Thurisind was king of the Gepids, an East Germanic Gothic people, from
c. 548 to 560. He was the penultimate Gepid king, and succeeded King
Elemund by staging a coup d'état and forcing the king's son into exile.
Thurisind's kingdom, known as Gepidia, was located in Central Europe
and had its centre in Sirmium, a former Roman city on the Danube River.
His reign was marked by multiple wars with the Lombards, a Germanic
people who had arrived in the former Roman province of Pannonia under
the leadership of their king, Audoin. Thurisind also had to face the
hostility of the Byzantine Empire, which was resentful of the Gepid
takeover of Sirmium and anxious to diminish Gepid power in the
Pannonian Basin, a plain covering most of modern Hungary and partly
including the bordering states. The Byzantines' plans to reduce the
Gepids' power took effect when Audoin decisively defeated Thurisind in
551 or 552. The Byzantine Emperor Justinian forced a peace accord on
both leaders so that equilibrium in the Pannonian Basin could be
sustained. Thurisind lost his eldest son, Turismod, in the Battle of
Asfeld, where the prince was killed by Alboin, son of Audoin. In about
560, Thurisind died and was succeeded by his remaining son Cunimund,
who was killed by Alboin in 567. Cunimund's death marked the end of the
Gepid Kingdom and the beginning of the conquest of their territories by
the Lombards' allies, the Avars, a nomadic people migrating from the
Eurasian Steppe. (more...)
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1848:
James W. Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill in Coloma,
California, leading to the California Gold Rush.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Gold_Rush>
1900:
Second Boer War: Boer forces stopped a British attempt to break the
Siege of Ladysmith in the Battle of Spion Kop.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Spion_Kop>
1961:
A Boeing B-52 Stratofortress carrying two Mark 39 nuclear weapons broke
up in mid-air near Goldsboro, North Carolina; one bomb was recovered
intact, the other disintegrated.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash>
1972:
Japanese soldier Shoichi Yokoi was found hiding in a Guam jungle, where
he had been since the end of World War II.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoichi_Yokoi>
1993:
Turkish journalist and writer Uğur Mumcu was assassinated by a car bomb
outside his home in Ankara.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U%C4%9Fur_Mumcu>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
baby fat (n):
1. The natural fat on the body of a child or young animal that normally
disappears at adolescence.
2. The bodyfat gained by a woman during pregnancy
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/baby_fat>
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Defer not till tomorrow to be wise,
Tomorrow's sun to thee may never rise.
--William Congreve
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Congreve>