1099 Count Bertrand of Toulouse sets out on Crusade

1387 Battle of Castagnaro: Giovanni Acuto/John Hawkwood leads the Carrarans to victory over the Scaligers

1463 Francois Villon, "Ballad Lord and Thief," is banished from Paris, and is never seen again.

1504 The French surrender Gaeta to Gonzalo de Cordoba after a short siege

1521 Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther

1777 Battle of Princeton: Washington defeats the British

1799 Gaeta surrenders to the French without a fight

1861 Forts Pulaski & Jackson, Savannah, seized by Georgia

1862 Valley Campaign: Stonewall Jackson moves north from Winchester

1868 The Meiji Restoration: The shogunate is abolished in Japan

1914 Pancho Villa & Mutual Film Corp conclude a deal to film his battles

1926 Mussolini assumes the Ministries of War, Navy, & Air

1942 ABDA: Allied forces in SE Asia & East Indies put under Archibald Wavell

1942 Borac-Guagua line holds on Luzon.

1942 Malaya: British once again withdraw under pressure.

1943 Guadalcanal: Americal Div partially surrounds the Japanese Gifu position.

1943 Papua: U.S. and Australian forces mop up in the Buna area

1944 Marine ace "Pappy" Boyington (28 kills) captured by the Japanese

1945 Third Fleet stages raids on Okinawa, Formosa, & the Pescadores

1962 Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro

1990 Panama's Gen Manuel Noriega surrenders to US authorities

1992 32 Cubans defect to the US by helicopter

1993 George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START II).

2004 Bhutanese Army expels the last Indian rebel invaders (begun Dec 15)