📅 On This Day in Military History
5 events across history
A decade after Crécy, the Black Prince repeated his father's triumph at Poitiers with a smaller English force of roughly 8,000 against a French army of perhaps 20,000. Again, English longbowmen on a ridge tore apart French cavalry charges. When the French dismounted to advance on foot, the Black Prince launched a devastating counterattack that shattered the French army. King John II of France himself was captured on the battlefield — a shocking humiliation. John was taken to London and held for a ransom of three million gold crowns, approximately twice the annual revenue of France.
The capture of the French king made Poitiers one of the most consequential engagements of the entire war. The ensuing Treaty of Brétigny (1360) gave England enormous territorial gains in exchange for John's release. It was the high-water mark of English success in the first phase of the war and reinforced the longbow's supremacy over armored cavalry.
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Burgoyne's army, advancing south from Canada to cut off New England, collided with Gates's Continental forces at Freeman's Farm along the Hudson River. Daniel Morgan's riflemen and Benedict Arnold's aggressive counterattacks inflicted heavy casualties. Despite holding the field, Burgoyne suffered losses he could not replace, far from his supply lines.
The first engagement of the Saratoga campaign established the pattern — American riflemen decimated British officers and Burgoyne's supply situation became increasingly desperate. The noose was tightening.
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The Confederacy's last major victory in the Western Theater. A gap accidentally opened in the Union line and Confederate forces poured through, routing most of the army. Gen. George Thomas earned the nickname 'Rock of Chickamauga' by holding the Union left.
Confederate victory trapped Union forces in Chattanooga. Grant was sent west to break the siege and would soon command all Union armies.
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The siege of Paris lasted 131 days, from September 19, 1870 to January 28, 1871. A city of two million people was surrounded by German forces and systematically starved. Food ran out progressively: horses were eaten first, then zoo animals (the elephant Castor and Pollux were sold as steaks), then rats and cats. Bread was adulterated with sawdust. A daily ration fell to 300 calories toward the siege's end. German artillery began a deliberate bombardment of the city in January 1871, killing hundreds of civilians and producing international outrage but no change in the military situation. Multiple sorties by the Paris garrison failed to break through the siege lines. When the armistice was finally signed on January 28, Paris was on the verge of outright famine.
The siege of Paris produced three distinct consequences. Militarily, it destroyed any remaining French capacity for organized resistance and forced the armistice. Politically, it created the humiliation and social tension that exploded into the Paris Commune six weeks later. And culturally, it generated a body of literature, journalism, and visual art about siege, starvation, and civilian suffering — including Victor Hugo's accounts and the photography of the Commune's aftermath — that shaped European political consciousness for a generation.
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British and Empire forces under Allenby shattered the Ottoman army in Palestine. Using cavalry, aircraft, and coordinated infantry in a masterful combined-arms operation, Allenby destroyed three Ottoman armies in a week. Damascus fell on October 1st. T.E. Lawrence and the Arab Revolt rode alongside, entering cities in triumph.
The most complete military victory of WWI. Knocked the Ottoman Empire out of the war and ended 400 years of Ottoman rule in the Arab world. The subsequent Sykes-Picot division of the Middle East by Britain and France drew borders that fuel conflict to this day.
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