622 The Hajj: Mohammed fled Mecca for Medina - the start of Islamic Chronology

1054 The Great Schism between Western and Eastern Christianity, as leaders of the two branches swap ex-communications

1099 Crusaders herd the Jews of Jerusalem into a synagogue & set it afire

1212 Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa; end of Moslem domination of Spain

1429 Joan of Arc leads the French army to victory at Orleans

1683 Turkish troops under Kara Mustafa attack Vienna

1705 Battle of Cassano d'Adda: The French defeat the Imperialists

1774 Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainardji: ends the Seventh Russo-Turkish War (1768-1774)

1779 "Mad" Anthony Wayne captured Stony Point, NY, in a predawn bayonet attack

1857 Sir Henry Havelock brings a relief force into Cawnpore, invested by the Sepoys

1861 Skirmish at Millsville/Wentzville, Mo

1861 Bull Run Campaign: Gen McDowell advances from Washington toward Fairfax Courthouse

1862 David G. Farragut is named the first Rear Admiral in the USN

1894 Battle of Kassale: Italians defeat the Sudanese Mahdists

1894 African-American miners in Alabama killed by striking whites

1912 Rear Adm Bradley Fiske, USN, receives a patent for the airborne torpedo.

1920 Brig Gen Amos Fries is appointed first US Chief of Chemical Warfare

1940 Hitler ordered preparations for "Operation Sea Lion"

1942 French collaborationist police initiate the arrest of c. 20,000 Jews as a favour for the Germans

1944 Australian warships shell Japanese near Aitape, New Guinea.

1944 With the aid of the Polish Resistance, the Soviets capture Vilna, Lithuania, from the Germans

1945 Trinity: the first Atomic Bomb is tested in New Mexico.

1946 A US court sentences 46 SS-men to death for the Malmedy massacre; Sen. Joseph McCarthy attempts to secure commutations

1951 Abdication of King Leopold III of Belgium (1934-1951) for wartime collaboration, d. 1983

1957 Marine Maj John Glenn sets transcontinental airspeed record (03:28:08)

1962 NASA civilian test pilot Joseph A Walker takes X-15 to 32,600 m

1969 Apollo 11 leaves for the Moon