Famous Wars/Battles

War

Date Description

American Revolution

1776-1781 the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which the Thirteen Colonies of North America overthrew the governance of the British Empire and then rejected the British monarchy

War of 1812

1812-14 between the United States of America and the British Empire; over trade restrictions, impressment, and British support of Native Americans

Spanish-American War

1898 military conflict between US and Spain over Cuba; included the battle of San Juan Hill.

Mexican-American War

1846-47 conflict between US and Mexico over annexation of Texas; Santa Anna led the Mexicans against Zachary Taylor's forces; led to the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo

World War I

1914-18 15 mil killed; involved Entente vs. Central Powers; incited by the Asassination of Franz Ferdinand; ended by the Treaty of Versailles

World War II

1941-45 70 million killed; Axis vs. Allies; ended on V-E Day. Trench warfare and Blitzkreig were important tactics of this war.

Vietnam War

1964-73 Contains Operation Frequent Wind and the evacuation of Saigon; The United States entered the war to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam as part of their wider strategy of containment; Vietcong resistance;

Korean War

1950-53 A proxy war of the Cold War Era, US intervened on one side, while Communist China protected the other; the armistice restored the original boundaries at the end of this conflict

Russo-Japanese War

1904-05 Ended by the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by Teddy Roosevelt; Russia invades Manchuria, loses to Japan

Iran-Iraq War

1980-88 The namesake Middle East country invaded its neighbor on 22 September 1980 following a long history of border disputes and fears of Shia insurgency among Iraq's long suppressed Shia majority influenced by the Iranian Revolution in this War.

30 Years' War

1618-1648 fought primarily (though not exclusively) in Germany;religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire; included the Bohemian Revolt; ended by the Peace of Westphalia

100 Years' War

1337-1453 prolonged conflict between two royal houses for the French throne; two primary contenders were the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet, also known as the House of Anjou; ended in the expulsion of the Plantagenets

War of the Spanish Succession; Queen Anne's War

1702-12 several European powers combined to stop a possible unification of the Kingdoms of Spain and France under a single Bourbon monarch; concluded by the treaties of Utrecht (1713) and Rastatt (1714).

War of the Roses

1453-1487 series of dynastic civil wars fought in England between supporters of the Houses of Lancaster and York.

Napoleonic Wars

1803-1815 continuation of wars sparked by French Revolution, revolutionized European armies, mainly due to the application of modern mass conscription. French power rose quickly, conquering most of Europe, but collapsed rapidly after France's invasion of Russia

Peloponnesian Wars

434-401 BCE Ancient Greek military conflict, fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League, led by Sparta

Punic Wars

264-241 BCE; 218-201 BCE; 149-146 BCE Rome vs. Carthage; Includes Hannibals' crossing of the Alps; Carthage destroyed as a result

American Civil War

1861-65 Set off over slavery and nullification, fought between northern and southern US; Included battles of Shiloh, Antietam, and Ghettysburg

War of Jenkin's Ear

1739-1743 conflict between Great Britain and Spain; name comes from an exhibited body part in the British Parliament

Crimean War

1853-56 subject of the Charge of the Light Brigade by Tennyson, fought between the Russian Empire on one side and an alliance of France, the United Kingdom, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the Ottoman Empire on the other

French and Indian War; Seven Year's War

1955-63 arose from the heated colonial struggle between the British Empire and French Empire, as well as control of Prussia; G.B. + Prussia vs. France, Austria, and Russia; ended with G.B. / Prussian victory

Boer War

1899-1902 fought between the British empire and the Orange Free State and South African Republic; the namesake settlers successfully resist British annexation of the Transvaal Republic

Boxer Rebellion

1900 a violent anti-foreign, anti-Christian movement by the "Righteous Fists of Harmony," Yihe tuan [1] or Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists in China

War of the Austrian Succession; King George's War

1744-48 began under the pretext that Maria Theresa of Austria was ineligible to succeed to the Habsburg throne; war ended with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle

Cold War

1945-91 the term "iron curtain" stems from this war of arms development between US and Russia; the term proxy war is also developed for several outbreaks of violence in this time

Decembrist Uprising

1825 Russian army officers led about 3,000 soldiers in a protest against Nicholas I's assumption of the throne after his elder brother Constantine removed himself from the line of succession

Opium Wars

1839-42; 1856-60 the climax of a trade dispute between China and the British Empire. British smuggling of the namesake drug from India into China in defiance of China's drug laws erupted into open warfare; the Treaty of Nanjing and the Treaty of Tianjin was a result

Six Day War

1967 Israel defeated the armies of the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria; At the war's end, Israel had gained control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights

Battle of Marathon

490 BCE watershed in the Greco-Persian wars, supposedly a messenger ran over twenty miles to bring news of the victory to Athens; inspires this namesake race

