On this day in military history, June 12: 1298 - Battle of the Black Ironside: William Wallace routs the English. 1381 - Peasants' Revolt: In England rebels arrive at Blackheath. 1340 - Naval Battle of Sluys: English defeat the French off Flanders. 1418 - An insurrection delivers Paris to the Burgundians. 1429 - Hundred Years' War: Battle of Jargeau begins (ends June 12). It was Joan of Arc's first offensive battle. 1534 - Turkish adm Chaireddin "Barbarossa" allows Giulia Gonzaga to kidnap and plunder Naples. 1560 - Battle of Okehazama: Oda Nobunaga defeats Imagawa Yoshimoto. 1653 - First Anglo-Dutch War: Battle of the Gabbard – lasted until June 13. 1672 - French army under General Turenne crosses Rhine at Lobith. 1673 - Charles II's brother duke James of York resigns as Lord High Admiral. 1758 - French and Indian War: Siege of Louisbourg – James Wolfe's attack at Louisbourg, Nova Scotia commences. 1775 - American Revolutionary War: British general Thomas Gage declares martial law in Massachusetts. The British offered a pardon to all colonists who lay down their arms. 1775 - American Revolutionary War: First naval victory of the war following the capture of the British ship, Margaretta, by the USS Unity. 1819 - Dutch colonial troops driven out of Palembang Sumatra. 1830 - Beginning of the French colonization of Algeria: 34,000 French soldiers landed 27 kilometers west of Algiers, at Sidi Ferruch. 1862 - American Civil War: Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart begins his ride around the Union Army outside of Richmond, Virginia. 1864 - American Civil War: Overland Campaign: Battle of Cold Harbor - Ulysses S. Grant gives the Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee a victory when he pulls his Union troops from their positions at Cold Harbor, Virginia and moves south. 1864 - American Civil War: Skirmish at Mcafee's Cross Road Georgia, about 57 die in battle . 1916 - World War I: "Bayonet Trench", Verdun: German shells inter the 3rd Co, French 137th Infantry 1918 - World War I: The first airplane bombing raid by an American unit occurs in France. 1937 - Eight of Stalin's generals are sentenced to death during purges in the Soviet Union. 1940 - World War II: 13,000 British and French troops surrender to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel at Saint-Valery-en-Caux. 1942 - World War II: American bombers strike the oil refineries of Ploesti, Rumania for the first time. 1944 - World War II: British 12th battalion conquers Breville. 1944 - World War II: First V-1 rocket lands on London. 1944 - World War II: US troops liberate Carentan and Chaumont, Normandy. 1945 - World War II: U.S. 7th Marine regiment conquer summit of Kunishi Ridge, Okinawa. 1987 - Cold War: Ronald Reagan says, "Mr. Gorbachov, tear down this wall." 1999 - Kosovo War: Operation Joint Guardian begins – NATO-led United Nations peacekeeping force KFor enters the province of Kosovo in Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Go back...