The Battle of the Bulge was the last major German offensive on the Western Front in World War II. It was intended that the German army would split the Allied line in half, capture Antwerp, sweep north and encircle and destroy four Allied armies, thus forcing them to negotiate for peace. Although unsuccessful, it nevertheless tied down huge amounts of Allied resources, and a slow response to the resulting gap in their lines erased months from their timetable. An alternative analysis is that the offensive allowed the Allies to severely deplete the cream of German army outside the defenses of the West Wall and in poor supply state, greatly easing the assault on Germany afterward. In numerical terms, it is the largest battle the United States Army has ever fought.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Bulge

Today's selected anniversaries:

1640 John IV was declared King of Portugal, resulting in a war with Spain. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_IV_of_Portugal)

1822 Pedro I was crowned the first Emperor of Brazil. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_I_of_Brazil)

1955 Rosa Parks refused to give her bus seat to a white man and was arrested for violating Montgomery, Alabama's racial segregation laws. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks)

1990 Channel Tunnel workers from the United Kingdom and France met 40 meters beneath the English Channel seabed, establishing the first ground connection between the island of Great Britain and the mainland of Europe since the last ice age. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Tunnel)

Wikiquote of the day:

"The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook." ~ William James (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_James)