1829: HMS Black Joke captured a Spanish slave-ship off West Africa.

1873: The Royal Naval College opened at its new location at Greenwich.

1915: At Cuinchy in France, Lance Corporal O'Leary, a Canadian serving with the 1st Battalion, Irish Guards, led an attack on a barricaded German position. He killed all five Germans manning the barricade, then carried on with a lone charge on a second barricade sixty yards further on. There he killed another three enemy, and took two prisoners. His gallantry allowed a potentially formidable defensive position to be taken without losses amongst his comrades.

1917: Germany commenced "unrestricted" submarine warfare against merchant shipping.

1942: The Royal Air Force Regiment, formed for the defence of airfields, was established by Royal Warrant, it's motto 'Per Ardua', translates as 'Through Adversity', with its insignia crossed No.4 Lee Enfield rifles encircled by an astral crown.

British intelligence suffered its most serious setback of the war when the Germans changed their Enigma code used by their U-boats. The British didn't break this code, called "Shark," for a year, giving the Germans a major advantage in the Battle of the Atlantic. To make matters worse, by this stage of the war, the Germans had broken the British merchant ship code.