American forces crossed the Niagara River at dawn and initially seized the high ground at Queenston, but New York militia refused to cross into Canada under the Constitution's restrictions on service outside U.S. territory, leaving the regulars stranded. Major General Isaac Brock, the heroic defender of Upper Canada, led a counterattack and was shot and killed charging up the Heights. Though the British ultimately recaptured the position and forced the American surrender, Brock's death was a devastating blow. He remains one of Canada's greatest heroes — a general who arguably held the colony together through force of will in the desperate first months of the war.
Though a British victory, Queenston Heights cost Britain its most capable commander in Canada. Brock's death removed the inspired leadership that had seized Detroit and rallied the colony. The battle also exposed the fatal weakness of the American reliance on militia — men who refused to fight outside their home territory.
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On October 13, 1990, Syrian air force jets bombed the Baabda presidential palace where General Michel Aoun, self-declared prime minister and the last holdout against the Taif Agreement, had taken refuge. Syrian ground forces and Lebanese Army units loyal to the Taif government assaulted his positions in a coordinated attack. Within hours, Aoun's resistance collapsed. He fled to the French embassy and eventually into exile in France.
Aoun's defeat formally ended the Lebanese Civil War and completed Syria's establishment as the dominant power in Lebanon. The swiftness of the Syrian military action — conducted with tacit US consent following Syria's participation in the Gulf War coalition — demonstrated how thoroughly Lebanon had become a Syrian sphere of influence.
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