Considered a crucial position for operations, the U.S. base at Khe Sanh was fiercely defended when attacked in January of 1968. The 66-day siege saw the U.S. deliver 100,000 tons of bombs and 158,000 artillery rounds to North Vietnamese belligerents.

Born into nobility in 1892, Baron von Richthofen would become the most feared German fighter pilot in the early aerial combat days of WWI. Flying his blood-red bi-plane, he was given the nickname “The Red Baron,” and ultimately achieved 80 confirmed aerial victories before his death at age 25.

Trained as a hoplite warrior himself, King Leonidas fought in two Persian invasion attempts during his reign over Sparta. During the Second Persian War, Persian King Xerxes faced Leonidas in the Battle of Thermopylae, where Leonidas and the Spartan 300 fought to the death after King Xerxes outmaneuvered Leonidas’ high-ground advantage.

After Queen Helen of Sparta eloped with Prince Paris of Troy, King Menelaus convinced his brother Agamemnon to lead a massive retrieval expedition, resulting in the storied events including the deaths of Prince Hector and Achilles and the Trojan Horse.

On April 12th, 1864, the Battle of Fort Pillow found Union defenses greatly outnumbered by Confederate forces. Upon surrender, the mostly African American Union soldiers were gunned down after being refused POW status.

Wampanoag chief Metacom, or King Philip—fed up with continued colonial expansion onto Indian land—forcefully defended his people’s territory in what became known as King Philip’s War, leading to attacks on English colonies throughout Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Maine.

Lasting just seven months and nineteen days in 1898, the Spanish-American War was fought mostly in the waters of the Caribbean around Cuba, but also in the Philippines. The Spanish-American War officially ended with the Treaty of Paris signed on December 10th, 1898.