During the American Revolution, General George Washingtons retreating army crossed the Delaware River from New Jersey to Pennsylvania December 1776 was a desperate time for George Washington and the ...
Boats from HMS Persian, on anti-slavery patrol, captured the slaver Maria Segunda....
Colonel Ruthven, the energetic Parliamentarian commander of a mercenary Scots garrison in Plymouth, launched a daring pre-emptive raid on Royalist forces gathering at Modbury. He scattered the new re...
Francis Drake plundered Valparaiso in Chile during his round-the-world expedition in Golden Hind....
The Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, announced the call-up of unmarried women aged 20-30 to serve in the womens branches of the Armed Forces, or the police and fire services. Exemptions were made f...
Troops commanded by Major General Abercromby captured the Ile de France - modern-day Mauritius - having been landed by a powerful Royal Navy force....
During the First Burmese War, Brigadier-General Sir Archibald Campbell attacked a large concentration of Burmese forces under Maha Nemyo at Pagoda Point near Prome on the Irrawaddy. Maha Nemyo was ki...
The first attempt to organise welfare provision for Royal Navy seamen was established - the Chatham Chest. Contributions were deducted from sailors pay and placed in the chest, which had five differe...
In Culblean Forest, by the River Dee, Scots troops under Sir Andrew Murray and Sir William Douglas, loyal to the Bruces heir, David II, fell upon a raiding party under David of Strathbogie. Strathbog...
Lieutenant H Newgass, RNVR, was called to defuse a large parachute mine, dropped during a devastating Luftwaffe raid on Liverpool, which had penetrated the roof of a gasometer at Garston Gasworks. If...
Drummer Flinn serving with 64th Regiment of Foot ( later the North Staffordshire Regt), became one of the two youngest winners of the Victoria Cross (the other being Andrew Fitzgibbon). Aged only fif...
A squadron under Rear Admiral Sir Edward Pellew destroyed a Dutch squadron and a large number of merchant ships at Batavia in the East Indies....
In the Hawaiian Islands, Captain James Cook became the first European to visit Maui....
The White Ship sank in the English Channel, drowning William Adelin, the only legitimate son of Henry I of England. The only known survivor was a butcher from Rouen. He was wearing thick ramskins tha...
Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species...
An Australian officer, Lieutenant Leslie Cecil Maygar of the 5th Victorian Mounted Rifles, saw that an outpost was in danger of being outflanked by Boer troops, and galloped forward to order them to ...
Lieutenant Robert Maynard, First Lieutenant of HMS Pearl finally ended the career of the notorious pirate Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, killing him in an epic hand-to-hand fight off the c...
Sir Samuel Cunard was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Cunard started working in the timber business with his father, then expanded into shipping. He was a founder of the Halifax Bank in 1825 and became...
Admiral Sir Edward Hawke won his great victory at Quiberon Bay. Bad weather had forced Hawke to suspend his blockade of the French fleet under the Comte de Conflans in Brest. Conflans seized the chan...
The Council of Clermont was called by Pope Urban II to discuss sending the First Crusade to the Holy Land: The actual Council began on the 27th. The church had fallen on hard times following the life...
Fort Washington was captured from American revolutionary forces. Meanwhile the United Provinces recognized the independence of the United States In November 1776 the last position the Americans held ...
The Battle of Krasnoi was a series of skirmishes fought over 4 days during in the final stage of Napoleons retreat from Moscow. These enguagements are noteworthy because of the heavy losses inflicted...
The Shah Nuliff Fort at Lucknow was attacked and captured by British and Sikh forces during the Indian Mutiny. William Hall, a Canadian serving with the Royal Marines onboard HMS Shannon, distinguish...
Christopher Columbus noted in his journal the use of tobacco among Indians, the first recorded reference to tobacco, which was brought to Europe by a French ambassador, Jacques Nicot - hence nicotine...
During the bitter fighting at Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny, six Victoria Crosses were won....
Malcolm III Canmore of Scotland (Shakespeares hero in Macbeth) invaded England after William II Rufus started to fortify Carlisle. At the Battle at Alnwick, Malcolm and his son Edward were killed....
Having been landed on Puerto Rico by Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drakes ships, troops under Sir Thomas Baskerville attempted to storm San Juan. However, their advance had been tempered by Hawkin...
At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the Armistice saw the cessation of hostilities with Germany. Peace was not finally secured until the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. Brit...
Forty-one Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower, anchored off Massachusetts, signed a compact calling for a “body politick”. The Mayflower Compact, which in everyday American history is commonly put out as t...
English forces under Edward IIIs Admiral of the North, Sir Walter Mauny, sacked Cadzand on the Scheldt at the start of the Hundred Years War. Edwards efforts to raise money and men for operations on ...
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