588 BC Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon laid siege to Jerusalem, which fell on July 23, 586 BC

69 Coup installs Marcus Salvius Otho as Roman Emperor (Jan 15-April 16, 69)

946 Caliph al-Mustaqfi of Baghdad (944-946) is deposed and blinded, as he did to his predecessor

1495 French besiege Gaeta (to Feb 16), held for Ferrante II of Naples

1517 The Turks sack Cairo

1535 Henry VIII becomes head of the Church in England, in order to divorce his wife

1552 Treaty of Chambord: Catholic France agrees to support German Protestants against the Catholic Holy Roman Emperor

1582 Russia cedes Livonia & Estonia to Poland, losing access to the sea

1680 French explorer Sieur de la Salle builds Ft Crevecoeur

1709 The Austro-Papal War ends

1757 Robert-François Damiens stabs Louis XV with a penknife

1762 Samuel Fraunces opens a tavern in New York City

1799 French & Polish troops plunder Itri, murdering 60

1851 President Hose é Joaquín de Herrera of Mexico (1848-1851) ousted in a coup by Mariano Arista (1851-1852)

1865 Union soldiers, sailors, & marines (among them George Dewey), storm Ft Fisher, NC

1919 Pianist Ignace Paderewski is named premier & foreign minister of Poland (to Dec 9, 1919)

1942 Bataan: Japanese troops penetrate US/Philippine defenses

1942 Chinese halt a Japanese offensive near Changsha in Hunan Province.

1942 Japanese Southern Army invades Burma from Thailand.

1942 Malaya: Japanese "end run" landings dislocate the British left.

1943 Dedication of the Pentagon

1943 Guadalcanal: US forces make only limited gains.

1943 Japanese super battleship 'Musashi' arrives at Truk, to ride at anchor for several months.

1943 Papua: Allied forces make limited gains near Sanananda

1944 European Advisory Commission decides to divide Germany

1944 New Guinea: Australians reach the north coast of the Huon Peninsula, near Sio.

1945 Japanese offensive in China advances on the U.S. airbase in Sichuan.

1945 Red Army liberates the Krakow-Plaszow concentration camp

1949 Mao's Red army captures Tientsin

1951 German court gives Ilse Koch, "The Bitch of Buchenwald", life (suicide in prison, 1967)

1962 Naval Battle of Etna Bay, New Guinea: Dutch defeat the Indonesians

1973 Pres Nixon suspends all US offensive action over North Vietnam

1997 Dr Jerry Lineger, Capt, USN, joins MIR via Space Shuttle Atlantis