The Battle of Vukovar was an 87-day siege of the Croatian town of Vukovar by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and paramilitaries from Serbia, between August and November 1991. In 1990, Croatian Serb separatists launched an armed uprising, supported by Serbian President Slobodan Milošević, and seized control of Serb-populated areas of Croatia. The JNA intervened in favour of the Croatian Serbs and launched an offensive in August 1991 against Croatian government-held territory. Vukovar was defended by around 1,800 lightly armed Croatian soldiers and civilian volunteers, against 36,000 JNA soldiers and Serbian paramilitaries equipped with heavy armour and artillery. When the town fell on 18 November 1991 after prolonged fighting, hundreds were massacred by Serb forces and the town's non-Serb population was expelled. Vukovar was peacefully reintegrated into Croatia in 1998 after the end of the Croatian War of Independence and has since been rebuilt, but deep ethnic divisions remain. Several Serb military and political officials, including Milošević, were later indicted and in some cases jailed for war crimes committed during and after the battle.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vukovar

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1210:

Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor was excommunicated by Pope Innocent III after he commanded the Pope to annul the Concordat of Worms. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_IV%2C_Holy_Roman_Emperor

1928:

Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie, the first completely post-produced synchronized sound animated cartoon, was released. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steamboat_Willie

1943:

Second World War: The Royal Air Force began its bombing campaign against Berlin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Berlin_%28air%29

1991:

Croatian War of Independence: Yugoslav People's Army forces captured the Croatian city of Vukovar, ending an 87-day siege. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vukovar

1999:

Texas A&M University's Aggie Bonfire collapsed , killing 12 people and injuring 27 others, and causing the university to officially declare a hiatus on the 90-year-old annual event. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggie_Bonfire

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

sny (v): (now dialectal, intransitive) Abound, swarm, teem, be infested, with something http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sny

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Ideas, unlike solid structures, do not perish. They remain immortal, immaterial and everywhere, like all Divine things. Ideas are a golden, savage landscape that we wander unaware, without a map. Be careful: in the last analysis, reality may be exactly what we think it is. --Alan Moore http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alan_Moore