On This Day: February 18

The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor signs a ten-year truce with al-Kamil, regaining Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem with neither military engagements nor support from the papacy.

The Livonian Order is defeated by Dovmont of Pskov in the Battle of Rakvere.

Amda Seyon I, Emperor of Ethiopia begins his campaigns in the southern Muslim provinces.

George, Duke of Clarence, convicted of treason against his older brother Edward IV of England, is executed in private at the Tower of London.

Eighty Years' War: Off the coast of Cornwall, England, a Spanish fleet intercepts an important Anglo-Dutch merchant convoy of 44 vessels escorted by six warships, destroying or capturing 20 of them.

The city of Surakarta, Central Java is founded on the banks of Bengawan Solo River, and becomes the capital of the Sunanate of Surakarta Hadiningrat.

A mutiny by captive Malagasy begins at sea on the slave ship Meermin, leading to the ship's destruction on Cape Agulhas in present-day South Africa and the recapture of the instigators.

Fourth Anglo-Dutch War: Captain Thomas Shirley opens his expedition against Dutch colonial outposts on the Gold Coast of Africa (present-day Ghana).

Congress passes a law admitting the state of Vermont to the Union, effective 4 March, after that state had existed for 14 years as a de facto independent largely unrecognized state.

French Revolutionary Wars: Sir Ralph Abercromby and a fleet of 18 British warships invade Trinidad.