Christiaan R de Wet, Boer general, at 67
  1943 Gen. Hendrik Seyffardt, Dutch Quisling, killed by the Resistance
  1948 Johann Blaskowitz, German general
  2004 Adm Thomas H. Moorer, CNO (1967-70), C/JCS (1970-74), b. 1912
6 743 Caliph Hisham ibn 'Abd al-Malik of Baghad (724-743), at c. 52
  891 St. Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople
  1685 King Charles II of Great Britain
  1695 Sultan Ahmed II of Turkey (1691-95)
  1740 Pope Clement XII - Lorenzo Corsini (1730-1740)
  1945 Jan Bos, Dutch resistance fighter, executed by the Nazis
  1945 Paul Bos, Dutch resistance fighter, executed by the Nazis
  1952 King George VI of Britain (1936-52), Jutland veteran, at 56
  1963 Mohammed ibn al-Chattabi Abd el-Krim, "Lion of the Rif"
  1989 Barbara Tuchman, historian (“The Guns of August”), b 1912
7 457 Eastern Roman Emperor Marcian (450-457)
  590 Pope Pelagius II (579-590)
  1609 Cardinal Archduke Ferdinand I de’Medici of Tuscany, patron of Galileo
  1834 Bourrienne, former classmate & secretary to Napoleon, grafter, in a mad house in Caen
  1857 Felix, Count of Merode, Belgian Minister of War, at 65
  1878 Pope St. Pius IX - Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti (1846-1878), neo-con pope
  1920 Alexander Kolchak, Russian counter-revolutionary, b 1874
  1937 Elihu Root, Secretary of War (1901-1905), State, Nobelist, at 91
  1979 Josef Mengele, Nazi criminal, drowned
  1980 Secondo Campini, aviation engineer (Caproni CC2, YB-49), b. 1904
  1999 King Hussein of Jordan (1952-1999), of cancer at 63.
8 1204 Alexius IV, Byzantine Emperor, murdered.
  1250 Fakhr ad-Din, Ayyubid commander, kia, Mansura
  1250 Robert of Artois, Crusader leader, kia, Mansura
  1529 Baldassare Castiglione, "the finest gentleman in the world," b. 1478
  1587 Mary, Queen of Scots, beheaded
  1676 Alexis Mikhailovich, the first Romanov Tsar (1636-1676)
  1725 Tsar Peter I the Great of Russia, at 52
  1740 Pope Clement XII - Lorenzo Corsini - (1730-40), at 87
  1897 Premier Antonio Cánovas del Castillo of Spain, murdered at 69
  1921 Prince Peter Kropotkin, anarchist, at 78
  1932 Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll, killed by the Dutch Schultz mob
  1942 Fritz Todt, Nazi construction minister, on his 50th birthday
  1959 William J. Donovan, MoH, of the Fighting 69th, OSS in WW II, at 76
  1963 Abdul Karim Kassem, PM of Iraq (1958-63), assassinated in Baghdad at 48
9 720 Umayyad Caliph Umar II (718-720)
  1588 Marquis of Santa Cruz, Spanish Admiral
  1640 Sultan Murad IV of Turkey (1623-40), in Baghdad
  1670 King Frederik III of Denmark and Norway (1648-70), at 60
  1932 Junnosuke Inouye, Japanese Minister of Finance, assassinated
  1957 Admiral Miklos Horthy von Nagybanya, Hungarian regent (1920-44)
  1984 Yuri Andropov, Soviet president, in power only 15 months, at 69
  1996 Adolf Galland, German airman, at 83
  2002 Princess Margaret of England, at 71
10 45 BC Marcus Porcius Cato the Younger, opponent of Julius Caesar, suicide at Uica
  1126 Duke William IX of Aquitaine, vernacular poet, b. 1071
  1134 Duke Robert III of Normandy
  1162 King Baldwin III of Jerusalem (1143-1162), at c. 32
  1221 Shah Muhammad Ala-ed-Din of Khwarizm
  1278 Countess Margaret II of Flanders
  1306 John Comyn II - "the Red Comyn" - Scottish nobleman, murdered
  1471 Fredrick II, the "Iron" of Brandenburg
  1495 William Stanley, Lord Chamberlain of England, executed for conspiracy
  1567 Lord Darnley, murdered, on orders of his wife, Mary Queen of Scots
  1822 Duke Albert-Kasimir of Saxe-Teschen, at 83
  1829 Pope Leo XII (1823-1829) - Annibale Francesco Clemente Melchiore Girolamo Nicola della Genga, b. 1760
  1939 Pope Pius XI (1922-1939) - Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, b. 1857
  1948 Sergei Eisenstein, director ("Battleship Potemkim"), at 48
  1960 Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac of Croatia, Nazi collaborator, Cold Warrior, b. 1898
  1992 Alex Haley, Coastguardsman, author ("Roots")
11 55 Britannicus, son of Claudius, poisoned by Nero, at 12
  567 Theodora, joy girl, Byzantine Empress
  641 Heraclius, Byzantine Emperor (610-641), c. 65
  731 Pope Gregory II (715-731)
  824 Pope St. Paschal I (817-24)
  1961 Patrice Lumumba, first premier Congo, murdered
  1982 Takashi Shimura, actor (“The Seven Samurai”), at 76
12 1049 Enthronement of Pope St. Leo IX (1049-54)
  1294 Kublai Khan
  1554 Lady Jane Grey and her husband Guilford Dudley, executed in the Tower
  1836 Copenhagen, who carried the Duke of Wellington for 16 hours at Waterloo, at about 30
13 1130 Pope Honorius II – Scannabecchi Lamberto (1124-30)
  1332 Andronicus II Paleologus, Byzantine Emperor (1282-1328) and monk
  1515 Count Carlo II Malvizzi della Selva, strangled at 28
  1542 Catherine Howard, Mrs. Henry VIII No. 5, beheaded, at c. 18
  1580 Pommier, French peasant rebel leader, murdered
  1820 The Duke de Berri, assassinated at Paris
  1883 Richard Wagner, composer ("The Flying Dutchman")
  1891 David D Porter, naval officer and reformer, U.S., at 77
  1976 General Murtala Mohammed, head of Nigeria, killed during a coup
14 869 St. Cyril, the Apostle of the Slavs
  1021 Caliph al-Hakim of Egypt (996-1021), at c. 36, probably murdered
  1400 Deposed King Richard II (1377-99), murdered at 33
  1571 Benvenuto Cellini, sometime soldier, artist, at 70
  1779 James Cook, explorer, killed by Hawaiians
  1820 Charles Ferdinand de Bourbon, Duke of Berry & Prince of France, assassinated at Paris
  1831 Vincente Guerrero, Mexican national hero 
  1891 William Tecumseh Sherman, at 71
  1979 Adolph Dubs, US ambassador to Afghanistan, murdered
15 1145 Pope Lucius II - Gherardo Caccianemici dal Orso (1144-1145)
  1152 King Conrad III of the Germans (1138-1152), c. 58
  1353 Bertoldo Orsini, Roman Senator, stoned by a mob, Rome
  1400 King Richard II (1377-99), murdered
  1482 Marc’Antonio Malvizzi, Count Palatine & Baron of Quaranta & Quadri, kia
  1508 Giovanni II Bentivoglio, condottiero, Lord of Bologna (1463-1506), deposed by Julius II (see Births), at 65
  1637 Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II (1619-37), at 58
  1818 King Charles XIII of Sweden (1809-18) & Norway (1814-18), at 69
  1820 William Ellery, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, at 92
  1905 Lew Wallace, general, novelist ("Ben Hur"), at 77
  1933 Mayor Cermak of Chicago, of wounds from an assassin’s bullet
16 1279 King Afonso III of Portugal (1248-79)
  1391 John V Palaeologus, Byzantine Emperor (1341-91)
  1538 Prince-Bishop Erardus van de Mark of Liege, at 65
