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Description
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Battle
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1805, Napoleon I smashes the combined Austrian and Russian army near Vienna, in a show of extreme military prowess
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Battle of Austerlitz
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1942 - 1943, Turning point of WWII on the Russian Front, the most hard-fought city in the war
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Battle of Stalingrad
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480 BCE, 300 Spartans die defending a mountain pass from the invading Persians
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Battle of Thermopylae
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1854, British and French cavalry charge at Russian artillery in Crimea, only to be promptly shot down.
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Battle of Balaclava
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1775, A British army captures the French colonial capital, ousting the French from North America
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Siege of Quebec
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1071, The Byzantine army is smashed by the Seljuk Turks, ending Byzantine rule in Asia Minor
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Battle of Manzikert
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53 BCE, Crassus is killed and his legions are defeated by Parthian horse archers
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Battle of Carrhae
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1798, Napoleon's defining victory in Egypt over the Mamluks, before he is forced to flee
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Battle of the Pyramids
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1529, Turks besiege Austria capital, threatening Europe from the east
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Siege of Vienna
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1571, Christian combined fleet defeats Turkish fleet, temporarily stopping Ottoman ambitions
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Battle of Lepanto
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333 BCE, Alexander III's second great victory over Persia, in southern Anatolia
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Battle of Issus
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1815, the last of Napoleon Bonaparte's victories, in Belgium
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Battle of Ligny
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1066, Harold Godwinson, king of the Saxons defeats Norwegian invasion led by Harald Hardrada
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Battle of Stamford Bridge
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378, Eastern Roman Emperor Valens is outflanked by the Visigothic cavalry, thus ending the domination of heavy infantry in battle
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Battle of Adrianople
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1485, the War of the Roses is concluded with Henry VII's victory over Richard III
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Battle of Bosworth Field
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1632, the Swedish victory in Germany has Gustaphus Adophus II killed, in the Thirty Years War
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Battle of Lutzen
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circa 13th century BCE, in mythology, this city's destruction is believed to have been caused by the kidnapping of Helen of Sparta
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Siege of Troy
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1274 BCE, one of the first recorded battle in history, between Egypt and the Hittites
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Battle of Kadesh
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1950, UN forces land at a strategic North Korea port, forcing North Koreans to retreat
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Landing at Inchon
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326 BCE, Alexander's final great battle in his conquests before his army rebels
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Battle of Hydaspes River
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1453, the Byzantine walls are finally penetrated by Ottoman Turks, after a thousand years of resistance
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Siege of Constantinople
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Description
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Battle
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1627, Cardinal de Richelieu captures the key Huguenot stronghold in Western France
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Siege of La Rochelle
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1187, the dehydrated Crusader army is lured to the Sea of Galilee, where they are promptly destroyed by Saladin's army
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Battle of Hattin
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1815, Napoleon I's final defeat, 100 days after he returns from Elba. Napoleon's army collapses after Prussian reinforcements arrive.
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Battle of Waterloo
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1812, Napoleon attempts to destroy the Russian army and force a surrender, but Alexander I did not surrender, and Napoleon had to retreat
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Battle of Borodino
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1813, After his return from Russia, Napoleon's fresh army attempts to fight the Sixth Coalition, before he is forced to abdicate for the first time
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Battle of Leipzig
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1863, the decisive battle of the American Civil War, where Robert E. Lee failed to win a victory on Union soil.
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Battle of Gettysburg
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1916, British commander Douglas Haig attempts to soften the German attack on Verdun by mounting an offensive of his own. Armored vehicles were first used in combat in this battle.
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Battle of the Somme
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1914, the thundering German advance onto Paris is halted for the first time at this river.
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First Battle of the Marne
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1961, Cuban immigrants from the U.S. are trained and sent to land in Cuba and oust Fidel Castro, in this failed invasion.
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Bay of Pigs Invasion
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1704, Marlborough saves Austria, and defeats the Franco-Bavarian army in the War of the Spanish Succession
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Battle of Blenheim
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1592, the Korean fleet led by Admiral Yi defeated the Japanese fleet, thus obligating the Japanes to retreat from Korea
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Battle of Sacheon
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1396, the final crusade in the Middle Ages resulted in an easy victory for the Ottomans at this battle
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Battle of Nicopolis
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102 BCE, Gaius Marius demostrates the power of a professional army drawn from the lower class, by defeating a Teutonic army in southern Gaul.
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Battle of Aquae Sextiae
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331 BCE, Alexander III outflanks Darius III's army, ending the Achaemenid Empire
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Battle of Gaugamela
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1968, Ho Chi Minh decides to begin an all-out offensive against the US forces in Vietnam, during this event's namesake holiday
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The Tet Offensive
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31 BCE, the final battle of the Wars of the Roman Republic, where Octavian defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra at sea.
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Battle of Actium
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1945, the Red Army fought street by street through the capital of the defeated Third Reich
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Battle of Berlin
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1943, the greatest tank battle in WWII is fought near this Russian town
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Battle of Kursk
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1757, Frederick the Great of Prussia crushes the Hapsburgs and French in Saxony during the middle of the Seven Years' War
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Battle of Rossbach
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1916, only major naval battle in WWI, last one to not use aircraft
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Battle of Jutland
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