7 February 1783 - The Siege of Gibraltar raised.

Known as the Great Siege it was the last of the 14 recorded sieges of the rock fortress and the longest. 

Gibraltar had been seized by the British in 1704 with the first attempt by the Spanish to claim it back coming in 1727. In 1779 Spain was once more at war with GB, from June they blockaded the fortress by land and sea beginning what was to be a lengthy siege/containment. In January 1780 the Royal Navy defeated the Spanish at the Battle of Cape St Vincent which allowed for a resupply of the garrison, even so the siege from the landward side continued. 

After 2½ years with no success the Spanish called on the French for assistance and the arrival of a French siege commander brought fresh impetus to the operation. The closest Gibraltar came to falling came in September 1782 when a flotilla of floating gun platforms opened fire on the fortress in conjunction with an assault by land. It failed and a month later a large British fleet arrived to further strengthen the garrison. 

By the end of the year talks for a ceasefire between GB and France/Spain were underway resulting in a preliminary peace in January 1783,  The French and Spanish formally retired on 7 February 1783. Gibraltar had held out for three years and seven months.      

7 February 1783 - The Siege of Gibraltar raised.

Known as the Great Siege it was the last of the 14 recorded sieges of the rock fortress and the longest. 

Gibraltar had been seized by the British in 1704 with the first attempt by the Spanish to claim it back coming in 1727. In 1779 Spain was once more at war with GB, from June they blockaded the fortress by land and sea beginning what was to be a lengthy siege/containment. In January 1780 the Royal Navy defeated the Spanish at the Battle of Cape St Vincent which allowed for a resupply of the garrison, even so the siege from the landward side continued. 

After 2½ years with no success the Spanish called on the French for assistance and the arrival of a French siege commander brought fresh impetus to the operation. The closest Gibraltar came to falling came in September 1782 when a flotilla of floating gun platforms opened fire on the fortress in conjunction with an assault by land. It failed and a month later a large British fleet arrived to further strengthen the garrison. 

By the end of the year talks for a ceasefire between GB and France/Spain were underway resulting in a preliminary peace in January 1783,  The French and Spanish formally retired on 7 February 1783. Gibraltar had held out for three years and seven months.   

   Fourteen "recorded" sieges indicates there were others. The strategic location of Gibraltar, important to this day.

Several during the war for the control of Spain between the Moors and Castile.  

8/9 February 1904 - Japanese attack on Port Arthur, beginning of the Russo-Japanese War.

With Russia expanding east and the Japanese west on the Asian mainland conflict between the two was inevitable. Both countries had designs on Chinese Manchuria and Korea. Japan struck the first blow with war on China in 1894-5 in which Japan gained the Liaodong peninsula and Port Arthur. However pressure from the West forced Japan to return their acquisitions which China then leased to Russia. Naturally outraged at such treatment Japan planned a full scale war with Russia.

Japan's first target was Port Arthur. The Russians were aware of the impending attack and were waiting for Japan to fire the first shots. On 8 February 1904 ten Japanese torpedo boats headed for Port Arthur to sink any Russian vessels they found there. En route they encountered two Russian destroyers which forced the Japanese to scatter, thus only four of them launched their attack just before midnight, the others arrived over the following two hours making less effective individual attacks. Nevertheless two Russian ships were hit and disabled in the first attack with the largest ship in the fleet the Tsarevitch being hit and disabled in the second.

Three hours after the attack Japan formally declared war on Russia, a tactic they used against the USA in 1941. 

This was the war that put Japan on the map as a genuine world power. After WW I Japan felt it had not received its fair share of the rewards of victory and embarked on the road to Pearl Harbor. 

9 February 1098 - The Battle of Lake Antioch.

A battle fought at the beginning of the First Crusade.

After crossing Anatolia (modern Turkey) the Crusaders reached northern Syria and laid siege to the city of Antioch in October 1097. After fighting off one relief force in December the Crusaders leant that a second relief army under Fakhr al-Mulk Rarwan, the Sultan of Aleppo was approaching from the east with around 12,000 men. A decision was made to advance to meet them with all the cavalry they could muster, a mere 700 knights. 

On 8 February the 700 under Bohemond of Taranto left camp and at daybreak the following morning they charged the Muslim army before it had time to take up positions. The result was a rout, the Turks broke and fled with many casualties. 

