The Battle of the Alamo, a part of the Texas Revolution, ended on March
6, 1836, when Mexican troops under General Antonio López de Santa Anna
regained the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar (modern-day San
Antonio, Texas). Several months previously, rebellious Texians had
driven all Mexican troops out of Mexican Texas. Up to 260 Texians were
garrisoned in the Alamo at various times. On February 23, 1836, Santa
Anna and 1,500 Mexican troops laid siege to the Alamo as the first step
in a campaign to re-take Texas. In the final battle, all but two of the
Texian defenders were killed, and 400–600 Mexican troops were killed or
wounded. The battle has been the subject of numerous myths, spread by
movie and television adaptations, including John Wayne's 1960 film The
Alamo.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Alamo>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1834:
York, Upper Canada, was incorporated as Toronto.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto>
1853:
Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata premiered at Venice's La Fenice, but the
performance was so bad that it caused the Italian composer to revise
portions of the opera.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_traviata>
1869:
Dmitri Mendeleev presented the first Periodic Table of Elements to the
Russian Chemical Society.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Mendeleev>
1945:
Petru Groza of the Ploughmen's Front, a party closely associated with
the Communists, became Prime Minister of Romania.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petru_Groza>
1964:
In a radio broadcast, Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad announced
that American boxer Cassius Clay would change his name to Muhammad Ali
, symbolizing his new identity as a member of the religious, social and
political organization.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali>
1988:
In Operation Flavius, the British Special Air Service killed
Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers Daniel McCann, Seán Savage
and Mairéad Farrell while they were conspiring to bomb a parade of
British military bands in Gibraltar.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Flavius>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
vulnerary (adj):
1. Useful or used for healing wounds; healing, curative.
2. (archaic, rare) Causing wounds, wounding
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vulnerary>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Who watches the Watchmen?
--Juvenal
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Juvenal>
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