On this day…

1597 England routes troops to Amiens
1609 Bermuda becomes an English colony
1664 New Jersey becomes a British colony
1799 Austria declares war on France
1849: The Sikh army surrendered to the British at the end of the Second Sikh War, conceding to the annexation of the Punjab in northwestern India.
1867 Last French troops leave Mexico
1868 Great Britain annexes Basutoland in Africa
1877 Great Britain annexes Walvis Bay at Cape colony
1889 Battle at Metema (Gallabad); Ethiopian Emperor Yohannes IV, defeated
1912 Captain Albert Berry performs 1st parachute jump from an airplane
1916 French airship sinks British submarine D3
1919 Austrian National Meeting affirms Anschluss (incorporate into Germany)
1926 Denmark begins unilateral disarmament
1938 Nazi Germany invades Austria (Anschluss)
1940 Finland surrenders to Russia during WWII, giving up Karelische Isthmus. Finland agreed to Soviet peace terms, including the cession of western Karelia and the construction of a Soviet naval base on the Hanko Peninsula, to end the Russo-Finnish War.
1941 German occupiers confiscate AVRO studios in Netherlands
1942 British troops vacate the Andamanen in Gulf of Bengal
1943 Soviet troops liberate Wjasma
1945 30 Amsterdammers executed by Nazi occupiers
1945 Italy’s Communist Party (CPI) calls for armed uprising in Italy
1945 USSR returns Transylvania to Romania
1947 President Truman introduces Truman-doctrine to fight communism. On this day in 1947, U.S. President Harry S. Truman articulated what became known as the Truman Doctrine when he asked Congress to appropriate aid for Greece and Turkey, both of which were facing communist threats.
1951 Communist troops driven out of Seoul
1957 German Democratic Republic accepts 22 Russian divisions
1966 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1968 Mauritius gains independence from Britain (National Day)
1968 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1971 Turkish Government of Demirel forced to resign by Army
1975 Vietcong conquer Ban me Thuot South Vietnam
1976 South African troops leave Angola
1999: Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic became members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) shortly before the group’s 50th anniversary.