The Siege of Lilybaeum lasted from 250 to 241 BC, as the Roman army
laid siege to the Carthaginian-held Sicilian city of Lilybaeum (modern
Marsala; reconstruction pictured) during the First Punic War. Lilybaeum
was well-fortified and situated on the coast, where it could be supplied
and reinforced by sea. In mid–250 BC the Romans besieged the city
with more than 100,000 men. They made a concerted effort to take it by
assault, but were unsuccessful. The Romans then attacked the
Carthaginian fleet, but their fleet was itself destroyed in the naval
battles of Drepana and Phintias. In 242 BC, the Romans built a new
fleet and cut off supplies. The Carthaginians reconstituted their fleet
and despatched it to Sicily loaded with provisions. The Romans met it
not far from Lilybaeum and defeated it at the Battle of the Aegates in
241 BC. The Carthaginians sued for peace and the war ended after 23
years with a Roman victory; by the terms of the Treaty of Lutatius
Carthage evacuated the city.
Read more:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Lilybaeum_%28250%E2%80%93241_BC%29>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1744:
War of the Austrian Succession: British ships began attacking
the rear of a combined Franco-Spanish fleet in the Mediterranean Sea off
the French coast near Toulon.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Toulon_%281744%29>
1921:
The Bogd Khan was reinstalled as emperor after White Russian
forces under Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg drove the Chinese out of
Mongolia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_von_Ungern-Sternberg>
2006:
At least six men staged the largest cash robbery in Britain at
a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securitas_depot_robbery>
2011:
An earthquake registering 6.3 ML struck Christchurch, New
Zealand, killing 185 people and causing around NZ$40 billion in damage.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Christchurch_earthquake>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
vamp:
1. (transitive) To patch, repair, or refurbish.
2. (transitive) Often as vamp up: to fabricate or put together
(something) from existing material, or by adding new material to
something existing.
3. (transitive) To cobble together, to extemporize, to improvise.
4. (transitive, intransitive, music, specifically) To perform a vamp (“a
repeated, often improvised accompaniment, for example, under dialogue or
while waiting for a soloist to be ready”).
5. (transitive, shoemaking) To attach a vamp (to footwear).
6. (transitive, intransitive, now dialectal) To travel by foot; to walk.
7. (intransitive) To delay or stall for time, as for an audience. […]
8. (transitive) To seduce or exploit someone.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vamp>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Democratical States must always feel before they can see: it is
this that makes their Governments slow, but the people will be right at
last.
--George Washington
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Washington>