After colonial forces fortified Breed's Hill (adjacent to Bunker Hill) overlooking Boston Harbor, British General Howe ordered three frontal assaults up the slope. Twice the redcoats were driven back with devastating losses. On the third charge, colonial powder ran out and the Patriots were forced from the hill with bayonets. The famous order 'Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes' epitomized the disciplined American defense.
Though a technical British victory, the battle cost more British officers than any engagement in the entire war. It proved colonial forces could fight in pitched battle, and emboldened Congress to appoint Washington as Commander-in-Chief.
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After escaping Jhansi, Lakshmibai joined Tantia Tope and seized Gwalior fortress with its great arsenal. Hugh Rose followed rapidly. On June 18, Lakshmibai commanded one sector of the rebel defense and was killed — shot or cut down by a cavalry trooper, accounts differ. She was dressed in soldier's uniform, fighting on horseback. She was twenty-nine years old. Her body was cremated by followers before the British could take it. Tantia Tope escaped into the jungles and conducted guerrilla warfare for another year.
Lakshmibai's death at Gwalior marked the effective military end of the rebellion in Central India. The Government of India Act dissolving the East India Company followed within weeks.
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Eight days before Little Bighorn, Lakota and Cheyenne warriors under Crazy Horse intercepted General Crook's column of 1,300 soldiers and Crow and Shoshone scouts along Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory. The battle lasted six hours, ranging across three miles of terrain. Crook's force held the field at day's end but was so badly battered that he was forced to retreat and spend weeks resupplying — leaving Custer without support.
The Battle of the Rosebud is often overshadowed by Little Bighorn, but it was strategically decisive. By stopping Crook's column, Crazy Horse ensured that Custer would face the full concentration of Lakota and Cheyenne warriors alone. Without Crook's 1,300 men as part of the converging three-pronged offensive, the campaign unraveled.
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To secure their line of communication from the sea, the allied navies demanded and then stormed the Qing forts guarding the mouth of the Hai River at Taku, capturing them after a night bombardment and assault. The attack on Chinese soil helped push the Qing court into a formal declaration of war.
The seizure of the Taku Forts opened the road from the sea to Tientsin and Peking for the allied armies, but it also convinced the Empress Dowager that the powers meant conquest, hardening the court's decision to back the Boxers and declare war.
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The Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, named for the Syrian military defector who smuggled out 53,275 photographs of tortured detainees from Assad's prisons, entered into force on June 17, 2020, imposing the most sweeping US sanctions yet on the Assad regime and anyone doing business with it. The act targeted not only Syrian government officials and entities but also foreign companies — including Russian and Iranian firms — that provided construction, engineering, or infrastructure services to Assad, effectively blocking any reconstruction funding. The sanctions represented a bipartisan US determination that Assad should face economic consequences for his atrocities even after his military victory; they also frustrated Gulf Arab states and European countries that had quietly explored normalization with Damascus. The Caesar Act has been called the 'economic death sentence' of the Assad government, ensuring Syria remained an economic pariah.
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