923 Battle of Soissons: King Charles "The Simple" of France defeats the self-proclaimed "Robert I"

1094 El Cid liberates Valencia from the Moors

1215 Battle of Runnymede: England's barons convince King John to issue what becomes Magna Carta

1219 Battle of Reval: The Danes defeat the Estonians and design a flag

1520 Pope Leo X condemns Martin Luther as a heretic

1567 Battle of Carberry Hill: Sir William Kirkcaldy of Grange defeats the Earl of Bothwell, champion of Mary Queen of Scots

1567 Jews are expelled from Genoa

1639 Battle of Megray Hill: The Covenanters defeat Col William Gunn

1674 Battle of Sinsheim: The French defeat the Imperialists

1734 Charles of Parma invests Gaeta (falls August 6)

1743 Battle of Dettingen, English under George II crush the French

1775 Moved by John Admas, Congress appoints George Washington "General and Commander-in-Chief of all the forces raised or to be raised" in the defense of American liberties

1776 Americans burn and abandon Montreal

1779 Maj Gen "Mad" Anthony Wayne storms Stony Point, NY

1802 Toussaint L'Ouverture leaves Haiti, a prisoner of the French

1807 Battle of Friedland: Napoleon defeats the Russians

1814 US trans-lacustrine raid on Point Dover and Long Point, Ontario

1815 The Duchess of Richmond gives a ball at Brussels

1859 Battle of the Tre Ponti: The Garibaldini defeat the Austrians

1861 Joe Johnston evacuates Harpers Ferry, which is occupied by Union forces later that afternoon

1862 JEB Stuart's Confederate cavalry completes his first "ride around the army of the Potomac"

1864 Battle of Petersburg: Grant's first assault

1864 Robert E Lee's home, Arlington, becomes a military cemetery

1866 Prussia declares war on Austria, initiating the Seven Weeks' War

1877 Henry O Flipper becomes the first black cadet to graduate from West Point

1888 Accession of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany (1888-1918), "Kaiser Bill"

1898 US marines & sailors land at Caimanera, Cuba

1904 Steamer 'General Slocum' burns in the East River, 1,031 die

1907 Second Hague Peace Conference; 44 nations meet

1931 Poland & USSR sign friendship treaty

1934 Hitler meets Mussolini for the first time, Rome

1940 Bread & flour rationed in German-occupied Holland

1940 Italian Air Force bombs Luc-en-Province

1940 Soviet Army occupies Lithuania

1940 The Germans capture Verdun

1942 US B-24s & RAF Beaufighters attack an Italian battle squadron in the Ionian Sea, lightly damaging the battleship 'Littorio'

1943 German raider 'Michel' sinks a 7700-ton merchant ship west of Australia

1944 US marines land on Saipan

1955 First nationwide civil defense drill - "Duck and Cover!"

1964 Last French troops leave Algeria

1978 Soyuz 29 carries two cosmonauts to Salyut 6, to stay 139 days

1991 Mt Pinatubo, the Philippines erupts, closes Clark Air Force Base

1994 Israel and the Vatican establish diplomatic relations leave Algeria