The Battle of Albuera (16 May 1811) was fought during the Peninsular War. A mixed British, Spanish and Portuguese corps engaged elements of the French Armée du Midi (Army of the South) at the small Spanish village of La Albuera, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of the frontier fortress town of Badajoz, Spain. Since October 1810, Marshal Masséna's French Army of Portugal had been tied down in an increasingly hopeless stand-off against Wellington's Allied forces. Acting on Napoleon's orders, in early 1811 Marshal Soult led a French expedition from Andalusia into Extremadura in a bid to draw Allied forces away from the battle lines and ease Masséna's plight. In April 1811, following news of Masséna's complete withdrawal from Portugal, Wellington sent the powerful Anglo-Portuguese Army commanded by Sir William Beresford to retake the border town. Meeting at Albuera, both sides suffered heavily, and the French finally withdrew on 18 May.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Albuera
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1866:
The United States Congress authorized the minting of the country's first copper-nickel five-cent piece, the Shield nickel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shield_nickel
1918:
The Sedition Act was passed in the United States, forbidding Americans from using "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the United States government, flag, or armed forces during the ongoing World War I. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedition_Act_of_1918
1959:
The Triton Fountain in Valletta, one of Malta's most important Modernist landmarks, was turned on for the first time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triton_Fountain_(Malta)
1961:
The Military Revolution Committee, led by Park Chung-hee, carried out a bloodless coup against the government of Yun Bo-seon, ending the Second Republic of South Korea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_16_coup
1975:
Based on the results of a referendum held about one month earlier, Sikkim abolished its monarchy and was annexed by India, becoming its 22nd state. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikkim
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
vermiculation: 1. (obsolete, rare) The process of being turned into a worm. 2. The state of being infested or consumed by worms. 3. A pattern of irregular wavy lines resembling worms or their casts or tracks, found on the plumage of birds, used to decorate artworks and buildings, etc. 4. (medicine, dated) Peristalsis. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vermiculation
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
At this weak, pale, tabescent moment in the history of American literature, we need a battalion, a brigade, of Zolas to head out into this wild, bizarre, unpredictable, Hog-stomping, Baroque country of ours and reclaim it as literary property. --Tom Wolfe https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tom_Wolfe