In 1297, the Scottish defeated the English at the Battle of Stirling Bridge, in the First War of Scottish Independence. Following England’s invasion of Scotland and their defeat at the Battle of Dunbar, the Scottish looked to the emergent leadership of William Wallace and Andrew de Moray to fight back the English invaders. They drew the enemy across the bridge, then set upon them and claimed control of their side, using it to split apart the enemy force.

In 1683, the Christian Coalition Army, led by John III Sobieski of Poland-Lithuania and his winged hussars, defeated the Ottoman forces outside of Vienna, lifting the siege. The battle began in the early morning, with the Ottomans attacking to disrupt the deployment of Coalition forces. They were able to force the attackers back. With the siege failing to break through the walls of Vienna, the charge of the winged hussars broke their lines and ended the battle.

In 1776, British Admiral Lord Howe and American statesmen Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and one more meet for the brief and failed Staten Island Peace Conference. Following their victory in Long Island, the British admiral was able to convince Congress to send three men to speak with him. Held in the home of a Loyalist, they were completely unable to find common ground and the war continued.

A Notable Birth

1929 – Primož Kozak (d. 1981) was a Slovenian writer. Most of his work was critical of the paradoxes, which emerged in communist regimes, orienting his work towards other forms of socialism and communism, so that the Tiotist regime he lived under in Yugoslavia would not come down upon him.

A Notable Death

1987 – Peter Tosh (b. 1944) was a Jamaican musician. Having learned to play guitar by watching another, he eventually met and began playing with Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer. He was a core member of the Wailers, an influential figure in the development of reggae, and a promoter of Rastafarianism.