The Battle of Vukovar was an 87-day siege of the Croatian town of
Vukovar by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and paramilitaries from
Serbia, between August and November 1991. In 1990, Croatian Serb
separatists launched an armed uprising, supported by Serbian President
Slobodan Milošević, and seized control of Serb-populated areas of
Croatia. The JNA intervened in favour of the Croatian Serbs and
launched an offensive in August 1991 against Croatian government-held
territory. Vukovar was defended by around 1,800 lightly armed Croatian
soldiers and civilian volunteers, against 36,000 JNA soldiers and
Serbian paramilitaries equipped with heavy armour and artillery. When
the town fell on 18 November 1991 after prolonged fighting, hundreds
were massacred by Serb forces and the town's non-Serb population was
expelled. Vukovar was peacefully reintegrated into Croatia in 1998
after the end of the Croatian War of Independence and has since been
rebuilt, but deep ethnic divisions remain. Several Serb military and
political officials, including Milošević, were later indicted and in
some cases jailed for war crimes committed during and after the battle.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vukovar>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1210:
Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor was excommunicated by Pope Innocent III
after he commanded the Pope to annul the Concordat of Worms.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_IV%2C_Holy_Roman_Emperor>
1928:
Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie, the first completely post-produced
synchronized sound animated cartoon, was released.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steamboat_Willie>
1943:
Second World War: The Royal Air Force began its bombing campaign
against Berlin.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Berlin_%28air%29>
1991:
Croatian War of Independence: Yugoslav People's Army forces captured
the Croatian city of Vukovar, ending an 87-day siege.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vukovar>
1999:
Texas A&M University's Aggie Bonfire collapsed , killing 12 people and
injuring 27 others, and causing the university to officially declare a
hiatus on the 90-year-old annual event.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggie_Bonfire>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
sny (v):
(now dialectal, intransitive) Abound, swarm, teem, be infested, with
something
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sny>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Ideas, unlike solid structures, do not perish. They remain immortal,
immaterial and everywhere, like all Divine things. Ideas are a golden,
savage landscape that we wander unaware, without a map. Be careful: in
the last analysis, reality may be exactly what we think it is.
--Alan Moore
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alan_Moore>