  1791 Richard d'Alton, Governor-General of the Austrian Netherlands, suicide at 58
  1899 Pres. Félix Faure of France (1895-99), 57, allegedly whilst his mistress was performing oral sex
  1991 Enrique Varela, Nicaraguan Contra Leader
  1992 Abbas Musawi, leader of Hezbollah, assassinated
17 197 Clodius Albinus, Roman emperor-aspirant (194-197), executed by Septimius Severus
  364 Roman Emperor Jovian (Jun 26, 363-Feb 17, 364), at c. 32
  956 Count Hugh “the Great” of Paris, Duke of Francia, c. 55
  1905 Serge Alexandrovich, Governor-General of Moscow, assassinated
  1908 Apache Chief Geronimo, c. 79
  1934 Albert I of Saxe-Coburg, King of Belgium (1909-34), mountaineering accident
  1968 2nd Lt. Richard W. Pershing, 502nd Infanty, grandson of John J., kia, Vietnam
  1970 Alfred Newman, composer (“Captain from Castille”), at 69
  2003 Isser Harel, founder of the Mossad, who captured Eichman, at 91
18 999 Pope Gregory V – Bruno of Carinthia (996-999)
  1397 Enguerrand VII, Sieur de Coucy, Count of Soissons, at 56, in Turkish captivity
  1405 Emir al Kebir Timur "i-Leng" -Tamerlane- on campaign in China, c. 68
  1478 Duke of Clarence, drowned in a barrel of wine
  1564 Michelangelo Buonarroti, sometime military engineer, 88
  1932 Frederik Augustus III, deposed King of Saxony (1904-18), at 66
  1967 J. Robert Oppenheimer, “Father of the Atomic Bomb”
19 1860 Sir William Francis Patrick Napier, soldier, historian (“History of the War in the Peninsula”)
  1867 Samuel Downey, last Revolutionary War veteran (b. Nov 31, 1761)
  1936 Billy Mitchell, aviation extremist, b. 1879
  1945 Wim Speelman, Dutch resistance fighter, executed at 26
  1997 Deng Xiaoping, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, at 92
20 1054 Yaroslav I the Wise of Kiev
  1171 Duke Conan IV of Brittany (1156-1171)
  1191 King Tancredo of Sicily (1190-1191)
  1258 Caliph al-Musta'sim of Baghdad(1242-1258), the last Abbasid, executed by Hulagu Khan
  1413 Pope Martin V - Oddone Colonna (1417-1431)
  1493 Giovanni Malvizzi, Patrician of Bologna, condottiero, assassinated
  1513 Pope Julius II - Giuliano delle Rovere (1503-1513), at 69
  1707 Aurangzeb, Mogul Emperor of India since 1659
  1773 King Charles Emanuel I of Sardinia, at 71
  1790 Joseph II Holy Roman Emperor, at 48
  1810 Andreas Hofer, Tyrolese freedom fighter, shot by Napoleon’s order, at 42
  1895 Frederick Douglass, American, at 78
  1966 Fleet Adm Chester W Nimitz, at 80
  1980 Alice Roosevelt Longworth, the last of TR's brood, at 94.
21 1437 King James I of Scotland, assassinated by Robert Graham
  1543 Ahmad Gran, Moroccan warlord, kia at Waim Dega
  1595 Robert Southwell, Jesuit poet, hanged for being a Catholic priest in England
  1638 Giovanni Maria Serbelloni, Count of Castiglione d’Adda, 48, Spanish Field Marshal, d/w Perpignan
  1648 King Christian IV Denmark & Norway
  1730 Pope Benedict XIII - Pietro F Orsini- (1724-30), at 81
  1803 Edward Despard and 6 other Irish nationalists, with the dubious honor of being the last men drawn & quartered in Britain
  1919 Emir Habib Ullah Khan of Afghanistan (1901-19), assassinated at 46
  1934 Augusto Cesar Sandino, Nicaraguan nationalist, assassinated
  1965 Malcolm X, assassinated
  1984 Mikhail Sholokov, novelist ("And Quiet Flows the Don")
22 606 Pope Sabinian (604-06)
