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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
427BC Plato, wrestler, hoplite, philosopher, d. 348-347 BC
120BC 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