1520: Pope Leo X threatened to excommunicate Martin Luther if he didn’t recant his religious beliefs

1846: Great Britain ceded its claims to the Pacific Northwest by signing the Treaty of Oregon

1859: Lyman Cutlar starts the so-called Pig War between US and Great Britain

1864: US Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton signed an order establishing a military burial ground, which became Arlington National Cemetery. The site was formerly the plantation of General Robert E Lee prior to the American Civil War

1901: A small South African Constabulary patrol of eight men came under attack from around 50-60 Boers. Whilst retreating, the horse of the Lieutenant in command of the patrol was shot. Sergeant Rogers rescued him and carried him to safety. However, by then, two more of the patrol had lost their horses, so Rogers returned under heavy fire to cover them while they made their way back. He received the Victoria Cross .

1915: During an attack in France by the Western Ontario Regiment, Lieutenant Campbell commanded the battalion's machine-gun detachment. Advancing across No Man's Land, to German trenches that had just been captured, most of the men in the detachment fell casualty With the survivors, Campbell was able to man one machine-gun. The Germans launched a fierce counter-attack, but Campbell 's fire drove them back. However, he was also hit and died in hospital a few days later. He received a posthumous Victoria Cross.

1918: During heavy fighting on the Italian front, the Allied lines were breached at Asiago. Lieutenant-Colonel Hudson of the Sherwood Foresters hastily organised headquarters personnel to mount a counter-attack With just two men he took one enemy position, then pressed on to clear others. He suffered a severe leg wound from a grenade, but stayed in action. By the end of the day, he and his men had taken about 100 prisoners and half a dozen machine-guns.

A few miles away, Second Lieutenant Youll of the Northumberland Fusiliers, who had been covering the withdrawal of his patrol, became separated from his unit. He made his way to another section of the line, where he organised a force from other stragglers. An enemy machine-gun crew had worked its way behind their position, and suddenly opened fire.

Youll charged the gun and knocked it out. He then led his scratch force in a series of counter-attacks which stabilised the position. Youll and Hudson both received the Victoria Cross.

1940: A small Bomber Command detachment established itself at the French airbase at Salon in Provence to attack Italian targets. Eight Wellingtons set off for Genoa that night, but only one was able to find its target.