EVENT ADD

Year Month Date Event

Year Month Date Event
0000  June  06 22  334 A.D Alexander the Great defeated Darius, King of the Persians, at the Granicus River, near the mouth of the Sea of Marmara in present-day Turkey. Alexander's heavy cavalry crushed Darius' light cavalry, exposing Darius' Greek mercenary infantry, which was overcome in its turn. 
0040  June  06 13  Birth of Gnaeus Julius Agricola, who, from the years 77 to 84, would complete the invasion of Britain begun by Julius Caesar in 55 B.C. 
0334  June  06 22  Alexander the Great defeated Darius, King of the Persians, at the Granicus River, near the mouth of the Sea of Marmara in present-day Turkey. Alexander's heavy cavalry crushed Darius' light cavalry, exposing Darius' Greek mercenary infantry, which was overcome in its turn. 
0390  July  07 16  Gallic troops under Brennus defeated a Roman army at the Allia River, eleven miles north of Rome, then went on and sacked the city, occupying it for seven months. They were probably paid to leave. 
0455  July  07 15  Owing to internal dissension, the ancient city of Rome fell to invading Vandals under Genseric, whose men pillaged it for fourteen days straight. This action mortally wounded the Western Roman Empire, though it lingered on for another twenty years. 
0711  July  07 25  Roderick, last king of the Visigoths, was defeated at the battle of Xeres in Spain by the invading Moors (Moslems). His kingdom collapsed, and Moslem domination of Spain continued until the year 1031, though their occupation of parts of Spain continued into the 15th Century (Moslem Conquest of Spain). 
1014  April  04 23  Danish invaders were defeated in the Battle of Clontarf, near Dublin, by Irish defenders commanded by Brian Boru, who was killed during the action. 
1066  September  09 20  Harold Hardraade, King of Norway, and Tostig, rebellious brother of King Harold of England, invaded England, defeating English troops led by the earls of Mercia and Northumberland at the Battle of Fulford. Five days later, in the Battle of Stamford Bridge, the two invaders were defeated in their turn and killed by King Harold's troops. This action took place nineteen days before King Harold himself was defeated and killed at the Battle of Hastings by the invading Duke William of Normandy. 
1066  October  10 14  The invading troops of William, Duke of Normandy, defeated the Saxon forces of Harold, King of England, at the Battle of Hastings, in Southeastern England. King Harold was killed by an arrow through the eye. Duke William had been promised the English throne when the previous king, Edward the Confessor, died. Harold had promised to accept this arrangement, but reneged. 
1093  November  11 13  King Malcolm Canmore of Scotland was killed and his forces defeated by the Normans at the Battle of Alnwick. This was part of the Anglo-Norman penetration of Scotland following the Conquest of 1066 
1099  August  08 12  Crusaders under Godfrey of Bouillon, Tancred of Taranto, and Robert of Normandy defeated Moslem forces near Jerusalem following a sudden charge into the center of the Egyptian position (First Crusade). 
1141  February  02 02  During the period referred to by historians as the English Anarchy, King Stephen of England was defeated at the Battle of Lincoln by supporters of his cousin Maud (Matilda). He was captured and imprisoned for a time, while Maud seized the throne. Later in 1141, she was obliged to release him after losing another battle to his supporters, and he regained the throne, holding it until his death in 1154. 
1174  July  07 12  King William I (the Lion) of Scotland, who had laid seige to the castle of Alnwick in Northern England, was defeated and captured by English troops (English-Scottish Wars). 
1187  July  07 04  Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, with 60,000 Turkish troops, defeated several Crusader leaders and their forces at Tiberias, on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. Tiberias fell next day. 
1191  July  07 12  During the Third Crusade, troops under Kings Richard I (Coeur de Lion) of England, Philip II, Augustus of France, and Guy of Jerusalem; Leopold, Duke of Austria, and Conrad of Montferrat (Italy)compelled the surrender of the Moslem garrison at Acre, twenty miles south of Jerusalem. The five Christian leaders then quarreled. King Guy sulked in his tent while King Philip and Duke Leopold sailed back to Europe. When Saladin, the Moslem general, chose not to honor the surrender terms, King Richard had all 2700 Moslem captives executed. 
1191  September  09 06  King Richard I of England defeated the Saracens at Arsouf, ten miles north of Jaffa, on the east coast of the Mediterranean (Third Crusade). 
1199  April  04 06  King Richard I of England, known as 'Coeur de Lion,' was killed by an enemy arrow during the siege of Chaluz, near Limoges, France. There, he had hoped to take charge of a newly found treasure, with which he could finance another religious/military crusade to the Near East. 
1212  July  07 16  Moorish troops under Mohammed I of Granada were defeated by the Spanish under Kings Alfonso VIII of Castile, Sancho VII of Navarre, and Pedro II of Aragon at Las Navas (Plains) de Tolosa. The Moorish killed numbered 150,000, and their army never recovered its strength following this loss. 
1256  October  14  gfsrtstrdsytdytdytrdtyfctf gfytrytr ghyrtfttfr yvuytv tuyyt uty ytyutu ytututu ytuyt tu tt tuy uyttccc uyttvv uyv tvt bgf uygyt gyuy tytu.gft ftrt f 
1264  May  05 14  Rebellious English barons, led by Earl Simon de Montfort, defeated troops under King Henry III at the Battle of Lewes. Henry was imprisoned. Earl de Montfort became for a time England's virtual ruler. 
1265  August  08 04  British barons and their men under Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, were defeated by royalist forces under Prince Edward (later Edward I) at Evesham. Edward's father and Montfort's captive, King Henry III, was wounded. Montfort was killed and the baron's rebellion ended (Second Baron's War of England). 
1282  March  03 31  A near 24 hour-long massacre of Frenchmen in Sicily, incited by the Byzantines and known to history as the "Sicilian Vespers," came to an end, frustrating hopes of the Angevin King Charles I of Naples and Sicily for the revival of a French-sponsored Mediterranean empire. 
1298  July  07 21  The English under King Edward I, making good use of the longbow to open the way for a cavalry charge, defeated Scottish forces under William Wallace at the Battle of Falkirk. Wallace was forced into exile, and Edward completed his conquest of Scotland in 1304. 
1346  August  08 26  English troops under King Edward III defeated the French at the battle of Crecy, one of the most decisive battles in history. English longbowmen, firing six times as fast as their opponents, made a major difference in the battle. French losses were 4000, English losses fewer than 100. (Hundred Years War). 
1356  September  09 19  The French were defeated at the battle of Poitiers by an English army under King Edward III (Hundred Years War). 
1410  July  07 15  Teutonic knights were defeated at Tannenberg (modern Stebark, in Northern Poland) by an army of Poles, under King Ladislas II Jagello, aided by Bohemian mercenaries under Jan Ziska and contingents of Russians and Lithuanians. The Teutonic knights never recovered their former strength. 
1415  August  08 15  An English fleet led by the Duke of Bedford captured or destroyed nearly 500 French vessels off Harfleur, France. This action was in support of King Henry V's campaign against the city, which culminated in its capture on 22 September (Hundred Year's War). 
1415  October  10 25  King Henry V of England defeated superior French numbers at the Battle of Agincourt, France. 
1421  March  03 22  The English Duke of Clarence, brother of King Henry V, heir to the English throne, and leader of the English government in France, was defeated and killed in the Battle of Bauge, near Angers, in France, by a combined force of French and Scottish soldiers. A dozen of Clarence's best commanders were also killed or captured. 
1453  May  05 29  The Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire came to an end after 1050 years when the Turks captured the city of Constantinople. The Turks renamed it Istanbul. 
1453  June  06 29  The Byzantine, or Eastern Roman Empire ended after 1040 years when the Turks captured Constantinople. They renamed the city Istanbul. 
1460  December  12 31  The Yorkists were defeated by the Lancastrians at Wakefield (English War of the Roses). 
1461  February  02 02  Forces led by Prince Edward, later Edward IV, defeated a force of Welsh Lancastrians at the battle of Mortimer's Cross (Wars of the Roses). As was then customary, many of the defeated Lancastrians were beheaded, including Owen Tudor, grandfather of the future King Henry VII. 
1461  February  02 17  Lancastrian forces in England under Queen Margaret defeated Yorkist troops under the Earl of Warwick and the Duke of Norfolk at the battle of St. Albans. The Queen's husband, King Henry VI, a Yorkist captive, was abandoned by them and reunited with his wife. 
1461  March  03 29  In blizzard conditions, England's Duke of York, leader of the Yorkist faction, defeated troops under King Henry VI, leader of the Lancastrians, at the Battle of Towton in Yorkshire. The Duke seized the throne as Edward IV, imposing autocratic rule. Henry VI was imprisoned, was briefly restored to his throne by the Earl of Warwick ("Warwick the Kingmaker") in 1470, but was again captured, imprisoned, and probably murdered in the Tower of London in April,1471. 
1464  May  05 15  John Neville, Marquis of Montague, one of many brothers of the Earl of Warwick (known as the "Kingmaker") and leader of the Yorkist army, defeated troops under Henry VI and Queen Margaret at the Battle of Hexham, during the English Wars of the Roses. Neville was created Earl of Northumberland. 
1471  April  04 14  Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, known as the "Kingmaker," who at various times had fought on both sides during the English War of the Roses, was killed at the Battle of Barnet when the Lancastrians were defeated by the Yorkists. Edward IV was restored to his throne. 
1471  May  05 04  Battle of Tewksbury, England, where Yorkists under Edward IV defeated Lancastrian forces under Queen Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI. Henry's son Prince Edward was killed during this action (Wars of the Roses). 
1476  March  03 03  Swiss pikeman and halberdiers routed the invading Burgundian army under Charles the Bold at Grandson, in the Vaud canton. 
1477  January  01 05  Charles the Bold of Burgundy was killed and his troops defeated by Swiss defenders at the Battle of Nancy (France). 
1485  August  08 22  King Richard III was killed and his troops defeated by forces under henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth Field in England. The Plantagenet dynasty died with Richard, and Henry became King Henry VII. 
1488  June  06 11  Following the Battle of Sauchieburn, near Stirling in Scotland, where he tried but failed to put down a rebellion by the Scots nobility, King James III of Scotland was murdered by his opponents. His 15 year old son James IV succeeded to the throne. 
1513  September  09 09  An English Army defeated the Scots at the Battle of Flodden Field. King James IV of Scotland, who had been allied with the French, was killed. 
1521  June  06 26  Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortez began his attack on the Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City). With Indian allies eager for revenge against their Aztec overlords, he launched vessels made from trees along the shores of Lake Texcoco to the east (this lake, since drained, is no longer in existence) and also attacked using the causeways linking the city of 250,000 people with the mainland. Native resistance ended on 13 August, when the city was taken and destroyed. 
1526  August  08 29  Turkish forces defeated the poorly disciplined Hungarian knights and peasants under King Louis at Mohaez (Mohacs). Louis was killed. 
1527  March  03 16  Battle of Khanua, 40 miles west of Agra, India. Utilizing artillery and musketeers as a means of maneuvering his mobile cavalry, Babur ("Tiger") the Mogul (1483-1530), descendant of Tamerlane and Ghengis Khan, defeated Rama Singa's Rajput Army. Rama Singa's force outnumbered Babur's by 100,000 to 20,000. Babur had established the Mogul Empire in 1526. 
1558  July  07 13  French forces beseiged at Gravelines (on northwest coast of France) were defeated by Spanish troops under the Comte d'Egmont, aided by the guns of an English naval squadron (Spanish-French Wars). 
1562  December  12 19  French Wars of Religion between Catholics and Huguenots began at the Battle of Dreux. 
1568  May  05 13  Mary, Queen of Scots, having escaped from prison, gathered some loyal troops to her side, but was defeated at the Battle of Langside by Scots opponents under the Earl of Moray. Following this action, she fled to England, where she was imprisoned again, this time by Queen Elizabeth I. 
1571  October  10 07  Don John of Austria, illegitimate brother of Phillip II of Spain, commanding a joint papal and Venetian fleet defeated the Turkish fleet at the Battle of Lepanto, near the Greek seaport on the strait connecting the Gulfs of Corinth and Patras. This was the last fight between fleets of galleys in history. 
