The world's an oppressive place to live through -yet with a little pride it's worth it
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July, 15
1099: During the First Crusade, the Crusaders stormed and captured the city of Jerusalem and eventually took the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, after eight days of difficult siege.
1240: During the Swedish–Novgorodian Wars, fought between Sweden and the Rus of the Novgorodian Land over the vital trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks, which was under Novgorod's control, the Battle of Neva occurs. A Swedish army of unknown strength, met and engaged a small Novgorodian army led by the 20-year old Prince Alexander Yaroslavich, on the Neva river. The result was a decisive Novgorodian victory. Because of this battle, 20-year-old Alexander was given the name of Nevsky (=of Neva).
Prince Alexander is a Saint of the Eastern Ortodox Church. He is greatly venerated by the Russians and the Bulgarians
1410: During the Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic War of 1409-1411, the 1st Battle of Tannenberg occurs. It's fought between a Polish-Lithuanian army under the King of Poland Władysław II Jogaila and the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas, and the Knights of the Teutonic Order under Ulrich von Jungingen. The defeat of the Teutonic Knights was resounding. About 8,000 Teuton soldiers were killed and an additional 14,000 were taken captive.
The Monument to the battle in Cracow, Poland
1815: Napoleon surrenders to Captain Frederick Maitland of the HMS Bellerophon and is transported to Torbay in SW England. The Napoleonic Wars officially end.
WWI-1918: The Allies counterattack against German forces, seizing initiative on the Western Front immediately after the last major German Spring Offensive on the Western Front during World War I, the Second Battle of the Marne. The battle ended on 6 August as an overwhelming Allied victory. Généralissime (=Supreme Commander of the Allied Armies) Ferdinand Foch received the baton of Marshal of France.
The baton of Marshal of France has the Latin inscription: Terror belli, decus pacis (=Terror in war, ornament in peace)
1974: In Nicosia, Cyprus, Greek Junta-sponsored nationalists launch a coup d'état, deposing President Makarios and installing Nikos Sampson as Cypriot president.
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July, 16
1212: During the Reconquista (a period of nearly 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula succeeded in retaking it from the Muslims of Al-Andalus Province), the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa occurs. A 50,000-strong combined army of King Alfonso VIII of Castille, Sancho VII of Navarre, Pedro II of Aragon and Afonso II of Portugal fought and defeated a 200,000-strong Berber Muslim Almohad force made up of people from the whole Almohad empire, under Caliph An-nasir li-din allah muhammad ben al-mansur, commonly known as Miramamolín, near Las Navas de Tolosa, Jaén, Andalusia. The crushing defeat of the Almohads (they lost ca 100,000 dead, wounded or captured) significantly hastened their decline both in the Iberian Peninsula and in the Maghreb a decade later.
The monument to the battle
1683: Chinese Manchu Qing Dynasty naval forces defeat the Kingdom of Tungning in the Battle of Penghu, near the Pescadores Islands. The defeat at Penghu resulted in the Zheng Keshuang's (King of Tungning) surrender to Qing.
1918: Czar Nicholas II, his family, the family doctor, their servants and their pet dog are shot by the Bolsheviks, who had held them captive for 2 months in the basement of a house in Yekaterinburg, Russia.
The Romanovs in 1911
1942: 12,887 Jews of Paris are rounded up and sent to Drancy Internment Camp located outside the city, then shipped by rail to Auschwitz, in what is known today as the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup. Few of the transported Jews survived. French president Jacques Chirac apologised in 1995 for the complicit role French policemen and civil servants served in the raid.
1945: The Three-Power Summit Conference opens at Potsdam, Germany. The leaders of the three Allied nations, British Prime Minister Clement Atlee, US President Harry S Truman and Soviet Premier Josef Stalin, meet to decide the future of a defeated Germany.
1945: The Atomic Age begins when the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon at the Trinity site near Alamogordo, New Mexico. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbZmFqsGBbk
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July, 17
1453: During the Hundred Years' War, the Battle of Castillon, occurs. This was the last battle fought between the French and the English in the War and the first battle in history where cannons played a singnificant role in the battle. A French army of 7-10,000 troops and 300 guns under the master of artillery Jean Bureau, decisively defeated an English army of some 7,000 troops under John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury. English casualties were huge: 4,000 men were killed, wounded or captured.
