241 BC Naval Battle of the Aegates Islands: Rome defeats Carthage, to win the First Punic War

418 Jews are excluded from public office in the Roman Empire

1208 Pope Innocent III calls for a Crusade against the Albigensian heretics

1527 Battle of Kanawha: Babur defeats the Rajputs, to conquer Northern India

1606 Battle of Gol: Susenyos defeats several claimants to secure the throne of Ethiopia (1606-1632)

1624 England declares war on Spain

1734 The Duke of Parma, son of the King of Spain, enters Naples in triumph, to become King Carlo IV (1739-1759), later becomes King of Spain (1759-1788)

1783 John Barry's USS 'Alliance' takes HMS 'Sybil'

1806 Battle of Campo Tenese: French defeat the Neapolitans

1814 Battle of Laon, Day 2: Napoleon losses to the Russo-Prussians

1816 Britain issues the Waterloo Medal, arguably the first "service medal"

1849 Lincoln applies for a patent for a technique to lift grounded barges; he remains the only president to hold a patent

1864 Red River Campaign begins

1865 Battle of Monroe's Crossroads, NC

1873 Battle of Yancoomassie: 4,000 Ashanti defeat c. 25,000 Fante in what is now Ghana

1880 The Salvation Army invades the US from Britain

1905 Japanese Army captures Mukden from the Russians

1915 Battle of Neuve Chapelle: Britain's "Old Contemptibles" defeated

1927 Albania mobilizes, claiming a threat from Yugoslavia

1927 Hitler barred from speaking in Bavaria

1931 British Labour Party expels Sir Oswald Mosley, who founds a fascistic movement

1942 Luzon: MacArthur appoints MG Jonathan Wainwright commander of US forces in the Philippines

1942 NY's 27th Inf Div sails for Hawaii - first division to ship out in WW II.

1942 Vice Adm Wilson Brown's TF 11 (carriers 'Lexington' & 'Yorktown') raids Japanese shipping at Lae and Salamaua

1944 Burma: Chinese troops and Merrill's Marauders capture the Walawbum Valley

1944 Severe restrictions are imposed on all private travel in the UK, in preparation for D-Day

1948 Jets begin regular operations from a carrier, VF-5A off USS 'Boxer' (CV-21)

1952 Coup makes General Fulgencio Batista President of Cuba (1952-1959)

1959 Lhasa, Tibet: Popular uprising against Chinese occupation

1964 US begins reconnaissance flights over East Germany

1966 North Vietnamese capture US Green Beret Camp in the Ashau Valley

1969 James Earl Ray pleads guilty of killing Martin Luther King, Jr.