1586  September  09 22  Dutch and English troops defeated the Spanish at the Battle of Zutphen, The Netherlands  
1588  May  05 19  The Spanish Armada departed Lisbon, Portugal for the invasion of England. Because of bad storms, the fleet never reached its objective. Blown off course, the vessels went all the way north and around the British Isles, and ended up in the North Atlantic. Many ships were wrecked, and some lives lost. 
1588  June  06 19  The Spanish Armada departed Lisbon for the invasion of England. Because of bad storms, the fleet was blown off course and all way around the British Isles, ending up in the North Atlantic. Many ships and lives were lost, and the expedition accomplished nothing. 
1588  July  07 28  Eight English fireships loaded with explosives were sent among the vessels of the Spanish Armada in the English Channel, damaging and dispersing them. 
1639  June  06 06  First gunpowder mill in America opened at Pecoit MA by Edward Rawson 
1642  October  10 23  Battle of Edgehill (English Civil War). 
1643  May  05 19  Birth of Ho Chi Minh was born in French Indo China. He was the European-educated indigenous leader against French colonial rule and later American intervention in Viet Nam. He was president of North Viet Nam from 1954 until his death in 1969 
1644  July  07 01  Defeat of troops led by the Royalist leader Prince Rupert by Parliamentary forces under Generals Fairfax, Leslie, and Cromwell at Marston Moor, 7 miles west of York, England (English Civil War). 
1645  June  06 14  Troops under English King Charles I and Prince Rupert were decisively beaten at Naseby, Northamptonshire, by Parliamentarian troops commanded by Oliver Cromwell and Sir Thomas Fairfax, a prime organizer of the New Model Army. This marked the beginning of the end for Charles’ cause, and consolidated Cromwell’s leadership among the Independents in Parliament. 
1648  August  08 17  Oliver Cromwell, commanding his efficient New Model Army (English Parliamentary forces) of 8500 men, defeated a poorly led invading army of 20,000 Scots Royalists under James, Duke of Hamilton, at the Battle of Preston (English Civil War). 
1648  October  10 24  The Treaty of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years War. 
1653  February  02 18  Beginning of an important, but indecisive naval engagement between the British under Admiral Robert Blake and Dutch Admiral Maarten Harpertszoon Van Tromp off Portsmouth, England, which ended two days later. The battle ended with the British holding a slight advantage. 
1653  November  11 05  The Iriquois signed a peace treaty with French authorities, ending the Iriquois War in what would later become the Northwest Territories (modern Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana) 
1655  March  03 25  Civil war between Catholic and Protestant settlers in Maryland ended. 
1657  April  04 20  British ADM Robert Blake defeated and later burned a Spanish fleet in Santa Cruz Bay, Southern Argentina, but died as his vessel entered home port when he returned to England on 7 August of that year. 
1675  August  08 02  Wampaonag Indians attacked the town of Brookfield, Massachusetts, killing a number of settlers 
1676  February  02 10  Indians led by Wamponoag Indian Chief King Philip attacked a settlement at Lancaster MA, during King Philip's War 
1689  July  07 27  Scots Highlander supporters of the deposed King James II under Viscount Dundee (John Gordon of Claverhouse) ambushed and defeated an English army commanded by General Hugh Mackay at Killiecrankie Pass in the Grampian Mountains of Scotland. Dundee's men won, but Dundee himself was killed, and the resistance to King William III soon fizzled out (Resistance to the Glorious Revolution of 1689). 
1690  February  02 08  French and Indian forces attacked Schenectady, New York, a British colony, during King William's War. 
1690  July  07 01  Troops under King William III of England defeated forces led by the deposed Stuart King James II at the Battle of the Boyne, 3 miles west of Drogheda, in what is now Northern Ireland. 
1690  July  07 01  Troops under King William III of England defeated forces led by the deposed Stuart King James II at the Battle of the Boyne, 3 miles west of Drogheda, in what is now Northern Ireland. 
1690  July  1-7  william,s near miss at the battle of the boyne 
1700  November  11 30  Swedish King Charles XII defeated the Russians under Peter the Great at the Battle of Narva, now located in the Republic of Estonia. Peter later captured Narva (1704), while Charles was busy fighting in Poland. The previous year (1703), Peter strengthened his hold on the area by beginning construction of his new capital, St. Petersburg, approximately 60 miles to the northeast in swamplands at the mouth of the Neva River. 
1702  October  10 12  British Admiral Sir George Rooke, with both British and Dutch naval elements, defeated combined French and Spanish fleet on the Spanish coast at Vigo Bay. Spanish treasure ships seized. (War of the Spanish Succession). 
1704  February  02 29  Abenaki Indians attacked the frontier settlement at Deerfield, MA, massacring more than 50 people. 
1704  February  02 29  Abenaki Indians attacked the frontier settlement at Deerfield, MA, massacring more than 50 people. 
1704  July  07 24  An Anglo-Dutch fleet under Admiral Sir George Rooke, with 1800 marines under Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt, captured Gibraltar, at the southern tip of Spain (War of the Spanish Succession). It has been a British possession ever since. 
1704  August  08 02  John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, supported by Eugene, Prince of Savoy, with troops of the Holy Roman Empire, defeated French forces at the Battle of Blenheim, in Bavaria (War of the Spanish Succession). 
1706  June  06 23  John, Duke of Marlborough, commanding English forces, defeated the French under Marshal Villeroi at the Battle of Ramillies in northern France (War of the Spanish Succession) 
1706  June  06 23  John, Duke of Marlborough, commanding English forces, defeated the French under Marshal Villeroi at the Battle of Ramillies in northern France (War of the Spanish Succession) 
1708  July  07 11  John, Duke of Marlborough, and Prince Eugene of Savoy defeated the French under the Duc de Vendome and the Duc de Burgundy at Oudenarde, in Flanders (part of modern day Belgium) (War of the Spanish Succession). 
1709  September  09 11  John, Duke of Marlborough, and his allies defeated the French and their allies at the Battle of Malplaquet, during the War of the Spanish Succession. 
1744  November  11 17  The Philadelphia Troop of Light Horse, a militia organization, became the first cavalry unit in the American Colonies. 
1746  April  04 16  Bonnie Prince Charlie (Prince Charles Stuart), Catholic pretender to the English throne, was defeated at the battle of Culloden Moor, in northwestern Scotland, in a final effort to restore his line to power. This was the last pitched battle ever fought on English soil. The Duke of Cumberland, a younger son of King George II, led the brutal hunting down and killing of many of Prince Charles' fleeing Scottish supporters. 
1755  July  07 09  British GEN Edward Braddock, commanding a British force advancing on French-held Fort Duquesne (present-day Pittsburgh), marched into an ambush and was mortally wounded by Native Americans, fighting with the French. The attack had to be aborted (French and Indian War). George Washington, a Virginia militia colonel, helped survivors to withdraw to the South. 
1756  August  08 04  French forces under General Joseph de Montcalm captured Fort Oswego in northern New York (French and Indian War). 
1757  January  01 02  The British East India Company leader Robert Clive captured Calcutta, India, from its indigenous defenders 
1757  November  11 22  The Austrian Army defeated the Prussians at the Battle of Breslau (now Wroclaw, in Poland) during the Seven Years’ War. 
1758  July  07 26  Louisbourg, an important French fort on Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, surrendered to British forces, who were aided by American colonists (French and Indian War). 
1758  September  09 29  Birth of Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson, who died while defeating the French fleet at Trafalgar, off the Spanish coast during the Napoleonic wars. 
1758  November  11 25  The French blew up Fort Duquesne, on the present site of Pittsburgh, to prevent it from falling into the hands of the British during the French and Indian War. 
1760  November  11 29  French-held Detroit fell to the English (French and Indian War) 
1762  October  10 29  Frederick II of Prussia defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Freiburg. 
1770  March  03 05  The Boston (MA) Massacre took place when civilian mob closed on the old State House to protest against off-duty jobs given to moonlighting British soldiers. British guards fired (tho to this day, no one knows who gave the order) killing 3 men and mortally wounding 2 others. John Adams (future US president) defended the guards when no one else would do so. All but two guards were freed. They were branded in the hand and released. 
1770  July  07 05  A Russian navy led by British officers defeated a Turkish Navy at Tchesme (Chesme) near the island of Chios, off the western coast of Turkey (War between Turkey and Russia, 1768-1774). 
1772  June  06 10  The British Revenue cutter Gaspe was burned by irate American colonists near Providence RI after it ran aground. It had been chasing another vessel suspected of trying to evade British import controls. British efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice failed in the face of obfuscatory tactics by the colonists. 
1772  November  11 02  The first Committees of Correspondence, designed to maintain intercolonial interests against possible British interference, formed in Massachusetts by Samuel Adams. 
1773  December  12 16  Men disguised as Indians boarded three British ships in Boston Harbor (MA) and dumped 330 chests of tea into the water because the British government, trying to help the British East India Company (a quasi-private firm) out of a bind by letting it unload its surplus tea in the colonies had excused the company from paying the 6 penny a pound tax that all legitimate American importers had to pay. The Americans saw this as protection of a British-owned monopoly (which it was), and also objected because the British action undercut the lower prices charged by American and Dutch tea smugglers. An angry British government took action against the colonists, closing the port of Boston until the American colonial leaders apologized (they did not) and taking various other retaliatory measures. This Boston Tea Party (an action which was repeated in several other American ports) was one of the proximate causes of the American Revolution. 
1773  December  16  A quote by Samuel Adams was written. It was worded as followa: Fellow countrymen, we cannot afford to give a single inch! If we retreat now, everything we have done becomes useless! If Hutchinson will not send tea back to England, perhaps we can brew a pot of it especially for him!"s 
1774  December  12 14  American Patriot Major John Sullivan led a band of militiamen during a break in at the British arsenal of Fort William and Mary in New Hampshire, the first military action of the Revolutionary War 
1775  April  04 19  Somewhere between 700 and 800 British troops (historians disagree) under LTC Francis Smith, with MAJ John Pitcairn, Royal Marines, as second in command, marched to Lexington MA and fired on American minutemen on the town green there, beginning the American Revolution. Further fighting took place in Concord MA. Furious Americans fired on the British as they returned to Boston. British loses were probably 73 killed and 174 wounded, with 26 missing. American losses were probably 49 killed, between 39 and 41 wounded, and 5 missing, though these figures have been in dispute for over 220 years. American marksmanship was poor that day-it has been estimated that only one American bullet in 15 hit anyone. Some 3763 Americans took part in the fighting at one time or another that day, though no more than half were involved at any one time. 
1775  May  05 10  American troops under COL Ethan Allen captured Fort Ticonderoga NY from the British. 
1775  June  16  the battle of bunker hill 
1775  July  07 03  George Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, outside of Boston, Massachusetts. (American Revolutionary War). 
1775  November  11 10  The Continental Congress organized two battalions of Marines, thus initiating that branch of the service. 
1775  November  11 13  American Brigadier General Richard Montgomery was killed when his troops briefly occupied Montreal during the Revolutionary War. 
1775  November  11 28  The Continental Congress established the U.S. Navy. 
1775  November  11 29  The British vessel Nancy, carrying guns and ammunition for the British Army in America, was captured by the American crusiser Lee 
1775  December  12 03  The first official American flag (not the Stars and Stripes) was raised for the first time over the Navy flagship Alfred. 
1775  December  12 31  Attempted attack on the City of Quebec by American troops under General Benedict Arnold failed. 
1776  March  03 17  British troops were obliged to evacuate Boston, Massachusetts after American troops occupied and fortified Dorchester Heights, overlooking the city. 
1776  September  09 15  British General Lord William Howe captured New York City during the American Revolution. 
1776  September  23  The Great fire in New York City 
1776  October  10 13  American General Benedict Arnold defeated by the British in two naval engagements on Lake Champlain, New York. 
1776  November  11 16  The British captured Fort Washington, on the northern end of Manhattan Island (near the present eastern end of the George Washington Bridge), capturing 2000 Americans. General Washington’s forces retreated to the north (toward White Plains) and the west (across the Hudson River) to Fort Constitution in New Jersey, later renamed Fort Lee, after the American Revolutionary War general Charles Lee. 
