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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...)

Did you know...

• ... that Buzzfeed printed fake news about President Trump?
• ... that 72 Terrorists came from countries that President Trump recently banned in Executive Order 13769?
• ... that there are 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac?
• ... that the Battle of Hampton Roads was perhaps the most important naval battle of the American Civil War from the standpoint of the development of navies?
• ... that the Drudge Report had ten billion visits in the past year?
• ... that NuScale Power has designed a line of small, modular nuclear reactors?
• ... that Emma Dench, a British classicist and the McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History at Harvard University, appeared in a film alongside her aunt Judi Dench in 1968?

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On this day...

September 18

• 1919 – Fritz Pollard becomes the first African American to play professional football for a major team, the Akron Pros.
• 1943 – World War II: The Jews of Minsk are massacred at Sobibór.
• 1945 – General Douglas MacArthur moves his command headquarters to Tokyo.
• 1947 – The United States Air Force becomes an independent branch of the United States Armed Forces.
• 1975 – Patty Hearst is arrested after a year on the FBI Most Wanted List.
• 1982 – Christian militia begin killing six-hundred Palestinians in Lebanon.
• 2007 – Buddhist monks join anti-government protesters in Myanmar, starting what some call the Saffron Revolution.

• More anniversaries:
  • September 17
  • September 18
  • September 19

September 19

• 1846 – Two French shepherd children, Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud, experience a Marian apparition on a mountaintop near La Salette, France, now known as Our Lady of La Salette.
• 1881 – U.S. President James A. Garfield dies of wounds suffered in a July 2 shooting. Vice President Chester A. Arthur becomes President upon Garfield's death.
• 1916 – During the East African Campaign of World War I, colonial armed forces of the Belgian Congo (Force Publique) under the command of General Charles Tombeur captured the town of Tabora after heavy fighting.
• 1945 – Lord Haw-Haw (William Joyce) is sentenced to death in London.
• 1959 – Nikita Khrushchev is barred from visiting Disneyland due to security concerns.
• 1995 – The Washington Post and The New York Times publish the Unabomber's manifesto.
• 2006 – The Thai military stages a coup in Bangkok. The Constitution is revoked and martial law is declared.

• More anniversaries:
  • September 18
  • September 19
  • September 20

• 1066 – Battle of Fulford, Viking Harald Hardrada defeats earls Morcar and Edwin
• 1260 – the Great Prussian Uprising among the old Prussians begins against the Teutonic Knights.
• 1378 – Cardinal Robert of Geneva, called by some the "Butcher of Cesena", is elected as Avignon Pope Clement VII, beginning the Papal schism.
• 1697 – The Treaty of Ryswick is signed by France, England, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and the Dutch Republic ending the Nine Years' War (1688–97).
• 1848 – The American Association for the Advancement of Science is created.
• 1911 – White Star Line's RMS Olympic collides with British warship HMS Hawke.
• 1930 – Syro-Malankara Catholic Church is formed by Archbishop Mar Ivanios.

• More anniversaries:
  • September 19
  • September 20
  • September 21

Today's featured picture

Vincent Willem van Gogh (Dutch: [ˈvɪnsɛnt ˈʋɪləm vɑn ˈɣɔx];<ref group =note>The pronunciation of "Van Gogh" varies in both English and Dutch. Especially in British English it is /ˌvæn ˈɡɒx/ van-GOKH or sometimes /ˌvæn ˈɡɒf/ van-GOF. U.S. dictionaries list /ˌvæn ˈɡoʊ/ van-GOH, with a silent gh, as the most common pronunciation. In the dialect of Holland, it is [ˈvɪnsɛnt fɑŋˈxɔx], with a voiceless V. He grew up in Brabant (although his parents were not born there), and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: [vɑɲˈʝɔç], with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh.

Van Gogh painted several versions of landscapes with flowers, including his View of Arles with Irises, and paintings of flowers, including Irises, Sunflowers, lilacs and roses. Some reflect his interests in the language of color, and also in Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints. (Full article...)

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