1380: An English naval squadron enjoyed a minor success at Kinsale, catching a number of Castilian and French ships in the port.

1527: Captain John Rut of the Royal Navy, sent by Henry VIII, left Gravesend on the Mary Guildford and the Samson on an expedition to find a passage to Asia.

1610: The first Dutch settlers started to colonize Manhattan Island, having arrived from New Jersey.

1770: A Spanish force of 5 frigates and 1600 troops captured the British settlement at Port Egmont on the Falkland Islands

1801: Tripoli declared war on the United States in a dispute over safe passage of merchant vessels through the Mediterranean

1855: Private Lyons of the 19th Regiment ran to a shell that had landed in a British trench at Sevastopol and threw it clear over the parapet just before the fuse burnt down He was awarded the Victoria Cross.

1898: During the Spanish-American War, US Marines landed in Cuba

1940: Italy declared war on Britain and France, anticipating easy victories as the Germans overran France and the British struggled to replace the losses suffered at Dunkirk. The Royal Navy begins Operation 'Cycle'; the evacuation of 11,000 British and Allied troops from Le Havre.

HMCS St Laurent & Restigouche exchanged fire with a German artillery battery at St Valery-en-Caux during the evacuation of the British 51st Highland Division. These were the first shots fired in anger by the RCN during World War II

1941: 104 aircraft from Bomber Command attacked the three German capital ships - Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen - sheltering in Brest, but without success.

1942: Operation Harpoon commenced to re-supply the beleaguered island of Malta from Gibraltar to Malta. Under the command of Admiral Curtis, his escort forces included 1 battleship, 2 carriers, 4 cruisers, 17 destroyers and 6 merchant ships. There are also several merchant ships sailing independently.

Admiral Vian was dispatched from Alexandria with another convoy for Malta comprising 8 cruisers and 26 destroyer escorts and 11 merchantmen under the codename, Operation Vigorous.

1944: Bomber Command dispatched 432 aircraft to attack railway targets throughout France to hamper further German efforts to rush troops to Normandy, as Allied troop numbers landed on the beaches topped 326,000, with some 54,000 vehicles. US forces succeeded in linking Omaha and Utah beaches, whilst efforts continued to push through to secure the gap between the the US and British/Canadian sectors.

Following intensive work by Royal Engineers and RAF ground crews, the first RAF Advanced Landing Ground became operational within the beach head at St Croix sur Mer, allowing Typhoons and Spitfires to be based forward in Normandy and thus provide immediate support to the troops on the ground.

1945: Troops of the Australian 9th Division landed in Brunei to secure the vital oil fields and rubber plantations.

1967: The Six Day War between Israel on one hand and Syria, Jordan, Iraq & Egypt on the other, ends. As a result of the conflict, the USSR broke off diplomatic relations Israel. They were only re-established in 1991