The Ulm Campaign was a series of French and Bavarian military maneuvers and battles in 1805, during the War of the Third Coalition, designed to outflank an Austrian army. The French Grande Armée, led by Napoleon Bonaparte, comprised 210,000 troops organized into seven corps, and hoped to knock out the Austrian army in the Danube before Russian reinforcements could arrive. Through feverish marching, Napoleon conducted a large wheeling maneuver that captured an Austrian army of 23,000 under General Mack on October 20 at Ulm, bringing the total number of Austrian prisoners in the campaign to 60,000. The campaign is generally regarded as a strategic masterpiece and was influential in the development of the Schlieffen Plan in the late nineteenth century. The victory at Ulm was not decisive enough to end the war. A large Russian army under Kutuzov near Vienna ensured that another major confrontation would be required to settle affairs. On December 2, the French prevailed decisively at the Battle of Austerlitz, which effectively removed Austria from the war. The resulting Treaty of Pressburg in late December brought the Third Coalition to an end and left Napoleonic France as the major power in Central Europe, leading to the War of the Fourth Coalition with Prussia and Russia the following year.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1876: Abdul Hamid II became Sultan of the Ottoman Empire when his brother Murad V was deposed. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Hamid_II)

1888: Mary Ann Nichols' body was found on the ground in front of a gated stable entrance in Buck's Row, London, allegedly the first victim of the unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_the_Ripper)

1986: After a collision with a freighter, the Soviet ocean liner Admiral Nakhimov sank in the Tsemes Bay area of the Black Sea within 7 minutes, killing over 400 on board. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Admiral_Nakhimov)

1992: The one-party Marxist rule in the Republic of the Congo officially ended when Pascal Lissouba was inaugurated as its president after a multi-party election. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_the_Congo)

1997: Princess Diana, her companion Dodi Fayed, and their driver Henri Paul were killed in a high speed car accident in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Diana%2C_Princess_of_Wales)

_____________________ Wiktionary's Word of the day:

specious: Seemingly well-reasoned or factual, but actually fallacious or insincere. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/specious)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

Have no shame in being kindly and gentle, but if the time comes in the time of your life to kill, kill and have no regret. In the time of your life, live — so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it. -- William Saroyan (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Saroyan)