1303 | | The War of Vespers in Sicily ends with an agreement between Charles of Valois, who invaded the country, and Frederick, the ruler of Sicily. |
1521 | | Cortes captures the city of Tenochtitlan, Mexico, and sets it on fire. |
1756 | | The British at Fort William Henry, New York, surrender to Louis Montcalm of France. |
1802 | | Captain Merriwether Lewis leaves Pittsburgh to meet up with Captain William Clark and begin their trek to the Pacific Ocean. |
1864 | | At the Democratic convention in Chicago, General George B. McClellan is nominated for president. |
1919 | | The Communist Labor Party is founded in Chicago, with the motto, "Workers of the world unite!" |
1928 | | Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera opens in Berlin. |
1940 | | Joseph Avenol steps down as Secretary-General of the League of Nations. |
1942 | | The British army under General Bernard Law Montgomery defeats Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps in the Battle of Alam Halfa in Egypt. |
1944 | | The British Eighth Army penetrates the German Gothic Line in Italy. |
1949 | | Six of the 16 surviving Union veterans of the Civil War attend the last-ever encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, held in Indianapolis, Indiana. |
1951 | | The 1st Marine Division begins its attack on Bloody Ridge in Korea. The four-day battle results in 2,700 Marine casualties. |
1961 | | A concrete wall replaces the barbed wire fence that separates East and West Germany, it will be called the Berlin wall. |
1994 | | The Irish Republican Army (IRA) announces a "complete cessation of military operations," opening the way to a political settlement in Ireland for the first time in a quarter of a century. |
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