The Battle of Grand Port was a naval battle between frigates from the French Navy and the British Royal Navy, fought in August 1810 to control the harbour of Grand Port on Isle de France (now Mauritius) during the Napoleonic Wars. The British squadron of four frigates sought to blockade the port, but four of the five French ships managed to break past the blockade. They took shelter in a protected anchorage that was only accessible through a series of complicated reefs and sandbanks, requiring an experienced harbour pilot. When the British commander, Samuel Pym, ordered his frigates to attack, they became trapped in the narrow channels of the bay: two were irretrievably grounded, a third was outnumbered and defeated, and a fourth, unable to close within effective gun range, was later seized as it left the harbour. Although the French ships were also badly damaged, the defeat was the worst the Royal Navy suffered during the entire war, and it left the Indian Ocean and its vital trade convoys exposed to attack from Commodore Jacques Hamelin's frigates. In December a strong British battle squadron under Admiral Albemarle Bertie rapidly invaded and subdued Isle de France.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

636:

Rashidun forces led by Khalid ibn al-Walid took control of Syria and Palestine in the Battle of Yarmouk, marking the first great wave of Muslim conquests after the death of Muhammad. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Yarmouk

1707:

The first Siege of Pensacola came to an end with the British abandoning their attempt to capture Pensacola in Spanish Florida. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Pensacola_(1707)

1882:

The 1812 Overture by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was first performed at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1812_Overture

1940:

In the midst of the Battle of Britain, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered a speech thanking the Royal Air Force, declaring, "Never was so much owed by so many to so few." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_was_so_much_owed_by_so_many_to_so_few

1989:

The final stage of the O-Bahn Busway in Adelaide, South Australia, was completed, becoming the world's longest and fastest guided busway with buses travelling a total of 12 km (7.5 mi) at maximum speeds up to 100 km/h (62 mph) (example pictured). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O-Bahn_Busway

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

kitchen-sinky: 1. (informal) Inclusive of too wide a variety of features or items, typically with a resulting trade-off in efficiency or usefulness. 2. Of or pertaining to the kitchen sink drama; depicting social realities in an unstylized and direct manner. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kitchen-sinky

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.   --H. P. Lovecraft https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/H._P._Lovecraft