HMS Bellerophon was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. Launched in 1786, she served mostly on blockades or convoy escort duties. Known to sailors as the "Billy Ruffian", she entered service on the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, and took part in the Glorious First of June fleet action in 1793. Bellerophon narrowly escaped being captured by the French in 1795, saved only by the bold actions of the squadron's commander, Vice-Admiral Cornwallis. Detached to reinforce Rear-Admiral Nelson's fleet in 1798 under Admiral Jervis, she took part in the decisive defeat of a French fleet at the Battle of the Nile. At the Battle of Trafalgar Bellerophon fought a bitter engagement against Spanish and French ships, sustaining heavy casualties including the death of her captain, John Cooke. In July 1815, when Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo and found escape to America barred by the blockading Bellerophon, he came aboard "the ship that had dogged his steps for twenty years" to finally surrender to the British, ending 22 years of nearly continuous war with France. The ship's long and distinguished career has been recorded in literature and folk songs.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Bellerophon_(1786)

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1616:

Nicolaus Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, describing his heliocentric theory of the Solar System, was prohibited by the Roman Catholic Church. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_revolutionibus_orbium_coelestium

1770:

British soldiers fired into a crowd in Boston, Massachusetts, killing five civilians. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Massacre

1824:

The First Anglo-Burmese War, the longest and most expensive war in British Indian history, began. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Anglo-Burmese_War

1960:

Cuban photographer Alberto Korda took his iconic photograph of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrillero_Heroico

1975:

Computer hackers in Silicon Valley held the first meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club, whose members would go on to have great influence on the development of the personal computer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homebrew_Computer_Club

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

Tinker to Evers to Chance: (US, idiomatic) A task accomplished quickly by well-executed teamwork; those involved in the teamwork. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Tinker_to_Evers_to_Chance

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Without general elections, without freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, without the free battle of opinions, life in every public institution withers away, becomes a caricature of itself, and bureaucracy rises as the only deciding factor.   --Rosa Luxemburg https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rosa_Luxemburg