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 century BC. 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.).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/Punic_Wars>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1777:
American Revolutionary War: British forces caught up with
American troops withdrawing from Ticonderoga, capturing more than 200
men at the Battle of Hubbardton.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peel_Commission>
1991:
Yugoslav Wars: The signing of the Brioni Agreement ended the
Ten-Day War between SFR Yugoslavia and Slovenia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brioni_Agreement>
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.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_shooting_of_Dallas_police_officers>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
hebdomad:
1. (obsolete) A group of seven.
2. A period of seven days; a week.
3. (Gnosticism) A group of seven world-creating archons (supernatural
beings) often regarded as somewhat hostile; also, a term of address for
the Demiurge (“a being sometimes seen as the creator of evil”).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hebdomad>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I would be disappointed if everything I saw turned out to be
something Western Electric will build once Bell Labs works the bugs out.
There ought to be some magic, somewhere, just for flavor.
--Glory Road
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Glory_Road>
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