1912: During the First Balkan War, the Greeks of the island of Icaria, at the eastern Aegean, then under Ottoman rule, revolt, impelled by a certain Ioannes Malachias, capture the Ottoman garrison of the island and proclaim the short-lived, Icarian State. On 4 November, Icaria was annexed as part of Greece.
The flag of the Free State of Icaria
WWI-1918: The transatlantic passenger steamship RMS "Carpathia", the ship that became famous for rescuing the survivors of RMS "Titanic" in 1912, and used as a troop transporter of American troops to Europe during the First World War, is torpedoed off east coast of Ireland by German submarine U-55.
1936: Spanish monarchists, the conservatives of the Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right (Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas, or C.E.D.A) and the fascists of the Falange Española, attempt a coup d'état against the government of the Second Spanish Republic, then under the leadership of president Manuel Azaña. The Spanish Civil War begins. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27UwFZIjmZI
1942: Army Group B resumes its offensive towards Stalingrad. The Battle of Stalingrad begins.
1944: Munitions detonated while being loaded onto a cargo vessel bound for the Pacific Theater of Operations, at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in Port Chicago, California, United States, killing 320 sailors and civilians and injuring 390 others. Most of the dead and injured were enlisted African-American sailors.
1953: Greek troops of the Greek Expeditionary Force (GEF) in Korea, repel a strong Chinese attack at Sugam-Ni, 176 km (110 miles) east of Seoul and 244 km (151 miles) north of Pusan.
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July, 18
390 BC: During the first Gallic invasion of Italy, the Battle of the Allia river occurs. It's fought near the Allia river between the 15,000-strong Roman army and the 30,000 Gauls under Brennus. When the Gauls attacked, the Roman flanks were routed leaving the Roman centre to be surrounded and slaughtered. The news of defeat spread panic amongst Romans who barricaded themselves on the Capitoline Hill. The rest of the city was left undefended and thus it was plundered by the Gauls and almost all Roman records were destroyed. According to the Roman historian Livy, Brennus and the Romans negotiated an end to the war and the latter agreed to pay one thousand pounds of gold. To add insult to injury, it was discovered that Brennus was using heavier weights than standard for weighing the gold. When the Romans complained, Brennus is said to have thrown his sword and belt on the scales and adding in Latin, Væ Victis (woe to the vanquished).
1656: During the Second Northern War (fought between Sweden and its adversaries the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russia, Brandenburg-Prussia, the Habsburg monarchy and Denmark-Norway) the three-day Battle of Warsaw begins. The 19,000-strong allied army of Sweden and Brandenburg, commanded by King Charles X of Sweden and Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg defeated an allied Polish-Lithuanian army of some 36,000 men of which only about 4,000 were infantry and the remainder cavalry & dragoons, with 18 artillery pieces commanded by the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania John II Casimir. The Polish king's defeat led him to concede sovereignty over the Duchy of Prussia to Brandenburg.
1944: The U.S. XIX Corps captures Saint-Lô, but has suffered 6,000 casualties since the beginning of the operation to capture the town.
1996: During the Sri Lankan Civil War, the Battle of Mullaitivu begins. It was fought between the Sri Lankan army (215th Brigade with 1,407 troops) and the 4,000-strong Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam army. It lasted until 25 July and it was a Tamil Tiger victory. The Sri Lankan military lost at least 1,200 troops. The LTTE claimed 332 of its men killed.
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July, 19
711: The Battle of the Río Barbate, near Cadiz, Andalusia occurs. The Visigothic army under the Vigothic King of Hispania Roderic, was defeated by a North African Muslim army comprised of Arabs and Berbers commanded by the Umayyad general Tariq Ibn Ziyad. The battle was significant because it marks the beginning of the Islamic conquest of Hispania. In the battle Roderic probably lost his life. With the defeat of the regular Visigothic army and the death of their monarch, many Visigoths lost their resolve to resist the invading Muslim forces, opening the way for the capture of Visigothic capital of Toledo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7muXZuh0fU
Georg Friedrich Händel's opera Rodrigo (Roderic) is dedicated to the last king of the Goths
1544: During the Italian War of of 1542–1546 (a conflict pitting Francis I of France and Suleiman I of the Ottoman Empire against the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Henry VIII of England), the Siege of Boulogne begins, during King Henry VIII of England's second invasion of France.
