The Battle of Panormus was fought on Sicily in 250 BC during the First
Punic War between a Roman army led by Lucius Caecilius Metellus and a
Carthaginian force led by Hasdrubal. The Romans captured the major
Sicilian city of Panormus in 254 BC. Thereafter they avoided battle for
fear of the Carthaginian war elephants. In 250 BC Hasdrubal led out his
army to devastate the crops of Rome's allied cities. The Romans withdrew
to Panormus and Hasdrubal pressed on to the city walls. Once he arrived,
Metellus countered the elephants with a hail of javelins from earthworks
dug near the walls. Infuriated by this missile fire, the elephants fled
through the Carthaginian infantry. The Roman infantry then charged the
Carthaginian left flank, which broke, along with the rest of the
Carthaginians. The elephants were captured and later slaughtered in the
Circus Maximus (commemorative coin pictured). This was the last
significant land battle of the war, which ended nine years later in a
Roman victory.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Panormus>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1871:
Thespis, the first comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan,
premiered at the Gaiety Theatre in London.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thespis_%28opera%29>
1946:
American gangster Bugsy Siegel opened The Flamingo Hotel &
Casino in Las Vegas, the oldest casino still in operation on the Las
Vegas Strip.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamingo_Las_Vegas>
1996:
The Federation of Korean Trade Unions called on its
1.2 million members to refuse to work, beginning the largest organized
strike in South Korean history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996%E2%80%931997_strikes_in_South_Korea>
2006:
Two earthquakes occurring off the southwest coast of Taiwan
damaged submarine communications cables, disrupting Internet services in
Asia and seriously affecting financial transactions.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Hengchun_earthquakes>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
take the gilt off the gingerbread:
(idiomatic) To take away the most attractive or appealing qualities of
something; to destroy an illusion.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/take_the_gilt_off_the_gingerbread>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The fight for ideals can no longer take the form of fight between
nations, because the lines of division on moral questions are within the
nations themselves and intersect the political frontiers.
--Norman Angell
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Norman_Angell>