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From today's featured article

The Battle of Lepanto, unknown artist, late 16th century

The Battle of Lepanto was a naval engagement taking place on 7 October 1571 in which a fleet of the Holy League, a coalition of European Catholic maritime states arranged by Pope Pius V and led by Spanish admiral Don Juan of Austria, decisively defeated the fleet of the Ottoman Empire on the northern edge of the Gulf of Corinth, off western Greece. The Ottoman forces sailing westwards from their naval station in Lepanto (Turkish: İnebahtı; Greek: Ναύπακτος or Έπαχτος Naupaktos or Épahtos) met the Holy League forces, which came from Messina, Sicily, where they had previously gathered.

The victory of the Holy League prevented the Ottoman Empire from expanding further along the European side of the Mediterranean. Lepanto was the last major naval battle in the Mediterranean fought entirely between galleys and has been assigned great symbolic and historical importance by several historians. (Full article...)

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• ... that NuScale Power has designed a line of small, modular nuclear reactors?
• ... that the name Zoroaster possibly means "he who manages camels"?
• ... that Ian McDonald's 2015 science fiction novel Luna: New Moon has been called "Game of Thrones in space"?
• ... that some people believe that the moon landings were fake?

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On this day...

October 1

• 1800 – Spain cedes Louisiana to France via the Treaty of San Ildefonso.
• 1827 – Russo-Persian War: The Russian army under Ivan Paskevich storms Yerevan, ending a millennium of Muslim domination in Armenia.
• 1832 – Texian political delegates convened at San Felipe de Austin to petition for changes in the governance of Mexican Texas.
• 1891 – In California, Stanford University opens its doors.
• 1938 – Germany annexes the Sudetenland.
• 1955 – The Honeymooners premiered on American television.
• 1989 – Denmark introduces the world's first legal modern same-sex civil union called "registered partnership".

• More anniversaries:
  • September 30
  • October 1
  • October 2

October 2

• 1941 – World War II: In Operation Typhoon, Germany begins an all-out offensive against Moscow.
• 1942 – World War II: Ocean Liner RMS Queen Mary accidentally rams and sinks her own escort ship, HMS Curacoa, off the coast of Ireland, killing 239 crewmen aboard the Curacoa.
• 1959 – The anthology series The Twilight Zone premieres on CBS television.
• 1967 – Thurgood Marshall is sworn in as the first African-American justice of United States Supreme Court.
• 1979 – Pope John Paul II denounces all forms of concentration camps and torture while speaking at the U.N. in New York City.
• 1980 – Michael Myers becomes the first member of either chamber of Congress to be expelled since the Civil War.
• 2007 – President Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea walks across the Military Demarcation Line into North Korea on his way to the second Inter-Korean Summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

• More anniversaries:
  • October 1
  • October 2
  • October 3

• 42 BC – First Battle of Philippi: Triumvirs Mark Antony and Octavian fight a decisive battle with Caesar's assassins Brutus and Cassius.
• 1849 – American author Edgar Allan Poe is found delirious in a gutter in Baltimore under mysterious circumstances; it is the last time he is seen in public before his death.
• 1863 – The last Thursday in November is declared as Thanksgiving Day by United States President Abraham Lincoln as are Thursdays, November 30, 1865 and November 29, 1866.
• 1912 – U.S. forces defeat Nicaraguan rebels under the command of Benjamín Zeledón at the Battle of Coyotepe Hill.
• 1932 – Iraq gains independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1942 – Spaceflight: The first successful launch of a V-2 /A4-rocket from Test Stand VII at Peenemünde, Germany. It is the first man-made object to reach space.
• 1950 – Korean War: The First Battle of Maryang San, primarily pitting Australian and British forces against communist China, begins.

• More anniversaries:
  • October 2
  • October 3
  • October 4

Today's featured picture

The Painter of Sunflowers (in French: Le Peintre de Tournesols) is a portrait of Vincent van Gogh by Paul Gauguin in December 1888. The portrait was painted when Gauguin visited in Arles. Van Gogh had asked him to come to Arles, because he wanted to start an art-colony there. Gauguin however only stayed for two months, because the painters argued. (Full article...)

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