670BC The Battle of the Horatii and the Curiatii

331BC Battle of Gaugamela: Alexander the Great trounces the Persians

45BC Caesar's fifth Triumph, for the defeat of the Pompeians at Munda

1040 Conan II succeeds his father, Alain III, as Duke of Brittany (1040-1066)

1285 Battle of the Col de Panissars: Peter III of Aragón defeats Philip III of France

1496 Battle of Eboli: The French defeat the Neapolitans

1756 Battle of Lobositz: Prussians defeat the Austrians

1800 Spain ceded Louisiana to France in return for Tuscany, but retains the right of first refusal should Napoleon chose to dispose of the place

1800 U.S. schooner 'Experiment' captures the French schooner 'Diana'.

1835 Battle of Guadalupe Ford: Texians defeat the Mexicans

1837 U.S treaty with Winnebago Indians

1850 Moslems massacre Christians at Aleppo, Syria

1860 Battle of the Volturno: Garibaldi defeats the Neapolitan Royalists

1863 Russian fleet arrives to winter in New York

1864 Lincoln hires John Staples as a "substitute" to encourage recruiting

1868 King Rama V Chulalongkorn succeeds to the throne of Siam, d. 1910

1880 John Philip Sousa becomes director of the Marine Corps Band

1898 Tsar Nicholas II orders Jews expelled from some Russian cities

1918 British & Arab forces liberate Damascus from the Turks

1919 Hoop Spur Church Massacre, Elaine, Arkansas: White racists initiate a three-day pogrom against alleged "black insurrectionists" -- some whites, more than 100 blacks slain, some by federal troops

1932 Sir Oswald Mosley forms the British Union of Fascists

1935 Germany bans jazz and other "Negro" and "Jewish" music

1936 Francisco Franco named the leader of Spanish Nationalists

1938 Munich Conference ends in the German annexation of the Sudetenland

1939 Churchill says the USSR "is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma"

1942 Italian blockade runner 'Orseolo' departs Bordeaux for Kobe

1942 Maiden flight of the Bell P-59 Airacomet, the first US jet fighter

1943 Allied forces liberate Naples

1945 US Army discharges MSGT Joe Louis

1949 Mao Tse-tung proclaims the People's Republic of China

1950 ROK troops advance northwards across the 38th Parallel

1951 The historically Black 24th Infantry, falsely accused of cowardice in Korea, is deactivated; restored 1991

1955 Commissioning of the USS 'Forrestal' (CVA-59) the first supercarrier; serves until 1993

1957 B-52 bombers begin full-time flying alert in case of USSR attack, which continues until the early 1990s

1958 Elvis arrives by ship in Bremerhaven, bound for Ray Caserne in Frieberg

1958 NASA is formed, takes over the Vanguard Project from the USN

1962 "Combat" premiers on ABC, runs for five seasons

1980 Cosmonauts Ryumin & Popov break space endurance record of 176 days

1988 Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Soviet Head-of-State (Oct. 1, 1988 - Dec. 25, 1991)

1992 USS 'Saratoga' (CV-60) accidentally fires missiles at a Turkish destroyer in the Aegean, 5 die

2008 US Africa Command (AFRICOM)