Battles of the Italian War of 1542-1546
1864: During the Taiping Rebellion (a Chinese Civil War pitting the Christian convert Hong Xiuquan - an ethnic Hakka Chinese - who had established the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace, with its capital at Nanjing and his followers, against the Qing Dynasty) the Battle of Nanking ends in a decisive Qing victory. It lasted for three days and probably more than a million troops engaged in the battle. The Taiping army sustained 100,000 dead and the Imperial troops, commanded by Zeng Guofan, slaughtered much of the city's population. The battle was a testing ground for the first modern Chinese firearms used in the battle.
1870: Following the public release of Ems Dispatch, an internal message of the Prussian King with alleged insults between him and the French ambassador, France mobilized, and on 19 July declared war on Prussia only, but the other German states quickly joined on Prussia's side. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 begins.
The Ems Dispatch
1916: As a diversion to the Battle of the Somme, that was taking place about 80 kilometres (50 miles) to the south, the two-day Battle of Fromelles begins. The Australian 5th Division and the British 61st Division commenced an assault against the left and right flank respectively of the German 6th Bavarian Reserve Division. The whole operation completely failed as a diversion. 5,533 Australians were killed, wounded, or captured; 1,500 British were killed or wounded. The Australian 5th Division was effectively incapacitated for many months afterwards. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew5lsprUIms
1940: The Italian Cruiser, Bartolomeo Colleoni is sunk off Cape Spada, near Crete by HMAS "Sydney" (I48/D48) during the Battle of Cape Spada, an engagement of the British fleet with the Italian fleet.
Bartolomeo Colleoni exploding during the Battle of Cape Spada. 555 survivors of Bartolomeo Colleoni were rescued; 121 died
1944: A German convoy of 13 military trucks with 200 troops is attacked by the men of the 1/9 Battalion of the 9th ELAS (Greek People's Liberation Army) Regiment, in Messenia, SW Peloponnese. German casualties accounted for 150 dead and wounded. ELAS casualties accounted for 18 dead, the Regiment's CO included (Colonel Elias Sphakianakes).
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July, 20
70: During the Great Jewish Revolt (the first major rebellion by the Jews of the Judea Province, against the Roman Empire), Titus, son of emperor Vespasian, storms Jerusalem. The Roman army is drawn into street fights with the Zealots.
Rome: The Arch of Titus, depicting and celebrating the Roman sack of Jerusalem and the Temple
1402: Battle of Ankara: The army of the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I, while his forces lay siege to Constantinople, is attacked and defeated by the Turko-Mongolian army of Tamerlane. Because of the Timurid invasion, the siege of Constantinople was lifted and the city survived for 51 more years.
Sultan Bayezid imprisoned by Tamerlane
1866: During the Third Italian War of Independence (a conflict between the Kingdom of Italy and the Austrian Empire) the Naval Battle of Lissa occurs, near the island of Vis in today's Croatia. The Italian fleet of 12 ironclads and 17 unarmoured ships under the Piedmontese Count Carlo Pellion di Persano engaged an Austrian fleet of 7 ironclads and 11 unarmoured ships under Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff. The Italians withdrew with two armoured ships sunk. Count di Persano was dismissed from the navy for cowardice while Tegetthoff returned home a hero and is considered one of the greatest naval commanders in Austrian history.
1944: An attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler at his Rastenberg headquarters is undertaken as part of Operation Valkyrie by the German army officer and Catholic aristocrat Claus Philipp Maria Justinian Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. The attempt failed and Stauffenberg was executed by firing squad.
Claus von Stauffenberg
1961: French military forces (800 French paratroopers) break the Tunisian siege of Bizerte (Tunisia imposed a blockade on the French naval base at Bizerte, Tunisia, hoping to force its evacuation) by launching a full-scale invasion of the town. In the three-day battle that follows, Tunisian forces suffer 630 dead and 1,555 wounded. French losses acounted for 24 dead and 100 wounded.
1974: Turkish forces (an armada of 33 ships, including troop transporters and at least 30 tanks and small landing craft) invade Cyprus five days after the coup d'état, organised by the dictators of Greece, in which President Makarios was deposed. Turkish paratroopers that land near the Greek contingent of ELDYK (Hellenic Forces of Cyprus), meet fierce resistance from the Greek forces. HNS "Lesbos" (L172), an LST, under Lt. Commander Eleutherios Chandrinos, while sailing 40 n.m. SW of Cyprus en route to Piraeus, Greece, receives news of the situation, changes route to Paphos and with her 40 mm Bofors guns, shells for two hours (15:30-17:30) the Paphos Castle (Turkish-Cypriot HQ) and the Turkish pocket of Muttalos (hosting two Turkish-Cypriot Battalions). Greece orders a general mobilization. Syria and Egypt put their militaries on alert.
