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Thanks for the suggestions, Sherurcij. For 2007, I've just posted the 1959 item about Luna 3 and the far side of the Moon. The 2001 war in Afghanistan seems somewhat current, and, if choices are available, I'd suggest not having so many military-related items. (In retrospect, i should have used it for the 5th Anniversary. Too late now.) Achille Lauro is already there. And, I'd pass on the 1951 item because the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel is already featured on May 14th. Thanks, again, for the suggestions. --
PFHLai15:26, 26 October 2006 (UTC)reply
Who is Erin born in 1991, and why does she(he?) merit inclusion on a list like this?
"The Ottoman Empire was decisively defeated by the Christian West for the first time" - Not true. The Ottomans suffered many defeats against the Hungarians under John Huyandi, and in particular the Siege of Belgrade in the late 15th century was surely a "decisive defeat" for the Ottomans.
Gabr-el05:06, 7 October 2009 (UTC)reply
Alternative wording? With all due respect, its simple enough for you to see: The Ottoman Empire was decisively defeated by the Christian West. Perhaps on second thought this is better:
According to today's main page (October 7), the Ottoman Empire was decisively defeated at Lepanto 438 years ago, but actually that's wrong: it's now strongly believed, thanks to the studies of many historians, especially
Fernand Braudel, that this battle was absolutely irrelevant; as a proof of this, in 1572 the Turkish navy defeated Venice ships. —Preceding
unsigned comment added by
78.12.171.126 (
talk)
21:10, 7 October 2009 (UTC)reply
The description of the
battle of Lepanto was changed from the very factual statement about it being the last major galley battle in history (something which is entire uncontroversial and highly significant) to a text about a comparison with the entirely unrelated
battle of Actium, a statement which not merely fraught with complications and over-simplifications (and is also unreferenced).
Could we please change it back to themore concrete and uncomplicated suggestion I made on 19 September?
I was trying to avoid two consecutive blurbs using the phrase "decisively defeated". I also think the fact of it being the last battle between galleys isn't catchy enough. Replaced with another nugget from the intro ("protected the Italian peninsula from an Ottoman invasion"). howcheng {
chat}07:15, 7 October 2011 (UTC)reply
This was at best the immediate strategic result of Lepanto, a mere geographic detail with little or no meaning to most readers (and quite speculative). I disagree quite strongly that the reference to the galley isn't "catchy" enough. We're talking about the end of an era for a type of warship that had been around since the very invention of naval warfare in the Mediterranean. In this context, Lepanto is likely the most significant single event ever since it marked the end of the galley era, and did so with a bang. In terms of number of participants, it was one of the largest battles ever fought until that time, even if we include land battles. From a wider historical perspective, it's second in importance only in that it was the first decisive defeat of the Ottoman Empire by the Western European powers.
Either way, the "Italy was saved"-statement is very speculative and too focused on short-term strategy to be appropriate. It's a mere geographic detail in this context.
The galley bit is interesting if you know ships, otherwise it's meaningless. Changed again to "the first major Ottoman loss to European powers". howcheng {
chat}15:53, 7 October 2011 (UTC)reply