The Battle of Poitiers was fought on 19 September 1356 between a French army commanded by King John II and an Anglo-Gascon force under Edward, the Black Prince, during the Hundred Years' War. The Anglo-Gascons had set out on a major campaign while John gathered a large and unusually mobile army and pursued. The 6,000 Anglo-Gascons stood on the defensive and were attacked by 14,000 to 16,000 Frenchmen. An initial assault was driven back after hard fighting. A second under John's son and heir was also repulsed. Many Frenchmen then left the field. Those remaining gathered around the King and launched another attack, while signalling that no prisoners were to be taken. The French got the better of this fight until a small Anglo-Gascon force appeared behind them. The French panicked and their force collapsed; John and his youngest son were taken prisoner. Negotiations to end the war and ransom John resulted in the 1360 Treaty of Brétigny, which temporarily ended the war with an English victory.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Poitiers

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1846:

Near La Salette-Fallavaux in southeastern France, shepherd children Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud reported a Marian apparition, now known as Our Lady of La Salette (statue pictured). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_La_Salette

1940:

World War II: Polish resistance leader Witold Pilecki allowed himself to be captured by German forces and sent to Auschwitz to gather intelligence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Pilecki

1970:

The first Glastonbury Festival, the largest greenfield festival in the world, was held at Michael Eavis's farm in Glastonbury, England. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glastonbury_Festival

1995:

Industrial Society and Its Future, the manifesto of American domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski, was published in The Washington Post almost three months after it was submitted. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

scuttlebutt: 1. (countable, nautical) Originally (now chiefly historical), a cask with a hole cut into its top, used to provide drinking water on board a ship; now (by extension, informal), a drinking fountain on a modern ship. 2. (uncountable, originally US, nautical slang) Gossip, idle chatter; also, rumour. 3. (transitive, rare) To spread (information) by way of gossip or rumour. 4. (intransitive) To chat idly or gossip; also, to spread rumours. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/scuttlebutt

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The man who tells the tale if he has a tale worth telling will know exactly what he is about and this business of the artist as a sort of starry-eyed inspired creature, dancing along, with his feet two or three feet above the surface of the earth, not really knowing what sort of prints he's leaving behind him, is nothing like the truth.   --William Golding https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Golding