1776  December  12 26  German mercenaries in the pay of the British, living in winter quarters in Trenton NJ, were defeated by the American Army under General George Washington, who captured 1000 prisoners. 
1777  January  01 03  General George Washington captured Princeton, NJ, from the British Army. 
1777  July  07 06  American troops abandoned Fort Ticonderoga in northern New York state following attack by superior British force under GEN John Burgoyne (American Revolutionary War) 
1777  August  08 16  Two separate British forces under General John Burgoyne (chiefly German mercenaries) were defeated at the Battle of Bennington VT by American militia commanded by Brigadier General John Stark and Lieutenant Colonel Seth Warner, thus ruining Burgoyne's plan to split American resistance in the northern colonies into three parts (American Revolution). 
1777  August  08 16  An American Army under General Horatio Gates was defeated by a British Army under General Lord Charles Cornwallis in the battle of Camden, S.C. (American Revolution). 
1777  September  09 27  General Sir William Howe occupied Philadelphia (American Revolution) 
1777  October  10 07  British General John Burgoyne is defeated for the second time at the battle of Saratoga (Bemis Heights), N.Y. by forces commanded by American Generals Daniel Morgan, Ebenezer Learned, and Benedict Arnold. Burgoyne surrendered to General Horatio Gates ten days later. 
1777  October  19  Burgoyne surrender at Saratoga 
1777  December  12 17  General George Washington led his troops into their winter quarters at Valley Forge, PA. 
1778  December  12 29  British troops under COL Archibald Campbell occupied Savannah, Georgia, during the American Revolution. 
1779  January  01 29  British troops under LTC Archibald Campbell captured Augusta, GA during the Revolutionary War. 
1779  February  02 14  British Navy Captain James Cook was murdered by natives in Hawaii while on an exploring mission. 
1780  August  08 18  British forces led by British Colonel Banastre Tarleton defeated American elements under General Thomas Sumter at Fishing Creek, SC, opening up North Carolina to a British invasion (American Revolution). 
1780  September  09 23  A captured British agent, Major John Andre, revealed that American GEN Benedict Arnold planned to turn traitor and surrender his post at West Point, New York, to the British. Arnold fled and later joined the British Army. Andre was executed as a spy in large part because the British had earlier executed the American captain Nathan Hale for spying. 
1780  October  10 07  British force, consisting principally of American loyalists under Major Patrick Ferguson, were trapped and defeated by Americans under Colonels Isaac Shelby and William Campbell at the Battle of Kings Mountain, on the border between North and South Carolina. 
1781  January  01 17  American forces under BG Daniel Morgan defeated the British at Cowpens, SC (Revolutionary War) 
1781  March  03 15  GEN Lord Charles Cornwallis defeated American forces under GEN Nathaniel Greene at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, NC, but Cornwallis' losses (100 KIA and 400 wounded) were so great as to compel him to retreat to Wilmington, NC, there to await reinforcements. 
1781  August  08 30  A French fleet commanded by Admiral Francois de Grasse arrived off Yorktown, VA, helping to bottle up British troops there, ultimately forcing their surrender (American Revolution). 
1781  September  09 08  American General Nathaniel Greene was defeated by British General Lord Charles Cornwallis in the Battle of Eutaw Springs, North Carolina. 
1781  September  09 30  American and French troops began the siege of Yorktown, the last major land action of the American Revolution, which resulted in a crushing British defeat. 
1781  October  10 19  British troops under General Lord Charles Cornwallis surrendered to General Washington at Yorktown, Virginia, effectively ending the American Revolution. Peace was not declared, however, until 1783. 
1782  January  01 05  British troops withdrew from Wilmington, NC, during the Revolutionary War. 
1782  January  01 11  Dutch colonial authorities surrendered the city of Trincomalee, Ceylon, to the British. 
1782  February  02 05  British troops capture Minorca from the Spanish. 
1782  February  02 27  The British House of Commons voted to end further fighting against the former British colonies in America, though peace terms were not agreed to until late in 1783 (American Revolution). 
1782  February  02 27  The British House of Commons voted to end further fighting against the former British colonies in America, though peace terms were not agreed to until late in 1783 (American Revolution). 
1782  April  04 12  British naval force under Admiral Sir George B. Rodney defeated a French fleet under Admiral Comte Francois de Grasse at the Battle of Saints Passage (often called Battle of the Saints) in the West Indies. This was Britain's only major naval victory during the American Revolution, and it had no effect on the outcome. Rodney captured de Grasse's flagship, the Ville de Paris, but failed to secure some 20 other French vessels, which he could have taken with little difficulty. 
1782  August  08 07  General George Washington established the Purple Heart as a badge of military merit. This was the first decoration ever created in the American military. (Revolutionary War) 
1782  August  08 27  The last skirmish of the American Revolution took place near the Combahee River in South Carolina as British forces began withdrawing into Atlantic seaboard cities (there was little fighting following the British defeat at Yorktown in October, 1781, and the signing of preliminary articles of peace on 30 November 1782). 
1783  September  09 03  The Peace of Versailles was signed between the USA, Britain, France, and Spain, ending the American Revolution. 
1783  November  11 25  The last British troops left New York City following the signing of the peace treaty ending the Revolutionary War. 
1787  January  01 25  Massachusetts State Militia put down a rebellion led by Daniel Shays. Shays and his colleagues were upset because financial conditions for farmers were very bad and taxes were too high. Shays' advance on the Springfield (MA) Arsenal failed, and four of his men were killed. Shays persisted until the end of February, by which time his initiative was over. Shays was later convicted of treason, but pardoned in June, 1788. 
1789  April  04 07  Congress approved legislation placing the conduct of naval affairs under the secretary of War. This arrangement continued until the Navy Department was organized on 30 April 1798. 
1791  May  05 10  Napoleon defeated the Austrians at Lodi, in northern Italy. 
1791  August  08 22  Black slaves in Santo Domingo rose up against their French overlords. After three weeks, they stopped to reorganize, and a hasty alliance between masters, "small whites," and mulattoes bought about a temporary respite. 
1793  March  03 07  France declared war on Spain. This was part of an effort by French Revolutionary leaders to resist efforts by other European nations to put down the Revolution and reinstate the Bourbon monarchy. 
1793  October  10 31  Girondists were guillotined in the Place de la Concorde, Paris. Maximilien Robespierre initiated the so-called Reign of Terror (French Revolution). 
1793  November  11 06  Britain violated American neutrality by ordering that any vessel carrying French goods could be impounded. (the U.S. traded with both countries during this period of conflict between Revolutionary France and much of the rest of Europe). 
1794  April  04 05  Execution of George Jacques Danton, French revolutionary leader, by guillotine in Paris. 
1794  August  08 20  American forces (2000 regulars and 1000 volunteers) under Major General "Mad Anthony" Wayne defeated elements of an Indian confederacy assembled by Chief Little Turtle at the battle of Fallen Timbers, in what is now northwest Ohio. 
1795  September  09 06  First occupation of the Cape of Good Hope (the Dutch-held Cape Province, South Africa) by British forces under General James Craig.  
1796  April  04 22  French troops commanded by General Napoleon Bonaparte defeated Piedmontese and Austrian forces at Mondovi, in Northwestern Italy (Wars of the French Revolution). 
1796  November  11 17  Napoleon defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Arcole, in northern Italy 
1797  January  01 04  General Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the Austrian Army at Rivoli, in northern Italy. 
1797  February  02 14  A Spanish fleet commanded by Don Jose de Cordoba was defeated off Cape Saint Vincent (West coast of Madagascar) by a British fleet under Admirals John Jervis and Horatio Nelson 
1797  April  04 15  Beginning of the mutiny of British Navy sailors against their commanders at Spithead, southwest of London in England. The sailors on over three dozen vessels rebelled against egregiously low pay and poor living conditions. England still did not have a "full-time" navy at this point in time. One result was that senior non-commissioned officers finally had their pay increased to one shilling a month (one-twentieth of a pound, the principal unit of currency). This was the first increase in pay they had received in over a century. 
1797  May  05 02  Beginning of a mutiny by enlisted men in the British fleet anchored at the Nore, an estuary of the Thames River, east of London, which lasted until 16 June. Issues included brutality, poor food and inadequate pay. 
1797  May  05 02  Mutiny began among sailors of the British Navy at the Nore, an estuary in the Thames river, east of London. Enlisted men rebelled against excessive brutality, poor food, and inadequate pay. The mutiny initially involved men from more than two dozen ships, but the pledge of some concessions from the British Admiralty weakened their zeal, and the mutiny collapsed had collapsed by 16 June. Some 412 men were brought up on charges. Twenty-nine were hanged, 9 were flogged, and 29 imprisoned for periods of from one to eight years. The remainder were pardoned. Following the mutiny, however, some reforms were gradually made. 
1797  October  10 11  British Admiral Adam Duncan defeated a Dutch fleet led by Admiral De Winter off Camperdown, a Dutch community. The Dutch put up a fierce struggle, and few of their vessels were worth salvaging when the battle was over. 
1797  October  10 22  The first parachute descent in history was made by Andre- Jacques Garnerin, a Frenchman, who leaped from a balloon at a height of over 6,000 feet in Paris. 
1798  May  05 03  The U.S. Congress created the Navy Department (until that point, the Secretary of War had handled naval matters). The immediate cause of this action was to fight French vessels in the West Indies. 
1798  May  05 04  First US government contract authorized the purchase of pistols and other firearms by Congress. Value of the contract was $800,000. Simeon North of Bristol CT was the first government pistol maker, receiving a contract for 500 horse pistols on 9 March 1799. The price was $6.50 each. He received a similar contract for 1500 additional pistols on 6 February 1800. 
1798  August  08 01  A British fleet under Admiral Horatio Nelson destroyed a French fleet supporting Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Egypt off Aboukir, Egypt 
1798  October  10 26  Attempted French invasion of Ireland failed. 
1798  December  12 04  France declared war on the Kingdom of Naples. 
1799  February  02 09  The American naval vessel Constellation captured the French frigate L'Insurgente off the West Indian island of Nevis 
1799  June  06 20  GEN Napoleon Bonaparte abandoned his siege of the City of Acre (then part of the Turkish dominions, now part of Israel) after two months. The British garrison was effectively led by Captain Sir Sidney Smith, a naval officer, but the key problem was that plague had broken out in the ranks of the French Army. 
1800  June  06 14  Battle of Marengo (NW Italy) was narrowly won by Napoleon Bonaparte over Austrian forces led by GEN Baron Michael von Melas. Von Melas had pushed Napoleon back four miles and seemed victorious, when several factors changed the course of the battle. Von Melas left the field and turned command over to a subordinate. Fresh French troops arrived on the field and spearheaded a furious counterattack. Now the Austrians fell back. Austrian casualties totalled 9402, French casualties 5835. This action was important, in that the Austrians gave up some territory, while Napoleon assumed sole military and civilian authority over the French nation in Paris 
1800  September  09 05  The island of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea, formerly held by the Knights of St. John but seized by Napoleon in 1798, was captured by British forces (Napoleonic Wars). 
1800  December  12 24  Royalist plot to blow up the carriage of French First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte on his way to the opera in Paris is exposed and failed. Blame, however, fell upon 130 members of the Jacobin Party, who were assumed to be involved. They were deported without a particle of solid evidence against them as a guarantee against future crimes. 
1801  March  03 21  Sir Ralph Abercromby, British General, decisively defeated the French under General Baron Jacques de Menou at the Battle of Alexandria, Egypt, and died of wounds received there. The French were forced to withdraw altogether from Egypt, which was returned to the rule of the Sultan of Turkey. 
1801  April  04 02  The British fleet defeated the Danish fleet at the Battle of Copenhagen. Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson followed his own tactics, in violation of the orders of his superior, Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, who vainly signalled another plan. Nelson placed his telescope up to his blind eye, saying "I have a right to be blind sometimes...I really do not see the signal." 