  1071 Count Arnulf III of Flanders, kia at Cassel
  1076 Duke Godfried “the Humpbacked” of Lower Lorraine, murdered
  1371 King David II Bruce of Scots (1331-71), at 46
  1503 Cardinal Giovanni Battista Orsini of Florence, of neglect in Cesare Borgia’s prison.
  1512 Amerigo Vespucci, explorer, at 61
  1913 Francisco Indalecio Madero, ousted President of Mexico, assassinated at 39
  1913 José María Pino Suárez, ousted Vice-President of Mexico, assassinated
  1943 Christoph Probst, German "White Rose" Resistance fighter, executed
  1943 Hans Scholl, German "White Rose" Resistance fighter, executed
  1943 Sophie Scholl, German "White Rose" Resistance fighter, executed
  2000 Lt Gen Hafiz al-Assad, Dictator of Syria since 1971
  2002 Jonas Savimbi, perennial Angolan rebel, b. 1934
  2007 Howard V. Ramsey, former Corporal, USA, last surviving veteran of the American Expeditionary Force, at 108 less one month
23 1370 King David II of Scotland
  1440 Gilles de Raiz, war hero, child molestor, serial killer, executed
  1447 Pope Eugene IV - Gabriello Condulmaro (1431-1447)
  1554 Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk (Lady Jane Grey's father), beheaded
  1660 King Karl X Gustav of Sweden (1654-60), at 37
  1718 Francois Fagel, Dutch field marshal, at 63
  1730 Pope Benedict XIII - Pietro Francesco Orsini (1724-1730)
  1766 Stanislaw Leszcynski, Duke of Lorraine & last King of Poland
  1781 George Taylor, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. 1716
  1847 Col. Henry Clay, Jr., kia, Buena Vista
  1848 John Quincy Adams, President (1825-1829), at 80, on the floor of the House
  1915 Robert Smalls, black Civil War naval hero, at 75
  1930 Horst Wessel, Nazi thug, shot by Communists at 22
  1942 Stefan Zweig, historian ("Marie Antoinette"), suicide, at 60
  1990 James Gavin, who led the 82nd Airborne into Normandy, at 82
24 616 St. Ethelbert, King of Kent (580- or 590-616)
  1525 Francis Duke of Lorraine, kia, Pavia
  1525 General de la Tremouille, kia, Pavia
  1525 Jacques de la Palice, Marshal of France, kia at c. 55, Battle of Pavia
  1525 Richard de la Pole, Yorkist Pretender to the Throne of England, kia, Pavia, in French service
  1563 Henri and Louis de Guise, leaders of the Catholic faction, assassinated by a Huguenot, temporariliy ending the French Wars of Religion
  1577 Eric XIV, deposed King of Sweden (1561-1569), poisoned at 36
  1953 Gerd von Rundstedt, Nazi field marshal
  1975 Nikolai A Bulganin, Premier of the USSR (1955-58), at 79
  2007 Lother-Gunther Buchheim, U-bootsman, author (Das Boot), at 89
25 1247 Duke Hendrik IV of Limburg  & Count of Bergen (1226-47)
  1535 Duke Marcantonio II Colonna of Paliano, Grand Constable of Naples, poisoned
  1601 Robert Devereaux, the Earl of Essex, executed for treason by his lover, Elizabeth
  1634 Albrecht von Wallenstein, German military entrepreneur, murdered at 50 by imperial order
  1713 King Frederik I of Prussia (1701-13), at 55
  1978 Gen Daniel "Chappie" James, American airman, at 58
  2007 CDR William R. Anderson, who took the Nautilus to 90-North, at 85
26 1154 Roger II, Count (1105-1130) & King of Sicily (1130-54), at 60
  1266 King Manfredo of Sicily, bastard of Frederik II, kia, Benevento
  1495 Prince Djem of the Turks, guest of Pope Alexander VI; probably of natural causes
  1522 Cuauhtemoc, the last Aztec emperor, hanged by Cortez
  1577 King Erik XIV Wasa of Sweden (1560-69), at 43
  1726 Duke Maximilian II Emanuel of Bavaria
  1813 Robert R Livingston, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, at 66
  1903 Richard Gatling, at 84
  1961 King Mohammed V of Morocco, at 51
27 1261 Duke Hendrik of Brabant (1248-61)
