The Battle of Barnet (14 April 1471) during the Wars of the Roses, followed by the Battle of Tewkesbury, secured the throne for Edward IV of England and launched fourteen years of Yorkist rule. Near Barnet, then a small Hertfordshire town north of London, Edward led the House of York against Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, and the House of Lancaster, which backed Henry VI for the throne. The battle began in a thick fog at dawn. While the main forces struggled, John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, and his Lancastrian troops routed the Yorkists under Lord William Hastings, chasing them up to Barnet. On their return to the battlefield, Oxford's men were erroneously shot at by his allies commanded by John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu. The Lancastrians lost the battle as cries of treason spread through their line and many abandoned the fight. While retreating, Warwick was killed. Historians regard the battle as one of the most important clashes in the Wars of the Roses, bringing about a decisive turn in the fortunes of the two houses.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Barnet
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
966:
After his marriage to the Christian Dobrawa of Bohemia, the pagan ruler of the Polans, Mieszko I, converted to Christianity, an event considered to be the founding of the Polish state. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Poland_during_the_Piast_dynasty
1828:
Lexicographer Noah Webster copyrighted the first edition of his dictionary of American English. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_Webster
1909:
Following a military revolt against the constitutional government, a mob began a massacre of Armenians in Adana Vilayet, Ottoman Empire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adana_massacre
1978:
Thousands of Georgians demonstrated in Tbilisi against an attempt by the Supreme Soviet of the Georgian SSR to change the constitutional status of the Georgian language. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_Georgian_demonstrations
2003:
The completion of the Human Genome Project was announced. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Genome_Project
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
veridical: 1. True. 2. Pertaining to an experience, perception, or interpretation that accurately represents reality; as opposed to imaginative, unsubstantiated, illusory, or delusory. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/veridical
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
I quite fixedly believe the Wardens of Earth sometimes unbar strange windows, that face on other worlds than ours. And some of us, I think, once in a while get a peep through these windows. But we are not permitted to get a long peep, or an unobstructed peep, nor very certainly, are we permitted to see all there is — out yonder. The fatal fault, sir, of your theorizing is that it is too complete. It aims to throw light upon the universe, and therefore is self-evidently moonshine. The Wardens of Earth do not desire that we should understand the universe, Mr. Kennaston; it is part of Their appointed task to insure that we never do; and because of Their efficiency every notion that any man, dead, living, or unborn, might form as to the universe will necessarily prove wrong. --James Branch Cabell https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Branch_Cabell