The Battle of the Aegates was a naval battle fought on 10 March 241 BC between the fleets of Carthage and Rome. It took place among the Aegates Islands, off the western coast of Sicily. The Carthaginians were commanded by Hanno, and the Romans were under the overall authority of Gaius Lutatius Catulus, but Quintus Valerius Falto had the battle command. It was the final battle of the 23-year-long First Punic War. The Roman army had been blockading the Carthaginians in their strongholds on the west coast of Sicily. Almost bankrupt, the Romans borrowed money to build a fleet, with which they extended the blockade to the sea. The Carthaginians assembled a larger fleet to run supplies into Sicily. It was intercepted and in a hard-fought battle the better-trained Romans defeated the undermanned and ill-trained Carthaginians. As a direct result, Carthage sued for peace and agreed to the Treaty of Lutatius, surrendering Sicily to Rome and paying substantial reparations.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1945:

World War II: The United States Army Air Forces conducted a firebombing raid on Tokyo that killed at least 90,000 people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo_%2810_March_1945%29

1959:

An anti-Chinese uprising began as thousands of Tibetans surrounded the Potala Palace in Lhasa to prevent the Dalai Lama from leaving or being removed by the Chinese army. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1959_Tibetan_uprising

1990:

Eighteen months after seizing power, Prosper Avril was ousted as the military head of state of Haiti. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosper_Avril

2006:

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (artist's impression pictured) reached and entered orbit around Mars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Reconnaissance_Orbiter

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

audiation: (music) The comprehension and internal realization of music by an individual in the absence of any physical sound. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/audiation

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Through artists mankind becomes an individual, in that they unite the past and the future in the present. They are the higher organ of the soul, where the life spirits of entire external mankind meet and in which inner mankind first acts.   --Friedrich Schlegel https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Friedrich_Schlegel