  1618 Prince Filips Willem of Orange, at 63
  1844 Nicholas Biddle, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, at 85
  1844 Abel P Upshur, SecState, explosion, USS Princeton
  1844 Armistead, Pres. Tyler’s slave-valet, explosion, USS Princeton
  1844 Captain Beverly Kennon, Chief, Bureau of Construction, Equipment, & Repair, explosion, USS Princeton
  1844 David Gardiner of New York, the father of Julia Gardiner, fiancée to Pres John Tyler, explosion, USS Princeton
  1844 Rep Virgil Maxey of Maryland, explosion, USS Princeton
  1844 Thommas W Gilmer, SecNav, explosion, USS Princeton
  1859 Barton Key, shot by Dan Sickles in front of the White House
  1939 Nadezda K Krupskaia, Russian Revolutionary, Wife of Lenin
  1941 King Alfonso XIII Spain (1886-1931), b. 1886
  1942 Rear Adm Karel Doorman, RNN, kia at 52, Java Sea
  2002 Spike Milligan, Royal Artilleryman, humorist (“Adolph Hitler: My Part in His Downfall”), b. 1918.
28 468 Pope St. Hilary I (461-468)
  1261 Duke Hendrik of Brabant (1248-61)
  1447 Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, murdered at St. Albans
  1616 Vincent Fettmilch, who had led an attack on Jews of Frankfurt, beheaded
  1618 Prince Philip Wilhelm of Orange, at 63
  1638 Henri, duc de Rohan, French soldier & Huguenot leader
  1648 King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway
  1781 Richard Stockton, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, at 50
  1966 Charles A Bassett II astronaut, in T-38 crash at 34
  1966 Elliot McKay See Jr astronaut, in T-38 crash at 34
  1986 Sven Olof Palme, Swedish PM, assassinated in Stockholm
29 628 Former Shah Khorsau II, executed by archers
  1172 Cadwaladr ap Gruffydd
  1868 King Ludwig I of Bavaria – Lola Montez’ friend - at 81
  1928 Marshal Armando Diaz of Italy, at 66
  1945 Marshal Nicholai Vatutin, ambushed by Ukrainian partisans
  1956 Pres Elpidio Quirino of Philippines (1949-53), at 65

Event
1 266 BC Triumph of D. Iunius Pera for the defeat of the Calabrians
  280 BC Triumph of Tiberius Cornucanius for the defeat of the Etruscans
  772 Accession of Pope Adrian I (772-795)
  1119 Guido of Vienne elected Pope as Callistus II (1119-1124)
  1411 First Peace of Thorn: The Teutonic Knights cede lands to Poland
  1539 Holy Roman Empire & France conclude an anti-English alliance
  1539 Treaty of Toledo: Francis I again promises to let Spain have Italy, again
  1720 Peace concluded between Sweden and Prussia
  1742 Austro-Sardinian alliance concluded
  1789 Vietnamese rebels expel Chinese troops from their capital, Thang Long
  1793 Revolutionary France declares war on Britain & the Netherlands
  1799 Battle of Assuan: French defeat the Mamlukes
  1800 USS Constellation takes the French Vengence in a five-hour night battle
  1810 Seville, Spain surrenders to the French
  1814 Battle of La Rothiere: Napoleon defeats the Prussians
  1861 Texas becomes seventh state to secede
  1862 Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of Republic" is published
  1864 Austria and Prussia invade Denmark: 2nd Schleswig-Holstein War begins
  1864 Grant initiates the Yazoo River Operation (to Feb 8th)
  1865 Sherman begins marching through South Carolina
  1918 Russia adopts the Gregorian calendar, so the date becomes Feb 14
  1923 Allied ultimatum on Lithuanian occupation of Memel
  1923 Mussolini forms the “Fascist Voluntary Militia”
  1934 Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss assumes dictatorial powers 
  1942 CVs Enterprise & Hornet raid Japanese bases in Gilbert and Marshall Is.
  1942 Marshal Paulus surrenders the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad
  1943 Germans make Vidkun Quisling premier of Norway
  1943 Japanese DDs bound for Guadalcanal tangle with U.S. a/c and PTs, but evacuate troops
  1943 Marines land on the west coast of Guadalcanal.
  1943 Nazi Collaborationist Cabinet installed in Belgium
  1943 U.S. CAM Div captures Cape Tassafaronga, to find Japanese gone.
  1944 Japanese learn Australia has formed a war crimes commission.
  1944 Marines land on Roi-Namur, Army lands on Kwajalein
  1945 Elements of the US Army reach the Siegfried Line
  1945 Japanese take Kukong, last Chinese stronghold on the Hankow rail line.
  1946 Norwegian Trygve Lie is elected the first Secretary-General of the UN
  1951 Alfred Krupp & 28 other German war criminals freed
  1958 Army rocket launches Explorer I, 1st US satellite
  1958 Egypt & Syria announce plans to merge as the United Arab Republic
  1960 Rightist coup in Algeria
  1961 Minuteman ICBM is successful in its first full scale test
  1965 Martin Luther King Jr & 700 others arrested in Selma
  1968 Saigon: Nguyen Ngoc Loan summarily executes a Viet Cong murderer
  1981 France sells 60 Mirage fighters to Iraq
  2003 Space Shuttle Columbia breaks up on re-entry, 7 die
2 962 King Otto I of the Lombards (936-973) is crowned Holy Roman Emperor (962-973)
  1119 Guido of Borgogna elected Pope as Callistus II
  1141 Battle of Lincoln: Earls Ranulf of Chester & Robert of Gloucester defeat King Stephen of England & capture him for the Empress Matilda