Battle of Actium

31 BCE Octavian vs. Mark Antony and Cleopatra; fought on the Ionian Sea; led to Octavian's crowing and title of First Citizen

Battle of Salamis

480 BCE naval battle fought between an Alliance of Greek city-states and the Achaemenid Empire of Persia; the naval counterpart of the Battle of Thermopylae, Themistocles led the Athenian fleet to victory

Battle of Thermopylae

480 BCE Vastly outnumbered, the Greeks held up the Persians for seven days in total in the namesake pass; Leonidas vs. Xerxes I

Trojan War

Sometime in 12-13th Century; lasted 10 years Supposedly started over the kidnapping of Helen, a thousand ships waged a ten year war on the name-sake city-state

Battle of Mons Graupius

83-84 CE landmark battle, signifying that the British governor, Agricola, had subdued the last of the British tribes

Sack of Rome

410 CE The city was attacked by the Visigoths, led by Alaric I. Signified the decline of the namesake Empire

Battle of Tours

732 CE European forces under Charles MArtel successfully defend against an Umayyad Arab army; the decisive turning point in the struggle against Islam, a struggle which preserved Christianity as the religion of Europe

Battle of Hastings

1066 the decisive Norman victory in the Norman Conquest of England. It was fought between the Norman army of William the Conqueror, and the English army led by Harold Godwinson; The famous Bayeux Tapestry depicts the events before and during the battle

Battle of Manzikert

1071 fought between the Byzantine Empire and Seljuq forces led by Alp Arslan; the most decisive defeat of the Byzantine Empire; capture of the Byzantine Emperor Diogenes; prepared the way for Turkish settlement in Anatolia

Battle of Agincourt

1415 an English victory against a larger French army in the Hundred Years' War; notable for the use of the English longbow, which Henry used in very large numbers; The battle was also immortalised by William Shakespeare as the centrepiece of his play Henry V

Seige of Orleans

1428-1429 marked a turning point in the Hundred Years' War between France and England. This was Joan of Arc's first major[1] military victory and the first major French success to follow the crushing defeat at Agincourt in 1415

Battle of Bosworth Field

1485 was Lancastrian Henry Tudor's defeat of Yorkist Richard III, ending the Plantagenet dynasty to begin a new Tudor dynasty. Historically, the battle is considered to have marked the end of the Wars of the Roses as well as the Middle Ages in England

Battle of Lepanto

1571 five hour naval battle between the Holy League and the Ottoman Empire; Victory gave the Holy League temporary control over the Mediterranean, protected Rome from invasion, and prevented the Ottomans from advancing into Europe

Battle of Lexington and Concord

April 19, 1775 the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War; "the shot heard round the world"; The namesake Minute Man, by Daniel Chester French, represents this battle

Capture of Fort Ticonderoga

July 1777 captured by a small force of American Patriots led by Ethan Allen and Colonel Benedict Arnold. They surprised and captured, without significant injury or incident, the small British garrison at the fort

Battle of Bunker Hill

June 17, 1775 also known as the battle of Breed's Hill, part of the Seige of Boston between Generals Putnam and Howe; While the result was a victory for the British, they suffered their greatest losses of the entire war: over 800 wounded and 226 killed

Battle of Trenton

December 26, 1776 Took place after General George Washinton's crossing of the Delaware; The hazardous crossing in adverse weather allowed Washington to lead the main body of the Continental Army against Hessian soldiers garrisoned in the namesake town

Battle of Saratoga

September-October 1777 decisive American victories in the American Revolutionary War, resulting in the surrender of an entire British army of over 6,000 men invading New York from Canada; A major result was that France entered the conflict on behalf of the Americans

Battle of Yorktown

1781 proved to be the last major land battle of the American Revolutionary War, as the surrender of Cornwallis's army prompted British negotiations

Battle of the Nile

August 1, 1798 a British fleet under Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson surprised and largely destroyed a French fleet anchored near Alexandria, stranding Napoleon's army in Egypt

Battle of Austerlitz

December 2, 1805 also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of Napoleon's greatest victories, effectively destroying the Third Coalition against the French Empire; decisively defeated a Russo-Austrian army, commanded by Tsar Alexander I

Battle of Trafalgar

October 21, 1805 a sea battle fought between the British Navy and the fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy, during the War of the Third Coalition; British ships led by Admiral Lord Nelson defeated French and Spanish ships under French Admiral Pierre Villeneuve

Battle of Lake Erie

September 10, 1813 'We have met the enemy and they are ours' was the most famous quote by Naval Officer Perry at this battle on the namesake Great Lake

Battle of the Thames

October 5, 1813 resulted in the death of the Shawnee chief Tecumseh, and the destruction of the Native American coalition that he led; also known as the Battle of Moraviantown

Battle of Montmartre

March 30, 1814 fought between Allied forces and the forces of Napoleon's French Empire. The Allies were victorious, entering Paris, and as a result, Napoleon was soon forced to abdicate

Battle of New Orleans

January 8, 1815 final major battle of the War of 1812.[1] American forces, with General Andrew Jackson in command, defeated an invading British Army intent on seizing the namesake city and America's vast western lands

Battle of Waterloo

June 18, 1815 forces of the French Empire under Napoleon Bonaparte and Michel Ney were defeated by those of the Seventh Coalition and an Anglo-Allied army under the command of the Duke of Wellington; subject of an ABBA song

Battle of the Alamo

February 23-March 16, 1836 most famous battle of the Texas Revolution; Santa Anna led a seige of this fort, leading to the death of Davy Crockett

Battle of San Jacinto

April 21, 1836 Led by General Sam Houston, the Texas Army engaged and defeated General Antonio López de Santa Anna's Mexican forces in a fight that lasted just eighteen minutes. "Remember the Alamo!" was the rallying cry of the Texans

Battle of Fort Sumter

April 12-13, 1861 the bombardment and surrender of the namesake fort near Charleston, South Carolina, that started the American Civil War.

Battle of 1st Bull Run; 1st Manassas

July 21, 1861 the first major land battle of the American Civil War; Unseasoned Union Army troops under Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell advanced across Bull Run against the equally unseasoned Confederate Army under Brig. Gens. Joseph E. Johnston

Battle of Shiloh

April 6-7, 1862 Also known as the battle of Pittsburgh Landing

Battle of Antietam

September 17, 1862 first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Northern soil. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with about 23,000 casualties

Battle of Ghettysburg

July 1-3, 1863 the battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War and is cited as the war's turning point. Union Gen. Meade's Army defeated attacks by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, ending Lee's invasion of the North

Battle of Appomattox Courthouse

April 9, 1865 the final engagement of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia before it surrendered to the Union Army under Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant near the end of the American Civil War

Battle of Manila Bay

May 1, 1898 The American Asiatic Squadron under Commodore George Dewey engaged the Spanish Pacific Squadron under Admiral Patricio Montojo y Pasarón and destroyed the Spanish squadron. The first major engagement of the Spanish-American War

Battle of San Juan Hill

July 1, 1898 the bloodiest and most famous battle of the Spanish-American War. It was also one of the greatest victories for the Rough Riders, under Theodore Roosevelt

Bombing of Guernica

26-Apr-37 an aerial attack during the Spanish Civil war of the namesake town made famous in Pablo Picasso's depiction of the casualties

Battle of Britain

Summer-Autumn, 1940 name given to the sustained strategic effort by the German Air Force during the summer and autumn of 1940 to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force; name derives from a speech made in the House of Commons by Prime Minister Winston Churchill

Battle of Pearl Harbor

7-Dec-41 a surprise military strike conducted by the Japanese navy against the United States' naval base in Hawaii; led to the U.S's involvement in World War II

Battle of the Coral Sea

May 4-8, 1942 a major naval battle in the Pacific of World War II between the Japanese Navy and the Allied forces of the United States and Australia. Was the first battle in which aircraft carriers engaged each other. Marked the first Japanese repulsion in the Pacific

Battle of Midway

June 4-7, 1942 The United States Navy decisively defeated an Imperial Japanese Navy attack, inflicting irreparable damage on the Japanese carrier force; Four Japanese aircraft carriers and a heavy cruiser were sunk in exchange for one American carrier and destroyer

Battle of Stalingrad

July,1942-February,1943 battle between Nazi Germany and its allies and the Soviet Union for control of the namesake city in Southern Russia

Battle of Guadalcanal

August 7, 1942-February 9, 1943 the first major offensive launched by Allied forces against the Empire of Japan; the first significant combined arms victory by Allied forces over the Japanese in the Pacific theater. It is often referred to as a "turning point" in the war

Battle of Normandy

6-Jun-44 invasion and establishment of Allied forces in France, during Operation Overlord in World War II.

Battle of the Bulge

December 16, 1944-January 25, 1945 Also known as the Battle of Ardennes, became the bloodiest battle U.S. forces experienced in World War II; The "bulge" was the initial incursion the Germans put into the Allies' line of advance

Battle of Iwo Jima

February 19-March 26, 1945 was the first American attack on the Japanese Home Islands; The U.S. invasion, known as Operation Detachment, was charged with the mission of capturing the airfields on the namesake island

Battle of Pork Chop Hill

Spring-Summer 1953 pair of related Korean War infantry fights. These were fought while the U.S. and the Communist Chinese and Koreans negotiated an armistice. First described in a namesake book by S.L.A Marshal and also led to a film produced in 1959