On This Day ... in 1332 & Others
Five months after his remarkable victory at Dupplin Moor had restored him to the Scottish throne, Edward Balliol was staying at Annan on the Solway Firth, when Archibald Douglas mounted a murderous night assault. Balliol's companions were killed in their beds, but he escaped, half-naked on a horse, eventually reaching safety with the English at Carlisle.
1834: HMS Buzzard, on anti-slavery patrol, captured the slave-ship Formidable off the west African coast.
1939: The pocket-battleship raider Admiral Graf von Spee was scuttled by her crew off Montevideo rather than face internment or risk another battle with the Royal Navy.
1941: The First Battle of Sirte was fought off the Libyan coast. Royal Navy cruisers and destroyers, plus the Dutch Isaac Sweers, conducted an inconclusive engagement with Italian ships.