On This Day: December 19th

American Revolutionary War: George Washington's Continental Army goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

Thomas Paine publishes one of a series of pamphlets in The Pennsylvania Journal entitled "The American Crisis".

Glorious Revolution: Williamite forces defeat Jacobites at Battle of Reading, forcing James II to flee England.

The Great Swamp Fight, a pivotal battle in King Philip's War, gives the English settlers a bitterly won victory.

The ships Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery depart England carrying settlers who founded, at Jamestown, Virginia, the first of the thirteen colonies that became the United States.

The Battle of Dreux takes place during the French Wars of Religion.

Anne, Duchess of Brittany, is married to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor by proxy.

Pope Clement III is elected.

Henry II of England is crowned at Westminster Abbey.

Pope Martin I, having been abducted by Byzantine authorities from Rome for his opposition to Monothelitism, is tried in Constantinople.