The Battle of Neville's Cross took place on 17 October 1346 during the
Second War of Scottish Independence, half a mile (800 m) to the west of
Durham, England. During the Hundred Years' War, King Philip VI of France
called on the Scots to fulfil their obligation under the terms of the
Auld Alliance. King David II obliged and ravaged part of northern
England. An English army of approximately 6,000–7,000 men led by Lord
Ralph Neville took David by surprise on a hill marked by an Anglo-Saxon
stone cross. David's army of 12,000 was defeated, he was captured, and
most of his leadership was killed or captured. The English victory freed
significant resources for their war against France, and the English
border counties were able to guard against the remaining Scottish threat
from their own resources. The eventual ransoming of the Scottish king
resulted in a truce which brought peace to the border for forty years.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Neville%27s_Cross>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1777:
American Revolutionary War: General John Burgoyne's Saratoga
campaign ended with his surrender to the Americans, which later
convinced France to enter the war in alliance with the United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saratoga_campaign>
1814:
A wooden beer fermenting vat in London burst, destroying a
second vat and causing a flood of at least 128,000 imperial gallons
(580,000 l; 154,000 US gal) of porter that killed eight people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Beer_Flood>
1969:
The Caravaggio painting Nativity with St. Francis and St.
Lawrence (shown) was stolen from the Oratory of Saint Lawrence in
Palermo, Italy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nativity_with_St._Francis_and_St._Lawrence>
2000:
A rail accident at Hatfield, Hertfordshire, caused the collapse
of British railway management group Railtrack and led to the
introduction of widespread speed limit reductions throughout the rail
network.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railtrack>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
thwart:
1. (transitive) To cause to fail; to frustrate, to prevent.
2. (transitive, obsolete) To place (something) across (another thing);
to position crosswise.
3. (transitive, also figuratively, obsolete) To hinder or obstruct by
placing (something) in the way of; to block, to impede, to oppose.
4. (transitive, intransitive, obsolete) To move (something) across or
counter to; to cross.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/thwart>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is always and forever the same struggle: to perceive somehow
our own complicity with evil is a horror not to be borne. … much more
reassuring to see the world in terms of totally innocent victims and
totally evil instigators of the monstrous violence we see all about us.
At all costs, never disturb our innocence. But what is the most innocent
place in any country? Is it not the insane asylum? These people drift
through life truly innocent, unable to see into themselves at all. The
perfection of innocence, indeed, is madness.
--Arthur Miller
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_Miller>
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