1801  August  08 01  The USS Enterprise seized the Tripolitan corsair Tripoli in naval action in the Mediterranean Sea (War with Tripoli) 
1802  March  03 16  Congress established the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. 
1802  March  03 27  The peace of Amiens temporarily ended the war between England and France. 
1804  March  03 05  An uprising by Irish convicts at Castle Hill, New South Wales (Australia) was crushed by government troops. 
1804  June  06 16  GEN Napoleon Bonaparte was proclaimed Emperor of France by the french Senate and Tribune. 
1804  June  06 16  GEN Napoleon Bonaparte was proclaimed Emperor of France by the french Senate and Tribune. 
1805  October  10 20  Austrian Army defeated at the battle of Ulm by Napoleon. 
1805  October  10 21  British Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson defeated the French fleet at Trafalgar, off the Spanish coast, effectively ending Napoleon's naval power. 
1805  November  11 08  The Corps of Discovery, led by U.S. Army Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, reached the Pacific Ocean near the mouth of the Columbia River. Their objective was to explore the Louisiana Purchase territory, to find an all-water route to the Pacific Northwest (it did not exist), and to counter British claims to the territory around Puget Sound. The land just north of this area had earlier been visited by the Scottish explorer Alexander Mackenzie, arousing the concern of President Jefferson. Clark was still technically a first lieutenant. His promised commission as captain and co-commander of the expedition never came through from the War Department, though he later became a brigadier general. 
1805  December  12 02  Napoleon defeated a combined Austrian-Russian force in the Battle of Austerlitz, near the city of Brno, in what is now the Czech Republic. This was sometimes referred to as the Battle of the Three Emperors, since the rulers of all three nations were on the field that day. In 1852, Napoleon’s nephew, Napoleon II, thinking this an auspicious day, had himself proclaimed emperor, and the establishment of the Second Empire was also announced (the younger Napoleon had been the president of France) 
1806  October  10 14  Prussian Army was defeated at the battle of Jena by Napoleon. 
1806  October  10 27  Napoleon occupied Berlin. 
1806  November  11 15  Army Captain Zebulon Pike discovered Pike’s Peak in Colorado. His expedition was designed in part to complement the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He visited parts of the southern portion of the Louisiana Purchase, while Lewis and Clark explored the northern areas. Pike later explored other regions of Colorado and New Mexico before being captured by Spanish colonial authorities, who wanted no American expeditions in the northernmost areas of Mexico. Later released, Pike was promoted to BG in 1813, at the age of 34, shortly before he was killed in an attack on the city of York (now Toronto) in the War of 1812. 
1807  January  01 07  The British fleet began its blockade of the French coast in an effort to deny supplies to Emperor Napoleon and the French. Napoleon's own attempt at a naval blockade of the British Isles was unsuccessful. 
1807  February  02 19  A British fleet forced its way through the Dardanelles to support Russia against Turkey 
1807  September  09 02  British naval forces began their bombardment of Copenhagen (Napoleonic wars). 
1808  February  02 16  Imperial French troops of Napoleon's army invaded Spain. 
1808  August  08 18  Napoleon I defeated a Russian army under General Mikhail Barclay de Tolly at Smolensk, opening the way for his disastrous march on Moscow (Napoleonic Wars). 
1809  May  05 12  French forces in Portugal under Marshal Soult were defeated by British troops under Lieutenant General Arthur Wellesley at Oporto. 
1809  July  07 06  Napoleon I of France defeated a Austrian Army led by the Archduke Charles-Louis, brother of Emperor Joseph I, at Wagram, on the Danube River south of Vienna. Austria was forced to give up 32,000 square miles of territory by treaty the following October (Napoleonic Wars). 
1809  July  07 28  General Sir Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) defeated a superior French force under Marshal Claude Victor at the Battle of Talavera in Spain, 70 miles southwest of Madrid (Napoleonic Wars). 
1810  September  09 16  Beginnings of the Mexican Revolution against Spain. These early efforts did not succeed, but the initiative continued until the Spanish colonial administration ended in 1821. 
1811  November  11 07  A force of 1,000 men under Governor (of the Indiana Territory) and General William Henry Harrison defeated with some difficulty-- a larger group of Indians under the Shawnee leader Tecumseh near their capital on Tippecanoe Creek, located in farm country just northeast of the present-day city of Lafayette, IN., between Indianapolis and Chicago off I-65. The Indians were trying to prevent the further westward movement of white settlers. The battlefield, a narrow, triangular shaped site perhaps three times the length of the CASCOM building, is still preserved as a state park. Near forty years later, Harrison was inaugurated as the ninth president of the U.S., largely on the strength of that long-ago victory. He survived exactly 30 days in office, then died of pneumonia. 
1812  January  01 19  Combined British and Spanish forces under Arthur, Duke of Wellington captured Ciudad Rodrigo, in Spain, from Napoleon's army. 
1812  March  03 14  The U.S. Congress authorized the first war bonds, to help finance the war of 1812. 
1812  April  04 06  The city of Badajoz, Spain, which had been held by French troops, fell to British forces under Arthur, Duke of Wellington (Napoleonic Wars) . 
1812  August  08 15  The American garrison at Fort Dearborn (near the present site of Chicago) withdrew in the face of superior British numbers and headed eastward toward Fort Wayne, in Indiana. Many of the party, including women and children, were overtaken and slaughtered by a band of Potawatomi Indians (War of 1812). 
1812  August  08 16  American forces commanded by General William Hull, which were supposed to invade Canada, inexplicably surrendered Detroit to a Canadian force under general Isaac Brock. Hull was court-martialled and sentenced to death for cowardice and dereliction of duty, but the sentence was remitted (War of 1812). 
1812  September  09 14  The Emperor Napoleon of France entered Moscow, and assumed that the Russians would surrender to his armies. No one came forward to do so, however, and parts of the city were put to the torch by its defenders. Napoleon was obliged to retreat to the west; one of his greatest defeats. 
1812  October  10 13  British forces under General Isaac Brock defeated invading American troops at Queenston, in present-day Ontario. TheAmericans, under New York militia General Stephen Van Rensselaer, lost in part because some of the militia refused to cross the Niagara River to the Canadian side. Also known as the Battle of Kingston Heights. General Brock was killed. 
1812  October  10 19  Napoleon forced to begin his epic retreat from Moscow. Supplies were low, the Russians had burned much of the city and would not surrender to him. 
1812  December  12 29  The American frigate Constitution destroyed the British frigate Java in an action off the coast of Brazil during the War of 1812. 
1813  January  01 22  British troops defeated a Kentucky Militia force commanded by General James Winchester at Frenchtown, Michigan Territory, in the battle of the Raisin River. This action at the western end of Lake Erie was part of an overall American effort to seize Detroit, which was held by the British. The Kentuckians lost 500 men as prisoners of war. Another 400 were killed in action or slaughtered by the Indians. 
1813  February  02 24  The American ship USS Hornet sank the British sloop HMS Peacock in an action off the coast of Guiana (north coast of South America) during the war of 1812 
1813  February  02 24  The American ship USS Hornet sank the British sloop HMS Peacock in an action off the coast of Guiana (north coast of South America) during the war of 1812 
1813  August  08 12  Austria declared war on Napoleon I (Napoleonic Wars). 
1813  December  12 19  The British Army captured Fort Niagara in New York (War of 1812) 
1813  December  12 30  A British force commanded by General Gordon Drummond burned the city of Buffalo and the Black Rock Navy Yard there during the War of 1812. 
1814  January  01 27  Congress authorized the Army to have more than 62,000 men during the later stages of the War of 1812. 
1814  March  03 28  The British naval vessels Phoebe and Cherub captured the American frigate Essex following a battle off the coast of Valparaiso, Chile (War of 1812) 
1814  March  03 29  U.S. troops commanded by General Andrew Jackson defeated Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, Alabama, ending the Creek War. 
1814  March  03 30  Allied forces opposed to Napoleon I entered Paris following his abdication 
1814  April  04 10  Field Marshal Arthur, the Duke of Wellington defeated French Marshal Nicolas Soult at the battle of Toulouse, France, and the Emperor Napoleon abdicated the next day. French losses were about 3,000 men; Wellington lost about 4600, including 2,000 Spanish troops 
1814  April  1819  world war stories 
1814  July  07 05  American force led by GEN Jacob Brown defeated British force led by GEN Phineas Riall at Chippewa River, just north of British Fort Erie (near Niagara Falls NY). A gray-uniformed Brigade led by young American BG Winfield Scott drove the British back; they were complimented by GEN Riall, who said, "those are regulars, by God!-(he had mistaken them for militia). Scott's men wore gray because Army contractors had run out of blue cloth. To this day, West Point cadets wear gray to commemorate this victory (War of 1812). 
1814  August  08 24  British troops under General Robert Ross routed a force of Americans (primarily militia, with a few regulars and seamen) at Bladensburg, MD, east of Washington. When the British attacked, most of the Americans bolted (referred to at the time as the Bladensburg Races), thus opening the way to Washington, which was captured later that day. Many public buildings were burned (War of 1812). 
1814  August  24  the sinking of the lion of baltimore 
1814  September  09 10  US Naval Captain Oliver Hazard Perry defeated a British flotilla in the Battle of Lake Erie (War of 1812). Though mortally wounded in the action, he uttered the famous cry, "Don't give up the ship." 
1814  September  09 14  During a British naval attack on the City of Baltimore, Francis Scott Key composed a poem entitled "The Star Spangled Banner." Later sung to the tune of an old English drinking song, "To Anacreon in Heaven," it did not become the nation's official national anthem until 1931, 217 years later (War of 1812). 
1814  December  12 24  Treaty of Ghent (Belgium) signed, ending the War of 1812 between the United States and England. 
1815  January  01 08  Major General Andrew Jackson defeated British troops at the Battle of New Orleans, exactly two weeks after American and British representatives meeting at Ghent, Belgium, had signed a treaty ending the War of 1812. The British commander, General Edward M. Pakenham, a veteran of the Napoleonic War, was killed during this action. 
1815  March  03 03  Congress declared war against the Barbary Pirates in Algeria, seeking an end to their interference with American shipping in the Mediterranean Sea. 
1817  October  10 30  Simon Bolivar established an independent government of Venezuela (Wars of Independence). 
1817  November  11 20  Florida Indians were attacked by white settlers, retaliating for Indian raids against them. This began the First Seminole War 
1817  December  12 27  General Andrew Jackson took command of American troops during the First Seminole War in Florida. 
1820  May  12 12  Florence Nightingales birth 
1821  May  05 05  Napoleon Bonaparte, former Emperor of the French (born 1769) died at age 51 on the island of St. Helena in the Atlantic, which was under British control. His stomach ailment may have been cancer, or it may have been slow arsenic poisoning-authorities still differ. His body was moved to the Hotel des Invalides in Paris in 1840. 
1824  August  08 06  Spanish troops under General Jose Canterac were defeated by rebel forces under Generals Simon Bolivar and Antonio de Sucre at Junin, Peru (Peruvian War of Independence). 
1826  October  10 20  Allied fleet (British-French-Russian) under British Admiral Sir Edward Codrington defeated combined Turkish and Egyptian fleets at the Battle of Navarino, off the Greek coast. This battle effectively brought about Greek independence from Turkey. 
1827  January  01 17  Arthur, Duke of Wellington, who had defeated Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo in 1815, was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British Army. 
1832  August  08 02  American militia under General Henry Atkinson defeated a band of Black Hawk Indians at the Bad Axe River in Wisconsin in the final action of the Black Hawk War 
1832  December  12 21  The Turkish Army was routed by the Egyptians under General Ibrahim Pasha, son of Mehemet Ali, Viceroy of Egypt at the battle of Koniah or Konieh (modern spelling Konya), in south central Turkey. Mehemet had demanded Syria as a reward for his support of Turkey during the latter’s unsuccessful effort to repress the Greek struggle for independence, and Sultan Mahmud II of Turkey refused. The Sultan was Mehemet’s nominal overlord. Only the last-minute intervention of Czar Nicholas I of Russia saved the Turkish sultanate. After much negotiation, Ibrahim became the Egyptian governor of Syria in 1833. 
