The Battle of Tory Island was a naval action of the French
Revolutionary Wars, fought on 12 October 1798 between French and
British squadrons off the northwest coast of Donegal in Ireland. The
last action of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the Battle of Tory Island
ended the final attempt by the French Navy to land substantial numbers
of soldiers in Ireland during the war. In May 1798 the Society of
United Irishmen, led by Theobald Wolfe Tone, precipitated an uprising
against British rule in Ireland. At the urging of the rebels a small
French force under General Humbert was landed at Killala, but by early
September both this expedition and the rebellion had been defeated.
Unaware of the defeat, on 16 September the French despatched
reinforcements. However, having missed one invasion force, the Royal
Navy was on alert for another, and when the squadron carrying the
reinforcements left Brest they were soon spotted. After a long chase,
the French were brought to battle in a bay off Donegal close to Tory
Island. During the action the outnumbered French attempted to escape,
but were run down and defeated piecemeal, with the British capturing
four ships and scattering the survivors. Over the next two weeks,
British frigate patrols scoured the passage back to Brest, capturing
three more ships. Of the ten ships in the original French squadron,
only two frigates and a schooner reached safety. British losses in the
campaign were minimal. The battle marked the last attempt by the French
Navy to launch an invasion of any part of the British Isles.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tory_Island>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1872:
HMS Challenger , commanded by Captain George Nares, sailed from
Portsmouth, England, on a scientific expedition that eventually made
many discoveries that laid the foundation of oceanography.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenger_expedition>
1883:
The Royal Canadian Regiment and The Royal Canadian Dragoons, the oldest
regular regiments of the Canadian Army, were both formed.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Royal_Canadian_Regiment>
1937:
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length cel-animated
feature in film history, premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los
Angeles.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_White_and_the_Seven_Dwarfs_%281937_film%29>
1979:
The Lancaster House Agreement was signed, ending biracial rule in
Zimbabwe Rhodesia following negotiations between representatives of the
Rhodesian government and the Patriotic Front.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancaster_House_Agreement>
1988:
A total of 270 people were killed when a bomb on board Pan Am Flight
103 exploded while the plane was in flight over Lockerbie, Scotland,
launching an eventual three-year joint investigation by Britain's
Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and the United States' Federal
Bureau of Investigation.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigation_into_the_bombing_of_Pan_Am_Flight_103>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
frowst (v):
To enjoy a warm, stuffy room
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/frowst>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
There are no days in life so memorable as those which vibrated to some
stroke of the imagination.
--F. Scott Fitzgerald
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/F._Scott_Fitzgerald>