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TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
141BC Accesion of Emperor Liu Che (Wu) of Han (141-87 BC)
49BC Caesar besieges Brindisi, held by Pompey
0    Feast of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, Roman soldiers of the Legio XII Fulminata
1226    King Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu the Khwarazmian massacred tens of thousands of Georgian Christians at Tbilisi for refusing to convert to Islam
1230    Battle of Klokotnitsa: Tsar Ivan Asen II of the Bulgars defeats Komnenos Doukas, Despot of Epirus
1461    Revolt at Genoa expels a French garrison
1496    Expulsion of the Jews of Carinthia, Austria
1617    Peace of Stolbovo: ends the Russo-Swedish War (1611-1617)
1741    British invest Cartagena de las Indias
1796    Napoleone Buonaparte marries Josephine de Beauharnais, divorced in 1810
1798    Dr George Balfour is appointed the first surgeon in the USN
1811    Battle of Tacuarí: Manuel Atanasio Cabañas' Royalist Paraguayan troops defeat Argentine Revolutionaries under Manuel Belgrano
1814    Battle of Laon, Day 1: Napoleon v. the Russo-Prussians
1839    the French abandoned Vera Cruz, ending the ‘Pastry War’ -- Learn More
1847    Winfield Scott landed an army at Veracruz, Mexico, and began a 20 day siege.
1861    Confederate Congress authorizes paper currency in bills of $50, $100, $500, & $1,000
1862    the USS 'Monitor' fought the CSS 'Virginia' to a draw, preserving the blockade, on the second day of the Battle of Hampton Roads
1864    Ulysses S. Grant promoted to lieutenant general and commanding general
1916    Germany declares war on Portugal
1918    Jews of Seredino Buda, Ukraine, massacred
1918    Russian Bolshevik Party becomes the Communist Party
1921    Armored cruiser 'Brooklyn' (CA 3) stricken from the Navy List.
1924    Italy annexes Fiume
1932    Eamon De Valera becomes President of Ireland's Executive Council (1932-1937)
1942    Ernest J. King, COMMINCH U.S. Fleet, was also named CNO -- Learn More
1943    New Guinea: Japanese aircraft conduct a major raid on Wau.
1943    Salonika: Nazis deport the Jews to extermination camps
1945    Indochina: Japanese attack French garrisons, massacring thousands.
1945    US B-29s drop 1,665 tons of incendiaries on Tokyo, creating a firestorm; by dawn on the 10th c. 80,000-120,000 have died, the highest toll in a single air raid, exceeding even the atomic bombs

BORN
1213    Duke Hugh IV of Burgundy (1218-1271), crusader
1291    Can Francesco "Cangrande" della Scala, Lord of Verona (1308-22 July 1329), Condottiero, patron of Dante
1454    Amerigo Vespucci, explorer, d. 1512
1629    Tsar Alexis I of Russia (1645-1676) [Julian]
1753    Jean Baptiste Kléber, soldier of fortune, Volunteer of '91, assassinated, Cairo, 1800
1773    Isaac Hull, who commanded the USS 'Constitution' when she took HMS ' Guerriere', d. 1843 -- Learn More
1839    Felix Huston Robertson, Brig Gen, C.S.A., the only Texas-born general in the Civil War. d. 1928
1873    The Royal Canadian Mounted Police
1881    Enver Pasha, Young Turk, kia 1922
1890    Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, henchman to Stalin, the oldest "Old Bolshevik", d 1986
1900    Duke Aimone of Spoleto, King Tomislav II of Croatia (1941-43), d. 1948
1922    Hiroo Onoda, later a Japanese Army officer, who did not surrender until 1974, on his 52nd birthday, d. 2014
1924    Yuri Gagarin, cosmonaut, first man in space, d. 1968
1928    Gerald Vincent Bull, amoral artillery designer, assassinated 1990 while working for Saddam Hussein
1946    German Semyonovich Arzamazov, Russian cosmonaut
1959    Barbie
1970    Melissa Rathburn-Nealy, American soldier, POW, Iraq, 1991

DIED
1062    Count Herbert II of Maine (1058-1062)
1202    King Sverre Sigurdsson of Norway (1184-1202), 50-55
1449    Guillaume de Flavy, c. 52, French soldier of fortune, who captured Joan of Arc for the English, assassinated
1477    Duke Henry IV "the Fat" of Mecklenburg (1422-1477), c. 60
1566    David Rizzio, 33, private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, murdered
1649    Henry Rich, Earl of Holland, c. 60, inept Royalist commander, executed by the Puritans
1661    Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino -- Cardinal Mazarin, 58, chief minister of France, sometime soldier
1857    James Duff, 4th Earl of Fife (1811-1857), KT, GCH, Spanish major general, Member of Parliament, 80
1888    Wilhelm I von Hohenzollern, 90, soldier, Regent (1858-1861) and King of Prussia (1861-1888), German Emperor (1871-1888)
1949    Maj. Gen. Walter Short, sometime Commander, Hawaiian Department, who didn't understand the words "war warning", at 68 -- Learn More
1951    Captain General Gonzalo Queipo de Llano y Sierra, 76, Spanish soldier, leftist who became a rightist
1964    Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, gifted German colonial soldier, at 93
1992    Menachem Begin, 78, Irgunist, Prime Minister of Israel (1977-1983), 1979 Peace Nobelist with Anwar Sadat
1992    Yáng Huìmin, 77, heroine of the siege of the Sihang Warehouse, during the Battle of Shanghai, 1937
2005    Redmond A. Simonsen, innovative wargamer, S&T art director, at 62