LST Lesbos and her CO, Lt.Cdr. Chandrinos
2006: Ethiopian troops enter Somalia. Alongside the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) forces fight against the Somali Islamist umbrella group, the Islamic Court Union (ICU), and other affiliated militias for control of the country.
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July, 21
1403: During the Welsh Revolt (an uprising of the Welsh, led by Owain Glyndŵr, against England. It was the last major manifestation of a Welsh independence movement before the incorporation of Wales into England), the Battle of Shrewsbury occurs. A 10,000-strong Welsh Rebel army under Sir Henry Percy, nom de guerre Hotspur, is defeated by an 11,500-strong army led by the Lancastrian King, Henry IV. The King's forces sustained much greater losses than the rebels, in fact Henry IV very nearly lost both his life and his throne. Henry Percy was killed in the battle and burried at Whitchurch, Shropshire but due to circulating rumours that he was not really dead, the King had him disinterred. His body was salted, set up in Shrewsbury impaled on a spear between two millstones in the pillory in the marketplace, with an armed guard and was later quartered and put on show in the four corners of the country. His head was sent to York and impaled on the north gate, looking towards his own lands. His quarters were sent to Chester, London, Bristol and Newcastle-on-Tyne. In November his grisly remains were returned to his widow Elizabeth. She interred them in York Minster at the right hand side of the altar.
Death of Sir Henry Hotspur Percy
1568: During the Eighty Years' War, the Battle of Jemmingen (today's Jemgun in Lower Saxony, Germany) occurs. The Spanish army of 12,000 infantry (4 tercios) and 3,000 cavalry under Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel, 3rd Duke of Alba, defeated a 10,000-strong Dutch Rebel army under Louis of Nassau. The battle raged for three hours until Alba's army drove them over the bridges of the Ems river and eventually into the Ems itself. Many drowned trying to cross the river, Louis stripped himself of his heavy armor and was able to swim across to safety. In the end the Dutch rebellion lost 7,000 men.
The victor, Don Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel, 3rd Duke of Alba
1774: With the signing of the Treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji (today's Kaynardzha, Bulgaria), the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774 ends with an Ottoman defeat. The treaty granted Eastern Orthodox Christians the right to sail under the Russian flag, which served as the catalyst for the establishment of large naval fleets by the Greek islanders of Hydra, Spetsae and Psara that played a key role some fifty years later, in the Greek War of Independence.
A Hydrean archontissa (=noblewoman). Many prominent Hydrean shipowners were women
WWI-1918: German Unterseerboot 156 (U-156) under Kapitänleutnant Richard Feldt, sinks the tug Perth Amboy and four barges off Cape Cod, Massachussets, and opens fire on the Massachussetian town of Orleans. Four seaplanes from the Naval Air Station, Chatham, Massachussets, attack the surfaced German submarine which submerges after returning the planes' fire.
The U-156
1944: U.S. Marines land on Guam, establishing beachhead up to a mile inland. The 3rd Marine Division landed near Agana to the north of Orote at 08:28, and the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade landed near Agat to the south. The battle would end on August 10. US casualties accounted for 1,747 killed, 6,053 wounded. Japanese lost 18,040 killed. Only 485 were captured alive.
1960: The atomic powered ballistic missle submarine USS "George Washington" (SSBN-598), successfully conducted the first Polaris missile launch from a submerged submarine. At 12:39 hours George Washington's commanding officer sent President Dwight Eisenhower the message: POLARIS - FROM OUT OF THE DEEP TO TARGET. PERFECT. Less than two hours later a second missile from the submarine also struck the impact area 1,100 n. m. downrange.
1974: During the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Operation Nike, the transport of the 300 Greek Commandos of the 1st Commando Battalion (A' MK) and its equipment from Souda, Crete, to Nicosia airport in Cyprus, takes place. On the night of 21 July, at 22:30 hours, 15 ageing Nord 2501 Noratlas, of the 354 Transport Squadron Pegasus, take off at night, with no fighter escort, fly in radio silence, at very low level, with minimum lights and no visual contact between aircraft, land in Nicosia, unload the force and take-off right away for the return to Greece. Near the Nicosia airport, they encountered heavy anti-aircraft fire, which led to the destruction of two Noratlas and the death of 33 Commandos and crew members. For a much more thorough and in detail review, please refer to OPERATION "NIKI" 1974-A Suicide mission to Cyprus-by Mihail Solanakis.
The Commandos of A' MK with their CO, Major Georgios Papameletiu in 1974
1977: The four-day Libyan-Egyptian War begins. Tension between the two countries had increased during April and May 1977 as demonstrators attacked the embassies of both countries. On 21 July, gun battles between troops on the border began, followed by land and air attacks on both sides (three Libyan Brigades clashed with three Egyptian Divisions). The mediation by president of Algeria Houari Boumediène and PLO leader Yasser Arafat, led to a ceasefire and an agreed armistice on 24 July. The outcome was a clear Egyptian victory. Libyans lost 400 dead and wounded. 60 tanks were destroyed. 20 Libyan Mirage V, 1 MiG-23MS aircraft were destroyed on the ground during an Egyptian strafing attack. Egyptian casualties accounted for 100 dead and wounded. 4 Egyptian MiG-21, 2 Sukhoi Su-20 aircraft were lost.
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July, 22
838: During the Byzantine-Arab Wars (a series of wars between the Arab Caliphates and the East Roman or Byzantine Empire between the 7th and 12th centuries AD), the Battle of Dazimon occurs. Emperor Theophilos (or Theophilus) personally led a Byzantine army of 25,000 men against the 20,000-strong Muslim army of the Persian General of the Abbasid Caliphate, Haydar bin-Kavus Afshin, commonly known as Afshin. Afshin withstood the Byzantine attack after which he counter attacked and won the battle. The Battle of Dazimon is notable for illustrating the difficulties faced by the Byzantine military of the time against horse-archers.
Emperor Theophilos
1298: During the First War of Scottish Independence (1296–1328), the Battle of Falkirk occurs. Led by King Edward I of England, the English army of some 12,500 infantry and 2,500 cavalry, defeated the 6,000 Scots led by Sir William Wallace. After the battle Wallace resigned as Guardian of Scotland.
The Statue of William Wallace in Aberdeen, Scotland
1499: During the Swabian War of 1499 (fought between the Habsburg Holy Roman Empire and the Old Swiss Confederacy), the Battle of Dornach occurs. Some 6,000 Swiss troops, pikemen mostly, defeated the army of the Holy Roman Empire which led to the de-jure recognition by Roman Emperor Maximillian of the de-facto independence of Switzerland from the Holy Roman Empire.
1949 Commemorative Swiss coin of the 1499 battle of Dornach
1812: During the Peninsular War, the Battle of Salamanca occurs. A 52,000-strong Anglo-Hispano-Portuguese army under the Duke of Wellington, defeated the 50,000 French of Marshal Auguste Marmont. The CO of the 1st French Division, Major Gen. Maximilien Sébastien Foy, wrote in his diary for the battle that Wellington defeated an army of 40,000 men in 40 minutes.
1942: OKH issues Directive No. 45 for Operation Braunschweig, the capture of the Caucasus. Army Group A (Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm List), once having destroyed the enemy in the Rostov area, was to secure the entire eastern coastline of the Black Sea, simultaneously capturing Maikop and Grozny and the advance to Baku (Operation Edelweiss). Army Group B (Generalfeldmarschall Fedor von Bock) would continue east to seize Stalingrad and the advance down the Volga to Astrakhan. This meant that the two would advance on diverging axes and a large gap would develop between them. This was aggravated by the return of Generaloberst Hermann Hoth's 4th Panzer Army to Army Group B. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4f8gWNgF4E
1944: Soviet Capture of Pskov; the Red Army captures the last important Russian city, Pskov, 150 miles to the SW of Leningrad on Russian-Estonian border. According to the findings of the Extraordinary State Commission for the Investigation of Nazi atrocities, 290,000 civillians died in Pskov.
The Statue of the Hero of the Soviet Union, Alexander Matrosov, in Pskov, Russia
1974: During the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Turkish forces launch a major night assault that lasts until early in the morning of 23 July (03:30 hours) against the ELDYK (=Hellenic Forces of Cyprus) Camp. The attack is supported by 81mm and 4.2" mortars. Greek losses accounted for 11 dead, 45 wounded.