1833  March  03 04  The First Regiment of Dragoons became the first cavalry unit under its own command in the U.S. Army. 
1835  November  11 24  The Texas Provincial Government, still technically part of Mexico, formed the Texas Rangers, a mounted force. 
1835  December  12 28  Seminole Indians in Florida massacred American troops commanded by General Wiley Thompson at Fort King during the Second Seminole War. 
1836  February  02 23  Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna began his siege of the Alamo, an old Spanish mission in San Antonio, Texas, with approximately 3,000 troops. The 187 American defenders, under COL William Travis and former Congressman COL Davy Crockett, held out until 6 March, when the surviving defenders were massacred. 
1836  February  02 23  Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna began his siege of the Alamo, an old Spanish mission in San Antonio, Texas, with approximately 3,000 troops. The 187 American defenders, under COL William Travis and former Congressman COL Davy Crockett, held out until 6 March, when the surviving defenders were massacred. 
1836  February  02 25  Samuel Colt patented his first six shot revolver. 
1836  February  02 25  Samuel Colt patented his first six shot revolver. 
1836  March  03 05  End of 13 day siege of the Alamo, San Antonio TX, where 183 Americans held off 3,000 Mexican troops. Many surviving sick and wounded Americans were slaughtered by Mexican soldiers before their horrified officers could intervene. 
1836  April  04 21  General Sam Houston and his Texan forces defeated Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto. Santa Anna was captured and recognized Texas' independence, though his government later tried to repudiate his agreement after his return to Mexico City. 
1839  January  01 20  Chilean troops under General Manuel Bulnes defeated combined Bolivian and Peruvian force and overthrew the Peruvian-Bolivian Confederation at the Battle of Yungay, in northwestern Peru. 
1839  December  12 05  George Armstrong Custer, later a major general of cavalry during the Civil War, and commander (as a lieutenant colonel) of the 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876, was born in Rumley, Ohio 
1840  November  11 30  The remains of Napleon, dead since 1821, were returned to France from the island of St. Helena. In 1861, after many delays, his body was placed in six coffins (three of which had previously been used at St. Helena),each inside the other. His body was then placed with great pomp in a specially constructed mausoleum at the Hotel des Invalides in Paris, originally built in 1674 by Louis XIV for disabled soldiers. 
1842  December  12 01  Midshipman Phillip Spencer, USN, son of Secretary of War John C. Spencer, was hanged for alleged leadership in a mutiny aboard the naval training brig Somers, in the Atlantic 
1846  March  03 28  American forces under General Zachary Taylor moved across the Rio Grande River into Mexican territory, officially beginning hostilities during the Mexican War. 
1846  April  04 12  U.S. troops entered Mexican territory in what is now New Mexico, one of the first steps in the Mexican War. 
1846  May  05 08  Mexican troops under General Mariano Arista were defeated at Palo Alto, Texas, by U.S. Army under General Zachary Taylor 
1846  May  05 09  American troops under General Zachary Taylor defeated a Mexican army under Gneral Arista at the Battle of Resaca de Palma, Mexico 
1846  May  05 13  The U.S. declared war against Mexico 
1846  June  06 04  The Mexican War began with a series of actions near present-day Brownsville, Texas 
1846  July  07 07  American Commodore John Sloat, USN, landed at Monterey CA, then part of Mexico, and claimed it for the United States (Mexican War). 
1846  December  12 29  American troops under General Zachary Taylor occupied Ciudad Victoria in northeastern Mexico during the Mexican War. 
1847  January  01 10  American General Stephen Kearney captured the village of Los Angeles, ending hostilities in California during the Mexican War. 
1847  February  02 22  General Zachary Taylor of the U.S. Army defeated a Mexican Army commanded by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna at the Battle of Buena Vista, in Coahuila State, northern Mexico 
1847  February  02 22  General Zachary Taylor of the U.S. Army defeated a Mexican Army commanded by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna at the Battle of Buena Vista, in Coahuila State, northern Mexico 
1847  February  02 28  A group of Missouri Mounted Volunteers under COL Alexander Doniphan defeated a Mexican force at the Battle of Sacramento, Mexico during the Mexican War 
1847  February  02 28  A group of Missouri Mounted Volunteers under COL Alexander Doniphan defeated a Mexican force at the Battle of Sacramento, Mexico during the Mexican War 
1847  March  03 29  U.S. forces commanded by General Winfield Scott occupied the coastal fortress at Vera Cruz, Mexico, during the Mexican War, making possible his westward march to Mexico City. 
1847  April  04 18  American troops under General Winfield Scott defeated Mexican forces under General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna at the Battle of Cerro Gordo during the Mexican War. Scott's engineers, (including future Civil War generals R.E. Lee, G.B. McClellan, J.E. Johnston, and U.S. Grant, were instrumental in locating a flanking mountain trail, which Scott used to bring up his main force. 
1847  August  08 20  American troops commanded by General Winfield Scott defeated a Mexican Army at the battle of Churubusco, a Mexican strongpoint south of Mexico City (Mexican War). 
1847  September  09 14  American forces captured Mexico City, effectively ending the Mexican War. 
1847  October  10 02  Birth of Paul von Hindenburg (d. 1934), German field marshal in World War I, victor over the Russians at the Battle of Tanneburg (1916) and later president of the Weimar Republic in the 1920s and 1930s. 
1848  August  08 29  British troops under Sir Harry Smith defeated Boers under Andries Pretorius who had sought freedom from British control at Boomplatz, in the Orange Free State (South Africa). 
1849  August  08 28  The Austrian siege and bombardment of Venice, under way since 20 July, ends when the city surrenders (Italian War of Independence). 
1851  October  10 02  Birth of Ferdinand Foch (d. 1929), later a French field marshal in World War I, commander-in-chief of allied forces in France in 1918, and French war hero. 
1852  November  11 18  Funeral in London, England, of the Duke of Wellington, hero of the Napoleonic Wars and former prime minister 
1854  March  03 27  France declared war on Russia, an action which expanded the scope of the Crimean War. 
1854  March  03 28  Beginning of the Crimean War. It originated in a quarrel between Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern orthodox religious authorities in Jerusalem over the question of who should control the keys to the Christian holy places there. Other contentious issues arose, and for several years, British and French armies battled the Russians at various points on the north shore of the Black Sea, notably on the Crimean Peninsula. The Turks were in the middle. Sardinia entered the war in 1855. Senile and incompetent military leadership on both sides, indifference toward critical logistical problems, and ineptitude of all concerned when dealing with disease and care of the wounded were controlling elements. The war ended in 1856 with nothing accomplished. Russia was persuaded to let up on Turkey, whose government was gradually decaying. 
1854  September  09 20  British and French troops defeated the Russians Alma (Crimean War). 
1854  October  10 17  British and French forces began the siege of Sevastopol, Russian port in the Crimea. 
1854  October  10 25  Combined British and French victory over the Russians at the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimea. 
1855  September  09 11  British took The Russian port of Sebastopol, located in the Crimean Peninsula, and French troops following the capitulation of the Russian Army (Crimean War). 
1856  June  06 24  John Brown, an anti-slavery zealot from Osawatomie,Kansas and several companions massacred five pro-slavery settlers at Pottawatomie Creek, in Kansas. 
1856  October  10 08  For some time, Chinese vessels had been permitted to use British registry, as foreign flags were generally accorded greater respect by pirates and other illicit ship operators. Canton was the center of much anti-foreign sentiment, which was fostered by the mandarin class, who opposed opening the city to foreign trade. Chinese authorities boarded the lorcha (vessel) Arrow in Canton Harbor which was flying British colors but had a Chinese crew, on grounds that a pirate was aboard. The Chinese crew was arrested and the British flag insulted. British demands that the crew be released and that an apology be rendered were ignored, thus precipitating the Second Opium War. 
1857  July  07 17  British troops relieved the city of Cawnpore in India after Nana Sahib, a Maratha leader, had ordered the slaughter of several hundred captives, mainly women and children (Indian Mutiny). 
1857  September  09 20  During the Great Mutiny ( of native troops against their British officers) Delhi fell to attacking British troops after a lengthy siege of nearly three months. Native soldiers had been disaffected for some time, due to poor British command practices. The mutiny had been touched off when the British introduced a new minie ball cartridge for the rifles used by their native sepoys. The paper cartridges, which were greased, had to be bitten for loading. Rumor had it that the grease was made from the fat of cows (sacred to the Hindus) and pigs (unclean to the Moslems). Later investigation proved that there was some truth to these stories. 
1859  October  10 18  John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) ended with his capture by U.S. Marines commanded by COL R.E. Lee. Brown was later tried for treason and hung. 
1859  October  10 22  Spain declared war on the Moors (Moslems) in Morocco. 
1859  December  12 02  John Brown of Kansas was executed in Charlestown, VA (now West Virginia) for his raid on Harper’s Ferry, VA (now West Virginia) on 16 October 1859, where he had hoped to foment a slave uprising that would end the institution of slavery in the USA. On the scaffold, Brown predicted the bloody civil war to come. 
1860  August  08 25  A combined British and French force captured the city of Tientsin, China, as part of the process of forcing trade concessions from china to the west. 
1860  September  09 07  Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian revolutionary leader, entered Naples with his troops, as a result of which Naples Joined the Kingdom of Italy. 
1860  September  09 21  The Chinese were defeated by British and French troops at Palichiao (Second Opium War) 
1860  December  12 20  South Carolina was the first Southern state to secede from the Union in the months before the Civil War 
1860  December  12 28  President James Buchanan refused to meet or to recognize commissioners from South Carolina who hoped to negotiate the deepening national crisis following the decision by that state’s legislature to formally secede from the Union. 
1860  December  12 30  South Carolina troops seized the Federal arsenal in Charleston. 
1861  January  01 05  Alabama state troops took possession of Forts Morgan and Gaines at the entrance to Mobile Bay, at the onset of the Civil War 
1861  January  01 09  The unarmed vessel Star of the West, having been fired on by artillery batteries on shore near the city of Charleston, SC, failed in its attempt to relieve federal troops in the harbor fort at Fort Sumter. 
1861  January  01 24  Georgia state troops seized the federal arsenal at Augusta. 
1861  February  02 20  The Confederate Congress in Montgomery, AL, established the Confederate Navy Department 
1861  March  03 31  Texas troops loyal to the new Confederacy seized El Paso, Texas, a Union military outpost 
1861  April  04 12  South Carolina state troops under GEN P.G. T. Beauregard began the bombardment of Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, S.C., beginning the Civil War 
1861  July  07 21  The Confederate victory at the first Battle of Manassas, or Bull Run, Virginia, just southwest of Washington, D.C., and General Thomas J (Stonewall) Jackson's refusal to give way at a crucial juncture gave an enormous boost to the Southern cause and convinced the Union Army that hard work lay ahead of them (Civil War). 
1861  July  07 27  General George Brinton McClellan assumed command of the Army of the Potomac (Civil War). 
1861  August  08 10  Union General Nathaniel Lyon was killed fighting Confederate (Missouri State Militia) forces under General Sterling Price during the battle of Wilson's Creek, Missouri. But Confederate casualties (1157 men killed and wounded) exceeded Union losses (944 men) (American Civil War). 
1861  November  11 08  Confederate Commissioners James Mason and John Slidell, on board the British ship HMS Trent, en route to England, were seized by Capt. Charles Wilkes in the Bahamas. Owing to strenuous British protests, Pres. Lincoln was later obliged to release them. Wilkes had previously best been known as the able but cantankerous commander of the U.S. Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842, the first government-sponsored American exploring mission outside the continental United States, which explored parts of the Pacific and Antarctic regions. 
1861  November  11 09  The Confederate raider Nashville captured and burned the Union clipper ship Harvey Birch in the Atlantic Ocean. 
1861  December  12 14  Confederate General H.H. Sibley assumed command of Confederate forces in the New Mexico and Arizona territories. 
1861  December  12 20  Congress created the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, whose House and Senate members would spend much of the next five years investigating and second-guessing the actions of Union Army commanders, principally those who had failed to meet their military objectives for one reason or another. 
