The Silesian Wars were a series of three wars fought between Prussia (under King Frederick the Great) and Austria (under Archduchess Maria Theresa) for control of the Central European region of Silesia (now in south-west Poland). The First (1740–1742) and Second Silesian Wars (1744–1745) formed parts of the War of the Austrian Succession, in which Prussia was one member of an anti-Austrian coalition. The Third Silesian War (1756–1763) was one theatre of the global Seven Years' War, in which Austria led a coalition aiming to seize Prussian territory. All three ended in Prussian victories, and their overall territorial result was Austria's cession of the majority of Silesia to Prussia, which emerged from the Silesian Wars as a new European great power. Austria's defeat by a lesser German power significantly damaged its prestige. The conflict foreshadowed a century-long Austria–Prussia rivalry for hegemony over the German-speaking peoples. (This article is part of a featured topic: Silesian Wars.). Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/Silesian_Wars> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1823: James McBrien made the first official discovery of gold in Australia at Fish River in New South Wales. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_gold_rushes> 1961: All 72 people on board Sabena Flight 548, including the entire U.S. figure-skating team, and one person on the ground were killed when the aircraft crashed on approach to Brussels Airport. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabena_Flight_548> 2013: A previously undetected meteor exploded (video featured) over Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia; the resulting shock wave injured about 1,500 people. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: meet cute: (intransitive, informal) Of characters in a story or people in real life: to meet each other in an adorable, amusing, or cute way. <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/meet_cute> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:   America has furnished to the world the character of Washington! And if our American institutions had done nothing else, that alone would have entitled them to the respect of mankind.   --Daniel Webster <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Webster>