The Battle of Caen on 26 July 1346 was an assault on the French-held
town by a force of archers and men-at-arms, part of an invading English
army under King Edward III during the Hundred Years' War. This force,
nominally commanded by the Earls of Warwick and Northampton, was eager
for plunder, and attacked against orders, before the rest of their army
was in position. Caen was garrisoned by 1,000–1,500 soldiers and a
large number of armed townsmen, commanded by Grand Constable of France
Raoul, the Count of Eu. The town was captured in the first assault; over
5,000 of the ordinary soldiers and townspeople were killed and a small
number of nobles were taken prisoner. After sacking the town for five
days, the army marched to the River Seine, and by 12 August they were 20
miles (32 kilometres) from Paris. After turning north they heavily
defeated the French at the Battle of Crécy two weeks later, and
commenced the successful siege of Calais the following week.
(This article is part of a featured topic: Crécy campaign.).
Read more:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/Cr%C3%A9cy_campaign>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1887:
L. L. Zamenhof published Unua Libro, the first publication to
describe Esperanto, a constructed international language.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unua_Libro>
1936:
The Canadian National Vimy Memorial, dedicated to the Canadian
Expeditionary Force members killed during the First World War, was
unveiled near Vimy, Pas-de-Calais, France.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_National_Vimy_Memorial>
2007:
After widespread controversy throughout Wales, Shambo, a black
Friesian bull that had been adopted by the local Hindu community, was
slaughtered due to concerns about bovine tuberculosis.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shambo>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
lexicography:
1. The art or craft of compiling, writing, and editing dictionaries.
2. (linguistics) The scholarly discipline of analysing and describing
the semantic, syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationships within the
lexicon (vocabulary) of a language and developing theories of dictionary
components and structures linking the data in dictionaries.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lexicography>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The poet is, etymologically, the maker. Like all makers, he
requires a stock of raw materials — in his case, experience. Now
experience is not a matter of having actually swum the Hellespont, or
danced with the dervishes, or slept in a doss-house. It is a matter of
sensibility and intuition, of seeing and hearing the significant things,
of paying attention at the right moments, of understanding and co-
ordinating. Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man
does with what happens to him. It is a gift for dealing with the
accidents of existence, not the accidents themselves. By a happy
dispensation of nature, the poet generally possesses the gift of
experience in conjunction with that of expression. What he says so well
is therefore intrinsically of value.
--Aldous Huxley
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley>