1815: Napoleon Bonaparte's French army, advancing into Belgium, encountered their opponents in strength for the first time. The Prussians under Blucher fought the Emperor at Ligny. To the west, Marshal Ney's troops encountered Netherlands troops at the strategically important cross-roads of Quatre Bras. The Dutch and Belgian troops were progressively reinforced by Wellington as he rushed to concentrate his forces, and the covering action at Quatre Bras allowed him to withdraw a short distance up the road to a prime defensive position at Waterloo.

1858: During an Indian Mutiny action, Private Rodgers of the 71st Regiment single-handedly attacked seven well-armed mutineers. He received the Victoria Cross.

1898: In Cuba, during the Spanish American War, a US naval squadron bombarded Santiago.

1915: In France, Lance-Corporal Tombs of the King's Regiment braved intense enemy fire to rescue in turn four wounded men lying out in No Man's Land He received the Victoria Cross.

1942: Operation Vigorous continued, the eastern convoy to re-supply Malta. The 11-ship convoy with its close escort had departed from Haifa and Port Said on 12 June. They were met off Tobruk on 13 June with a covering force of seven light cruisers and 17 destroyers, commanded by Rear Admiral Sir Philip Vian. The force now comprised 11 merchantmen, one dummy battleship, eight cruisers, 26 destroyers, four corvettes, two minesweepers and two rescue ships. However, many air attacks from Crete occurred during the 13th and 14th, sinking two cargo ships and damaging two others.

On the evening of 14 Jun, Admiral Vian learned that a strong element of the Italian battle fleet, with two 15-inch battleships (Vittorio Veneto and Littorio), two heavy cruisers(Goriza, Trento) and two light cruisers (Giuseppe Garibaldi and Aosta), plus ten destroyers, had sailed south from Taranto. Vian’s covering force could not possibly confront such a powerful task group and early on 15 Jun the convoy reversed course back for Egypt.

During the night, as convoy ‘Vigorous’ headed eastward, German S-boats damaged the Southampton-class light cruiser Newcastle and sank the H-class destroyer Hasty.

At approximately 0700, when the Italian task group was 200 miles to the northwest, the convoy turned back to the west for Malta. This move drew the Italian fleet closer and made air attacks from Malta-based Beaufort torpedo-bombers possible. Nine aircraft were launched at 0415 and came upon the Italian force in the early pre-dawn light.

Despite the favorable conditions, a lack of experienced aircrews resulted in the attack being uncoordinated. Only one hit was scored, which disabled the heavy cruiser Trento. She was sunk later on 15 Jun by the British U-class submarine, HMS Umbra.

The Italian formation, expecting the approaching aircraft to be their own air escort, did not fire on their attackers initially and retired eventually in disarray. All nine of the attacking Beauforts were able to return to Malta although several were heavily damaged and two were forced to make crash landings.

The battleship Littorio was hit by a later torpedo attack but was able to reach port safely.

Meanwhile the convoy reversed course to the east at 0940 and, once the air attack was completed and it was known the Italian force had withdrawn, turned back again for Malta at 1200.

During the afternoon of 15 June, many intense air attacks were launched against the convoy. The Southampton-class light cruiser HMS Birmingham was damaged and the escort destroyer HMS Airedale was sunk by German Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers. The Australian destroyer Nestor was also disabled by Ju-87s and was taken in tow. After the tow parted twice and after receiving warnings of further S-boat activity, it was decided to scuttle Nestor.
On the evening of 15 June, Admiral Vian made the final decision to withdraw the convoy to Alexandria, because of low anti-aircraft ammunition levels in all the escorts.

The final blow against ‘Vigorous’ came on 16 Jun, when the British Dido-class light anti-aircraft cruiser Hermione was sunk by the German submarine U-205.Only six of the original 11 merchant ships returned to base

1943: In the Solomons, the Japanese launched their its largest air raid since 7 April 1943, dispatching an estimated 50 Val bombers and 70 Zeke fighters against USN vessels at Guadalcanal and Tulagi who preparing for Operation Toenails: the invasion of New Georgia Island in the central Solomon Islands.

A coastwatcher sighted the attacking force just after 1200 and 104 Allied aircraft including Kittyhawks, Lightnings, Airacobras, P-40s, Corsairs and Wildcats were scrambled to meet the raid.

Numerous dogfights ensue over Savo and Tulagi Islands, and Cape Esperance and Koli Point on Guadalcanal; Allied aircraft claimed 79 aircraft shot down with the loss of six Allied fighters and five pilots; AAA claimed a further 17 enemy aircraft.

The Japanese did however succeed in damaging three ships and causing considerable destruction on Guadalcanal Island. However, this was to be the last daylight raid launched by the Japanese against Guadalcanal

1944: Carrier-based aircraft from the USN's Task Groups 58.1 and 58.4 again mounted attacks on Iwo Jima, in the Volcano Islands, and Chichi Jima and Haha Jima, in the Bonin Islands, during the afternoon. Targets included airfields, fuel supplies and barracks. Two Hellcats and their pilots were lost. After the attacks, both task groups retired to the Mariana Islands

In response to the sighting of the Japanese First Mobile Fleet sailing from the Philippines towards the Mariana Islands by a US submarine, Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, commander of the Fifth Fleet, ordered that the antiaircraft screens around USN carriers be augmented by drawing additional cruisers and destroyers from fire-support and shore-bombardment groups.

The entire burden of ground-support missions and on-call air-support shifted from the fast carriers of Task Force 58 to the escort aircraft carriers of the Fifth Fleet. Carrier-based aircraft of Task Groups 58.2 and 58.3 attempted to neutralize all of the airfields on Guam and Tinian. The airmen maintained that the naval big guns should also be used against these targets but their suggestions were ignored.

1948: Lasting a total of 13 years, the Malayan Emergency was declared.