27 BC The Senate grants Octavian the honorific "Augustus"

9 BC Ovation for Tiberius's victories in Pannonia

378 Tikal is captured by the Teotihuacan general Siyaj K'ak'

550 King Totila of the Ostrogoths captures Rome from the East Romans, by bribing the garrison.

929 Emir Abd-ar-Rahman III of Andalous established the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba with himself as Caliph (929-961)

1495 French under Charles VIII invest Gaeta (falls Feb 16).

1547 Grand Prince Ivan IV "the Terrible" of Moscovy (1533-1547) declares himself Tsar of all the Russias (1542-1584)

1556 Charles I of Spain (r. 1516-1556) abdicates the throne to his son, Philip II (1556-1598)

1776 Congress approves the enlistment of free black men in the Continental Army

1777 Vermont declares independence from NY

1780 First Battle of Cape St Vincent: Rodney defeats the Spanish fleet

1795 Pichegru's French army occupies Utrecht, the Netherlands

1797 Battle of La Favorita: Bonaparte defeats the Austrians, who lost 5,000 prisoners

1809 Battle of La Coruna: The English defeat the French

1861 Lt Adam Slemmer, USA, again rejects demands by Florida state troops to surrender Ft Pickens

1863 Raiding cruise of CSS 'Florida' begins (ends Aug 23)

1864 Battle of Dandridge, Tn.

1920 National Prohibition under the XVIII Amendment goes into effect at midnight; repealed in 1933

1924 During Fleet Problem III, an "enemy" agent "sabotages" the battleship 'New York' (BB 34) in the Panama Canal

1941 Battle of the Gulf of Siam: The French Indochina Squadron defeats the Thai Navy

1941 The War Department forms a squadron for black aviation cadets

1942 Bataan: Heavy fighting

1942 Malaya: British try to hold the Muar River against Japanese forces

1942 Rio Conference: 21 American republics discuss hemispheric defense

1943 Guadalcanal: 2nd Marine Div clears Japanese troops out of "the Ravine"

1943 Papua: U.S. and Australians mop up Japanese forces around Sanananda

1944 Gen Eisenhower takes command of Operation Overlord

1945 TF 38 aircraft attack Japanese held Hong Kong.

1945 US First and Third Armies meet at Houffalize, Belgium

1951 Viet Minh offensive at Hanoi

1954 "South Pacific" closes after 1928 performances at the Majestic Theatre in NY

1957 Three B-52s leave California on the first non-stop world flight

1963 Khrushchev claims to have a 100-megaton nuclear bomb

1969 Soviet Soyuz 4 & Soyuz 5 perform first crew transfer in space

1970 Col Gadhaffi becomes premier of Libya, deposed & executed 2011

1992 Chapultepec Peace Accords: Salvadorian factions agree to end 12-year civil war that killed 75,000.

2001 Andrew J. Smith, 55th Mass, posthumously awarded a Medal of Honor, for Nov 30, 1864.

2001 Theodore Roosevelt is awarded a Medal of Honor for San Juan Heights in 1898