1279: Mongolian victory at the naval Battle of Yamen ends the Song Dynasty in China

1644: Two hundred members of the Peking imperial family and court commit suicide out of loyalty to the last Ming Emperor, Chongzhen

1863: Confederate cruiser SS Georgiana is destroyed on her maiden voyage with a cargo of munitions and medicines valued at over $1,000,000. The wreck is discovered exactly 102 years later by teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence.

1920: US Senate rejects the Treaty of Versailles for the second time, refusing to ratify the League of Nations’ covenant and maintaining a policy of isolation

1932: Sydney Harbour Bridge opens in Sydney, Australia
US troops in a sandstorm during the invasion of Iraq in 2003Invasion of Iraq

2003: Airstrikes by an American and British-led coalition signal the beginning of the invasion of Iraq without United Nations support and in defiance of world opinion

Source: Onthisday.com