The siege of Guînes took place from May to July 1352 when a French army under Geoffrey de Charny unsuccessfully attempted to recapture the French castle (pictured) at Guînes which had been seized by the English the previous January. The siege was part of the Hundred Years' War and took place during the uneasy and ill-kept truce of Calais. The strongly fortified castle had been taken by the English during a period of nominal truce and the English king, Edward III, decided to keep it. Charny led 4,500 men and retook the town but was unable to either recapture or blockade the castle. After two months of fierce fighting, a large English night attack on the French camp inflicted a heavy defeat and the French withdrew. Guînes was incorporated into the Pale of Calais. The threat posed by this enclave caused the French to garrison 60 fortified positions around it, at ruinous expense. The castle was besieged by the French in 1436 and 1514, but was relieved each time, before falling to the French in 1558.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Gu%C3%AEnes_%281352%29

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1223:

Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus': Mongol forces defeated a Kievan Rus' army at the Kalka River in present-day Ukraine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Kalka_River

1468:

Cardinal Bessarion announced his donation of 746 Greek and Latin codices to the Republic of Venice, forming the Biblioteca Marciana. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblioteca_Marciana

1935:

An earthquake registering 7.7 Mw struck Balochistan in British India, now part of Pakistan, killing between 30,000 and 60,000 people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1935_Quetta_earthquake

2013:

A tornado struck Central Oklahoma, killing 8 people and injuring more than 150. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_El_Reno_tornado

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

contain multitudes: (intransitive, idiomatic) To have a complex and apparently paradoxical nature; to be inconsistent, especially in a way that is ultimately admirable or noble. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/contain_multitudes

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.   --Walt Whitman https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walt_Whitman