A ship filling with water and sinking
Foundering
Fact of the Day
Seventeenth-century butchers could be fined for killing bulls without baiting them first. Baiting was thought to improve the quality of the meat.
Quote of the Day
"Is life not a hundred times too short - to get bored?
"
~ Nietzsche
On This Day
52 BCE The Siege of Alesia formally came to an end when Vercingetorix, leader of the Gaulish forces, surrendered to Julius Caesar.
1283 Dafydd ap Gruffydd, the last independent ruler of Wales, was hanged, drawn and quartered on the orders of Edward I.
1691 The Treaty of Limerick was signed, ending the Williamite War in Ireland between the Jacobites and the supporters of William of Orange.
1932 Iraq gained independence from Britain, after 17 years of British rule.
1935 Italian forces invaded Abyssinia (modern-day Ethiopia) without a formal declaration of war.
1981 The second Irish hunger strike at Maze Prison in Northern Ireland was called off. 10 republican prisoners died in the showdown with Margaret Thatcher.