August 16

• August 16, 1419
  Wenceslaus IV, King of Germany and Charles IV's son, dies and is succeeded by Sigismund
• August 16, 1513
  Henry VIII of England and Emperor Maximilian crush the French at the Battle of the Spurs
• August 16, 1777
  American forces win the Revolutionary War Battle of Bennington, Vermont
• August 16, 1780
  American troops under General Horatio Gates are badly defeated by the British at the Battle of Camden in South Carolina
• August 16, 1793
  French National Convention declares universal conscription in the Levée en masse
• August 16, 1819
  11 people are killed in the Peterloo massacre after English police charge into a crowd of 60,000–80,000 unemployed demonstrators at St. Peter's Field that have gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation
• August 16, 1829
  The original Siamese twins, Chang and Eng Bunker, arrived in Boston from Siam, now Thailand, aboard the ship Sachem to be exhibited to the Western world
• August 16, 1940
  Foreign Correspondent, American spy thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, is released
• August 16, 1943
  Sicily is conquered by Allied forces during Operation Husky
• August 16, 2008
  Russia signs a French-brokered peace plan with Georgia, ending their nine-day-old conflict
• August 16, 2009
  Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt sets a 100 m world record (9.58) at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics in Berlin

March 13

• March 13, 624
  Muslims under Muhammad defeat non-believers for the first time at the Battle of Badr
• March 13, 1401
  Samogitian uprisings supported by Vytautas took place against the German knights in Great Duchy of Lithuania
• March 13, 1560
  Ottoman navy defeats the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Djerba
• March 13, 1567
  A Spanish professional army under General Beauvoir defeat an army of Dutch radical Calvinists rebels under Jan de Marnix at the Battle of Oosterweel during Dutch Revolt
• March 13, 1569
  Henry of Anjou, count of Anjou, defeat the Huguenots at the Battle of Jarnac during which co-leader of Huguenots Louis Conde dies
• March 13, 1591
  Moroccan forces of the Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur led by Judar Pasha defeat Askia Ishaq II at the Battle of Tondibi ending the Songhai Empire
• March 13, 1610
  Galileo publishes his observations of the night sky under the title Sidereus Nuncius
• March 13, 1634
  King Louis XIII at the urging of Cardinal Richelieu granted letters patent to formally establish the Académie française in Paris, responsible for the regulation of French grammar, orthography, and literature
• March 13, 1781
  British astronomer William Herschel discovers the planet Uranus, assuming it is a comet and names it Georgium Sidus, in honor of George III
• March 13, 1852
  A familiar symbol of the United States, Uncle Sam, makes his debut as a cartoon character in the New York Lantern
• March 13, 1855
  Percival Lowell, an American businessman and astronomer, is born
• March 13, 1881
  Alexander II, Emperor of Russia, and one of the most successful Russian reformers, is assassinated at age 62 when a bomb is thrown at him near his palace by the anarchist group
• March 13, 1883
  Sergey Degayev, a Russian terrorist, shots and kills Russian Gendarme colonel Georgy Sudeykin, security chief of Emperor Alexander III
• March 13, 1884
  Muhammad Ahmad, proclaimed himself the prophesied redeemer of Islam, begins successful siege of British-led Egyptian garrison at Khartoum during the Mahdist War in Sudan
• March 13, 1920
  Wolfgang Kapp's coup attempt in Berlin, Germany, fails
• March 13, 1923
  Lee de Forest demonstrates his sound-on-film moving pictures to the press in New York City, New York
• March 13, 1928
  450 die in Saint Francis Valley Dam burst in California
• March 13, 1933
  Joseph Goebbels becomes German minister of Information and Propaganda
• March 13, 1940
  Finland and the Soviet Union end Winter War concluding the Moscow Peace Treaty by which Finland retains independence but gives up the Karelian Isthmus, Viipuri, and a small band of land north of Lake Ladoga to the Soviet Union
• March 13, 1943
  In Smolensk, a bomb disguised as two bottles of brandy is put on board Adolf Hitler's personal Focke-Wulf 200 Condor plane; the detonator activates, but due to cold temperature, the plastic explosives do not detonate
• March 13, 1989
  Six million people in the northeastern U.S. and in Sweden are left without power for nine hours after a geomagnetic storm causes the collapse of the Hydro-Quebec power grid
• March 13, 1997
  India's Missionaries of Charity chooses Sister Nirmala to succeed Mother Teresa as its leader