In the middle of the morning of 23 July, two Commando Coys (42nd, 43rd LOK) from the Greek 1st Commando Battalion (A' MK), are ordered to man perimeter defensive positions in and around the Nicosia International Airport. 41st LOK (Commando Coy) was held as reserve/counterattack force. They are supported by seven LMGs, one belt-fed M2 0.50 HMG and antitank teams with M67 90 mm recoilless rifles. One M40, 106 mm recoiless rifle (ELDYK) and five old Marmon Herrington (Cypriot National Guard) are at their disposal. In the Mediterranean summer heat (40°C/104°F) the Turks not knowing of the Commando deployment and presuming that the only force defending the airport was the previous deployed lightly-armed Cypriot National Guard detachment of 30-40 men plus 100-120 infantry of the ELDYK force, commenced an initial battalion level advance (ca 700 men) supported by two M-47 tanks, against the Greek positions. The Battle for the control of the Nicosia International Airport begins. The M-47s were engaged first, by the antitank teams. Using the M67 90 mm recoilless rifles, the teams disabled both Turkish tanks. The battle would last until early in the afternoon when a UN battalion of Canadian soldiers (BGen Clay Beattie) escorted by APCs, arrived, stopped the battle and took control of the airport. Greek casualties accounted for 1 dead (Master Sergeant Athanasios Photopulos) and 1 wounded (a Commando lost his right arm). Turkish losses are unknown (presumably at least 12 killed).
Cyprus conflict: Turkish infantry advance
1983: The Sri Lankan Civil War begins with the killing of 13 Sri Lanka Army soldiers by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. In the subsequent government-organised pogrom of Black July, about 1,000 Tamils are slaughtered, some 400,000 Tamils flee to neighbouring Tamil Nadu, India and many find refuge in Europe and Canada. The Civil War would last until May 18, 2009, and claim the lives of 80,000 - 100,000 Sri Lankans overall.
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July, 24
1148: During the Second Crusade, the Siege of Damascus begins. 50,000 Crusaders from the Holy Roman Empire, France, Flanders, as well as Templar and Hospitaller Knights, laid siege to Damascus for four days. Nur ad-Din Zangi arrived with Muslim reinforcements on 27 July, and the Crusaders had no choice but to abandon the city.
1943: Operation Gomorrah takes place when 746 RAF bombers drop 2,300 tons of incendiary bombs on Hamburg in 48 minutes, during which only 12 aircraft are lost. This tonnage is as much as Germans dropped in the five heaviest raids on London. Fires are visible for 200 miles. More than 30,000 people are killed. This is the first operational use of Window, (radar-jamming foil strips dropped by aircraft). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFfX144YmTs
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July, 25
1139: During the Reconquista, the Battle of Ourique occurs. The forces of Portuguese Prince Afonso Henriques defeated the Almoravid Muslim army led by Ali ibn-Yusuf, near Ourique (Baixo Alentejo Province, southern Portugal). Immediately after the battle, King Afonso I of Portugal called for the first assembly, consisting of representatives from all of Portugal's provinces, at Lamego, where he was given the Crown from the Bishop of Braga, to confirm the Portuguese independence from the Kingdom of León and Castille.
Pope Alexander III, sends the royal crown to Dom Afonso Henriques, the first King of Portugal
1261: Byzantine forces under Alexios Strategopulos, recapture Constantinople which for the last 57 years (since its capture by the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade in 1204) had been the seat of the Latin Empire of Imperium Romaniæ. On August 15, the day of the Dormition of the Mother of God for the Orthodox Christians, Emperor Michael VIII Palæologus, entered the city in triumph and was crowned at the Hagia Sophia. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfhYMmx-ySQ
The "national anthem" of the Byzantine Empire. It's a hymn dedicated to the City's Champion General, Mary, the Mother of God: To thee, the Champion General, we thy City exclaim victory hymns and thanksgiving as ones rescued out of sufferings, O Theotokos (=Mother of God); Having kept the state unassailed, free us also from every peril, that we may cry unto thee: Rejoice, thou Bride Unwedded. The hymn was probably composed in 626 AD by Patriarch Sergius on the occasion of the Byzantine victory over the Avars who laid siege to Constantinople while Emperor Heraclius and the bulk of the army were on campaign against Sassanid Persia
1814: During the Anglo-American War, the Battle of Lundy's Lane, in present-day Niagara Falls, Ontario, occurs. A British army of 3,500 men with 8 guns, under Lieutenant General Sir Gordon Drummond, was attacked by the 2,500-strong US army (6 guns), under Major General Jacob Brown. It was one of the bloodiest battles of the war, and one of the deadliest battles ever fought on Canadian soil. There is some dispute about the actual outcome of the battle. Some historians say that the Americans retreated, based upon General Drummond's report that the British ultimately held the field. Others state that the British retreated during the night but recaptured the position in the morning after the Americans retreated because of exhaustion and lack of supplies. Both views may be regarded as correct. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JFCg07apW8
Lundy's Lane is mentioned in the second verse of the unofficial Canadian patriotic anthem, "The Maple Leaf Forever": At Queenston Heights and Lundy's Lane our brave fathers, side by side
for freedom, homes, and loved ones dear, firmly stood and nobly died.
