The Battle of Helena was fought on July 4, 1863, during the American
Civil War. Union troops had been using Helena, Arkansas, as a base of
operations since July 1862. More than 7,500 Confederate troops led by
Theophilus H. Holmes attempted to capture Helena in hopes of relieving
some of the pressure on the Confederate army besieged in Vicksburg,
Mississippi. Helena was defended by about 4,100 Union troops led by
Benjamin Prentiss, manning one fort and four batteries. Differing
interpretations of the order by Holmes to attack at daylight resulted in
James Fleming Fagan's troops attacking Battery D unsupported, and
Sterling Price's attack against the Union center was made after Fagan's
had largely fizzled out. To the north, Confederate cavalry commanded by
John S. Marmaduke and Lucius M. Walker failed to act in concert and
accomplished little. The assaults failed, and Vicksburg fell the same
day. Later in the year, Union troops used Helena as a staging ground for
the Little Rock campaign.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Helena>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1643:
First English Civil War: Royalist forces defeated the
Parliamentarians at the Battle of Burton Bridge, securing a crossing of
the River Trent for a convoy of supplies travelling with Queen Henrietta
Maria.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Burton_Bridge_%281643%29>
1943:
The aircraft carrying Władysław Sikorski, prime minister of
the Polish government-in-exile, crashed off Gibraltar, killing him and
fifteen others and leading to several conspiracy theories.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C5%82adys%C5%82aw_Sikorski%27s_death_controversy>
1945:
The Brazilian cruiser Bahia was accidentally sunk by one of its
own crewmen, killing more than 300 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_cruiser_Bahia>
1988:
Kylie Minogue's first album, Kylie, was released, and went on
to top the charts in the UK and New Zealand.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kylie_%28album%29>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
Cadillac converter:
(chiefly Southern US, malapropism, nonstandard, often humorous) Synonym
of catalytic converter (“chamber containing a finely divided platinum
catalyst in which carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons from the exhaust are
oxidized to carbon dioxide”)
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Cadillac_converter>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The Declaration of Independence predicated upon the glory of man
and the corresponding duty to society that the rights of citizens ought
to be protected with every power and resource of the state, and a
government that does any less is false to the teachings of that great
document — false to the name American. The assertion of human rights
is naught but a call to human sacrifice. This is yet the spirit of the
American people. Only so long as this flame burns shall we endure, and
the light of liberty be shed over the nations of the earth.
--Calvin Coolidge
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Calvin_Coolidge>
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