The War of the Fifth Coalition in 1809 pitted a coalition of the
Austrian Empire and the United Kingdom against Napoleon's French Empire
and Bavaria. Major engagements between France and Austria, the main
participants, unfolded over much of Central Europe from April to July,
producing horrific casualty rates. Britain, already involved on the
European continent in the ongoing Peninsular War, sent another
expedition to the Netherlands to take pressure off the Austrians,
although this had little impact on the outcome of the conflict. After
much campaigning in Bavaria and across the Danube valley, the war ended
favorably for the French after the bloody struggle at the Battle of
Wagram. The resulting Treaty of Schönbrunn imposed harsh terms upon
Austria, forcing her to concede territory accounting for over three
million subjects, about one-fifth of her total population. France
received Carinthia, Carniola, and the Adriatic ports, while Galicia was
given to the Poles and the Salzburg area of the Tyrol went to the
Bavarians. While fighting in the Iberian Peninsula would continue, the
War of the Fifth Coalition was the last major conflict on the European
continent until the French invasion of Russia in 1812 sparked the rise
of the Sixth Coalition.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Fifth_Coalition>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1773:
The first recorded ministry of education, the Commission of National
Education, was formed in Poland.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commission_of_National_Education>
1888:
French inventor Louis Le Prince filmed Roundhay Garden Scene, the
earliest surviving motion picture, in Roundhay, Leeds, West Yorkshire,
England.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundhay_Garden_Scene>
1926:
The first book featuring English author A. A. Milne's fictional bear
Winnie-the-Pooh was first published.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnie-the-Pooh>
1939:
World War II: The German submarine U-47 torpedoed and sunk the British
Royal Navy battleship HMS Royal Oak while the latter was anchored at
Scapa Flow in Orkney, Scotland.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Royal_Oak_%2808%29>
1947:
Flying at an altitude of 45,000 ft (13.7 km) in an experimental Bell
X-1 rocket-powered aircraft, American test pilot Chuck Yeager became
the first person to break the sound barrier.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Yeager>
1953:
Israeli military commander Ariel Sharon and his Unit 101 special forces
attacked the village of Qibya on the West Bank, destroying 45
buildings, killing 42 villagers, and wounding 15 others.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qibya_massacre>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
gratuitously (adv):
1. Freely; in the manner of a gift, without being earned.
2. In a manner not demanded by the circumstances, without reason,
justification, cause, or proof
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gratuitously>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses
both.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower>
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