The First Punic War (264–241 BC) was the first of three wars between Carthage and Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the 3rd centuryBC. For 23 years they struggled for supremacy, primarily on the island of Sicily and its surrounding waters, and also in North Africa. After immense losses on both sides the Carthaginians were defeated. The war began with the Romans gaining a foothold on Sicily. In 260 BC they built a navy to challenge Carthage's, and inflicted several defeats. Taking advantage of their naval victories, the Romans launched an invasion of North Africa, which failed. In 249 BC they besieged the last two Carthaginian strongholds on Sicily. After several years of stalemate, the Romans rebuilt their fleet and blockaded the Carthaginian garrisons. A Carthaginian fleet attempted to relieve them, but the fleet's destruction in 241 BC forced the cut-off Carthaginian troops to negotiate for peace. (This article is part of a featured topic: Punic Wars.)

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• A Philippine Air ForceC-130 transport aircraft (pictured)crashes in Sulu, killing at least 53 people.
• Former South African presidentJacob Zuma is sentenced to 15 months in prison for contempt of court.
• An extreme heat wave kills an estimated 600 people in the Pacific Northwest of North America.
• In Saskatchewan, Canada, 751 unmarked graves are discovered at the site of the former Marieval Indian Residential School.

• 1575 – Anglo-Scottish Wars: In the last major battle between England and Scotland, a 'Truce Day' at Carter Bar near Redesdale became a fight in which the English side was routed.
• 1777 – American Revolutionary War: British forces caught up with American troops withdrawing from Ticonderoga, capturing more than 200 men at the Battle of Hubbardton.
• 1937 – The Peel Commission published a report stating that the League of Nations' Mandate for Palestine had become unworkable and recommended the partition of British-administered Mandatory Palestine into two states.
• 1991 – Yugoslav Wars: The signing of the Brioni Agreement ended the Ten-Day War between SFR Yugoslavia and Slovenia.
• 2016 – A U.S. Army Reserve veteran ambushed and shot at police officers(memorial service pictured) in Dallas, Texas, killing five of them and injuring nine others, before being killed by a bomb attached to a police robot.