  1160 Crema, Lombardy, falls to Fredrick Barbarossa amid great slaughter
  1258 The Mongols under Hulagu Khan take Baghdad
  1437 Angevins surrender Gaeta (besieged from Dec 24) to the Aragonese
  1440 Fredrick III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor
  1451 Mehemet II becomes Sultan of the Turks
  1461 Battle of Mortimer Cross: Yorkists defeat the Lancastrians
  1509 Battle of Diu: Portuguese defeat Egyptian fleet, to secure control of Indian Ocean commerce
  1536 Buenos Aires founded
  1645 Battle of Inverlochy: Montrose defeats the Cambells
  1658 City of Nieuw Amsterdam is incorporated.
  1709 Alexander Selkirk rescued from Juan Fernandez after five years
  1797 Mantua surrenders to the French after an 8 month siege
  1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican-American War
  1854 Pope Pius IX issues an encyclical "On the Persecution of the Armenians"
  1864 CSS Florida begins a commerce raiding cruise (to Oct 7th)
  1878 Greece declares war on Turkey.
  1901 Army Nurse Corps established
  1906 Papal encyclical against separation of church & state
  1909 Filippo Tommaso Marinetti publishes the “Futurist Manifesto,” calling for "cleansing" by war
  1913 Grand Central Terminal in NY opens
  1915 Turks attack the Suez Canal from the Sinai (retire on the 3rd)
  1920 USSR recognizes Estonian independence
  1932 Geneva disarmament conference begins with 60 countries
  1933 Chancellor two days, Adolf Hitler dissolves the Reichsstag
  1942 Bataan: Fil-Am troops counterattack
  1942 British carrier Indomitable arrives at Trincomalee, Ceylon
  1942 LA Times urges security measures against Japanese-Americans
  1942 US ceases production of private cars to convert to war production
  1943 Timor: Australian guerrillas present since Dec 8, 1941, are withdrawn by sea.
  1944 US troops advance rapidly on Kwajelein and nearby islands.
  1945 Escape attempt at Mauthausen concentration camp
  1972 Irate Dubliners torch the British Embassy to protest 'Bloody Sunday' in Derry
  1989 Soviet troops leave Afghanistan, ending nine years of war
3 337 Election of Pope St. Julius I (337-352)
  1238 The Mongols capture Vladimir, Russia
  1377 Cardinal Robert of Geneva & John Hawkwood stage massacre in Cesena, Italy
  1488 Portuguese navigator Bartholomeu Diaz sights the Cape of Good Hope
  1517 Selim I takes Cairo, and proclaims himself Caliph
  1576 Henry of Navarre [Henri IV] escapes from Paris
  1591 League of Torgau formed:
  1706 Battle of Fraustadt: The Swedes defeat the Saxons
  1740 King Carlo IV de Borbone of Naples permits Jews to live in Sicily
  1781 British capture St. Eustatia, Dutch West Indies
  1783 Spain recognizes US independence
  1797 Battle of Imola: French rout Papal army
  1801 Treaty ending the Quasi-War with France is ratified
  1813 Battle of Niquitas: Bolivar's Columbians defeat Spanish Royalists
  1852 Monte Caseros: Insurgents defeat Argentine President Rosas, who flees
  1861 Confederate States of America formed in Montgomery
  1864 Sherman's Meridian Campaign, in Mississippi
  1915 Turkish attack on Suez Canal fails
  1917 German sub sinks US liner Housatonic, America severs relations
  1933 Hitler informs his generals to prepare for war to secure Lebensraum
  1942 Bataan: Fil-Am troops restore the Bagac-Orion line
  1943 New Guinea: Aussie Kanga Force counterattacks from Wau, drives Japanese on Mubo.
  1943 Troop transport Dorchester torpedoed & sunk off Greenland with great loss of life
  1944 U.S. ships shell Japanese island of Paramushiro in the Kuriles.
  1945 Major air attack on Berlin; 3,000 tons of bombs
  1989 Military coup overthrows Dictator Alfredo Stroessner of Paraguay
  1994 Sergei Krikalev becomes the first Russian on the Space Shuttle, Discovery.
  1998 USMC aircraft severs cable car line in northern Italy, 20 die
4 211 Sons of Septimius installed as Roman Emperors Caracalla (211-217) and Geta (211)
  634 Arabs defeat Byzantines at Gaza
  900 Louis "the Child" III is crowned King of the Germans (893-911)
  1194 King Richard I of England is ransomed from captivity in Austria for 100,000 marks
  1508 Maximilian I assumes Holy Roman imperial title without being crowned
  1779 John Paul Jones takes command of Bonhomme Richard
  1787 Shays' Rebellion fails
  1807 French capture Amantea, Calabria, after a month's siege and heavy losses
  1809 British troops take their first French eagles: 62nd & 80th Regiments on Martinique
  1860 Spanish capture Tetuan, Morocco.
  1861 Confederate constitutional convention begins work in Montgomery, Ala
  1899 Philippine Insurrection begins
  1906 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, anti-Nazi theologian, executed 1945
  1932 Japanese troops attack Harbin, Manchuria
  1938 Hitler assumes direct control of German Army
  1941 United Service Organization (USO) founded
  1942 Japanese a/c damage CL Marblehead and CA Houston, Madoera Strait, Bali
  1942 Last Australian troops on Amboina surrender.
  1943 Japanese ships sortie from Rabaul to pull troops from Guadalcanal
  1943 U.S. lands reinforcements and supplies on Guadalcanal.
  1943 Veteran Aus 9th Div sails from Suez after two years in North Africa.
  1944 Japanese launch major offensive against British in the Arakan, Burma.
  1944 US 7th Infantry Division completes capture of Kwajalein
  1945 FDR, Churchill, & Stalin meet at Yalta
  1959 Keel laid for USS Enterprise, first nuclear aircraft carrier
  1990 Ten Israeli tourists murdered in Cairo
5 266 BC Triumph of N. Fabius Pictor for the defeat of the Calabrians
  1265 Guy le Gros is elected Pope as Clement IV (1265-1268)
  1428 King Alfonso V orders conversion of the Jews of Sicily
  1500 Triumphal return of Duke Ludovico “Il Moro” Sforza to Milan, after five years of French Rule (deposed again in April)
  1512 French under Gaston de Foix capture Bologna
  1740 Pope Clement XII restores the Republic of San Marino, seized by Cardinal Alberoni the previous October
  1795 French capture Zealand, the Netherlands
  1807 Battle of Waltersdorf: Ney's French defeat the Prussians
  1864 Union troops occupy Jackson, Mississippi
  1865 Battle of Hatcher's Run/Armstrong's Mill/Dabney's Mill, Va
  1885 Leopold II of the Belgians establishes the murderous "Congo Free State"
  1918 Stephen W Thompson is the first US pilot to down an enemy airplane
  1942 Singapore: Final elements of the British 18th Div arrive, by sea!
  1942 Singapore: Japanese artillery fire from across the Straits of Johore
  1943 Germans deport 12,000 Jews from Bialystock to death camps
  1943 Guadalcanal: CAM Div continues advancing
  1943 Guadalcanal: Japanese warships evacuate thousands of troops
  1944 US declares Kwajelein secured: Japanese 5,100 kia, U.S. 142.
  1945 New Britain: Australian troops land, further sealing off Rabaul
  1967 Anastasio Somoza becomes Pres of Nicaragua; Fourth West Pointer to become a president
  1973 Funeral for Lt Col William Nolde, last US soldier killed in Vietnam
  1983 Former Gestapo official Klaus Barbie brought to trial in Lyon, France
  1994 Byron De La Beckwith gets life for the 1964 murder of Medgar Evers
6 46 BC Julius Caesar defeats the Pompeians at Thapsus, Africa [Julian]
  307 End of the Chinese "War of the Eight Princes"
  337 Accession of Pope St. Julius I (337-352)
  1190 Massacre of the Jews of Norwich, England
  1508 Maximilian I becomes Holy Roman Emperor
  1577 King Henri of Navarre becomes leader of the French Huguenots.
  1626 Peace of La Rochelle: between French Huguenots & Catholics
  1638 Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar lays siege to Breisach, held by the HRE (takes the city, Dec 17th)
