The Battle of San Patricio was fought on February 27, 1836, between
Mexican troops and Texians, rebellious settlers in the Mexican province
of Texas. The battle marked the start of the Goliad Campaign, the
Mexican offensive to retake the Texas Gulf Coast. By the end of 1835,
all Mexican troops had been driven from Texas. Frank W. Johnson, the
commander of the volunteer army in Texas, gathered volunteers for a
planned invasion of the Mexican port town of Matamoros. After spending
several weeks gathering horses, in late February Johnson and about 40
men led the herd to San Patricio. He assigned some of his troops to a
ranch outside town to guard the horses. Unbeknownst to the Texians, on
February 18 Mexican General José de Urrea (pictured) had led a large
contingent of troops from Matamoros into Texas. Urrea's men easily
followed the trail left by the horses, and surprised the sleeping
Texians in San Patricio. After a fifteen-minute battle, all but six
Texians had been killed or imprisoned.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_San_Patricio>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1870:
The current flag of Japan was first adopted as the national
flag for Japanese merchant ships.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Japan>
1933:
The Reichstag building in Berlin, the assembly location of the
German Parliament, was set on fire, a pivotal event in the establishment
of the Nazi regime in Germany.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_fire>
1989:
A wave of protests, riots and looting known as the Caracazo
resulted in a death toll of between 276 and 2,000 people in the
Venezuelan capital Caracas and its surrounding towns.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracazo>
2015:
Russian statesman and politician Boris Nemtsov, an outspoken
critic of Vladimir Putin, was assassinated in central Moscow.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Boris_Nemtsov>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
pronoia:
1. (philosophy, theology) Divine providence, foreknowledge, foresight.
2. (historical, Byzantine Empire) An imperial grant to an individual of
temporary fiscal rights in the form of land, incomes or taxes from land,
fishing rights, etc., sometimes carrying with it an obligation of
military service. […]
3. (psychology) A belief (sometimes regarded as irrational) that people
conspire to do one good.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pronoia>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
In every bit of honest writing in the world … there is a base
theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be
kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly
always leads to love. There are shorter means, many of them. There is
writing promoting social change, writing punishing injustice, writing in
celebration of heroism, but always that base theme. Try to understand
each other.
--John Steinbeck
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Steinbeck>
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