The siege of Guînes took place from May to July 1352 when a French army under Geoffrey de Charny unsuccessfully attempted to recapture the French castle (pictured) at Guînes which had been seized by the English the previous January. The siege was part of the Hundred Years' War and took place during the uneasy and ill-kept truce of Calais. The strongly fortified castle had been taken by the English during a period of nominal truce and the English king, Edward III, decided to keep it. Charny led 4,500 men and retook the town but was unable to either recapture or blockade the castle. After two months of fierce fighting, a large English night attack on the French camp inflicted a heavy defeat and the French withdrew. Guînes was incorporated into the Pale of Calais. The threat posed by this enclave caused the French to garrison 60 fortified positions around it, at ruinous expense. The castle was besieged by the French in 1436 and 1514, but was relieved each time, before falling to the French in 1558. (Full article...)
... that Giovanni Manu was the first player from his university ever to be selected in the NFL draft?
... that Barack Obama made an election promise to make non-emergency bills freely available online for a five-day public consultation period under "sunlight before signing"?
... that Bob Noel was the one responsible for dealing "with all the dirty laundry" of the Green Bay Packers?
Ludwigsburg Palace is a 452-room complex of 18 buildings in Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the largest palatial estate in the country and has been called the "Versailles of Swabia". Eberhard Louis, Duke of Württemberg, began construction of the palace in 1704. Charles Eugene, the son of his successor, completed it and refurbished parts in the Rococo style, especially its theatre. Charles Eugene abandoned the palace in 1775, and it began a decline until Frederick, the future duke, moved into the palace in 1795. As King of Württemberg, Frederick and his wife Queen Charlotte renovated the entirety of the palace in the Neoclassical style. The palace was opened to the public in 1918. It underwent periods of restoration, including for its tercentenary in 2004. It has hosted the Ludwigsburg Festival annually since 1947. The palace is surrounded by gardens named Blooming Baroque (Blühendes Barock), laid out in 1954 as they might have appeared in 1800. (Full article...)
1974 – In an informal article in a medical journal, Henry Heimlich introduced the concept of abdominal thrusts, commonly known as the Heimlich maneuver, to treat victims of choking.
The common moorhen (Gallinula chloropus) is a bird species in the rail family, Rallidae. It is distributed across many parts of the Old World, from Africa to Europe and Asia. It lives around well-vegetated marshes, ponds, canals and other wetlands. A midsized to large rail, the common moorhen ranges in length from 30 to 38 cm (12 to 15 in) in length and spans 50 to 62 cm (20 to 24 in) across the wings. It gives a wide range of gargling calls and will emit loud hisses when threatened. This common moorhen was photographed in the Parc des Chanteraines near Gennevilliers in the suburbs of Paris, France.
Jeremiah Gurney (1812–1895) was an American daguerreotype photographer. Initially working in the jewelry trade in Saratoga, New York, he took up photography after learning of daguerreotype from Samuel Morse, moving to New York City where he began selling photographs alongside jewelry. He was one of the earliest photographers in the city, and may have been the owner of the first photographic gallery in the United States. Gurney took this self-portrait photograph around 1869, now in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
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