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The Battle of Dyrrhachium took place on October 18, 1081 between the Byzantine Empire, led by the Emperor Alexius I, and the Normans of Southern Italy under Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia & Calabria. The battle was fought outside the city of Dyrrhachium, the Byzantine capital of Illyria, and ended in a Norman victory. Following the Norman conquest of Byzantine Italy and Saracen Sicily, the Byzantine Emperor, Michael VII betrothed his son to Robert Guiscard's daughter. When Michael was deposed, Robert took this as an excuse to invade the Byzantine Empire in 1081. His army laid siege to Dyrrhachium but his fleet was defeated by the Venetians. On October 18, the Normans engaged a Byzantine army under Alexius I Comnenus outside Dyrrhachium. The battle began with the Byzantine right wing routing the Norman left wing which broke and fled. Varangian mercenaries joined in the pursuit of the fleeing Normans but became separated from the main force and were massacred. Norman knights in the centre attacked the Byzantine centre and routed it, causing the Byzantines to flee. After the capture of Dyrrhachium in February 1082, the Normans advanced inland capturing most of Macedonia and Thessaly. (more...)

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September 2: National Day for Vietnam (1945)

• 31 BC – Final War of the Roman Republic: Troops supporting Octavian defeated the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra in the naval Battle of Actium on the Ionian Sea near Actium in Greece.
• 1666 – A large fire began on London's Pudding Lane and burned the city for three days (pictured), destroying St Paul's Cathedral and the homes of 70,000 of the city's 80,000 inhabitants.
• 1898 – Mahdist War: Forces led by Horatio Kitchener defeated Sudanese tribesmen at the Battle of Omdurman in Omdurman, Khartoum, Sudan, establishing British dominance in northeastern Africa.
• 1945 – On the deck of the United States Navy battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, representatives from the Empire of Japan and several Allied Powers signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, formally ending World War II.
• 1998 – Swissair Flight 111 en route from New York City to Geneva crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 229 on board.

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