1571: Battle of Lepanto: Holy League of Catholic states formed by Pope Pius V destroys an Ottoman fleet in a significant defeat off Western Greece

1737: A cyclone causes 40-foot waves that are believed to kill 300,000 in Calcutta, India

1763: George III of Great Britain issues the Proclamation of 1763, closing lands in North America north and west of the Alleghenies to white settlement

1919: KLM (Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij), Royal Dutch Airlines, is founded in Amsterdam, making it one of the world’s oldest airlines

2001: US invasion of Afghanistan begins with an air assault and covert ground operations

2023: Hamas launches a major air and ground attack on Israel from Gaza, killing over a thousand people and taking hundreds of hostages, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare, “We are at war”

Source: Onthisday.com