1179 Battle of Marj Ayun: Saladin defeats King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem

1201 Battle of Capua: Walter of Brienne defeats Dietpoldo di Acerra

1328 Battle of Fucecchio: The Luccans defeat the Florentines

1329 Battle of Pelakanon (NW Anatolia): Byzantine Emperor Andronicus III's army is routed by Sultan Orhan I's Ottomans

1624 Treaty of Compiegne: England, France & the Netherlands ally against Spain

1772 Rhode I. Patriots burn HM Revenue Cutter 'Gaspe'

1776 Congress appoints a committee to write a Declaration of Independence

1801 Tripoli declares war on the US, for refusing to pay protection, initiating the First Barbary War (1801-1805)

1805 The Pasha of Tripoli agrees to release American prisoners and cease attacks on U.S. shipping in return for $60,000 and an end to American efforts to unseat him, concluding the First Barbary War (1801-1805)

1807 Battle of Heilsberg: French defeat the Russians

1826 Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II initiates slaughter of the Janissaries, c. 20,000 die

1840 Edward Oxford fires two shots at Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

1848 Third Battle of Vicenza: Austrians defeat Veneto-Papal forces

1861 Big Bethel, the "first battle" of the Civil War

1863 Brice's Crossroads: Bedford Forrest's most notable victory

1898 Inconclusive US-Spanish naval skirmish off Havana

1915 British and French troops secure German Cameroon, Africa

1916 Hussein bin Ali, the Sharif of Mecca, initiated the Great Arab Revolt at Medina and Mecca

1918 Italian torpedo boat commander Luigi Rizzo gets his second battleship, the Austro-Hungarian 'Szent Istvan'

1920 League of Nations convenes for the first time

1940 The "Stab in the Back": Italy declares war on France and Britain

1943 USS 'Trigger' (SS-237) torpedoes the Japanese CV 'Hiyo' off Japan.

1944 Ouradour-Sur-Glane: SS massacre 642 men, women, & children in a French village

1945 Australian troops land at Brunei Bay, Borneo.

1945 Ticker tape parade on Broadway for General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower

1955 Pius XII excommunicates Argentine dictator Juan Peron

1967 Ceasefire Six-Day ends the Six Day War (Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt vs. Israel)

1979 Pope John Paul II visits Poland

1982 Israeli troops reach outskirts of Beirut

1985 French agents blow up Greenpeace boat 'Rainbow Warrior' in Auckland harbour, 1 death

1991 Ticker tape parade up Broadway to honor Gulf War veterans