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+4 Thermopylae

It goes that after an unexpected victory, the English soldiers mocked the defeated French troops by waving their middle fingers ( here ). The image makes the further claim that the English soldiers chanted “pluck yew”, ostensibly in reference to the drawing of the longbow.

As a teen, I was privileged to meet some of the surviving Rough Riders.
6 in 1966, and 4 (IIRC) in 1967. The Rough Riders Reunion used to be held in our town. Many recruits were from our area.
I met them during the festivities, as I worked at the rodeo back then.

The fight was coming. It was just a matter of when and where. Likely Half King had his own agenda to fulfill....... And he did!

Half King was losing his authority among (I think) the Mingos? A conglomeration of the Delaware, The Shawnee and some smaller tribes just west of Pittsburgh on The Ohio.
It was Half King “Tanagresson” who brought the French to Washington’s attention.
He and his men (Virginia Militia), followed Half King to the French camp through a rainy dark, 15 mile march.
It’s a mixed up story for sure.
Washington made quite a few mistakes during the French & Indian War. I have been to Ft Necessity, and I’m thinking what the hell was he thinking?
A little half assed stockade, surrounded by forested hills.
Can you say “Death trap”?
But these hard earned lessons, I think, served him well 20 years later. He was the man who held our ragtag Army together for victory.
See what I mean about these myths, maybe being more important than what actually happened? “Uncle Hub’s” speech are words of wisdom!
7mm

Washington was lucky that the French didn’t execute him. His signed admission for the death of Jumonville meant nothing. Yep, Washington learned a lot of painful/valuable lessons in SW Pa.!

Battle of Thermopylae. I would also like to have been at the sandbar and watched JB do his stuff!!

You guys sure know your history. I nominate Culloden or just follow Charles Martel.

I would say either The Alamo or King's Mountain. I had an ancestor at King's Mountain. He didn't appreciate Major Ferguson threatening to castorate him.

it happened the way it was told. there was phone calls by the people who died. there is a flight recording. there was no military jet or even the attempt of shooting it down.

i sit 19 miles north of the crash site.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...-revealed-new-Mitchell-Zuckoff-book.html

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a5688/debunking-911-myths-flight-93/

Bosworth, 1485.

Richard III, seeing the bookish Henry Tudor exposed on the battlefield, rolls the dice and risks it all on one throw. Leads his knights in a magnificent charge around the battle, closes in on Henry.

Richard wasn’t expecting the Norman mercenaries who form up in front of Henry with their pikes, blunting the impact of his charge. At the head of the wedge formation, Richard breaks through anyway, breaking his lance in the process.

Just off to Richard’s left, Sir William Stanley, ostensibly Richard’s ally, holds his force in check, waiting to see which way the battle will go. Seeing Richard with his retinue crossing his front, Stanley sees his opportunity and opts for the Tudor side, throwing his whole force against Richard.

With his broken lance the 5’ 7” Richard, despite his curved spine, strikes the giant 6’ 8” jousting champion John Cheyne and knocks him off his horse. Henry, seeing Richard closing in, dismounts and hides behind his men. Richard next kills Henry’s standard bearer Sir William Brandon and some say came within a sword’s length of Henry just as Spencer’s force came crashing in. Richard’s horse bogs down in marshy ground and he dismounts, going down fighting against overwhelming odds.

English history turned on a dime with that last charge of mounted knights in England, the end of the Middle Ages, the rise of the Tudors. That I would like to see.

Richard’s grave was found under a parking lot 527 years later.

All of the following from books so FWIW….

To the best of my knowledge the Mingos were Iroquois, largely Senecas, that had moved west into the Ohio country. Of course by then there had been much disruption and displacement due to the advancing frontier and there had always been a lot of intermarriage between tribes anyway.

So Iroquoian-speaking tribes like the Iroquois, Huron (AKA Miami and and Wyandot) were mingling to varying extent with Algonquian-speakers like the Delaware and Shawnee. Later on a branch of the Delawares were actually incorporated on the Iroquoian-speaking Cherokee tribal rolls.

1. Battle of Thermopylae.
2. Battle of Isangard.
3. Spartacus's victories over Varius and later Claudianus.
4. Alamo
5. The Teutoburg Forest (9 CE) ...... or one of the other humiliating defeats when Rome was at its greatest power.

Ironic that historic battles and longest marriage threads are adjacent.

The Battle of Britain has always intrigued me. I've watched movies and read first hand accounts, and have never really gotten tired of hearing about Spitfires and Me-109's. I believe that if Germany had succeeded, the world as we know might look a lot different.

Here in the states, I've always thought that if the South had won the battle of Gettysburg, and it should have, the war might very well have had a different outcome. We'll never know about these things, but we can always speculate.

Battle of Mortain, France, August 1944.

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/30th-infantry-division-battle-mortain

How's it that no one has yet suggested Omaha Beach? I had a great uncle in the third wave, so that's obviously a choice for me. Other suggestions:

Medieval: Battle of Harlaw, 1411; Scotland's largest clan battle, highlanders vs. lowlanders.
Naval: Lepanto, 1571; the last naval battle with rowed vessels, stopped the advance of the Ottomans and saved Europe in much the same way Martel did.
Amercian Civil war: A toss up for me between the battle of Missionary Ridge or the first day of Gettysburg

Missionary Ridge was the rare sort of battle where the entire thing was visible and on display to nearly everyone involved. It would have been something to see the entire Union order of battle advancing up the hill towards the confederate defenders.

The first day of Gettysburg was a charnel-house slugfest between US and CS regiments that stubbornly stood fast and just killed each other. Casualty rates of the units involved on both sides that day were commonly in excess of 60% and often in the realm of 75%. Particularly, I would like to see the events of the change of front under fire by Stone's Brigade at the McPherson farm. Events of the second and third days get more attention, but the first day set the stage for those events and in some ways assured victory for Meade.

Tours 732. Charles the hammer pushed back Islam. High water mark of islam in europe

Thermopylae

Zama. Hannibal defeated in a heavyweight fight of all time. Scipios vs Barcas. Rome vs Carthage


Midway.

Bloody Shiloh.

I'm sure it's small compared to many others mentioned here. but the Battle of Wilson's Creek during the civil war is quite neat to me because it's fairly local and there is a national park I guess you would say in historic site there to tour.