1862  January  01 11  President Abraham Lincoln appointed Edwin M. Stanton of Ohio to be his new Secretary of War. Stanton would provide much of the necessary civilian leadership which enabled the Union Army to prevail during the Civil War 
1862  January  01 19  Federal troops under MG George H. Thomas defeated Confederate forces at the Battle of Mill Springs KY 
1862  January  01 30  The first Union ironclad warship, USS Monitor, was launched in New York City. 
1862  January  01 31  President Abraham Lincoln issued his War Order #1, calling for the Union Army to occupy Manassas Junction (also known as Bull Run) in Northern Virginia. Not for some months was the Army in any position to act on this order, and when it did so, the result was the first major Union defeat of the Civil War. 
1862  February  02 05  Union forces under BG Ulysses S. Grant captured Confederate-held Fort Henry, on the Tennessee River. 
1862  February  02 08  The 2000 man Confederate Army garrison on Roanoke Island, NC, under the command of General Henry A. Wise, former governor of Virginia, surrendered to the 7500 man Union force under General Ambrose Burnside 
1862  February  02 16  Confederate forces under GEN Simon B. Buckner surrendered Fort Donelson, Tennessee, to Union forces under BG U.S. Grant after GEN Grant had demanded unconditional surrender. Grant was thereafter known as "Unconditional Surrender (U.S.)" Grant, matching his initials. He was promoted to Major General of Volunteers the next day, a Monday. 
1862  February  02 21  In Tangier, Morocco, two officers of the Confederate cruiser CSS Sumter were seized on orders from the U.S. consul James De Long. After a long dispute, during which it was pointed out that the two officers had been visiting a neutral port, they were released. 
1862  February  02 21  A Confederate force of 2600 men under BG H.H. Sibley defeated a Union force of 3800 men under COL E.R.S. Canby in an engagement at Valverde, New Mexico Territory. Confederate losses included 31 KIA and 154 wounded, with 1 MIA; Union losses were 68 KIA and 160 wounded, with 35 MIA 
1862  March  03 08  Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia (rebuilt on the hull of the ex USS Merrimack) destroyed Union vessels USS Cumberland and USS Congress, and damaged the USS Minnesota in waters off Hampton Roads and Fort Monroe, VA 
1862  March  03 26  Confederate troops under MG John Chivington defeated a force of Union volunteers from Colorado in a skirmish at Apache Canyon, New Mexico Territory. 
1862  March  03 28  Union General E.R.S. Canby's forces defeated Confederate troops at the Battle of Glorietta Pass, New Mexico Territory, ending the Confederate threat to Union control of the Southwest. 
1862  April  04 07  Despite great losses and unpreparedness, GEN U.S. Grant defeated the Confederates at the two-day Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee. GEN Albert Sidney Johnston, overall Confederate commander, was killed in action. 
1862  April  04 24  Union ADM David Farragut moved north on the Mississippi River, past Confederate shore batteries. Seventeen federal vessels made it, despite heavy fire. Farragut lost 3 small ships, but easily brushed aside remaining opposition next day and helped seize New Orleans. This split the South and deprived it of a major seaport (Civil War). 
1862  August  08 18  Sioux Chief Little Crow led an uprising in Minnesota during the Civil War. The leaders of this effort were executed, as Union authorities wanted no distractions in the North during the Civil War. 
1862  August  08 26  Confederate cavalry under General Fitzhugh Lee (nephew of General R.E. Lee) entered Manassas Junction, VA, beginning the second Battle of Bull Run (American Civil War). 
1862  August  08 30  Confederate troops under Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson defeated Union forces under General John Pope at the Second Battle of Bull Run (Manassas, VA) (American Civil War). 
1862  November  11 04  Richard J. Gatling was awarded a patent for his Gatling Gun, a rapid-fire cannon. 
1862  November  11 05  President Lincoln replaced General G.B. McClellan with General Ambrose Burnside as Commander of the Army of the Potomac. 
1862  November  11 09  MG Ambrose E. Burnside assumed command of the Army of the Potomac, while arguing that he was not qualified for the job. 
1862  November  11 24  President Jefferson Davis appointed General Joseph E. Johnston commander of the Confederate Army of the West 
1862  December  12 30  The Union ironclad vessel Monitor sank in a storm while under tow off the coast of North Carolina. It was recently discovered that it had flipped over while capsizing. Efforts to recover it have been complicated by its fragile condition after nearly 14 decades under water. 
1862  December  12 31  Confederate troops under General Braxton Bragg attacked Union troops under General W.S. Rosecrans, opening the Battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. 
1863  January  01 07  Confederate forces under General Sterling Price attacked and captured Springfield, Missouri 
1863  January  01 13  The Federal government authorized the raising of Black troops for the (Union) South Carolina Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War. 
1863  January  01 15  The Confederate cruiser Florida left Mobile, Alabama, to begin raiding operations against Union shipping. 
1863  January  01 21  President Abraham Lincoln issued a formal order, cashiering MG Fitz John Porter, US Volunteers, from the Army following a court-martial. He was accused of disobeying orders during the battle of Second Manassas in late August, 1862. This decision was reviewed and overturned in 1879, but Porter was not reappointed to the rank of colonel in the regular army until August, 1886, at which time he was serving as Police Commissioner in New York City. He was retired two days following his reappointment. 
1863  February  02 01  Union troops attacked and occupied the town of Franklin, Tennessee 
1863  February  02 12  The Confederate blockade runner CSS Florida seized and destroyed the Union ship Jacob Bell in an action in the West Indies during the Civil war 
1863  February  02 28  The Confederate ship Nashville was destroyed by the Union ironclad vessel USS Montauk on the Ogeechee River in Georgia during the Civil War 
1863  February  02 28  The Confederate ship Nashville was destroyed by the Union ironclad vessel USS Montauk on the Ogeechee River in Georgia during the Civil War 
1863  March  03 31  Union forces evacuated Jacksonville, Florida 
1863  May  05 04  Uprisings by the Maori people of New Zealand took place against the British colonial authorities. 
1863  May  05 06  Confederate General Robert E. Lee defeated Union troops under Union General Joseph Hooker at the Battle of Chancellorsville, VA, with the considerable aid of Confederate General Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson, who decisively routed the Union right wing. Jackson was mortally wounded by one of his own men the night of the battle, having been mistaken (with his staff) for a group of federals. 
1863  May  05 10  Death-at age 37-of LTG Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, CSA, at Guiney's (or Guinea) Station VA. His condition had begun to stabilize after losing an arm to gunfire from his own men at Chancellorsville, but he could not fight off the pneumonia which subsequently developed. 
1863  July  07 03  Confederate forces under GEN Robert E. Lee, defeated after three days of fighting at the battle of Gettysburg (Pennsylvania) began their withdrawal to the South (American Civil War). 
1863  July  07 04  Confederate forces surrendered at Vicksburg, Mississippi, to GEN U.S. Grant (American Civil War). This effectively transferred control of the Mississippi River to Union forces, splitting off Texas, part of Louisiana, and the New Mexico Territory. 
1863  July  07 08  Confederate troops surrendered Port Hudson LA, giving the Union unrestricted control of the Mississippi River Valley (American Civil War). 
1863  July  07 18  An abortive attack on Fort Wagner, near Charleston, SC, was led by Black Union troops under COL Robert Gould Shaw, a Massachusetts officer. The attack was repulsed, and Shaw and many of his men were killed in the action (Civil War). 
1863  August  08 21  A group of Confederate bushwackers commanded by William Quantrill attacked the town of Lawrence Kansas, killing 150 people (American Civil War). 
1863  November  11 19  President Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address during ceremonies there dedicating the new National Cemetery. Judging from the crowd’s reaction, he thought it was a failure when compared to the longer (two hours plus) and earlier speech given by former Harvard president Edward Everett on that same occasion. Today, few Americans can remember Everett, and his speech is long forgotten. Everett himself recognized that Lincoln had been the more effective speaker. 
1863  November  11 23  The Confederate siege of Chattanooga, TN was finally broken by troops commanded by Union General U.S. Grant. The Confederates were obliged to evacuate their troops from the battle site, and from the state 
1863  November  11 25  Union troops under General U.S. Grant routed Confederate troops under General Braxton Bragg at Missionary Ridge in Tennessee 
1863  November  11 27  Confederate raider BG John Hunt Morgan escaped from the Ohio State Penitentiary at Columbus 
1863  December  12 03  Confederate forces evacuated Knoxville, leaving all of Tennessee under Union control 
1864  January  01 14  Union forces under General William T. Sherman occupied Meridian, Mississippi. 
1864  January  01 21  The Federal Army's Department of the Ohio forbad the distillation of whiskey, on account of the scarcity of grain in the region 
1864  February  02 09  109 Union officers tunneled their way out of Libby Prison in Richmond and escaped. 59 reached Union lines, 48 were recaptured, and two drowned. This largest and most dramatic escape of the Civil War planned by COL Thomas E. Rose of Pennsylvania. 
1864  February  02 17  The CSS Hunley, a Confederate submarine, sank the USS Housatonic, a Federal sloop, with a torpedo attached to a spar at its prow, in waters off Charleston, SC. The captain of the Hunley, LT George E. Dixon, and his six man crew perished in the resulting explosion. Only five members of the crew of the Housatonic died. The rest climbed into the rigging and survived. The Hunley was an experimental craft which had sunk several times previously, claiming a total of 33 lives. Not until the late 20th Century was what remained of the Hunley relocated. 
1864  February  17  Sinking of the USS Housatonic 
1864  March  03 02  Union COL Ulric Dahlgren and remnants of his raiding force, withdrawing from an unsuccessful effort to free Union prisoners in Libby Prison and at Belle isle in Richmond, were ambushed at Mantapike Hill, in King & Queen Co., VA. Dahlgren was killed. Papers found on his body suggested he had intended to kill Pres. Davis and his cabinet, a charge vigorously denied by Union spokesmen. 
1864  March  03 12  Union troops under GEN Nathaniel Banks began the Red River Campaign with the movement of gunboats up the Red River in Louisiana. The boats ran aground within a day or two, and Union troops were forced to withdraw with considerable loss of equipment and some casualties. 
1864  March  03 17  LTG Ulysses S. Grant assumed command of all Union armies, announcing that his headquarters will thereafter "be in the field, and, until further notice, will be with the Army of the Potomac." 
1864  April  04 08  Battle of Sabine Crossroads (Mansfield) LA. Confederate troops under GEN Richard Taylor, son of former President Zachary Taylor, defeated efforts by Union troops under GEN Nathaniel Banks to attack Shreveport. Outflanked, Banks retreated, until a stand taken by GEN William H. Emory at Pleasant Grove, LA ended the Southern attack. 
1864  April  8  Battle at Mansfield,LA  
1864  July  07 30  A unit of Pennsylvania soldiers (former coal miners) under Union General Ambrose Burnside set off a mine under the center of the Confederate lines during the siege of Petersburg, VA, but were unable to take advantage of the gap it created (Battle of the Crater), and the Confederate positions held (Civil War). 
1864  August  08 05  Admiral David Farragut, USN, exclaiming "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead," ran through a Confederate minefield at Mobile Bay, Alabama, and captured a defending group of Confederate ships (American Civil War). 
1864  August  08 22  Union troops occupied a mile-long stretch of the Weldon Railroad south of Petersburg VA, cutting a link in the Confederate supply line into the city (American Civil War). 
1864  September  09 01  Confederate troops abandoned Atlanta in the face of continuing attacks by federals under General W.S. Sherman. 
1864  October  10 23  Confederate GEN Sterling Price was defeated at the Battle of Westport, MO, ending Civil War fighting west of the Mississippi River. 
1864  November  11 04  GEN Nathan Bedford Forrest, CSA, attacked Union Army supply transports at Johnsonville, TN. 
1864  November  11 16  Union General W.T. Sherman began his epic march to the sea from Atlanta, GA, in an effort to cut the Confederacy in two. 
1864  November  11 25  Confederate agents unsuccessfully tried to burn the City of New York. Damage to the 19 hotels and theaters where primitive fire bombs had been used was limited, because the police had been forewarned. 
