31 B.C. ~ Battle of Actium: Off the western coast of Greece, forces of Octavian defeat troops under Mark Antony and Cleopatra. This date is often used for the beginning of the Roman Empire.

1666 ~ The Great Fire of London started in Pudding Lane at the house of Thomas Farrinor near London Bridge. Samuel Pepys, a neighbor, was woken by the fire at around 1 AM. The fire burned for three days destroying 10,000 buildings including St. Paul's Cathedral, but only 16 people are known to have died.

1752 ~ The UK adopted the Gregorian Calendar, nearly two centuries later than most of Western Europe.

1898 ~ The Battle of Omdurman: British and Egyptian troops led by Horatio Kitchener defeated Sudanese tribesmen led by Khalifa Abdullah al-Taashi, establishing British dominance in the Sudan.

1945 ~ The official surrender of Japan was accepted by General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz from a delegation led by Mamoru Shigemitsu, aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay, bringing World War II to an end.

It is my understanding that the ability to decrypt the Japanese diplomatic and military messages, marked as ULTRA, helped the U.S. and its allies to evaluate Japan’s decision to surrender after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I’ll always wonder if the decrypts following the emperor’s speech played a role in the later American decision to retain the emperor and imperial institution as symbols of the Japanese state despite calls from other Allies for his indictment as a war criminal.

1948 ~ Birthday of Christa McAuliffe, schoolteacher & astronaut.

1964 ~ Death of Alvin York, Hero. He was the most decorated American soldier of World War I.

1969 ~ Death of Ho Chi Minh, Vietmamese Revolutionary, President & Prime Minister.

1973 ~ Death of J. R. R. Tolkien, British writer.

1991 ~ The U.S. recognizes the independence of the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

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Eudaimonia