in History
Rome's finest lyric poet takes his first breath
In Venusia, a small town in southern Italy, Quintus Horatius Flaccus was born to a freed slave father who invested everything in his son's education. Horace would become the leading lyric poet of the Augustan age, his Odes, Satires, and Epistles setting the standard for Latin verse. The rhetorician Quintilian judged his lyrics the only Latin poetry worth reading.
The Rommel of the East draws first breath
In Anhui Province, China, Sun Li-jen was born into a nation on the brink of transformation. He would become one of China's most brilliant military commanders, earning the nickname 'Rommel of the East' for his stunning victories against Japanese forces in Burma during World War II. His New 1st Army was hailed as the finest Chinese military unit of the war.
World War II: Japanese forces simultaneously invade Shanghai International Settlement, Malaya, Thailand, Hong Kong.
World War II: Japanese forces simultaneously invade Shanghai International Settlement, Malaya, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and the Dutch East Indies. (See December 7 for the concurrent attack on Pearl Harbor in the Western Hemisphere.)