1238 The Mongols capture Vladimir, Russia
1377 Cardinal Robert of Geneva & John Hawkwood massacre c. 2,000 people in Cesena, Italy
1451 Mehemet II becomes Ottoman Sultan for the second time (1444-1446, 1451-1481)
1488 Portuguese navigator Bartholomeu Diaz sights the Cape of Good Hope
1509 Battle of Diu: The Portuguese defeat the Ottoman fleet, securing control of Indian Ocean commerce
1517 Ottoman Sultan Selim I takes Cairo and proclaims himself Caliph
1576 Henry of Navarre [later Henri IV of France] escapes from Paris
1591 League of Torgau formed: Protestant German princes organize to oppose the Edict of Worms, which condemned Luther
1637 Collapse of the "Tulip Bubble": initiates history's first "Depression"
1706 Battle of Fraustadt: The Swedes defeat a much larger Saxon-Polish-Russian army
1740 King Carlo V permits Jews to live in Sicily
1781 British Adm. Rodney captures Sint Eustatius, Dutch West Indies, after a short siege
1783 Spain recognizes US independence
1797 Battle of Imola: the French rout the Papal Army
1801 The Senate ratifies the treaty ending the Quasi-War with France
1807 The Battle of Montevideo: The British capture the city from the Spanish
1813 Battle of San Lorenzo: San Martin's Argentine patriots defeat the Spanish colonial army
1813 Battle of Niquitas: Bolivar's Columbians defeat the Spanish Royalists
1852 Battle of Monte Caseros: Insurgents defeat Argentine President Rosas, who flees
1862 President Lincoln received the King of Siam's offer of war elephants to help fight the Confederacy
1863 Confederate raider 'Alabama' burns the US schooner 'Palmetto' off Brazil
1864 American Civil War: Sherman begins the Meridian Campaign in Mississippi
1867 Accession of Mutsuhito as Emperor of Japan -- the "Meiji" (1867-1912)
1915 Battle of the Suez Canal: a Turkish attempt to cross the canal is defeated
1917 German sub sinks US liner 'Housatonic', America severs relations
1933 Hitler informs his generals to prepare for war to secure Lebensraum
1942 Bataan: Fil-Am troops restore the Bagac-Orion line
1943 New Guinea: Aussie Kanga Force counterattacks from Wau, drives Japanese on Mubo
1943 Troop transport 'Dorchester' torpedoed & sunk off Greenland with great loss of life.
1944 U.S. ships shell the Japanese island of Paramushiro in the Kuriles.
1945 Operation Thunderclap: the Eighth Air Force sends 1,000 B-17s to c. 3000 tons of bombs on Berlin, killing c. 3,000 and rendering 120,000 homeless.
1989 Military coup overthrows Dictator Alfredo Stroessner of Paraguay (1954-1989), who sheltered Nazis
1994 Sergei Krikalev becomes the first Russian on the Space Shuttle, 'Discovery'.
1998 USMC aircraft severs cable car line in northern Italy, 20 die
2021