The Battle of the Nile was fought between the British and French navies
at Aboukir Bay on the Egyptian coast from 1 to 3 August 1798. It ended
in victory for the British under Horatio Nelson (pictured). It was the
climax of a Mediterranean naval campaign during the previous three
months, as a large French convoy sailed to Alexandria carrying an
expeditionary force under Napoleon Bonaparte, pursued by Nelson and his
fleet. After the French army had landed in Egypt, the French fleet
anchored in what its commander believed was a formidable defensive
position. When the British fleet arrived, Nelson ordered an immediate
attack on both sides of the French position simultaneously. Trapped in a
crossfire, the leading French warships were battered into surrender. The
centre initially repelled the attack but was defeated after renewed
assault from British reinforcements. The battle reversed the strategic
situation in the Mediterranean and encouraged other European countries
to turn against France. Bonaparte's army was trapped and was later
defeated at the Siege of Acre. Nelson was made Baron Nelson and
proclaimed a hero across Europe, and his captains were also highly
praised.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Nile>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1096:
The Seljuk forces of Kilij Arslan destroyed the army of the
People's Crusade as it marched toward Nicaea.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Crusade>
1600:
Tokugawa Ieyasu defeated the leaders of rival Japanese clans at
the Battle of Sekigahara in what is now Sekigahara, Gifu, clearing the
path for him to form the Tokugawa shogunate.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sekigahara>
1858:
French composer Jacques Offenbach's operetta Orpheus in the
Underworld, featuring music most associated with the can-can (audio
featured), was first performed at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens in
Paris.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpheus_in_the_Underworld>
1921:
George Melford's wildly successful silent film The Sheik, which
would propel its leading actor Rudolph Valentino to stardom, premiered.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolph_Valentino>
1983:
At the seventeenth General Conference on Weights and Measures,
the length of a metre was redefined as the distance light travels in
vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metre>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
gleek:
1. (archaic) To jest, ridicule, or mock; to make sport of.
2. (informal) To discharge a thin stream of liquid through the teeth or
from under the tongue.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gleek>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is good to have an end to journey towards, but it is the
journey that matters in the end.
--Ursula K. Le Guin
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin>