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Taunton Castle
The sieges of Taunton (23 September 1644 – 9 July 1645) during the First English Civil War were a series of three blockades of the town and castle of Taunton in Somerset. During all three, Robert Blake commanded the Parliamentarian defences of Taunton, which straddled the main road from Bristol to Devon and Cornwall. The first assault, by Royalist troops from local garrisons, initially drove Blake and his troops into the castle, before settling into a siege intended to starve the town into submission. The defenders were relieved by a force under James Holborne in December. The Royalists began the second, and bloodiest, siege in late March; in May, after five days of intense fighting, a Parliamentarian relief army led by Ralph Weldon forced a retreat. Lord Goring renewed the blockade in mid-May, after engaging Weldon's departing army and forcing it back into Taunton, but the siege was ineffective. The Parliamentarian defence tied up Goring's troops, who missed the decisive Battle of Naseby. Historians believe those troops could have tipped the battle in favour of the Royalists. (Full article...)
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Ramón Emeterio Betances
- 1568 – Anglo-Spanish War: At San Juan de Ulúa (in modern Veracruz, Mexico), Spanish naval forces forced English privateers to halt their illegal trade.
- 1779 – American Revolutionary War: John Paul Jones led a Franco-American squadron to victory in the Battle of Flamborough Head, one of the most celebrated naval actions of the war.
- 1868 – Ramón Emeterio Betances (pictured) led the Grito de Lares, a revolt against Spanish rule in Puerto Rico.
- 1952 – In one of the first political uses of television to appeal directly to the populace, Republican vice presidential candidate Richard Nixon delivered the "Checkers speech", refuting accusations of improprieties with contributions to his campaign.
- 1983 – A bomb placed by the Abu Nidal organisation destroyed Gulf Air Flight 771, flying from Karachi, Pakistan, to Abu Dhabi, UAE, killing all 112 people aboard.
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