TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY

0		Feast of St. Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, Patron of Archaeologists
0		Navy Day in Chile
0		The Other "International Tea Day" (alt Dec. 15)
878		beseiged for eight months, Syracuse, capital of Byzantine Sicily, surrendered to Muslim invaders, who enslaved everyone they didn't massacre, and razed every church
1077		Canossa: HRE Henry IV begs forgiveness from Pope Gregory VII
1420		Treaty of Troyes: Charles VI of France recognizes Henry V of England as his heir, and gives him his daughter Catherine to wed
1421		Murad II becomes Sultan of the Turks (1421-1451)
1511		Battle of Casalecchio: French defeat the Papal Army
1522		Adrian Florisz Boeyens elected Pope as Adrian VI (1522-23)
1674		John Sobieski is elected King of Poland-Lithuania (1674-1796)
1711		the 'War of the Poplars' began between Parma and Modena -- Learn More
1762		HM frigate 'Active' & sloop 'Favourite' captured the Spanish ship 'Hermione' off Cadiz, realizing prize of £519,705 10s, perhaps £1.1 billion today -- Learn More
1809		Napoleon engages Austria's Archduke Charles on the first day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling Day 2: Austrians draw with Napoleon
1856		Lawrence, Kansas captured & sacked by pro-slavery forces
1861		Richmond, Va, is designated the Confederate Capital
1863		Union Siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana, begins
1864		US Maj Gen David Hunter takes command of Dept of West Virginia
1871		French troops attack the Commune of Paris; 17,000 reportedly die in a week
1879		Naval Battle of Iquique: Peru loses an ironclad, Chile a gunboat.
1917		Leo Pinckney is the first American drafted during WW I
1941		SS 'Robin Moore' is sunk off Brazil, first U-boat kill of an American ship in WW II
1942		Philippines: Japanese troops occupy Samar and Leyte
1943		China: Japanese open a new offensive across the Yangtze River
1944		Pearl Harbor: ammo-laden LST blows up, 6 LSTs lost, c. 200 die
1944		Wadke, New Guinea: Japanese crushed, c. 750 dead to 43 US
1944		The U.S. observes "I Am an American Day" celebrating the nation's diversity
1951		near Wonsan, Korea, the USS New Jersey (BB 62) was hit by an enemy artillery round, causing several casualties, one fatal -- Learn More
1956		US explodes the first airdropped hydrogen bomb, Bikini Atoll
1964		US begins intelligence flights above Laos
1968		USS 'Scorpion' (SSN-589) sinks off Azores, 99 die
1991		Marxist dictator of Ethiopia Mengistu Haile Mariam resigns

BORN

427	BC	Plato, wrestler, hoplite, philosopher, d. 348-347 BC
120	BC	Aurelia Cotta, later mother of G. Julius Caesar, d. 54 BC.
1469		King Manuel I "the Fortunate" of Portugal and the Algarves (1495-1521)
1527		King Philip II of Spain (1556-98) and Portugal (1580-98)
1622		Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac et de Palluau, French soldier & explorer, Governor General of New France (1672-1682, 1689-1698)
1763		Joseph Fouche, head of Napoleon's secret police, d. 1820
1775		Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon's smarter brother, Prince of Canino and Musignano, d. 1840
1793		Levi Twiggs was born, later Maj., USMC, who led the Marines in Mexico -- Learn More
1822		Dabney Herndon Maury, Maj Gen, C.S.A., d. 1900
1822		Mosby Monroe Parsons, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1865
1825		George Lafayette Beal, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1896
1826		Prince-Bishop Danilo I Petrovich-Njegos of Montenegro (1851-1860)
1835		Newton Martin Curtis, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1910
1851		Leon Bourgeois, French politician, 1920 Peace Nobelist, d. 1925
1878		Glenn Hammond Curtiss, aviation pioneer, d. 1930
1881		The American Red Cross, founded by Clara Barton and others
1885		Umberto Nobile, aviation pioneer, d. 1978
1921		Andrei Sakharov, Father of the Soviet H-Bomb, Nobel Peace Prize, 1975
1924		Telly Savalas, veteran, actor ("The Battle of the Bulge"), d. 1994
1925		General Donn Albert Starry, soldier, scholar, military reformer, d 2011
1942		Robert C. Springer, USMC, astronaut

DIED

879		Count Baldwin "Iron Arm" of Flanders and Waas (860-879), c. 50
987		King Louis V of France (Mar 2. 986–21 May 987), c. 20, the last Carolinigan king of the West Franks
1076		Earl Waltheof of Northumbria (1055-1076), c. 25, last Anglo-Saxon earl in England, executed by William the Conqueror
1118		Pope Paschal II - Cardinal Ranierius of St. Clement's (1099-1118)
1471		King Henry VI of England (1422-61, 70-71), of France (1422-1453), 49, beheaded in the Tower by his cousin Edward IV
1481		King Christian I of Denmark (1448-1481), Norway (1450-1481), & Sweden (1457-1464), Duke of Schleswig and Holstein (1460-1481), c. 56
1542		Hernando de Soto, c. 45, while searching for gold, Mississippi
1650		James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose (1612-1650), 37, Royalist commander, hanged by the Convenanters in Edinburgh
1774		Ottoman Sultan Mustapha III (1757-74), at 56
1827		William M. James, British attorney and naval historian, c. 47 -- Learn More
1923		Charles Marie Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy, French army officer, and traitor, at 75 -- Learn More
1926		Symon Vasylyovych Petliura (47), Ukrainian nationalist, assassinated in Paris by an anarchist
1942		Freiherr Robert-Georg von Malapert-Neufville, 29, kia, flying a Stuka over Russia
1988		Dino Grandi, Conte di Mordano, Fascist, at 92
1991		Rajiv Gandhi, 46, Indian Prime Minster (1984-91), assassinated
1993		Maj. Gen. John Frost, CB, DSO & Bar, MC who held the "Bridge Too Far" in 1944, at 80