The Action of 13 January 1797 was a small naval battle fought between a
French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany
during the French Revolutionary Wars. The action is notable for its outcome:
the frigates successfully outmanoeuvred the much larger French vessel and
drove it on shore in heavy seas, resulting in the death of over 900 of the
1,300 persons aboard. One of the British frigates was also lost in the
engagement, running onto a sandbank after failing to escape a lee shore. The
French ship Droits de l'Homme had been part of the Expédition d'Irlande, a
disastrous attempt by a French expeditionary force to invade Ireland. During
the operation, the French fleet was beset by poor co-ordination and
extremely violent weather, eventually being compelled to return to France
without landing a single soldier ashore. Two British frigates, HMS
Indefatigable and HMS Amazon, had been ordered to patrol the seas off Ushant
in an attempt to intercept the returning French force and sighted Droits de
l'Homme on the afternoon of 13 January. The damage the more nimble British
vessels inflicted on the French ship was so severe that as the winds
increased, the French crew lost control and Droits de l'Homme was swept onto
a sandbar and destroyed.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_13_January_1797>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1819:
British official Stamford Raffles signed a treaty with Sultan Hussein Shah
of Johor, establishing Singapore as a new trading post for the British East
India Company.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_of_modern_Singapore>
1840:
The British and the Māori signed the Treaty of Waitangi, considered as the
founding document of New Zealand.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Waitangi>
1934:
In an attempted coup d'état against the French Third Republic, far right
leagues demonstrated on the Place de la Concorde in Paris.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6_February_1934_crisis>
1952:
Elizabeth II ascended to the thrones of the United Kingdom and six other
British Commonwealth countries upon the death of her father, George VI.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_II_of_the_United_Kingdom>
1958:
British European Airways Flight 609, carrying the Manchester United football
club, a number of their fans and journalists covering the team, crashed
while attempting to take off from Munich-Riem Airport in Munich, West
Germany, killing eight players and 15 others.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_air_disaster>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
fortnight (n):
A period of fourteen nights; two weeks
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fortnight>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do
believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. So, with all the
creative energy at our command, let us begin an era of national renewal. Let
us renew our determination, our courage, and our strength. And let us renew
our faith and our hope. We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those
who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know
where to look. --Ronald Reagan
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan>