49 BC The Senate orders Caesar to disband his army or be declared a public enemy, thereby heading off a compromise by Cicero, and ensuring civil war

1558 The Duc de Guise captures Calais by surprise, completing the liberation of France from the English.

1579 England & the Netherlands conclude an alliance

1598 Boris Godunov usurps the Russian throne on the death of Theodore I

1601 Robert, Earl of Essex leads a revolt in London against Queen Elizabeth

1709 Siege of Verpik: Russians use boiling porridge to help defeat the Swedes

1762 The British cabinet orders the capture of Havana, by forces concentrating from Britain, Ireland, North America, & the West Indies, which is accomplished in 218 days, on August 13th

1785 First balloon crossing of the English Channel, from Dover to Calais, by the Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard & American John Jeffries

1789 First American presidential election

1935 Fascist Italy and Popular Front France agree to help Austria against Nazi Germany

1941 Isoroku Yamamoto proposes a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor

1942 Bataan: 15,000 US & 65,000 Philippine troops go on half-rations, as the Japanese close up to their lines

1942 Malaya: Japanese turn the British defenses north of Kuala Lumpur

1943 Burma: Stalemate in the Arakan as the British take heavy losses

1943 Guadalcanal: US strength reaches 50,000, Japanese less than 25,000.

1944 Japan's Imperial HQ orders capture of the Imphal, NE India

1945 Burma: British troops occupy Akyab, in the Arakan

1945 British Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery tells a press conference that he won the Battle of the Bulge

1953 Pres Truman announces development of the hydrogen bomb

1962 Indonesian Pres Sukarno escapes assassination attempt

1979 Vietnamese forces capture Phnom Penh from the Khmer Rouge

1989 Akihito installed as the 125th Emperor of Japan

2015 Islamist terrorists attack the office of the magazine 'Charlie Hebdo' in Paris, killing 12 and wounding several others