And those dear rights which they maintained, we swear to yield them never.
Our watchword evermore shall be, the Maple Leaf forever!
1943: Benito Mussolini is arrested by order of the Italian King. Marshal Badoglio, a First World War hero becomes Prime Minister, introduces martial law and incorporates the Fascist militia into the ordinary armed forces, thus ending the Fascist regime in Italy. Hitler orders German divisions rushed South in to Italy to disarm their former allies. Allied forces begin to face stiff resistance as they approach Messina.
Marshal Pietro Badoglio
1944: The US VII Corps launches Operation Cobra in an attempt to breakout from the southern end of the Cherbourg peninsula, near St. Lô. The II Canadian Corps launches Operation Spring, an offensive operation South of Caen. One of the bloodiest days for the Canadian Army during WWII: 1,500 casualties, including 450 killed.
1944: Narva, the third largest city in Estonia, is evacuated by the Germans, who take up position along the Tannenberg position to the West. Soviet forces cut the road between Dvinsk and Riga in Latvia. The Soviet Second Tank Army reaches the Vistula, 40 miles West of Lublin, Poland. Lviv, in Western Ukraine is surrounded and Soviet forces converge on Brest-Litovsk.
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July, 26
811: During the Byzantine-Bulgarian Wars, the Battle of Pliska occurs. Following the sack of the Bulgarian capital, Pliska, that took place three days earlier, a 60-80,000-strong Byzantine army under the Emperor Nikephoros (or Nicephorus) I, entered the Varbica Pass, the shortest way for their return to Constantinople. Bulgarian Khan, Krum, mobilised his people (including the women) to set traps and ambushes in the mountain passes and at dawn of 26 July, they rushed down and started to kill the panicked and totally confused Byzantines. The Byzantines fruitlessly resisted for a short time and perished. Emperor Nicephorus was killed in the battle. According to legend, Krum had the Emperor's skull lined with silver and used it as a drinking cup.
The statue of Khan Krum in Plovdiv, Bulgaria
1469: During the Wars of the Roses, the Battle of Edgecote Moor, occurs. The battle pitted the forces of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, against those of King Edward IV. Its outcome was a clear Lancastrian victory and is considered to be an important turning point in the course of the war.
King Edward IV of England
26.th of July last major offensive by USSR in Continuation war, Battle of Ilomantsi, starts. It is started by two divisions (176th & 289th). Their plan was to take control the road that crosses at Ilomantsi and then advance to the flank of Finnish VI AK (troops of 4th, 8th and 4th division) that had already stopped Soviet offensive.
The Finns had three units, exhausted 21th brigade, Cavalry Brigade and Osasto Partinen that consisted of two battalions. These units were led by Jäger Major General Erkki Raappana who had already been granted Mannerheim Cross.
His units first encircled these two divisions in two motti's and then split these to smaller motti's. Three Naval Rifle brigades (69th 70th 3th), one armored brigade and one pioneer brigade came to the aid for the two divisions, but their attacks were repelled.
The battle ended in 13th of October when remnants of the two divisions broke trough and fled to the east.
Finnish troops captured over 100 artillery pieces and around 100 mortars after the battle.
The world's an oppressive place to live through -yet with a little pride it's worth it
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1214: Battle of Bouvines: A conclusive medieval battle, important to the early development of the French state by confirming the French crown's sovereignty over the Norman lands of Brittany and Normandy. A 15,000-strong French army of Philip II Augustus, King of France, defeated a 25,000-strong allied army of Otto IV of Germany and count Ferrand of Flanders so decisively, that Otto was deposed and replaced by Frederick II Hohenstaufen. Ferrand was captured and imprisoned.
Additionally, the defeat led to their ally, John, King of England being forced to sign Magna Carta by his discontented barons.
