1791: The then Colonel Napoléon Bonaparte was promoted to full general and appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the French Republic

1857: Lieutenant Prendergast of the Madras Engineers won the Victoria Cross at Mundisore, when he attempted to charge down a rebel just as he fired at another officer. The officer's life was saved, but Prendergast was wounded

1861: Confederate President Jefferson Davis appointed Judah Benjamin as Secretary of War

1914: Three Royal Naval Air Service Avro 504 aircraft, flying from an aerodrome in southern France, conducted a very low level attack on the Zeppelin sheds at Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance. Despite the primitive nature of the bombs and the lack of bomb sights, a Zeppelin was destroyed in its shed by a direct hit, and the gasworks which supplied hydrogen for the airships was badly damaged. The Swiss Government complained that the aircraft had infringed their neutrality, drifting off course whilst approaching the target.

1918: The German High Seas fleet surrendered to the Royal Navy at Rosyth on the Firth of Forth

1939: Prime Minister Chamberlain announces that German merchant shipping will be seized in retaliation for mine attacks. That evening, a soldier on guard duty at the artillery range at Shoeburyness saw a low-flying Heinkel 111 drop an object by parachute in the nearby Thames Estuary.

The Admiralty was immediately informed and two mine experts, Lieutenant-Commanders RC Lewis and JGD Ouvry who were dispatched to the scene. By the time they get there the tide was on the ebb and, stepping out across the mudflats, they are able to locate the mine.
Noting that it has two brass fittings, that clearly had to be removed to make it safe, they took rubbings so that a nearby army workshop could manufacture suitable non-magnetic brass tools

1941: During Operation Crusader, a major British offensive in the Western Desert aimed at relieving Tobruk, fierce fighting centred around the Axis positions at Sidi Rezegh. A British infantry attack on an airfield was pinned down by heavy fire - Rifleman Beeley charged with a Bren Gun and wiped out the crews of an anti-tank gun and two machine-guns. He was killed, but his unit took their objective.

Brigadier Campbell, commanding the artillery of 7th Armoured Division, distinguished himself, ignoring enemy fire whilst directing on foot the defence against heavy counter-attacks. He twice helped man guns when crew members fell casualty, and refused to be evacuated when himself wounded. Some sixty Axis tanks attacked a position defended by four light anti-tank guns commanded by 2nd Lieutenant Gunn. Three of the guns were knocked out, and all but one of the crew members of the last gun were killed or wounded, and its portee vehicle, loaded with ammunition, set on fire. Gunn himself manned this last gun and managed to fire fifty rounds and destroy two tanks before he was killed. Beeley, Campbell and Gunn were awarded the Victoria Cross.

1943: The Japanese mounted a surprise raid at Scarlet Beach, near Lae, Papua New Guinea. The position was narrowly held by American and Australian defenders

1944: North east of Formosa, the American submarine USS Sealion torpedoed and sank the Japanese battleship Kongo & one of her destroyer escorts

1962 : The Chinese People's Liberation Army declared a unilateral cease-fire in the Sino-Indian War

1965: A Gurkha patrol in the Borneo jungle near Sarawak located an Indonesian position on a hill. Lance Corporal Rambahadur Limbu took two men forward to reconnoitre, but a machine-gun opened up on them at ten yards range. The Lance Corporal knocked it out with a hand grenade. However, the other two Gurkhas were wounded; ignoring continuing enemy fire, he managed to drag them in turn a considerable distance to safety. He received the Victoria Cross for his gallantry

1971: Indian troops partly aided by Bengali guerrillas defeated the Pakistan army at the Battle of Garibpur.

1974: The Birmingham Pub Bombings by the IRA killed 21 people. The Birmingham Six were arrested and subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment. The six were acquitted at appeal and released