The Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse took place from 15 December 1942 to 23 January 1943 and was primarily an engagement between United States and Imperial Japanese forces in the hills near the Matanikau River on Guadalcanal during the Guadalcanal campaign. The U.S. forces were under the overall command of Major General Alexander Patch (pictured), and the Japanese under the overall command of Lieutenant General Harukichi Hyakutake. U.S. soldiers and Marines, assisted by native Solomon Islanders, attacked Imperial Japanese Army forces defending well-entrenched positions on several hills and ridges. With difficulty the U.S. succeeded in taking Mount Austen, in the process reducing a strongly defended position called the Gifu, as well as the Galloping Horse and the Sea Horse. In the meantime, the Japanese decided to abandon Guadalcanal and withdrew; most of the surviving Japanese troops were successfully evacuated. (This article is part of a featured topic: Guadalcanal Campaign.).

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/Guadalcanal_Campaign

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1813:

Napoleonic Wars: Two evenly matched frigates, the French Aréthuse and the British Amelia, battled to a stalemate (depicted) at the Îles de Los off the Guinean coast. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_7_February_1813

1865:

The trustees of Seattle enacted an ordinance that expelled Native Americans from the newly incorporated town. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_of_Seattle_Ordinance_No._5

1900:

Second Boer War: British troops made a third unsuccessful attempt to lift the siege of Ladysmith in the Battle of Vaal Krantz. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vaal_Krantz

2014:

Researchers announced the discovery of the Happisburgh footprints in Norfolk, England, the oldest known hominid footprints outside Africa, at more than 800,000 years old. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happisburgh_footprints

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

Godzone: (New Zealand, informal) New Zealand. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Godzone

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

I must say that, as I hope for mercy, I can have no other notion of all the other governments that I see or know, than that they are a conspiracy of the rich, who, on pretence of managing the public, only pursue their private ends, and devise all the ways and arts they can find out; first, that they may, without danger, preserve all that they have so ill-acquired, and then, that they may engage the poor to toil and labour for them at as low rates as possible, and oppress them as much as they please; and if they can but prevail to get these contrivances established by the show of public authority, which is considered as the representative of the whole people, then they are accounted laws.   --Thomas More https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_More