1258: Hulagu, a Mongol leader, seizes Baghdad, bringing an end to the Abbasid caliphate.
1799: Napoleon Bonaparte leaves Cairo, Egypt, for Syria, at the head of 13,000 men.
1814: Napoleon personally directs lightning strikes against enemy columns advancing toward Paris, beginning with a victory over the Russians at Champaubert.
1846: Led by religious leader Brigham Young, the first Mormons begin a long westward exodus from Nauvoo, Il., to Utah.
1904: Russia and Japan declare war on each other.
1915: President Wilson blasts the British for using the U.S. flag on merchant ships to deceive the Germans.
1939: Japanese occupy island of Hainan in French Indochina.
1941: Iceland is attacked by German planes.
1941: London severs diplomatic relations with Romania.
1942: The war halts civilian car production at Ford.
1945: B-29s hit the Tokyo area.
1955: Bell Aircraft displays a fixed-wing vertical takeoff plane.
1960: Adolph Coors, the beer brewer, is kidnapped in Golden, Colo.
1966: Protester David Miller is convicted of burning his draft card.
1979: The Metropolitan Museum announces the first major theft in its 110-year history, $150,000 Greek marble head.
1986: The largest Mafia trial in history, with 474 defendants, opens in Palermo, Italy.
Source: Historynet.com