Fort Ticonderoga is a large 18th-century fort built at a narrows near
the south end of Lake Champlain in upstate New York. The site controls
a river portage alongside the mouth of the rapids-infested La Chute
River in the 3.5 miles (6 kilometers) between Lake Champlain and Lake
George that was strategically important during the 18th-century
colonial conflicts between Great Britain and France, and again to a
lesser extent during the American Revolutionary War. At stake were
commonly used trade routes between the English-controlled Hudson River
Valley and the French-controlled Saint Lawrence River Valley. The fort
attained a reputation for impregnability during the 1758 Battle of
Carillon when 4,000 French defenders repelled an attack by 16,000
British troops near the fort. In 1759, the British returned and drove a
token French garrison from the fort merely by occupying high ground
that threatened the fort. During the American Revolutionary War, the
Green Mountain Boys and other state militia under the command of Ethan
Allen and Benedict Arnold captured it in a surprise attack. The
Americans held it until June 1777, when British forces under General
John Burgoyne again occupied high ground above the fort and threatened
the Continental Army troops, leading them to withdraw. The British
abandoned the fort following the failure of the Saratoga campaign, and
it ceased to be of military value after 1781. A foundation now operates
the fort as a tourist attraction, museum, and research center.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Ticonderoga>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1275:
The earliest recorded usage of the name "Amsterdam" was made on a
certificate by Count Floris V of Holland that granted the inhabitants,
who had built a bridge with a dam across the Amstel, an exemption from
paying the bridge's tolls.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam>
1553:
Condemned as a heretic for preaching nontrinitarianism and anti-infant
baptism, Michael Servetus was burned at the stake outside Geneva.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Servetus>
1644:
English Civil War: The combined armies of Parliament inflicted a
tactical defeat on the Royalists, but failed to gain any strategic
advantage in the Second Battle of Newbury.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Newbury>
1904:
The first underground segment of the New York City Subway, today one of
the most extensive public transportation systems in the world, opened,
connecting New York City Hall with Harlem.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_IRT_subway_before_1918>
1992:
U.S. Navy Petty Officer Allen R. Schindler, Jr. was killed in Sasebo,
Nagasaki, Japan, a victim of a hate crime for being gay, sparking a
national debate that led to the establishment of the U.S. armed forces'
"Don't ask, don't tell" policy.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_R._Schindler%2C_Jr.>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
ugly duckling (n):
A young person who is unattractive, but who is expected to become
beautiful as they mature
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ugly_duckling>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In
the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always
lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The
source of better ideas is wisdom. The surest path to wisdom is a
liberal education.
--Alfred Whitney Griswold
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alfred_Whitney_Griswold>