The Battle of the Alamo, a part of the Texas Revolution, ended on March 6, 1836, when Mexican troops under General Antonio López de Santa Anna regained the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar (modern-day San Antonio, Texas). Several months previously, rebellious Texians had driven all Mexican troops out of Mexican Texas. Up to 260 Texians were garrisoned in the Alamo at various times. On February 23, 1836, Santa Anna and 1,500 Mexican troops laid siege to the Alamo as the first step in a campaign to re-take Texas. In the final battle, all but two of the Texian defenders were killed, and 400–600 Mexican troops were killed or wounded. The battle has been the subject of numerous myths, spread by movie and television adaptations, including John Wayne's 1960 film The Alamo.
Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Alamo
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1834:
York, Upper Canada, was incorporated as Toronto. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto
1853:
Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata premiered at Venice's La Fenice, but the performance was so bad that it caused the Italian composer to revise portions of the opera. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_traviata
1869:
Dmitri Mendeleev presented the first Periodic Table of Elements to the Russian Chemical Society. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Mendeleev
1945:
Petru Groza of the Ploughmen's Front, a party closely associated with the Communists, became Prime Minister of Romania. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petru_Groza
1964:
In a radio broadcast, Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad announced that American boxer Cassius Clay would change his name to Muhammad Ali , symbolizing his new identity as a member of the religious, social and political organization. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali
1988:
In Operation Flavius, the British Special Air Service killed Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers Daniel McCann, Seán Savage and Mairéad Farrell while they were conspiring to bomb a parade of British military bands in Gibraltar. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Flavius
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
vulnerary (adj): 1. Useful or used for healing wounds; healing, curative. 2. (archaic, rare) Causing wounds, wounding http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vulnerary
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Who watches the Watchmen? --Juvenal http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Juvenal