The siege of Antioch continued with the city falling to the Crusaders in June.      

There was no surrender Antioch was taken by force with many killed, but there was no rape or pillage afterwards. 

Bohemond of Taranto who led the assault proclaimed himself Prince of Antioch becoming the first ruler of a Christian Crusader state.  

10 February 1846 - The Battle of Sobraon.

The final battle of the short First Sikh War.

In 1843 the British East India Company annexed the western Indian province of Sind. The only remaining significant military power in India, the Sikh Kingdom of the Punjab in the north, grew increasingly nervous of a build up of British troops near the border of the river Sutlej. Fearing an invasion the Sikhs decided that attack was the best means of defence and crossed the river in December 1845. 

After a number of hard fought battles pushed the Sikhs back to the Sutlej where they dug in at Sobraon. The British led by Sir High Gough with 20,000 men and 65 guns attacked the Sikh lines manned by an army of 26,000 and 70 guns. Gough's men broke through and won the day. The march on the Sikh capital of Lahore, which he reached on 20 February, was virtually unopposed. 

Under the Treaty of Lahore signed in March the East India Co annexed the southern part of the Sikh Kingdom between the rivers Sutlej and Beas. A little over two years later the Sikhs rose in rebellion, thus the Second Sikh War began.     

A lot of colonial wars were against inferior armies, not so the Sikhs - trained by mercenary European officers, mostly French and with artillery equal to ours. 

Curious that both the Sikhs and the Gurkhas after being defeated by the British became loyal soldiers in the British Army. 

Curious that both the Sikhs and the Gurkhas after being defeated by the British became loyal soldiers in the British Army. 

See lifetime benefits?

11 February 1586 - Francis Drake occupied Cartagena.

Spain declared war on England in 1585 whereupon Queen Elizabeth instructed Francis Drake to lead a fleet of privateers (in effect state sponsored pirates) to attack Spanish colonies in the New World. 

After first sacking the Spanish port of Vigo and making landfall on both the Canary Islands and the Cape Verde Islands he crossed the Atlantic. In January 1586 he raided the city of Santo Domingo on Hispaniola staying for a month before moving on to Cartagena on the South American mainland. He arrived on 9 February to find the city fortified and informed in advance of his arrival. Supported by gunfire from the sea the English fought their way through the defences in a battle lasting over 24 hours until they reached the central fortress to find it had been abandoned by the panicked defenders. 

Drake and his men occupied Cartagena for two months stripping the city of everything of value before sailing away with all its artillery. It was years before Cartagena recovered from Drake's audacious raid.

12 February 1744 - The Battle of Toulon.

An inconclusive naval battle fought during the War of Austrian Succession.

War between GB and Spain broke out in 1739, Spain negotiated an alliance with France in which France would declare war in the spring of 1744 and they would jointly plan an invasion of England. 

At the end of 1743 the Royal Navy chased a Spanish fleet into the French port of Toulon where it remained under blockade. With a declaration of war imminent the Spanish broke out of Toulon accompanied by a French squadron on 11 February. The British followed and came to action the following day. The Franco-Spanish numbered 36 ships to the British 37 under Admiral Mathews with Admirals Rowley and Lestock commanding the van and rear.

In a highly confused action only Mathews' centre fired on the enemy, Lestock commanding the rear refusing to join the action. Nevertheless Mathews succeeded in capturing one Spanish vessel and so badly damaging two more that they had to be taken in tow. But the failure of the van and the rear to engage meant that Mathews had to abandon the fight.

Upon the fleet's return to England Mathews, Lestock and five of their captains were court martialled, Surprisingly Mathews was convicted and dismissed, Lestock was acquitted, all five Captains were convicted.   

Mathews and four Captains were dismissed from the service, one Captain was restored on appeal. A fifth Captain was suspended for a year. There was a sixth Captain due for court martial, but he died before it began.   

This was in the era when courts martial for failure were fairly common, it reached a head in 1757 with one Admiral being executed. 

Admiral John Byng shot by firing squad on the deck of HMS Monarch for failing to "do his utmost" in preventing the French from capturing Minorca. The former Spanish island in the Mediterranean had been taken by the British in 1708 and used as a naval base, the French took it in 1756.

By marriage yes. She was the wife of Julian, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy. He was descended from Robert Byng whose younger brother was the unlucky Admiral John Byng.