1187 Saladin captures Tiberias, besieges the Citadel (falls 5th)

1214 Battle of La Roche-aux-Moines (Angers)

1247 Emperor Frederick II lays siege to Parma (lifted Feb 18, 1248)

1298 Battle of Goellheim\Worms: Albert of Austria defeats Adolf von Nassau Weilburg, his rival for Holy Roman Emperor

1431 Battle of Bulgneville: The Angevins defeat the Lorrainers

1461 Battle of Nidastore: The Malatesti of Rimini defeat Pope Pius II's forces

1600 Battle of Nieuport: Dutch defeat the Spanish

1625 Breda falls to the Spanish after a year's siege

1644 Battle of Marston Moor: Roundheads defeat the Royalists

1704 Battle of Schellenberg: Anglo-Imperialists defeat the Franco-Bavarians

1747 Battle of Lauffeld: Marshal Saxe's French defeat the Duke of Cumberland's Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverians

1776 Continental Congress declares the Thirteen Colonies independent

1777 Vermont abolishes slavery, the first "state" to do so

1814 Jacob Brown captures Ft. Erie, Ontario, from the British

1820 Carbonari coup at Naples installs a liberal Constitution

1861 Battle of Hoke's Run, WV

1862 Lincoln calls for an additional 300,000 volunteers

1863 Battle of Gettysburg, Day 2: A draw

1863 John Hunt Morgan's Burkesville-Salineville Raid begins (to July 26)

1881 Charles J. Guiteau mortally wounded Pres. James A. Garfield

1898 Action at Cape Tunas, Cuba: US ships & Spanish batteries exchange fire

1898 Skirmishing at Santiago: US ships & Spanish batteries exchange fire, as US troops begin the close investment of the town

1900 Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin's first airship, the LZ-1, flies

1903 US leases Guantanamo Bay from Cuba for $2,000 a year

1917 The "East St. Louis Massacre" -- rioting whites, aided by some National Guardsmen, attack blacks, killing nearly 100 and driving thousands more from their homes.

1926 Congress authorizes the Distinguished Flying Cross.

1934 General Lazaro Cardenas elected president of Mexico

1941 Nazis murder 7,000 Jews in Lvov

1942 Chiang names Stilwell commander of Chinese forces in India.

1942 JCS authorize "Operation Watchtower," the seizure of Guadalcanal

1942 New York Times reports Nazi mass murder of Jews

1943 37th and 43rd Divs and Marines land on Munda on New Georgia

1943 Japanese cruisers and destroyers shell U.S. positions at Rendova

1943 Lt Charles Hall, 99th Pursuit Sqn, becomes the first black USAAF pilot to shoot down a Nazi plane, a Focke-Wulf 190 over Pantelleria

1944 Marshal von Kluge replaces von Rundstedt in command in France

1944 Saipan: Japanese retire northwards to make a last stand.

1944 US troops land on Noemfoor, off New Guinea.

1957 'Grayback' (SSG 574) launched, the first sub designed to fire guided missiles

1957 'Seawolf '(SSN 575) completed, the first sub with liquid metal cooled reactor

1959 "Plan 9 from Outer Space" released; perhaps the worst movie in history

1966 First French nuclear explosion, Mururoa atoll

1980 Pres Carter resumes draft registration for 18-year-old men

1993 Moslem fundamentalists set a hotel on fire in Sivas, Turkey, 36 die