The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was the climactic battle of the First Indochina
War between French Union forces and Viet Minh communist revolutionary
forces. The battle occurred between March and May 1954, and culminated in a
massive French defeat that effectively ended the war. The French undertook
to create an air-supplied base at Dien Bien Phu, deep in the hills of
Vietnam, in order to cut off Viet Minh supply lines into the neighboring
French protectorate of Laos. The Viet Minh, under General Vo Nguyen Giap,
surrounded and besieged the French, who were unaware of the Viet Minh's
possession of heavy artillery. The Viet Minh occupied the highlands around
Dien Bien Phu, and were able to fire down accurately onto French positions.
Tenacious fighting on the ground ensued, reminiscent of the trench warfare
of World War I. The French repeatedly repulsed Viet Minh assaults on their
positions. Supplies and reinforcements were delivered by air, although as
the French positions were overrun and the anti-aircraft fire took its toll,
fewer and fewer of those supplies reached them. After a two month siege, the
garrison was overrun and most French surrendered. Shortly after the battle,
the war ended with the 1954 Geneva accords, under which France agreed to
withdraw from its former Indochinese colonies.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dien_Bien_Phu
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1842:
When he reached the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, William
Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British Army during the First
Anglo-Afghan War, became the sole European survivor of a party of over 4,500
military personnel and over 10,000 civilian camp followers retreating from
Kabul, excluding a few prisoners released later.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Brydon)
1898:
The Paris newspaper L'Aurore published "J'accuse...!", an open letter
by
French writer Émile Zola to French President Félix Faure exposing the
Dreyfus affair.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89mile_Zola)
1968:
American singer Johnny Cash recorded his landmark album At Folsom Prison
live at Folsom State Prison in Folsom, California.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_Folsom_Prison)
1986:
A month-long violent struggle began in Aden, South Yemen between supporters
of President Ali Nasir Muhammad and his predecessor Abdul Fattah Ismail,
resulting in thousands of casualties.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Democratic_Republic_of_Yemen)
1991:
The January Events: Soviet troops attacked Lithuanian independence
supporters at the TV Tower in Vilnius, killing 14 people.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_Events)
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
go the extra mile (v) (idiomatic) To make an extra effort; to do a
particularly good job.
(
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/go_the_extra_mile)
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The explorers of the past were great men and we should honour them. But let
us not forget that their spirit lives on. It is still not hard to find a man
who will adventure for the sake of a dream or one who will search, for the
pleasure of searching, not for what he may find. --Sir Edmund Hillary
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmund_Hillary)