100px|Egbert's name from a 9th-century manuscript

Egbert (ca. 769 or 771 – 839) was King of Wessex from 802 until his death in 839. Little is known of the first 20 years of Egbert's reign, but it is thought that he was able to maintain Wessex's independence against the kingdom of Mercia, which at that time dominated the other southern English kingdoms. In 825 Egbert defeated Beornwulf of Mercia and ended Mercia's supremacy at the Battle of Ellandun, and proceeded to take control of the Mercian dependencies in southeastern England. In 829 Egbert defeated Wiglaf of Mercia and drove him out of his kingdom, temporarily ruling Mercia directly. Later that year Egbert received the submission of the Northumbrian king at Dore, near Sheffield. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle subsequently described Egbert as a bretwalda, or "Ruler of Britain". Egbert was unable to maintain this dominant position, and within a year Wiglaf regained the throne of Mercia. However, Wessex did retain control of Kent, Sussex and Surrey; these territories were given to Egbert's son Æthelwulf to rule as a subking under Egbert. When Egbert died in 839, Æthelwulf succeeded him; the southeastern kingdoms were finally absorbed into the kingdom of Wessex after Æthelwulf's death in 858. (more...)

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1843:

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, a novella about the miser Ebenezer Scrooge and his conversion after being visited by three Christmas ghosts, was first published. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol

1941:

World War II: Three Italian Royal Navy manned torpedoes detonated limpet mines on British Royal Navy ships, sinking two battleships. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_on_Alexandria_%281941%29

1946:

The First Indochina War began when Viet Minh operatives attacked French military positions and homes in Hanoi. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Indochina_War

1986:

Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev released dissident Andrei Sakharov after six years of internal exile in Gorky. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Sakharov

1998:

The U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Bill Clinton following the Lewinsky scandal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_of_Bill_Clinton

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