1864  November  11 30  Confederate General John Bell Hood launched a disastrous attack on Union positions, sustaining 6200 casualties at the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee 
1864  December  12 15  Union General George H. Thomas defeated the Confederate Army of Tennessee, under General John Bell Hood, at the Battle of Nashville, Tennessee 
1864  December  12 18  President Lincoln issued a call for 300,000 more Army volunteers to fight in the Civil War. Though a draft had been instituted in 1863, for the first time in this country’s history, bringing in some needed recruits, this was not enough. 
1864  December  12 22  General W.T. Sherman’s forces occupied Savannah, GA. 
1865  January  8  Sherman Meridian Campaign 
1865  February  02 01  Beginning of General W.S. Sherman's march through North and South Carolina, the purpose of which was to deny logistical support to Confederate General R.E. Lee's Army, which was fighting in Virginia. Sherman's action did much to bring the Civil War to an end 
1865  February  02 06  General Robert E. Lee was appointed by the Confederate Congress in Richmond as Commander-in-Chief of all Confederate Armies 
1865  February  02 17  Much of Columbia SC was burned by Union troops under GEN W.S. Sherman 
1865  February  02 18  A Union fleet seized Charleston, SC, after a lengthy siege. 
1865  March  03 13  Pres. Jefferson Davis signed a bill making African-American slaves subject to Confederate military service an action which came too late to bring about any change in the fortunes of the South during the Civil war. 
1865  March  03 19  MG W.T. Sherman defeated Confederate forces in the two-day battle of Bentonville, NC. This was the last major Confederate effort to stop Sherman's advance. Union losses exceeded 1500, while the Confederates lost in excess of 2600. 
1865  March  03 25  Confederate forces under GEN R.E. Lee unsuccessfully attempted to break through Union lines at the siege of Petersburg, VA. 
1865  April  04 03  Richmond, VA, fell to Union forces under GEN U.S. Grant 
1865  April  04 09  GEN R.E. Lee surrendered his remaining Confederate forces to GEN U.S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, VA, effectively ending the Civil War. A few contingents further south held out until the end of May. 
1865  April  04 17  Surrender of GEN Joseph E. Johnston's Confederate army to GEN William T. Sherman at Durham Station NC. This ended virtually all Confederate resistance to the authority of the federal government in the Eastern United States. 
1865  June  06 26  The American Civil war ended with the surrender of the last Southern forces, led by GEN Edmund Kirby-Smith, at Shreveport LA 
1865  November  11 10  Confederate Captain Henry Wirz was hanged for his mistreatment of Union prisoners at Andersonville Prison Camp during the Civil War. 
1865  November  11 11  Dr. Mary E. Walker, the first female surgeon in the Union Army, is presented with the Medal of Honor, the first woman to earn that award. 
1866  July  07 03  The Austrian Army was defeated by the Prussians at the Battle of Sadowa, also known as the Battle of Koniggratz (modern Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic), 60 miles east of Prague. A key element in the battle was the Prussian use of the so-called needle gun, a breech loader, which could be fired from the prone position, whereas the Austrians fought standing up using muzzle loaders (Seven Weeks War). This war was one of three waged by the Prussian premier Otto von Bismarck which were designed to bring about the unification of Germany (accomplished in 1871) 
1867  May  05 14  Mexican troops loyal to exiled Pres. Benito Juarez stormed the city of Queretaro, capturing the puppet Emperor Maximilian, a former Austrian archduke, imposed on Mexico by Napoleon III in 1864. Maximilian and his two closest generals, Miramon and Mejia, were tried by court-martial and executed on 19 June. The Austrian and other European governments pleaded for Maximilian's life, but Juarez stated that these executions were necessary, to make the point that Mexico would not tolerate foreign intervention again. 
1867  October  10 27  Garibaldi began his march on Rome, with the objective of unifying the Italian nation. 
1867  November  11 03  Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian patriot and guerrilla leader, was defeated by papal troops, supported by the French, at the Battle of Mentana. Many of Garibaldi’s men were mowed down by French troops firing chassepots (bolt action weapons). Garibaldi was captured and imprisoned at Caprera. 
1868  April  04 10  Abyssinian (Ethiopian)troops were defeated at Arogee by Anglo-Indian forces under Sir Robert Napier, who sought to free several imprisoned British emissaries. The Abyssinian King Theodore committed suicide following his defeat. After freeing the prisoners three days later, Napier withdrew his troops from the country, which lapsed into anarchy for several years. 
1868  April  04 13  British forces under Sir Robert Napier, leader of the British Abyssinian (Ethiopian) Expedition, sent from England to that East African nation to punish Emperor Theodore II because of the imprisonment and killing of English diplomatic officials, captured and destroyed the city of Magdala, Theodore's capital city. Having done what it came to do (Theodore had committed suicide on 10 April), the expeditionary force then left the country in May. 
1868  November  11 27  The U.S. 7th Cavalry, commanded by LTC George A. Custer, attacked a Cheyenne village on the Upper Washita River in Oklahoma, killing Chief Black Kettle 
1869  November  11 01  Fort Garry, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, was seized by the French and Indian leader Louis Riel during the Red River Rebellion. 
1870  March  03 01  Francisco Solano Lopez, President/Dictator of Paraguay, ended his 5 year war against the combined forces of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. Paraguay's male population had been reduced to 28,000, mostly boys and elderly men. 200,000 females also survived. An unknown number probably fled the country. Paraguay had lost more than 50 percent of its 1865 population of 600,000, and it took many decades to recover even partially from this disaster. 
1870  July  07 19  French emperor Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III) was maneuvered into declaring war on Prussia by Otto von Bismarck's rewording of a provocative telegram (the Ems Dispatch) concerning the possible succession of a Hohenzollern prince to the Spanish throne, something which France could not accept (Franco-Prussian War). 
1870  September  09 01  Prussian forces defeated the French at the Battle of Sedan in Northeastern France, bringing about the downfall of Napoleon III and the end of the Second Empire (Franco-Prussian War). 
1870  October  10 27  The French Army surrendered to the Prussian Army at Metz. (Franco-Prussian War). 
1870  October  10 28  The French Army lost Strasbourg to the Prussians. 
1871  June  06 28  The Paris Commune, made up of radicals (including some members of the First International [communists]) who, in the aftermath of the french defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, were opposed to the more conservative National Assembly, were crushed by French Army troops. 
1873  January  01 17  Modoc Indians under their chief, Captain Jack, defeated US troops sent to drive them out of their tribal lands in Oregon 
1876  July  16  Battle little Big Horn 
1876  November  11 25  Troops led by COL Ranald Mackenzie attacked a Cheyenne Indian village in Montana, uncovering items which had belonged to LTC George A. Custer’s 7th Cavalry, massacred at the Battle of the Little Big Horn the previous July 
1877  June  06 15  Henry Ossian Flipper, the first African-American graduate of West Point, was commissioned a second lieutenant on this date. 
1878  January  01 20  Russian forces seized Adrianople from the Turks, thus achieving control over the mouth of the Danube River. Not until 1922 did Turkey regain control of the city. 
1878  February  02 02  Greece declared war on Turkey. 
1879  January  01 22  Massacre of British troops by Zulu warriors under King Cetywayo took place at Isandhlwana in South Africa (Zulu War). 
1879  August  08 28  Zulu Chief Cetywayo was seized by British troops in South Africa (Zulu Wars). 
1880  June  06 26  Chilean forces defeated a combined Peruvian-Bolivian Army at the Battle of Tacna (War of the Pacific, 1879-1884). This action, fought over Bolivia's rich nitrate deposits, ultimately led to several treaties (Ancon, 1883, and Valparaiso, 1884) under terms of which Peru and Bolivia surrendered their nitrate provinces to Chile. Bolivia thus became a land-locked nation. 
1880  June  26  battle of tacna 
1880  June  26  battle of tacna 
1881  February  02 27  A British army under General Sir George Colley was defeated by Boers under General Petrus Joubert at the battle of Majuba, South Africa. Colley was killed in this action. This battle ended the war and led to the establishment of a South African republic (First South African War) 
1881  February  02 27  A British army under General Sir George Colley was defeated by Boers under General Petrus Joubert at the battle of Majuba, South Africa. Colley was killed in this action. This battle ended the war and led to the establishment of a South African republic (First South African War) 
1881  October  1  womens missionary society Rebecca Mazakute Episcopol Church 
1884  April  04 04  Birth of Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese naval commander who orchestrated the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. He was killed in action in April, 1943. 
1885  January  01 26  British General Charles G. "Chinese" Gordon and members of the garrison were killed when the fanatical native leader known as the Mahdi captured Khartoum, in the Sedan. A British relief column arrived days too late. 
1885  January  11  Alice Paul was born  
1885  March  03 30  Russian troops crossed their disputed border with Afghanistan, attacked troops led by Abdul Rahman, the Afghan leader, and inflicted heavy losses. Concerned about conflicting spheres of influence in Asia, Britain intervened, threatening war with Russia, but a peaceful solution was found. 
1886  May  20th  President abraham lincoln pardoned indian prisons and did not hang them  
1890  June  06 19  Birth of Ho Chi Minh (died 1969), in French Indo China. This European-educated indigenous leader (who also spent a short period in his career washing dishes in a New Orleans restaurant) fought against both French and American forces and served as President of North Vietnam, 1954-1969. 
1890  December  12 15  Sioux Chief Sitting Bull, victor at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876, his seventeen-year-old son Crow Foot, and six other Indians and six Indian police were shot and killed in an altercation as Sitting Bull tried to resist being placed in Army custody at Standing Rock Reservation, near the Grand River in South Dakota. Only the arrival of a contingent of cavalry prevented further bloodshed 
1890  December  12 29  In the final major engagement of the Indian Wars, 300 Sioux Indians, including many women and children, and Chief Big Foot, were killed at Wounded Knee Creek, SD. A CSS Medal of Honor Winner in this action was First Sergeant Frederick E. Toy (1866-1933), Company G, 7th U.S. Cavalry, who won the medal for bravery. It was awarded on 26 May 1891. First Sergeant Toy, born in Buffalo, NY, spent 21 years in the 7th Cavalry, later served in the Spanish American War, and retired as an Ordnance Sergeant in 1910. In 1917, at the age of 52, he volunteered for service in the army as a Captain in the Quartermaster Department. He had charge of the loading and unloading of troops and food supplies at the port of Brest, France. Later in life he was a lieutenant with the New York Central Railroad Police, and at the time of his death headed the local railway police in Buffalo, New York. 
1890  December  12 30  A CSS Medal of Honor winner on this day was Richard J. Nolan, a farrier with Company I, 7th U.S. Cavalry. He was cited for bravery in an action against the Indians at White Clay Creek, South Dakota. The medal was issued on 1 April 1891. A native of Ireland, Mr. Nolan died in Washington, D.C., on 26 August 1905. 
1893  January  01 16  Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii was overthrown with the connivance of American pineapple and sugar cane growers, who wanted better tariff rates for their products under US import laws than could be secured with the islands under native rule. US Marines were landed, supposedly to protect American lives and property, though neither were in any danger. Hawaii briefly became an American protectorate, and in 1894 an independent republic, under the presidency of Sanford Ballard Dole, of the pineapple packing family. It was annexed and became a US territorial possession in 1898 
1893  February  02 12  General of the Army Omar Bradley, Army commander during World War II, born in Clark, Missouri 
1894  October  10 15  French Army Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a general staff officer, was arrested on a charge of treason. He was convicted and sent to a French penal colony in the Caribbean. It was subsequently proven that Major Charles Walsin-Esterhazy was the guilty party, but the anti-semitic and aristocratic faction in the French Army suppressed the truth. Not until the author Emile Zola and others exposed the scandal in 1906 was Dreyfus released, exonerated, and promoted. The badly divided French army officer corps was nearly destroyed in the resulting uproar. Dreyfus was awarded the Legion of Honor, and died in 1935. 
1895  March  03 25  Italian troops under GEN Orieste Baratieri entered Ethiopia to reimpose an Italian protectorate, imposed by treaty in 1889 and overthrown by King Menelik II early in 1895. 
