The battle of New Carthage, part of the Second Punic War, took place in
early 209 BC when a Roman army under Publius Scipio (bust pictured)
assaulted New Carthage, held by a Carthaginian garrison under Mago. Late
in 210 BC Scipio took command of Roman forces in Iberia (modern Spain
and Portugal) and decided to strike at the regional centre of
Carthaginian power: its capital, New Carthage. He marched on the city
and immediately attacked it. After defeating a Carthaginian force
outside the walls, he pressed attacks on the east gate and the walls.
Both were repulsed, but later that day Scipio renewed them. Hard-
pressed, Mago moved men from the north wall, overlooking a broad,
shallow lagoon. Anticipating this, a force of 500 men waded the lagoon
to scale the north wall unopposed. They fought their way to the east
gate, opened it from inside and let in their comrades. The city fell and
became a logistics centre for the Roman war effort. By 206 BC the
Carthaginians had been expelled from Iberia.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_New_Carthage>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1899:
Philippine–American War: American forces defeated troops
commanded by Philippine president Emilio Aguinaldo at the Battle of
Marilao River.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marilao_River>
1958:
Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Communist Party of
the Soviet Union, assumed the office of premier.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_Khrushchev>
1998:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug
sildenafil (chemical structure pictured), better known by the trade name
Viagra, for use as a treatment for erectile dysfunction, the first pill
to be approved for this condition in the United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sildenafil>
1999:
During the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, an Army of Yugoslavia
unit shot down a U.S. Air Force F-117 stealth aircraft.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_F-117A_shootdown>
2020:
North Macedonia became a member of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Macedonia%E2%80%93NATO_relations>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
floater:
1. A person who floats.
2. A person who physically floats in a gas or liquid.
3. (law enforcement, slang) A corpse floating in a body of water.
4. (figurative) A person without a fixed or lasting affiliation,
position, or role.
5. A person who frequently changes where they live; a drifter, a
vagrant.
6. A person who frequently changes employment.
7. An employee of an organization who does not have fixed tasks to do
but fills in wherever needed, usually when someone else is away; also, a
short-term employee; a temporary, a temp.
8. An "extra" (male) guest at a party who is asked by the host to
entertain the other (often female) guests.
9. (slang) A person who attaches themselves to a group of people, and
who repeatedly shows up at group activities even though this is
undesired by the group; a hanger-on.
10. (politics)
11. A voter who shifts their allegiance from one political party to
another, especially (US) one whose vote can be illegally purchased.
12. (US) A person who votes illegally in various electoral districts or
polling places, either under a false voter registration or under the
name of a properly registered voter who has not yet voted.
13. (US) A person, such as a delegate to a convention or a member of a
legislature, who represents an irregular constituency, such as one
formed by a union of the voters of two counties neither of which has a
number sufficient to be allowed one (or an extra) representative of its
own.
14. (sports) A player not affiliated with a team. [...]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/floater>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
You have no enemies, you say? Alas, my friend, the boast is
poor; He, who has mingled in the fray Of duty that the brave endure,
Must have made foes! If you have none, Small is the work that you have
done, You've hit no traitor on the hip, You've dashed no cup from
perjured lip, You've never turned the wrong to right, You've been a
coward in the fight.
--Charles Mackay
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Mackay>