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The battle, as depicted in Froissart's Chronicles

The Battle of Poitiers was fought on 19 September 1356 between a French army commanded by King John II and an Anglo-Gascon force under Edward, the Black Prince, during the Hundred Years' War. The Anglo-Gascons had set out on a major campaign while John gathered a large and unusually mobile army and pursued. The 6,000 Anglo-Gascons stood on the defensive and were attacked by 14,000 to 16,000 Frenchmen. An initial assault was driven back after hard fighting. A second under John's son and heir was also repulsed. Many Frenchmen then left the field. Those remaining gathered around the King and launched another attack, while signalling that no prisoners were to be taken. The French got the better of this fight until a small Anglo-Gascon force appeared behind them. The French panicked and their force collapsed; John and his youngest son were taken prisoner. Negotiations to end the war and ransom John resulted in the 1360 Treaty of Brétigny, which temporarily ended the war with an English victory. (Full article...)

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Philippeion, a tholos in Olympia

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In the news

Evika Siliņa

Evika Siliņa (pictured) takes office as Prime Minister of Latvia.
In Hanoi, Vietnam, a fire at an apartment building kills at least 56 people.
The FIBA Basketball World Cup concludes with Germany defeating Serbia in the final.
Storm Daniel causes flooding around the central Mediterranean and the collapse of two dams in Libya, leaving thousands of people dead.

On this day

September 19: Ganesh Chaturthi (Hinduism, 2023); International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Statue of Our Lady of La Salette

1692 – Salem witch trials: Giles Corey was crushed to death for refusing to enter a plea to charges of witchcraft, reportedly asking officials for "more weight".
1846 – Near La Salette-Fallavaux in southeastern France, shepherd children Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud reported a Marian apparition, now known as Our Lady of La Salette (statue pictured).
1940 – World War II: Polish resistance leader Witold Pilecki allowed himself to be captured by German forces and sent to Auschwitz to gather intelligence.
1970 – The first Glastonbury Festival was held at Michael Eavis's farm in Glastonbury, England.
1995 – Industrial Society and Its Future, the manifesto of American domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski, was published in The Washington Post almost three months after it was submitted.

Theodore of Tarsus (d. 690)
Paterson Clarence Hughes (b. 1917)
Judith Kanakuze (b. 1959)
Wu Zhonghua (d. 1992)

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Today's featured picture

Mabel Vernon (September 19, 1883 – September 2, 1975) was an American suffragist, pacifist, and a national leader in the suffrage movement in the United States. A Quaker and a member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, Vernon was inspired by the methods used by the Women's Social and Political Union in the United Kingdom. She was one of the principal members of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage, and helped to organize the Silent Sentinels' protests that involved daily picketing of Woodrow Wilson's White House. This photograph of Vernon was taken around 1917, the year in which she was elected the secretary of the National Woman's Party, and became one of the first six women to be arrested while picketing the White House, under charges of "obstructing the traffic". They were each ordered to pay a $25 fine or spend three days in jail; all of the women insisted they were innocent and refused to pay the fine.

Photograph credit: Edmonston; restored by Adam Cuerden

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