Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 August 10

The Uruguayan War (10 August 1864 – 20 February 1865) was fought between Uruguay's governing Blanco Party and an alliance consisting of the Empire of Brazil and the Uruguayan Colorado Party. In 1863, with covert support from Argentina, the Colorado leader Venancio Flores launched a rebellion aimed at toppling president Bernardo Berro. The Blanco government received support from dissident Argentines and made overtures to Paraguayan dictator, Francisco Solano López, who was suspicious of Argentina's motives and keen to form an alliance. Fearing for its interests in the region, the Empire of Brazil intervened, first trying diplomacy and then, when talks stalled, issuing an ultimatum; the Blanco government rejected the Brazilians' conditions, and Brazil's military were ordered to begin exacting reprisals, marking the beginning of the war. In a combined offensive against Blanco strongholds, the Brazilian–Colorado troops advanced through Uruguayan territory, taking one town after another (storming of Paysandú pictured). Eventually, the Blancos were left isolated in Montevideo, the national capital. Faced with certain defeat, the Blanco government capitulated. (Full article...)

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From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

• ... that the first described fossil of Aphaeno­gaster mersa (illustrated) had a white mold coating?
• ... that the Degree Angular Scale Interferometer was the first instrument to detect polarization anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background?
• ... that Klesie Kelly, soprano and academic voice teacher in Cologne, recorded love songs for voices and instrumen­tal soloists with tenor Ian Partridge?
• ... that Giacomo Orefice's 1901 opera Chopin, based very loosely on Chopin's life, has been called "a kitsch contribution to the last vestiges of late 19th-century romanti­cized bohemianism"?
• ... that the reign of Ha' K'in Xook, who ruled the Maya city of Piedras Negras from 767–780 AD, seems to have been relatively free from war?
• ... that former Cardiff MP Ian Grist's signature, I Grist, signifies "Jesus Christ" in Welsh?
• ... that a critic thought that a "pack of satanic Marmadukes" would be scarier than the film Hellhounds?

• Khmer Rouge leaders Nuon Chea (pictured) and Khieu Samphan are found guilty of crimes against humanity by a UN-backed tribunal.
• The ESA spacecraft Rosetta reaches the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
• A 6.1-magnitude earthquake in Yunnan, China, kills at least 589 people and injures more than 2,400 others.
• At least 15 soldiers die in clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
• Gas explosions in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, kill at least 30 people and injure more than 300 others.
• Heavy rains trigger a landslide in the Pune district of India, killing more than 130 people.

Ongoing:

Libyan conflict –

Gaza conflict –

Ebola outbreak –

Ukrainian unrest

Recent deaths: Dick Smith

August 10: Raksha Bandhan (Hinduism, 2014); Feast Day of Saint Lawrence (Roman Catholic Church)

• 955 – Forces under Otto I were victorious at the Battle of Lechfeld near present-day Augsburg, Germany, holding off the incursions of the Magyars into Central Europe.
• 1628 – The Swedish warship Vasa (salvaged wreck pictured) sank after sailing less than a nautical mile into her maiden voyage from Stockholm on her way to fight in the Thirty Years' War.
• 1755 – The first wave of the Expulsion of the Acadians from the present-day Canadian Maritime provinces by the British began with the Bay of Fundy Campaign at Chignecto.
• 1901 – The Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers organized an ultimately unsuccessful strike to reverse its declining fortunes and organize large numbers of new members.
• 1990 – NASA's Magellan space probe reached Venus on a mission to map its surface, fifteen months after its launch.

More anniversaries: August 9 – August 10 – August 11

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