TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY

539	BC	Cyrus the Great of Persia captures Babylon [or the 12th, 17th, or 29th]
51	BC	Cicero defeated the Isaurians in the Battle of Amanaus -- Learn More
0		Feast of St. Edward the Confessor, King of England, and that of St. Gerald of Aurillac, Patron of Bachelors and Counts
1213		Battle of Steppes: Liege defeats Brabant
1307		Simultaneous arrest of all Knights Templar in France - the original "Friday the Thirteenth"
1513		Battle of Olmo: Spanish defeat the French & Venetians
1812		Battle of Queenstown Height: British/Canadians defeat the Americans
1861		Combat at Henrytown/West Glaze, Mo
1861		Combat at Lime Creek, Mo
1861		Skirmish at Beckwith Farm/Bird's Point
1864		John Mosby raids Harpers Ferry
1864		Battle of Darbytown Road, VA
1914		Belgian government relocates to Le Havre, France
1914		Pro-German Boer insurrection in South Africa
1917		NYC Bd of Ed bars "German" music in schools
1918		Gefreiter Adolf Hitler was temporarily blinded in a mustard gas attack near Ypres
1924		Abdul Aziz ibn Saud captures Mecca
1942		Guadalcanal: Japanese air, artillery, & naval bombardment of the Marines, as U.S. destroyers shell the Japanese
1943		Italy declares war on former ally Germany
1944		Red Army liberates Riga from the Germans
1944		US carriers conduct a 2nd day of raids against Japanese installations on Formosa
1944		1st Lt Martin James Monti, USAAF, deserted to the Germans in Italy -- Learn More
1960		Fidel Castro stages mass executions in a stadium in Havana
1964		Brezhnev & Kosygin oust Khrushchev from Soviet leadership
1987		First operational use of dolphins by the US Navy, in the Persian Gulf

BORN

1775		The United States Navy, as Congress establishes the Continental Navy
1775		The Continental Navy, later the USN
1808		Henry Haywood Bell, Rear Adm., U.S., d. 1868
1810		James Shedden Palmer, Rear Adm., U.S., d. 1867
1826		Lafayette Curry Baker, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1868
1873		Harris Laning, Adm., US, President, Naval War College, 1930-1933, d. 1941 -- Learn More
1925		Margaret Thatcher, PM of Great Britain (1979-90), d. 2013
1926		Jesse LeRoy Brown, the first African-American naval aviator, DFC in Korea, kia 1950
1952		Michael Richard Clifford, astronaut

DIED

54		Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, the Roman Emperor Claudius (41-54), at 63, mushroomed by his wife/niece Agrippina the Younger in favor of her son, Nero -- Learn More
1093		Count Robert I of Flanders (1071-1093), c. 61-63
1240		Razia al-Din - Sultana Razia of Delhi (1236-1240), c. 35, sovereign woman Moslem ruler
1513		Ermes Bentivoglio (37), Patrician of Bologna, kia in Venetian service by Prospero Colonna, Battle of Olmo
1660		George Carew, who had voted to execute King Charles I, hanged, drawn, & quartered by Charles II
1660		King Charles X Gustaf of Sweden (1654-60), 37
1772		General George Keppel, Earl of Albemarle, conqueror of Havana, at 48 -- Learn More
1795		Col. William Prescott, 69, who had commanded the Patriots at Bunker Hill
1812		Maj Gen Sir Isaac Brock, the "Defender of Canada," kia at 43, Battle of Queenstown Heights -- Learn More
1815		Joachim Murat, 48, Marshal of France, sometime King of Naples (1808-15), executed at Pizzo -- Learn More
1825		Maximilian Josef von Wittelsbach, 69, Prince-elector Maximilian IV of (1799-1805) and then King Maximilian I of Bavaria (1806-1825)
1909		Francisco Ferrer, 50, Spanish Catalan anarchist, executed
1915		Charles Hamilton Sorley, British officer and war poet, kia at 20, Battle of. Loos -- Learn More
1943		Maj. Gen. Stonewall Jackson, commander, U.S. 84th Inf. Div, at 52, in an aircraft accident -- Learn More
1947		FM Sir Archibald Montgomery-Massingberd, former Chief of the Imperial General Staff with odd priorities, at 75 -- Learn More [Misplaced Priorities]
1990		Le Duc Tho, 78, Vietnamese diplomat, who refused a Nobel Peace Prize (1975)
2000		Gus Hall, USN veteran, CPUSA President (1959-2000), still believing, at 90
2002		Stephen Ambrose, 64, historian ("Citizen Soldiers")
2016		King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand (1946-2016), 88