878 Syracuse, the capital of Byzantine Sicily, surrenders after an eight-month siege to Muslim invaders, who enslave all of the inhabitants that they do not massacre and raze every church.

1077 Canossa: HRE Henry IV begs forgiveness from Pope Gregory VII

1420 Treaty of Troyes: Charles VI of France recognizes Henry V of England as his heir, and gives him his daughter Catherine to wed

1421 Murad II becomes Sultan of the Turks (1421-1451)

1511 Battle of Casalecchio: French defeat the Papal Army

1522 Adrian Florisz Boeyens elected Pope asAdrianVI (1522-23)

1674 John Sobieski is elected King of Poland-Lithuania (1674-1796)

1762 HM frigate 'Active' & sloop 'Favourite' capture the Spanish ship 'Hermione' off Cadiz inbound from Peru, and realize prize of £519,705 10s, perhaps £400 million today

1856 Lawrence, Kansas captured & sacked by pro-slavery forces

1861 Richmond, Va, is designated the Confederate Capital

1863 Union Siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana, begins

1864 US Maj Gen David Hunter takes command of Dept of West Virginia

1871 French troops attack the Commune of Paris; 17,000 reportedly die in a week

1879 Naval Battle of Iquique: Peru loses an ironclad, Chile a gunboat.

1917 Leo Pinckney is the first American drafted during WW I

1941 SS 'Robin Moore' is sunk off Brazil, first U-boat kill of an American ship in WW II

1942 Philippines: Japanese troops occupy Samar and Leyte

1943 China: Japanese open a new offensive across the Yangtze River

1944 Pearl Harbor: ammo-laden LST blows up, 6 LSTs lost, c. 200 die

1944 Wadke, New Guinea: Japanese crushed, c. 750 dead to 43 US

1944 The U.S. observes "I Am an American Day" celebrating the nation's diversity

1956 US explodes the first airdropped hydrogen bomb, Bikini Atoll

1964 US begins intelligence flights above Laos

1968 USS 'Scorpion' (SSN-589) sinks off Azores, 99 die

1991 Marxist dictator of Ethiopia Mengistu Haile Mariam resigns