1316: The Sheriff of Glamorgan was holding court outside the walls of Caerphilly Castle when Llywelyn ap Gruffydd ap Rhys, also known as Llywelyn Bren, mounted an attack. Llywelyn had previously protested to Edward II over the excessively harsh treatment of the Welsh in Glamorgan by royal officials during a period of bad harvests and famine, but the only response had been a charge of treason; he therefore resorted to armed rebellion.

The Sheriff was captured and his men either killed or driven into the inner defences of the castle. Although Llywelyn could not take the inner bailey, the castle's outer bailey was destroyed. Llywelyn later surrendered himself in March, to spare his men when cornered by an English punitive expedition.

His captors, the Earl of Hereford and Lord Roger Mortimer, successfully interceded for his life and he was instead imprisoned in the Tower of London. However, Edward II's favourite Hugh Despenser later persuaded the king to renege, and Llywelyn was hanged, drawn and quartered the following year at Cardiff.

1596: During the failed expedition to the Panamanian Isthmus, which had already seen the death of his relative and fellow commander, Sir John Hawkins, Sir Francis Drake died of fever aboard the Defiance, off Porto Bello in the Caribbean, and was buried at sea. He was aged about 56. Sir Thomas Baskerville, who had led the soldiers in the campaign ashore, took command of the remnants of the expedition and brought them safely home, fighting through a Spanish fleet at the Isle of Pines off Cuba.

1881: 1,200 British troops under Sir George Pomeroy-Colley engaged about 2,000 Boers at Laing's Nekduring during the Transvaal War. Finding his advance blocked by them, Colley mounted an uninspired frontal attack, which suffered heavily from the accurate rifle fire of the Boers, and was forced to retire. The 58th (Rutlandshire) Regiment advanced with its Colours in the action - the last time a British regiment was to do so.

Trooper Doogan of the 1st Dragoon Guards was awarded the Victoria Cross for rescuing a wounded and unhorsed officer, despite being severely wounded himself. Lieutenant Hill of the 58th Regiment was similarly decorated: he first attempted to carry to safety a wounded fellow officer, until the man suffered another, fatal, wound. Hill thereupon turned to the aid of a second casualty and managed to get him back to the British lines. He then returned a third time and brought back another wounded man.

1901: During a Boer War skirmish, Farrier-Major William Hardham of the New Zealand Wellington Mounted Rifles went to the aid of a wounded man who had lost his horse.

Ignoring heavy fire, Hardham dismounted, put the casualty into the saddle, then ran alongside the horse, leading it and its burden to safety. Hardham received the Victoria Cross.

1918: Following the sortie by the Sultan Yavuz Selim (the German battlecruiser Goeben under a Turkish flag) on 20 January, Lieutenant Commander Geoffrey Saxton White was ordered to take the submarine E-14 into the heavily defended Dardanelles to attempt to finish off the battlecruiser, which was reported to have beached herself following extensive mine damage.

E-14 was unable to locate her target, but, spotting another enemy ship, attacked that with torpedoes. She was then subjected to a depth charge attack in the shallow waters of the channel by a Turkish patrol boat, which badly damaged her. Forced to surface, White decided to beach the submarine to give his crew the best chance of survival. He himself stayed on deck and was killed. He received a posthumous Victoria Cross.