The Sack of Amorium by the Abbasid Caliphate in mid-August 838 was one of the major events in the Arab–Byzantine Wars. In retaliation for Byzantine attacks the previous year, the Caliph al-Mu'tasim targeted Amorium in central Anatolia, one of the Byzantine Empire's most important cities. The Abbasid army launched a two-pronged offensive, defeated the Byzantine emperor Theophilos and his forces at Anzen, and sacked the city of Ancyra on their way to Amorium. Faced with intrigues at Constantinople and an army rebellion, Theophilos was unable to aid the city. Amorium was strongly fortified and garrisoned, but after two weeks of siege (siege depicted), a traitor revealed a weak spot in the wall, where the Abbasids effected a breach. The commander of the breached section left his post to try to negotiate privately with the Caliph, allowing the Arabs to capture the city. Amorium was systematically destroyed, never to recover its former prosperity. Many of its inhabitants were slaughtered, and the remainder driven off as slaves. The conquest of Amorium not only was a major military disaster and a heavy personal blow for Theophilos, but also a traumatic event for the Byzantines, its impact resonating in later literature.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Amorium

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

917:

Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars: Bulgarians led by Tsar Simeon I drove the Byzantines out of Thrace with a decisive victory in the Battle of Achelous (pictured). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Achelous_(917)

1707:

The first Siege of Pensacola came to an end with the British abandoning their attempt to capture Pensacola in Spanish Florida. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Pensacola_(1707)

1910:

Hurricane-force winds combined hundreds of small fires in the U.S. states of Washington and Idaho into the Devil's Broom fire, which burned about three million acres (12,140 km²), the largest fire in recorded U.S. history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_1910

1940:

In the midst of the Battle of Britain, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered a speech thanking the Royal Air Force, declaring, "Never was so much owed by so many to so few." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_was_so_much_owed_by_so_many_to_so_few

1988:

The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army bombed a bus carrying British Army soldiers in Northern Ireland, killing eight of them and wounding another 28. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballygawley_bus_bombing

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

transhumance: The moving of cattle or other grazing animals to new pastures, often quite distant, according to the change in season. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/transhumance

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

We're beginning to learn the hard way that today's global ills are not cured by more and more science and technology.   --Roger Wolcott Sperry https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Roger_Wolcott_Sperry