The Battle of Schellenberg was fought on 2 July 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession. The engagement was part of the Duke of Marlborough's campaign to save the Habsburg capital of Vienna from a threatened advance by King Louis XIV's Franco-Bavarian forces ranged in southern Germany. Marlborough had commenced his 250 mile (400 km) march from Bedburg, near Cologne, on 19 May. En route, the Allies needed to secure a fortified bridgehead and magazine on the Danube through which their supplies could cross to the south of the river into the heart of Bavaria. For this purpose, Marlborough selected the town of Donauwörth. Once the French knew of the Allies' objective, they dispatched Count d'Arco with an advance force of 12,000 men from their main camp at Dillingen to strengthen and hold the Schellenberg heights above the town. Rejecting a protracted siege Marlborough decided in favour of a quick assault before the position could be made impregnable. After two failed attempts to storm the barricades the Allied commanders, acting in unison, finally managed to overwhelm the defenders. The deliberate devastation of the Elector's lands in Bavaria failed to bring Max Emanuel. Only when Marshal Tallard arrived with reinforcements, and Prince Eugene of Savoy arrived from the Rhine to bolster the Allies, was the stage finally set for the decisive action at the Battle of Blenheim the following month.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Schellenberg
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
626:
During the Xuanwu Gate Incident, Prince Li Shimin led his forces to assassinate his rival brothers, Crown Prince Li Jiancheng and Prince Li Yuanji, in a bloody palace coup for the Tang Dynasty throne. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xuanwu_Gate_Incident
1644:
The combined forces of the Scottish Covenanters and the English Parliamentarians defeated the Royalists at the Battle of Marston Moor, one of the decisive encounters of the English Civil War, near York. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marston_Moor
1937:
Aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean during an attempt to make a circumnavigational flight. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Earhart
1997:
The Thai baht rapidly lost half of its value, marking the beginning of the Asian financial crisis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Asian_financial_crisis
2002:
American aviator Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon, completing an almost 14-day trip after landing in Queensland, Australia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Fossett
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
geodesy: Scientific discipline that deals with the measurement and representation of earth, its gravitational field and geodynamic phenomena (polar motion, earth tides, and crustal motion) in three‐dimensional, time‐varying space. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/geodesy
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Every man is more than just himself; he also represents the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world's phenomena intersect, only once in this way and never again. That is why every man's story is important, eternal, sacred; that is why every man, as long as he lives and fulfills the will of nature, is wondrous, and worthy of every consideration. In each individual the spirit has become flesh, in each man the creation suffers, within each one a redeemer is nailed to the cross. --Hermann Hesse https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hermann_Hesse