1312 Philip IV "the Fair" of France petitions Pope Clement V to condemn the Templars

1370 Battle of Rudau: The Teutonic Knights defeat the Lithuanians near Konigsberg

1461 Second Battle of St. Albans: Lancastrians defeat the Yorkists

1500 Battle of Hemmingstedt: King John of Denmark and his brother Frederick, Co-Dukes of Schleswig are defeated by the peasants of Dithmarschen, who have established a republic

1568 Holy Roman Emperor agrees to pay tribute to the Ottomans for peace

1598 Boris Godunov chosen tsar of Russia (1598-1605)

1621 Plymouth Colony elects Miles Standish "Captain" of militia

1670 France & Bavaria sign a military assistance pact

1676 Charles II of England & Louis XIV of France sign secret alliance

1753 Sweden adopts the Gregorian calendar, nearly two centuries behind Catholic countries - tomorrow is March 1st

1772 First Partition: Russia & Prussia annex parts of Poland

1814 Battle of Valjouan: The French defeat the Austrians

1854 Britain recognizes the independence of Orange Free State

1859 Battle of Saigon: A French naval landing force storms the citadel to capture the city from the Vietnamese

1861 King Victor Emanuel of Piedmont is proclaimed King of Italy (1861-1878)

1864 CSS 'H.L. Hunley' sinks USS 'Housatonic', and herself: 1st submarine victory, albeit Pyrrhic

1867 First transit of the Suez Canal

1868 Brazilian fleet runs the Paraguayan batteries at Humaita

1871 Prussian-German troops hold a victory parade in Paris

1880 Tsar Alexander II escapes an assassination attempt

1900 Battle of the Modder River: Phyrric British victory over the Boers

1904 Première of "Madama Butterfly" at La Scala in Milan.

1913 The "Armory Art Show" opens at NY's 69th Regiment Armory

1915 Edward Stone, 1st US combatant to die in WW I, is mortally wounded

1919 USS 'Texas' (BB-35) conducts firing trials with aerial spotting, for a 200% increased accuracy.

1919 Tumultuous reception for New York's 369th (Colored) Infantry as it marches up Broadway to Harlem on its return from France

1942 Japanese aircraft sink the Dutch destroyer 'Van Ness' in the Banka Strait

1943 "Joltin' Joe" DiMaggio joins the Army

1943 55th Indian Bde unable to capture Japanese strongpoints in the Arakan

1943 Dutch churches protest Nazi persecution of Jews

1943 HMNZS 'Moa' lands a reconnaissance team on Banika, Russell Islands

1944 Operation Hailstone: Task Force 58 initiates a two-day air/surface raid on Truk, sinking 200,000 tons of shipping

1944 US forces land on Eniwetok Atoll, which is secured on Feb 22

1945 US Navy "frogmen" clearing beaches at Iwo Jima take heavy losses

1947 Voice of America begins broadcasting to the USSR

1979 Communist China invades Communist Vietnam and gets a bloody nose

1986 Libyan aircraft raid N'djamena, Chad

1995 The Cenepa War: A truce ends a 22-day border conflict between Ecuador and Peru

1998 USNA midshipman Diane Zamora, 20, convicted of capital murder