1895  December  12 22  After a closed-door court martial, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, French staff officer falsely accused of spying against his country, was sent to the penal colony at Devil’s Island, off the coast of French Guiana in South America. Anti-semitism played a major role in the refusal of his superiors to admit their mistake when the man who had done the spying was later identified. Dreyfus was not exonerated and freed for eleven years. 
1896  February  02 26  Birth of BG Evans Fordyce Carlson, USMC(R) (d. 1947), who formed a unit of Marine raiders during WW II and thought up the term "Gung Ho," modelled on the Chinese phrase for "working together harmoniously." Carlson had some experience with the Chinese Communist Armies in the 1930s, and adapted many of their practices for his Raiders. 
1896  February  02 26  Birth of BG Evans Fordyce Carlson, USMC(R) (d. 1947), who formed a unit of Marine raiders during WW II and thought up the term "Gung Ho," modelled on the Chinese phrase for "working together harmoniously." Carlson had some experience with the Chinese Communist Armies in the 1930s, and adapted many of their practices for his Raiders. 
1896  March  03 01  Ethiopian forces defeated Italian troops at Adowa, ending the Italian occupation of their country. 
1896  March  03 20  U.S. Marines were dispatched to Corinto, Nicaragua, to protect American citizens following a revolution in that country. 
1898  February  02 15  The battleship USS Maine was sunk following an explosion in the harbor of Havana, Cuba. The conclusion at the time was that it had been the work either of the Spanish colonial authorities or of Cuban revolutionaries. Later surveys (in the 1970s) suggested improper handling of on board munitions by the crew. Public opinion in the U.S. at the time blamed Spain, and the U.S. "Yellow Press" harangued President William McKinley to act. Within a short time, McKinley requested a declaration of war against Spain, which Congress approved. 
1898  February  15  USS Maine 
1898  April  04 08  British General Horatio Kitchener overcame superior numbers, defeating Sudanese forces under the Mahdi, a native religious leader, at the battle of the Atbara River in the Sudan. 
1898  May  05 01  Admiral George Dewey defeated the Spanish fleet at Manila in the Philippines (Spanish American War) 
1898  May  05 11  First American soldier (G.B. Meek) and naval officer (Ensign Worth Bagby) killed in the Spanish American War aboard the torpedo boat USS Winslow during action against the Spanish at Cardenas, Cuba. 
1898  July  07 03  American naval victory over the Spanish at Santiago, Cuba (Spanish-American War). 
1898  July  07 08  American forces under ADM George E. Dewey occupied Isla Grande in Subic Bay, the Philippines (Spanish-American War). 
1898  July  07 25  U.S. Admiral William Sampson landed troops near San Juan, Puerto Rico, then a Spanish colony. Fighting continued until 13 August (Spanish-American War). Puerto Rico became an American possession on 10 December under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. 
1898  July  08  Spanish American War 
1898  August  08 13  American troops captured Manila, Philippines from the Spanish (Spanish-American War). Spanish authorities surrendered to Admiral George E. Dewey, ending hostilities (Spanish-American War). 
1899  February  02 04  Philippine guerrillas in Manila fired on American troops, beginning a rebellion against the Americans which continued until 1902. 
1899  February  02 10  The Spanish-American War, fought for several months in early 1898, came to a formal end with the signing of the Treaty of Paris by President William McKinley. 
1899  October  10 12  Beginning of the Boer War in South Africa. The British thought they could win an easy victory, but the war lasted three years. For a time, many Boer women and children were incarcerated in concentration camps, it being thought that this would compel their menfolk to capitulate. 
1899  October  10 16  Boer troops defeated by the British Army at Glencoe, South Africa. 
1899  December  12 15  The Boers defeated the overconfident British in the battle of Colenso, South Africa (Boer War). Seven British soldiers won the Victoria Cross, their nation’s highest award, for gallantry during this action 
1900  February  02 27  In the first major British victory of the Boer War, Boer General Cronje surrendered at Peerdebarg, South Africa. 
1900  February  02 27  In the first major British victory of the Boer War, Boer General Cronje surrendered at Peerdebarg, South Africa. 
1900  June  06 05  British General Redvers Buller captured Pretoria, South Africa from Boer defenders (Boer War) 
1900  June  06 13  Beginning of the so-called Boxer Rebellion in China. The Boxers (title taken from their real name: Society of Harmonious Fists) were a peasant organization angry with their living conditions and the corruption of the upper classes. Originally, they were primed turn against the Chinese ruling class. However, Chinese government agents cleverly suggested that a more appropriate target would be foreigners—principally westerners who had brought in Christian missionaries. The missionaries, among other things, placed abandoned Chinese peasant girl children in orphanages). Chinese peasants with large families did not particularly value daughters, who could not do heavy farm labor. In consequence, female infants often were left abandoned in fields and exposed to the elements, lest they grow up and become a drain on limited family incomes. Westerners who placed young girls in orphanages were thought to have improper motives. Other Boxer targets were grasping Western businessmen, and people with strange barbarian notions, such as reading books from front to rear and each page from left to right, which was contrary to the way in which the Chinese did it. 
1900  June  06 17  British forces under COL Robert Baden-Powell, who had been under siege by Boer forces in Mafeking, South Africa, were relieved by a flying column of British infantry and cavalry. Baden Powell later (in 1908) founded the British Boy Scout movement, and, with his wife Agnes, the Girl Guides in 1909. 
1900  June  06 17  British forces under COL Robert Baden-Powell, who had been under siege by Boer forces in Mafeking, South Africa, were relieved by a flying column of British infantry and cavalry. Baden Powell later (in 1908) founded the British Boy Scout movement, and, with his wife Agnes, the Girl Guides in 1909. 
1900  July  07 02  The first flight of a zeppelin (blimp) made by its inventor Count von Zeppelin, took place at a field outside Berlin, Germany. 
1900  July  07 14  A combined force made up principally of Japanese Army troops, but including American and other European contingents, seized Tientsin (80 miles southeast of Beijing) from rebellious Chinese Boxers (Boxer Rebellion). 
1900  August  08 14  The foreign legations in Peking under siege by the peasant rebels known as Boxers (so-called because they belonged to the Society of Harmonious Fists) were relieved by an international force of 15,000 men, half of them Japanese. A small contingent of Americans were included in the relief force (Boxer Rebellion). 
1901  September  09 07  The Boxer rebellion in China ended with the Peace of Peking, compelling the Chinese empire to accept humiliating monetary and trade demands. 
1901  October  10 02  The first British Navy submarine was commissioned. Designed by the Irish-American John Henry Holland, with the research into its design in large part underwritten by Fenians, it had originally been intended by Holland for use against England. 
1901  October  10 02   The British Navy launched its first submarine, designed by the Irish-born American, John Phillip Holland. Ironically, Holland had originally intended the submarine to be used against Britain; its development was subsidized by Fenians, a secret Irish brotherhood active in Canada and the U.S. 
1903  February  02 26  Birthday of British MG Orde Charles Wingate (d. 1944), leader of the World War II irregular force known as the "Chindits," which fought the Japanese in Burma 
1903  February  02 26  Birthday of British MG Orde Charles Wingate (d. 1944), leader of the World War II irregular force known as the "Chindits," which fought the Japanese in Burma 
1904  February  02 04  Japanese forces laid siege to the Russian-held city of Port Arthur, on the Chinese coast at the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War. 
1904  June  06 30  Japanese forces occupied Dairien, on the Liaotung Peninsula of China, formerly controlled by the Russians (Russo-Japanese War) 
1904  August  08 10  The Japanese fleet under Admiral Togo inflicted heavy losses on the Russian fleet under Admiral Vitheft in the Yellow Sea off Port Arthur, China (Russo-Japanese War). 
1905  January  01 01  The Russian military surrendered Port Arthur, the principal treaty port they had held in China, to the Japanese (Russo-Japanese War) 
1905  March  03 09  After a 19 day battle in Mukden, Manchuria, Russian forces were defeated by five combined Japanese armies. 
1905  May  05 27  Battle of Tsushima Strait (between Southern end of the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese Island of Honshu. Russian fleet under ADM Zinovi Rozhdestvenski defeated by Japanese fleet under ADM Heihachiro Togo. 33 of 45 Russian ships destroyed, (Russo-Japanese War) 
1905  June  06 27  Battle of Tsushima Strait (Russo-Japanese War). The Russian fleet, arriving after a long voyage from Russia, steamed north through the waters separating Korea from the Japanese island of Honshu. The Japanese fleet crossed their path (in a classic maneuver, known as "crossing the T"), and destroyed or damaged virtually every Russian vessel as it came within range. Soon thereafter, both nations accepted Pres. Theodore Roosevelt's offer to negotiate peace at Portsmouth,NH (the Japanese had run out of money; the Russians had lost the patience of their people). "TR" won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. 
1905  June  06 27  Battle of Tsushima Strait (Russo-Japanese War). The Russian fleet, arriving after a long voyage from Russia, steamed north through the waters separating Korea from the Japanese island of Honshu. The Japanese fleet crossed their path (in a classic maneuver, known as "crossing the T"), and destroyed or damaged virtually every Russian vessel as it came within range. Soon thereafter, both nations accepted Pres. Theodore Roosevelt's offer to negotiate peace at Portsmouth,NH (the Japanese had run out of money; the Russians had lost the patience of their people). "TR" won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. 
1906  July  07 12  Captain Alfred Dreyfus, late of the French Army General Staff, was finally rehabilitated. In 1894, he had been falsely convicted of treason. The true culprit was identified and fled the country in 1896, but Dreyfus remained in the French penal colony at Devil's Island in the Caribbean, owing to the French political situation and anti-semitism in the Army leadership. Mounting public pressure forced the President of France to issue Dreyfus a pardon in 1899. The conviction was finally set aside in 1906. Dreyfus was decorated and promoted to major. He retired in 1914. 
1907  July  07 01  Founding of the Aeronautical Division of the US Army SignalOffice; the forerunner of the US Army Air Force and later the U.S. Air Force 
1908  September  09 17  LT Thomas E. Selfridge was killed at Ft. Myer, VA, in a plane flown by Orville Wright. Selfridge was the first man to die in an airplane accident. 
1909  November  11 18  United States warships were sent to Nicaragua after several Americans, together with hundreds of Nicaraguan revolutionaries, were killed by dictator Jose Santos Zelaya 
1910  November  11 14  Navy Lieut. Eugene Ely was the first man ever to take off in an airplane from the deck of a ship, when he flew off the American light cruiser Birmingham, anchored in Hampton Roads, VA, and landed in Norfolk. 
1911  January  01 18  Naval Lieutenant Eugene Ely became the first man ever to land on the deck of a ship, the cruiser USS Pennsylvania, in San Francisco Bay. 
1911  October  10 11  Internal revolt against the Manchu dynasty of China began. 
1912  January  01 22  American troops began an occupation of Tientsin, China, to protect American interests there. 
1912  May  05 13  The British Royal Flying Corps was established. 
1913  March  03 26  Bulgarian troops captured Adrianople, Turkey, bringing to a close the First Balkan War. 
1913  April  19  turkey 
1914  July  07 28  Austria Hungary declared war on Serbia, beginning World War I. 
1914  August  08 01  Germany declared war on Russia and France declared full mobilization for war (World War I) 
1914  August  08 02  Germany invaded Luxembourg and demanded passage through Belgium in order to attack France. Britain called attention to guarantees for Belgian neutrality signed by many European nations in 1830. Germany dismissed the guarantees as a "mere scrap of paper," prompting Britain to declare war (World War I). 
1914  August  08 03  Germany declared war on France (World War I). 
1914  August  08 08  The first troops of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) landed in France to support the French (World War I). 
1914  August  08 12  Britain declared war on Austria-Hungary (World War I). 
1914  August  22  Battle of the Frontiers 
1914  September  09 05  Beginning of the First battle of the Marne (River), in France (World War I). 
1914  September  09 12  The First Battle of the Marne, in France (World War I) ended indecisively. The German Army withdrew, and the British and French then cautiously advanced. 
1914  September  09 24  The first contingent of Canadian troops left Canada for the war in France. 
1914  October  10 05  First airmen died in battle when a German reconnaissance aircraft was shot down over France.