537 Goths besiege Rome, held by Belisarius (relieved Mar 12, 538)
871 Battle of Marton: King Ethelred of Wessex defeats the Danes
986 Accession of King Louis V of France (Mar 2, 986–21 May 987), the last Carolingian king of the West Franks
1121 Dirk VI becomes count of Holland (1121-1157)
1458 George of Podbrady is elected King of Bohemia (1458-1471)
1476 Battle of Granson: The Swiss defeat Charles the Bold of Burgundy
1498 Vasco da Gama's fleet reaches Mozambique
1502 Duke Alfonso I d'Este weds Lucrezia Borgia, and they live happily ever after
1579 Battle of Borgerhout: The Prince of Parma's Spaniards defeat the Dutch
1776 Americans begin shelling British troops in Boston
1807 Congress bans the importation of slaves effective Jan 1, 1808
1811 Battle of San Nicolás: Spanish royalists defeat a small Argentine patriot flotilla on the River Plate
1836 Texas declares independence from Mexico
1855 Accession of Tsar Alexander II (1855-1881), assassinated
1859 Paddle steamer USS 'Saginaw' commissioned, the first American warship built on the West Coast, at Mare Island
1865 Battle of Waynesborough: Jubal Early's Rebels defeated
1867 Congress abolishes peonage in New Mexico
1867 First Reconstruction Act passed by Congress
1867 The James gang robs a bank in Savannah, Mo, 1 k
1867 US Navy Civil Engineering Corps founded
1882 Deranged Scot Roderick McClean fires a shot at Queen Victoria outside the railway station at Windsor: the eighth and last attempt to assassinate her
1907 General Louis Botha becomes premier of the Transvaal (1907-1910)
1915 Vladimir Jabotinsky forms a militia to defend Jewish settlements in Palestine
1919 Communist International (Comintern) congress opens in the Kremlin
1933 "King Kong" opens in New York
1938 15th Infantry leaves China after 26 years in garrison at Tientsin & Peking.
1938 Stalin initiates the Purges
1939 Eugenio Pacelli chosen Pope as Pius XII (1939-1958), on his birthday
1940 Soviet troops capture Tuppura Island from the Finns
1942 Action South of Java: USS 'Pillsbury' (DD-227) sunk by Japanese heavy cruisers
1942 Philippines: Japanese troops occupy Zamboanga
1943 Battle of the Bismarck Sea: Japanese convoy attacked by USAAF aircraft
1944 Philippines: US troops capture Momote on Los Negros
1945 King Michael of Romania gives in to Communist govt
1945 Philippines: Japanese resistance on Corregidor ends.
1956 Morocco declares independence from France
1962 Coup in Burma initiates an ongoing military regime
1969 Sino-Soviet border clash, c. 70 die
2021