The Americans were beaten by the British this day in the Battle of Camden during the American Revolution. American General Horatio Gates marched upon the British stronghold at the town of Camden with a force of 1,400 regulars and more than 2,000 militia. With his army weakened by hunger and dysentery, Gates was surprised north of Camden by a British force of 2,200 troops under Lord Cornwallis. At the first attack, the untried colonial militia fled, and the regulars were soon surrounded and almost wiped out. While enhancing the reputation of Cornwallis, the battle ruined the career of Gates, who was replaced. The victory opened the way to a subsequent British invasion of North Carolina.
| 1996: | | Leonel Fernández Reyna was sworn in as president of the Dominican Republic. |
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| 1960: | | The island of Cyprus became an independent republic. |
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| 1948: | | | Baseball legend Babe Ruth died at age 53. |
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| 1819: | | A meeting of radicals held on St. Peter's Fields in Manchester, England, was dispersed with violence. The event became known as the Peterloo Massacre. |
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| 1777: | | American colonial troops defeated the invading British in the Battle of Bennington during the U.S. War of Independence. |
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| 963: | | | Nicephorus II Phocas was crowned emperor of the Byzantine Empire in Hagia Sophia by the patriarch Polyeuctus. |
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