1098 After a siege, the Crusaders storm and loot Ma'arrat al-Numan, Syria. amidst great slaughter

1654 The Delft Explosion: a munitions store detonates, devastating the city and killing c. 300 people

1781 Second Battle of Ushant: Richard Kempenfelt's British fleet of 12 ships-of-the-line defeats le Comte de Guichen's French fleet of 19

1813 Anglo-French Cavalry Skirmish at Hasparen, Spain

1813 Cavalry Skirmish at Hasparen, Spain

1820 Battle of Jebel Dager: Ismail Pasha's Egypto-Sudanese army defeats the Hannekab

1862 Battle of Dumfries, Va

1862 Confederate "torpedo" sinks USS 'Cairo' in the Yazoo River

1901 Guglielmo Marconi makes the first trans-Atlantic radio transmission, from Cornwall to Nova Scotia

1915 Russian troops capture Hamadan, Persia

1917 French troop train derails in the Alps, killing 543

1925 Reza Pahlavi is proclaimed Shah of Persia by the Majlis of Iran (1925-1941)

1937 Japanese aircraft and artillery "accidentally" sink the USS 'Panay' (PR 5), and damage several American merchant ships, as well as some British gunboats and shipping on the Yangtze

1939 Battle of Tolvajärvi: The greatly outnumbered Finns defeat the Soviet invaders in the first major action of the "Winter War"

1940 British troops capture Sidi el-Barrani

1941 British decide to abandon northern Malaya

1941 Germans begin a house-by-house search for Jews in Paris

1941 Japanese abandon their first attempt to capture Wake

1941 Japanese complete the occupation of southern Thailand

1941 Japanese invade Burma

1941 Japanese troops land at Legaspi, southeastern Luzon

1941 Luzon: Japanese advance from Vigan & Aparri

1942 Guadalcanal: 2nd Marine Div begins taking over from the 1st, as Japanese infiltrators destroy a P-39 and fuel truck

1942 USS 'PT-45' sinks Japanese DD 'Teruzuki' off Kolombangara

1944 Leyte: US forces consolidate their positions

1945 Dutch court sentences Nazi leader Mussert to death

1953 Chuck Yeager reaches Mach 2.43 in a Bell X-1A

1958 Charles de Gaulle becomes President of France (1959-1969)

1985 DC-8 crashes near Gander, 248 US military personnel & 8 crew members die

1991 The Russian Federation secedes from the USSR