March 9

• March 9, 1451
  Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian navigator, is born in Florence
• March 9, 1529
  Imam Ahmad Gragn defeats the Ethiopian Emperor Dawit II in the Battle of Shimbra Kure, the opening clash of the Ethiopian–Adal War
• March 9, 1617
  The Treaty of Stolbovo between Sweden and Russia, with English mediation, ends the occupation of Northern Russia by Swedish troops
• March 9, 1701
  In Biržai Augustus II and Russia's Czar Peter I sign a pact in the castle to unite their forces against Sweden
• March 9, 1734
  The Russians take Gdańsk in Poland during War of the Polish Succession
• March 9, 1792
  Speculator William Duer defaults on Hamilton's freshly exchanged "Stock in the Public Funds" and causes the first American stock market crash
• March 9, 1796
  Napoleon Bonaparte marries Joséphine de Beauharnais in Paris
• March 9, 1847
  United States forces under General Winfield Scott invade Mexico almost with no resistance and start a 20-day siege of Veracruz, the key Mexican seaport
• March 9, 1932
  Éamon de Valera becomes President of the Executive Council, or prime minister, of the Irish Free State
• March 9, 1933
  United States Congress passes the Emergency Banking Act, authorizing the President to confiscate gold held by American citizens, except those coins of numismatic value, to be paid $20 in paper per ounce
• March 9, 1942
  Dutch colonial authorities and all Allied forces in the Netherlands East Indies surrender unconditionally to Japan
• March 9, 1953
  Some hundreds people are killed during the stampede at funeral of Josef Stalin in Moscow
• March 9, 1959
  The first Barbie doll, Mattel's "Barbie Millicent Roberts", goes on display at the American Toy Fair in New York City and becomes the first mass-produced toy doll in the United States with adult features
• March 9, 1974
  Hiroo Onoda, the last Japanese soldier, a guerrilla operating in Philippines, surrenders, 29 years after World War II ended
• March 9, 1991
  Two people are killed during massive demonstrations held against Slobodan Milošević in Belgrade, Yugoslavia
• March 9, 1992
  The People's Republic of China ratifies the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

February 27

• February 27, 425
  Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II founds the University of Constantinople
• February 27, 1531
  German evangelical monarchy joins Schmalkaldic League, a defensive alliance of Lutheran princes within the Holy Roman Empire
• February 27, 1670
  Jews are expelled from Vienna by order of Leopold I
• February 27, 1861
  In the Warsaw massacre Russian troops fire on a crowd protesting Russian rule over Poland and kill five marchers
• February 27, 1879
  Constantin Fahlberg discovers saccharin, artificial sweetener
• February 27, 1883
  Oscar Hammerstein I, a businessman and composer in New York City, patents first cigar-rolling machine
• February 27, 1906
  France and Britain agree to joint control of New Hebrides, an island group in the South Pacific
• February 27, 1940
  Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discover carbon-14, creating the basis for the radiocarbon dating method
• February 27, 1956
  Female suffrage in Egypt
• February 27, 1957
  Chinese Chairman Mao's speech "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among People", marking the start of Hundred Flowers Campaign, a campaign encouraging its citizens to openly express their opinions of the communist regime
• February 27, 1972
  US President Richard Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai issue Shanghai Communique, pledging that it is in the interest of all nations for the United States and China to work towards the normalization of their relations
• February 27, 1980
  M-19 guerrillas begin the Dominican embassy siege in Colombia, holding 60 people hostage, including 14 ambassadors
• February 27, 2012
  Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is succeeded by Vice President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Al-Hadi as a result of Yemeni Revolution

February 25

• February 25, 1570
  Pope Pius V issues the bull Regnans in Excelsis which excommunicates Queen Elizabeth I and absolves her subjects from allegiance
• February 25, 1791
  President George Washington signs a bill creating the First Bank of the United States
• February 25, 1831
  The Polish revolutionaries halt the Russian advance into their country at the Battle of Olszynka Grochowska
• February 25, 1836
  Samuel Colt, an American inventor and industrialist, patents the first revolving barrel multi-shot firearm, which allows the shooter to fire 5 or 6 times before reloading
• February 25, 1856
  Congress of Paris between representatives of the great powers in Europe to make peace after Crimean War begins
• February 25, 1863
  US President Abraham Lincoln signs the National Currency Act into law, creating national banking system, comptroller of currency, allowing qualified banks to issue government-sponsored paper money in the banks' names
• February 25, 1910
  Dalai Lama flees Tibet from Chinese troops to British-Indies
• February 25, 1921
  Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic is proclaimed after invasion and occupation by Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
• February 25, 1923
  Bread in Berlin, Germany rises to 2,000 marks due to hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic
• February 25, 1932
  Immigrant Adolf Hitler gets German citizenship
• February 25, 1939
  First Anderson bomb shelter in Britain erected in an Islington garden, named after Sir John Anderson with special responsibility for preparing air-raid precautions
• February 25, 1947
  The Allied Control Council of Germany issues Law No. 46, disbanding Prussia
• February 25, 1948
  The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia under Klement Gottwald, with Soviet backing, seize power in Czechoslovakia after coup d'aet, ending the last remaining democracy in Eastern Europe
• February 25, 1956
  Soviet party leader Nikita Khrushchev denounces Josef Stalin's purges and the personality cult at 20th Soviet Party Conference, ushering in a less repressive era in the Soviet Union
• February 25, 1964
  Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., later accepted name Muhammad Ali, one of the greatest heavyweights in the sport's history, wins the world heavyweight championship for the first time
• February 25, 1980
  Military coup under DГ©si Bouterse and Roy Horb in Suriname ousts Prime Minister Henck Arron, replacing the government with a National Military Council and starting military dictatorship in Suriname
• February 25, 1992
  Khojaly Massacre, massacre of 613 Azerbaijani civilians by the Armenian, occurs in Khojaly
• February 25, 2006
  Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni wins his second re-election, sparking riots in Kampala by opposition supporters