Foreign Exchanges

Shanah Tovah to those who are celebrating! September 11, 1714: The Siege of Barcelona ends with the French-Bourbon besiegers victorious over the city’s Habsburg defenders. The siege was one of the final engagements of the War of the Spanish Succession, which had begun back in 1701 following the death of Habsburg Spanish King Charles II.

You’re reading the web version of Foreign Exchanges. If you’d like to get it delivered straight to your inbox, sign up today and get 40% off on your first year: September 10, 1813: In one of the largest naval engagements in the War of 1812, a US fleet defeats a smaller British fleet in the Battle of Lake Erie.

September 9 (or thereabouts), 9: A large Roman army under general Publius Quinctillus Varus is thoroughly defeated by a Germanic alliance under one of Varus’s former auxiliaries, Arminius (“Hermann” in German), at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest somewhere in what today is northwestern Germany.

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You’re reading the web version of Foreign Exchanges. If you’d like to get it delivered straight to your inbox, sign up today and get 40% off on your first year: PROGRAMMING NOTE: Since tomorrow is Labor Day in the US I’m going to play it by ear in terms of writing a roundup. Basically if it seems like a relatively slow news day I will hold off and double up on Tuesday.

September 4, 476: Odoacer and his army depose the very young western Roman Emperor Romulus Augustus (“Augustulus”) at Ravenna. This is the conventional date given for the final end of the Roman Empire in the west, though there were other claimants to the throne still kicking around.

You’re reading the web version of Foreign Exchanges. If you’d like to get it delivered straight to your inbox, sign up today and get 40% off on your first year: September 3, 301: According to tradition, this is the date upon which a stonemason-turned-deacon named Marinus founds a new monastery on Monte Titano, some distance outside the Italian city of Rimini. He may have fled Rimini after a woman there accused him of being her estranged husband.

September 2, 31 BCE (or thereabouts): Octavian’s forces decisively defeat the navy of Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium. Actium effectively marked the end of the war between Octavian and Antony, as both Antony and Cleopatra subsequently retreated to Alexandria and eventually committed suicide after Octavian besieged the city. His rival gone, Octavian became the first emperor of Rome, taking the title Augustus to mark his new status.

You’re reading the web version of Foreign Exchanges. If you’d like to get it delivered straight to your inbox, sign up today and get 40% off on your first year: September 1, 1880: A decisive British victory at the Battle of Kandahar ends the Second Anglo-Afghan War. British authorities deposed Afghan Emir Ayub Khan Barakzai and replaced him with his more pliable cousin, Abdur Rahman Khan.

Upgrade to paid to play voiceover August 31, 1907: Britain and Russia sign the Anglo-Russian Convention, which closes arguably the last chapter in their “Great Game” rivalry in Asia, at least until the 1917 Russian Revolution.