October, 9
Reply With Quote680: The Battle of Karbala: 72 supporters and relatives of Muhammad's grandson Husayn ibn Ali, were perished (Ali included) by the forces of Yazid ibn Mu‘awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, commonly known as Yazid I, the Umayyad caliph, in Karbala (southwest of Baghdad, present-day Iraq). Shia Muslims commemorate the Battle of Karbala every year in the Islamic month of Muharram. The tenth day of Muharram is called Yaumu-l 'Ashurah, which is known by Shia Muslims as the day of grief, a day of mourning for the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali.
Husayn ibn Ali's Mosque, on the site of his grave in Karbala, Iraq
732: The two-day Battle of Poitiers opens. A Carolingian Frankish army, numbering somewhere between 30 - 80,000 men, under the Frankish military and political leader, Charles Martel (=the Hammer), also known as Carolus Martellus, decisively defeated an army of the Umayyad Caliphate, numbering from 25,000 to 80,000 men under the governor of Al-Andalus, Abu Said Abdul Rahman ibn Abdullah ibn Bishr ibn Al Sarem Al 'Aki Al Ghafiqi, commonly known as Abdderrahman. Franks suffered ca 1,100 losses. The Moors lost (according to modern estimates) ca 12,000 men, including Abdderrahman. Many historians claim that had Charles fallen, the Umayyad Caliphate would have easily conquered a divided Europe.
Charles Martel, the conqueror of Poitiers
1471: The Battle of Brunkeberg: A 9-12,000-strong Swedish army under Sten Sture den äldre (=the elder), the regent of Sweden, defeated the 6,000 Danes of the King of Denmark, Christian I. Advocating Swedish secession from the Kalmar Union (=the union of the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden - including a part of modern day Finland - under a single monarch) Sture's victory over Christian meant his power as viceroy of Sweden was secure and would remain so for the rest of his life.
According to legend, Sture had prayed to Saint George before the battle. He later tributed George by commissoning a statue of Saint George and the Dragon carved by the Lübeck sculptor Bernt Notke for the Storkyrkan church in Stockholm, as an obvious allegory of Sture's battle against Christian
1575: The Battle of Dormans: French Catholic troops under Henri I de Lorraine, 3rd duc de Guise, defeated a Protestant army under Philippe Du-Plessis-Mornay. Mornay was taken prisoner by the Duke of Guise but ransomed for a small sum. Henri de Guise suffered an injury to his face, which earned him the nickname le Balafré (=the scarred).
The victor, Henri de Guise
1911: The Wuchang Uprising, motivated by anger at corruption in the Qing government, frustration with the government's inability to restrain the interventions of foreign powers, and resentment of the majority Han Chinese toward a government dominated by an ethnic minority (the Manchus), started the Xinhai Revolution, which led to the collapse of the Qing Dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China (ROC).
1912: During the First Balkan War, the two-day Battle of Kumanovo opens. The Serbian Army with five Divisions, one cavalry Brigade and 148 artillery pieces, was engaged by the ca 65,000 troops (with 164 artillery pieces) of the Ottoman Vardar Army under Zeki Pasha. On the evening of the first day (Wednesday 10 October, O.S.), the Turks began the offensive at Kumanovo (modern-day Kumanova, northeast of Skopje, FYROM) attacking the Serbian positions (Danube Division I), 8 km (5 miles) distant. The Ottoman onslaught was checked with severe loss on both sides. At 01:00 hours of Thursday 11 October, the Serbs approached the Turkish entrenchment and fought for two hours. The country was open and although exposed to heavy artillery they stormed the Turkish positions repeatedly driving out the Turks in a hand-to-hand combat. Many dropped their rifles and used their knives or bayonets. The Serbs by noon had cleared Lobovkas valley and Kumanovo while the Turks withdrew 15 km (9 miles). Serbs suffered 687 killed, 3,280 wounded, 597 missing. Ottomans lost ca 4,200 killed or wounded (some of the Turkish officers wounded proved to be Germans), 327 made prisoners. The Battle of Kumanovo was the first action on the Serbian theatre of operations during the First Balkan War.
Commemorative medal for the First Balkan War of the Kingdom of Serbia
1941: The 250. Infanterie-Division, commonly known as División Azul (=Blue Division) (Maj. Gen. Agustín Muńoz Grandes), made up of Spanish volunteers and formed within days of the German attack on the Soviet Union, goes into action against the Soviets for the first time in the sector between Lake Illmen and the west bank of the Volkhov river. General Zhukov is put in charge of the West Front for the defence of Moscow. Heeresgruppe Süd (=Army Group South) (Gen. Friessner) concludes the battle along the Sea of Azov and takes 100,000 prisoners.
Men of the 263rd Regiment of the Spanish División Azul
1943: The Kempeitai - Japanese Military Police - arrested and tortured fifty-seven civilians and civilian internees on suspicion of their involvement in a raid on Singapore Harbour that had been carried out by Anglo-Australian commandos. After the war ended, twenty-one of the Kempeitai involved were charged with war crimes. Eight received the death sentence, seven were acquitted, and the remainder were given prison sentences varying from one year to life.
Kempeitai is the term used to describe the infamous Japanese military police, which often accompanied Japanese invasion forces to carry out the transition to a Japanese controlled government
1985: United States Navy F-14 fighter jets intercept an Egyptian plane carrying the Achille Lauro cruise ship hijackers and force it to land at a NATO base in Sigonella, Sicily where they are arrested by the Italians after a disagreement between American and Italian authorities: Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi claimed Italian territorial rights over the NATO base and there was a standoff, between the U.S. and Italy, because the U.S. had only informed the Italians minutes before the intercept.
The former Achille Lauro American hostages depart from Germany for the US
