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TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
264BC Triumph of Consul M. Fulvius Flaccus, for defeating the Volsinii -- Learn More
82BC Lucius Cornelius Sulla defeated the Samnites outside Rome's Colline Gate, ending the Social War [Alt] -- Learn More
0    All Saints' Day
0    Self-Defense Forces Commemoration Day in Japan
0    Feast of Pomona, Roman Goddess of the Harvest
0    Dia de los muertos in Mexico
36    Major fire devastates part of Rome
630    Mohammed captures Mecca
866    Battle of York: Danish raiders defeat the Yorkists
1210    King John of England begins imprisoning Jews
1592    Battle of Busan: Korean ironclad "turtle boats" defeat the Japanese fleet
1755    The Great Lisbon Earthquake -- possibly 100,000 die
1765    Stamp Act goes into effect in British colonies, which object not over having to pay a tax, but over being denied the rights to have a say in legislation
1784    Maryland grants citizenship to Lafayette & his descendants
1806    Fra Diavolo taken at Baronissi by French Col Sigisbert Hugo (Victor's father)
1821    Greeks capture Missolonghi from the Turks
1835    Texians besiege of San Antonio (it falls Dec 4)
1860    Neapolitan 3rd Div occupies defensive positions at Itri, to resist the Italo-Piedmontese invasion
1861    Bvt Lt Gen Winfield Scott retires and George McClellan is named General-in-Chief of the US Army
1869    Red River Rebellion: Louis Riel seizes Fort Garry, Winnipeg
1904    Army War College opens, with Capt. John J. Pershing in the first class
1911    Flying an Etrich monoplane, Italian Lt. Garetti drops a hand-held bomb from 600 feet on the Tanguira Oasis, Libya, initiating a 20th century custom
1914    Von Spee's German Pacific Squadron annihilated a weaker British force off Chile in the Battle of Coronel -- Learn More
1914    Paul von Hindenburg is named commander-in-chief of German forces on the Eastern Front
1914    Pope Benedict XV calls for an end to 'the suicide of Europe' and is promptly lambasted by all sides
1915    American pediatrician and poet Helen Mackay watched troops boarding trains in London -- Learn More
1916    the German Army ordered a survey of the number of Jews in military service -- Learn More
1916    Ninth Battle of the Isonzo begins (to Nov 4)
1918    Italian naval special operations forces sink the Austrian battleship 'Viribus Unitis', which is in Yugoslav hands
1922    Ottoman Empire abolished
1928    'Graf Zeppelin' sets an airship distance record, 6384 km
1932    Wernher von Braun named head of German liquid-fuel rocket program
1933    German Army creates its first panzer unit,
1936    Mussolini coins the phrase "The Axis"
1937    Battle for the Sihang Warehouse, Shanghai: under siege for six days, the Chinese 524th Regiment retreats; Chinese casualties, 10 k, 37 wounded, Japanese 200+ killed, an unknown number woundeds
1939    Maiden flight of the Heinkel He 178, the first jet
1940    Fleetwood, Pa.: 1st US air raid shelter opens
1940    The Netherlands: Nazis establish a 2400-0400 curfew
1941    Japanese Navy changes call signs for all ships
1942    Guadalcanal: Marines attack across the Matanikau River
1943    Bougainville: 3rd Marine Div lands at Cape Torokina, Empress Augusta Bay
1943    'U-405' is engaged, rammed, & sunk off the Azores by USS 'Borie' (DD-215), which sinks the following day due to severe battle damage
1943    USN raids Japanese installations at Buin and Buka.
1948    Chinese Communists capture Mukden, Manchuria
1950    Puerto Rican nationalists attempt to kill Pres. Truman at Blair House
1951    First atomic explosion with troops present, NM
1952    First hydrogen device exploded, Eniwetok Atoll
1954    Algeria begins rebellion against France
1954    General Fulgencio Batista elects himself president of Cuba for the second time (1940-1944, 1952-1959)
1955    Bomb destroys a UAL DC-6 above Longmont, Colorado, 44 die
1956    The Imre Nagy government of Hungary withdraws from the Warsaw Pact
1959    Revolutionary Nationalist Patrice Lumumba arrested in Belgian Congo
1960    Benelux Treaty goes into effect
1963    South Vietnam: Coup against the Ngo Dinhm Diem gov't
1966    William Dana reaches 93 km altitude in the X-15

BORN
846    King Louis II "the Stutter" of France (877-79)
1757    Antonio Canova, sculptor ("Pauline Bonaparte"), d. 1822 -- Learn More
1764    Stephen Van Rensselaer, patroon, soldier, humanitarian, d. 1839 -- Learn More
1776    King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden (1792-1809), deposed, d. 1837
1815    Douglas Hancock Cooper, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1879
1825    Joseph Benjamin Palmer, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1890
1835    Godfrey Weitzel, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1884
1853    Jose Santos Zelaya, President/Dictator of Nicaragua (1893-1910), d. 1919
1871    Stephen Crane, novelist ("The Red Badge of Courage"), d. 1900
1878    Carlos Saavedra Lamas, 1936 Peace Nobelist, d. 1959
1889    Philip John Noel-Baker, 1959 Peace Nobelist, d. 1982
1902    Nordahl Grieg, Norwegian leftist author, journalist, and poet, kia 1943

DIED
1391    Amedeo VII "the Red Count" of Savoy (1383-1391), 31
1700    King Charles II of Spain (1665-1700), at 38, setting off the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) -- Learn More
1734    Louisa de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth, 84, sometime numbered among the mistresses of Charles II
1793    Lord George Gordon, 42, English anti-Catholic agitator ("Gordon Riots" of 1780)
1903    Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen, historian, Literature Nobelist, at 85
1912    Homer Lea, American soldier of fortune, Chinese general, 35 -- Learn More
1950    Leslie William Coffelt, 39, White House Police, killed by Puerto Rican nationalists attempting to assassinate Pres Truman
1963    Ngo Dinh Diem, 62, South Vietnamese strongman, in a coup
1972    Ezra Pound, Fascist collaborator, poet ("Cantos"), at 87
2007    Brig Gen Paul W. Tibbets Jr., who commanded the 'Enola Gay', at 92