The coronation of Philip II Augustus as King of France, in the presence of Henry II of England
1302: During the Byzantine-Ottoman Wars, the Battle of Bapheus (outside Nicomedia, today's İzmit) occurs. A Byzantine force of some 2,000 men, half of whom were recently hired Alan mercenaries, under Georgios Mouzalon, met an Ottoman Turkish army of some 5,000 light cavalry under Osman I, himself. The battle ended in a crucial Ottoman victory, cementing the young Ottoman state and heralding the final capture of Byzantine Bithynia by the Turks.
Osman or Othman, the leader of the Ottoman Turks, and the founder of the dynasty that established and ruled the Ottoman Empire
1689: During the Glorious Revolution (the overthrow of King James II of England in 1688 by a union of Parliamentarians with an invading army led by the Dutch stadtholder William of Orange who, as a result, ascended the English throne as William III of England together with his wife Mary II of England) the Battle of Killiecrankie occurs. It's fought between Highlander clans and Irish, supporting King James VII of Scotland (also known as James II of England) and Highlander and Lowlander troops supporting King William of Orange. Although it was a stunning victory for the Jacobites, it had little overall effect on the outcome of the war and left their leader (John Graham of Claverhouse, 1st Viscount Dundee) dead.
King William III of England
1720: During the Great Northern War, the Naval Battle of Grengam occurs. It's fought in the Åland Islands, between Sweden and Finland. A group of Swedish ships under Vice Admiral Carl Georg Siöblad attacked the Russian fleet under General Admiral Mikhail Mikhaylovich Golitsyn and, in a pitched battle, had their four frigates, the 34-gun frigate Stor Phoenix, the 30-gun Vainqueur, the 22-gun Kiskin and the 18-gun Danska Örn, captured by Russian sailors.
The victor, Prince Mikhail Mikhaylovich Golitsyn
1880: During the Second Anglo-Afghan War, the Battle of Maiwand occurs. The battle ended in defeat for the British Army (Brigadier General George Burrows) and victory for the Afghan followers of Ayub Khan. The Afghan victory at Maiwand was at a cost of anywhere between 2,050 to 2,750 Afghan warriors killed and probably about 1,500 wounded. On the other side, about 969 British/Indian soldiers were killed and 177 more wounded, this represented approximately 75% of their combat force. The Battle of Maiwand was one of the few occasions in the 19th century where an Asian army defeated a Western power. Following his victory at Maiwand, Ayub Kahn was able contain the British in Kandahar until he was decisively defeated outside the city on September 1.
E Battery, Royal Horse Artillery, escaping from the overwhelming Afghan attack at the Battle of Maiwand
1953: The United States, North Korea and China sign an armistice, which ends the Korean War but fails to bring about a permanent peace. To date, the Republic of Korea (South) and Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea (North) have not signed a peace treaty. A total of 629,000 on both sides died in battle, or from battle-related injuries, during the Korean War.
The world's an oppressive place to live through -yet with a little pride it's worth it
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July, 28
1364: The Battle of Càscina: An engagement between the Pisan troops who had the help of the 3,000 cuirassiers of the English mercenary Sir John Hawkwood (or according to the Italian chronicles, Giovanni Acuto) against the 11,000 infantry and 4,000 knights of the Florentine army under Galeotto Malatesta. The outcome was a clear Florentine victory thanks to their good flexibility and effective tactical deployment. The victory led to the death of a thousand Pisan soldiers and the capture of another 2,000 fighters.
Michelanglo was commissioned a celebrative painting but he unfortunately never executed it. His student, Aristotele da Sangallo made a black and white painting, based on Michelangelo's cartoon
1809: During the Peninsular War, the two-day Battle of Talavera ends. A 21,000-strong Anglo-Portuguese army under Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, combined with a 35,000-strong Spanish army under Gregorio García de la Cuesta y Fernández de Celis, fought a 46,000-strong French army led nominally by Napoleon's elder brother and King of Spain, Joseph-Napoléon Bonaparte (his military advisor, Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan exercised command). The French suffered most in this hard-fought battle, losing 7,400 killed or wounded. Equivalent Spanish casualties were about 1,200 and British 5,500. After this battle Wellesley was created Viscount Wellington of Talavera.
The Duke of Wellington
1821: José de San Martín declares the independence of Peru from Spain and is voted the Protector of the newly independent nation.
1914: Emperor Franz-Joseph of Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.
July, 15
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