The Battle of Albuera (16 May 1811) was fought during the Peninsular
War. A mixed British, Spanish and Portuguese corps engaged elements of
the French Armée du Midi (Army of the South) at the small Spanish
village of La Albuera, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of the
frontier fortress town of Badajoz, Spain. Since October 1810, Marshal
Masséna's French Army of Portugal had been tied down in an increasingly
hopeless stand-off against Wellington's Allied forces. Acting on
Napoleon's orders, in early 1811 Marshal Soult led a French expedition
from Andalusia into Extremadura in a bid to draw Allied forces away from
the battle lines and ease Masséna's plight. In April 1811, following
news of Masséna's complete withdrawal from Portugal, Wellington sent
the powerful Anglo-Portuguese Army commanded by Sir William Beresford to
retake the border town. Meeting at Albuera, both sides suffered heavily,
and the French finally withdrew on 18 May.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Albuera>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1866:
The United States Congress authorized the minting of the
country's first copper-nickel five-cent piece, the Shield nickel.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shield_nickel>
1918:
The Sedition Act was passed in the United States, forbidding
Americans from using "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive
language" about the United States government, flag, or armed forces
during the ongoing World War I.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedition_Act_of_1918>
1959:
The Triton Fountain in Valletta, one of Malta's most important
Modernist landmarks, was turned on for the first time.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triton_Fountain_(Malta)>
1961:
The Military Revolution Committee, led by Park Chung-hee,
carried out a bloodless coup against the government of Yun Bo-seon,
ending the Second Republic of South Korea.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_16_coup>
1975:
Based on the results of a referendum held about one month
earlier, Sikkim abolished its monarchy and was annexed by India,
becoming its 22nd state.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikkim>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
vermiculation:
1. (obsolete, rare) The process of being turned into a worm.
2. The state of being infested or consumed by worms.
3. A pattern of irregular wavy lines resembling worms or their casts or
tracks, found on the plumage of birds, used to decorate artworks and
buildings, etc.
4. (medicine, dated) Peristalsis.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vermiculation>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
At this weak, pale, tabescent moment in the history of American
literature, we need a battalion, a brigade, of Zolas to head out into
this wild, bizarre, unpredictable, Hog-stomping, Baroque country of ours
and reclaim it as literary property.
--Tom Wolfe
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tom_Wolfe>
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