  1716 Anglo-Dutch alliance renewed.
  1778 France recognizes US, signs treaty of aid in Paris
  1782 French capture Pto Mahon, Menorca, invent mayonnaise in commemoration
  1832 US ship destroys Sumatran village in retaliation for piracy
  1840 Treaty of Waitangi: Peace between Maori & English settlers
  1899 Spanish-American War officially ends
  1922 Achille Ratti elected Pope as Pius XI (1922-1939)
  1922 US, UK, Japan, France, & Italy sign Washington Naval Arms Limitation Treaty
  1939 Spanish Republican government flees to France
  1941 Battle of Beda Fomm: British complete destruction of Italian Tenth Army
  1941 British troops capture Bengazi, Libya
  1942 Bataan: Japanese make minor probes.
  1943 CAM Div reaches the Umasani River on Guadalcanal.
  1943 Japanese lose 24 aircraft in an attack on the Wau airfield, New Guinea.
  1944 British Chindits begin infiltrating into the Japanese rear area in Burma
  1944 Chinese troops advance from the north in Burma
  1945 Battle for Manila begins in earnest
  1945 Over 4,000 American POWs are freed from prison camps on Luzon.
  1959 US successfully tests Titan ICBM
  1984 Moslem militiamen take over West Beirut from Lebanese Army
  2004 Chechnyan terrorists bomb the Moscow subway, 49 die, scores injured
7 457 Leo I becomes Eastern Roman Emperor (457-474)
  1313 Robert the Bruce captures Dumfries, Scotland
  1550 Gianmaria Ciocchi del Monte elected Pope as Julius III (1550-1555)
  1623 Treaty of Paris: Francy, Savoy, & Venice ally against Spain
  1800 USS Essex becomes first U.S. warship to cross the Equator
  1807 Battle of Eylau, Day 1: Napoleon vs. the Russo-Prussians (ends 8th)
  1881 Battle of Ingogo: Boers defeat the British in the Transvaal
  1904 Great fire of Baltimore, c. 80 blocks burn
  1924 Fascist Italy and Communist Russia exchange ambassadors
  1933 Dutch troops in Suriname kill two demonstrators
  1941 Kufra, Libya: Leclerc's Free French besiege Italians (falls Mar 1)
  1942 Bataan: Fil-Am troops begin clearing Japanese pockets and beachheads.
  1943 Chiang Kai-shek commits China to a new offensive in Burma.
  1943 Guadalcanal: U.S. troops advance on both coasts
  1943 Halsey authorizes "Cleanslate" - Russell Is operation
  1943 Japanese DD sortie from Rabaul to evacuate troops from Guadalcanal
  1943 US begins rationing shoes
  1944 Burma: Chinese agree to support US forces
  1944 Italy: Germans launch counteroffensive at Anzio
  1945 China: Japanese capture U.S. airbase at Kanchow.
  1945 General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila
  1947 Ticker tape parade on Broadway for Viscount Harold Alexander
  1948 Omar Bradley succeeds Dwight Eisenhower as Army Chief of Staff
  1950 Senator Joe McCarthy begins his Witch Hunts
  1965 US begins sustained air operations against North Vietnam
  1986 Haiti: President Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier flees to France
8 1250 Battle of Mansura: Crusader crossbowmen defeat Mamluke cavalry, but lose the battle to Baibars anyway
  1676 Fyodor II Romanov becomes Tsar of Russia (1676-1682)
  1690 French troops burn Indian settlement at Schenectady
  1743 Battle of Campo Santa: Austrians block Spanish from reinforcing the French in northern Italy
  1799 Cardinal Ruffo & 5,000 troops land in Calabria to free Naples from the French
  1807 Battle of Eylau, Day 2: Napoleon defeats the Russo-Prussians
  1849 Italian liberals proclaim a “Republic of Rome”
  1856 Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross
  1862 Battle of Roanoke Is: US gains control of Pamlico Sound
  1865 First black major in the US Army: Martin Delany
  1904 Japanese surprise attack on the Russian Fleet at Port Arthur, initiating the Russo-Japanese War
  1918 "The Stars and Stripes" begins publication in France
  1923 Nazi Party newspaper, “Volkischer Beobachter” becomes a daily
  1942 Bataan: Philippine troops clear Japanese troops holding Quinauan Point.
  1942 Celebes: Japanese land at Makassar.
  1942 Malaya: Japanese begin crossing the Strait of Johore, land on Singapore Island.
  1942 NY’s Mayor La Guardia establishes the paramilitary “City Patrol Corps” to improve wartime security
  1943 Burma: Orde Wingate's Chindits begin raid against the Japanese
  1943 Guadalcanal: destroyers evacuate the last Japanese troops
  1943 Red Army liberates Kursk
  1944 Burma: Stilwell reports a major Japanese offensive is imminent.
  1945