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From today's featured article

Combat de Grand Port; Gilbert

The Battle of Grand Port was a naval battle between frigates from the French Navy and the British Royal Navy, fought in August 1810 to control the harbour of Grand Port on Isle de France (now Mauritius) during the Napoleonic Wars. The British squadron of four frigates sought to blockade the port, but four of the five French ships managed to break past the blockade. They took shelter in a protected anchorage that was only accessible through a series of complicated reefs and sandbanks, requiring an experienced harbour pilot. When the British commander, Samuel Pym, ordered his frigates to attack, they became trapped in the narrow channels of the bay: two were irretrievably grounded, a third was outnumbered and defeated, and a fourth, unable to close within effective gun range, was later seized as it left the harbour. Although the French ships were also badly damaged, the defeat was the worst the Royal Navy suffered during the entire war, and it left the Indian Ocean and its vital trade convoys exposed to attack from Commodore Jacques Hamelin's frigates. In December a strong British battle squadron under Admiral Albemarle Bertie rapidly invaded and subdued Isle de France. (Full article...)

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In the news

Jason Day

A bomb explosion in Bangkok, Thailand, kills 20 people and injures more than 120 others.
In golf, Jason Day (pictured) wins the PGA Championship.
The Netball World Cup concludes with Australia defeating New Zealand in the final.
Trigana Air Service Flight 257 crashes in Papua, Indonesia, killing all 54 passengers and crew.
Mathematicians at the University of Washington Bothell discover a new type of pentagon tiling, the first new way to "tile the plane" with a single polygon since 1985.
Flooding in Myanmar kills at least 100 people and affects more than a million others.

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Recent deaths:
- Julian Bond

On this day...

August 20: Qixi Festival (Chinese calendar, 2015); Day of Restoration of Independence in Estonia (1991); St. Stephen's Day in Hungary

A bus on a track on the O-Bahn Busway

636 – Rashidun forces led by Khalid ibn al-Walid took control of Syria and Palestine in the Battle of Yarmouk, marking the first great wave of Muslim conquests after the death of Muhammad.
1707 – The first Siege of Pensacola came to an end with the British abandoning their attempt to capture Pensacola in Spanish Florida.
1882 – The 1812 Overture by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was first performed at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.
1940 – In the midst of the Battle of Britain, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered a speech thanking the Royal Air Force, declaring, "Never was so much owed by so many to so few."
1989 – The final stage of the O-Bahn Busway in Adelaide, South Australia, was completed, becoming the world's longest and fastest guided busway with buses travelling a total of 12 km (7.5 mi) at maximum speeds up to 100 km/h (62 mph) (example pictured).

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Today's featured picture

The Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) is a species of seabird in the auk family. The only puffin native to the Atlantic Ocean, it breeds in Iceland, Norway, Greenland, Newfoundland and many North Atlantic islands. The species spends the autumn and winter in the open ocean, returning to coastal areas in late spring and nesting in clifftop colonies. The Atlantic puffin has a large population and a wide range, and is thus not considered endangered.

Photograph: Richard Bartz

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