19th October

George Cornwallis surrendered to the American Forces at Yorktown today in 1781. They re-enact the moment for tourists every year, except that there are a few things missing ... like the colonists' German allies, the troops of the Marquis de Lafayette, a lot of Dutch and Spanish cash to by weapons and mercenaries. Oh, and half the French navy.

Apart from that, of course, Yorktown was a fair fight.

In other news ...
Auguste Lumiere, inventor of the cinematograph, was born today in 1862. His eldest boy was know as Son of Lumiere.

16th March

On this day way back in 1792, Tipu Sahib surrendered to the British. He was Sultan of Mysore in southern India and had all his guns made in Britain (as you do when you're fighting against the most industrialised nation on earth). He was defeated by General Cornwallis who had surrendered to the Americans at Yorktown a few years earlier (nice to know he could win something). Check out (as Cornwallis's victors say) the mechanical toy called Tipu's Tiger. It's a metal lifesize tiger clawing a white man to death and before somebody lost the key it could move its front paws and growl.

Awesome.

In other news ...
Two hundred and ten years ago a military college for gentlemen was founded at West Point along the Hudson River. It's gratifying to know that cadets still wear the grey tail-coat and shako of the 1820s and that West Point produced some of America's worst soldiers (Custer) and best ( ... erm ...).