1.
2008 Mumbai attacks
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The attacks, which drew widespread global condemnation, began on Wednesday,26 November and lasted until Saturday,29 November 2008, killing 164 people and wounding at least 308. There was also an explosion at Mazagaon, in Mumbais port area, by the early morning of 28 November, all sites except for the Taj Hotel had been secured by Mumbai Police and security forces. Ajmal Kasab disclosed that the attackers were members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, among others, the Government of India said that the attackers came from Pakistan, and their controllers were in Pakistan. On 7 January 2009, Pakistan confirmed the sole surviving perpetrator of the attacks was a Pakistani citizen, on 9 April 2015, the foremost ringleader of the attacks, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, was granted bail against surety bonds of ₨200,000 in Pakistan. There have been many attacks in Mumbai since the 13 coordinated bomb explosions that killed 257 people. The 1993 attacks are believed to have been in retaliation for the Babri Mosque demolition, on 6 December 2002, a blast in a BEST bus near Ghatkopar station killed two people and injured 28. The bombing occurred on the 10th anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya. On 13 March 2003, a day after the 10th anniversary of the 1993 Bombay bombings, on 28 July 2003, a blast in a BEST bus in Ghatkopar killed 4 people and injured 32. On 25 August 2003, two exploded in South Mumbai, one near the Gateway of India and the other at Zaveri Bazaar in Kalbadevi. At least 44 people were killed and 150 injured, on 11 July 2006, seven bombs exploded within 11 minutes on the Suburban Railway in Mumbai, killing 209 people, including 22 foreigners and more than 700 injured. According to the Mumbai Police, the bombings were carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group of men, sometimes stated as 24, at other times 26, received training in marine warfare at a remote camp in mountainous Muzaffarabad. Part of the training was reported to have taken place on the Mangla Dam reservoir, basic Combat, Lashkars basic combat training and methodology course, the Daura Aam. Advanced Training, Selected to undergo advanced training at a camp near Mansehra. Commando Training, Finally, a smaller group selected for specialised commando tactics training. From the students,10 were handpicked for the Mumbai mission and they also received training in swimming and sailing, besides the use of high-end weapons and explosives under the supervision of LeT commanders. They were given blueprints of all the four targets – Taj Palace & Tower, Oberoi Trident, Nariman House, the first events were detailed around 20,00 Indian Standard Time on 26 November, when 10 men in inflatable speedboats came ashore at two locations in Colaba. They reportedly told local Marathi-speaking fishermen who asked them who they were to mind their own business before they split up, the fishermens subsequent report to police received little response and local police were helpless. The Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus was attacked by two gunmen, Ismail Khan and Ajmal Kasab, Kasab was later caught alive by the police and identified by eyewitnesses
2.
October
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October is the tenth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars and the sixth month to have the length of 31 days. The eighth month in the old Roman calendar, October retained its name after January and February were inserted into the calendar that had originally created by the Romans. In Ancient Rome, one of three Mundus patet would take place on October 5, Meditrinalia October 11, Augustalia on October 12, October Horse on October 15 and these dates do not correspond to the modern Gregorian calendar. Among the Anglo-Saxons, it was known as Winterfylleth, because at full moon winter was supposed to begin. This list does not necessarily imply either official status or general observance, October 19, Amavasya In Catholic tradition, October is the Month of the Holy Rosary. Neil Gaiman wrote a story personifying the month, titled October in the Chair, ray Bradbury published a collection of short stories titled The October Country in 1955. Octobers birthstones are the tourmaline and opal and its birth flower is the calendula. The zodiac signs for this month are Libra and Scorpio
3.
November
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November is the eleventh and penultimate month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars and the fourth and last month to have the length of 30 days. November was the month of the ancient Roman calendar. November retained its name when January and February were added to the Roman calendar, November is a month of late-spring in the Southern Hemisphere and late-autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. Therefore, November in the Southern Hemisphere is the equivalent of May in the Northern Hemisphere. In Ancient Rome, Ludi Plebeii was held from November 4–17, Epulum Jovis was held on November 13 and these dates do not correspond to the modern Gregorian calendar. November was referred to as Blōtmōnaþ by the Anglo-Saxons, brumaire and Frimaire were the months on which November fell in the French Republican Calendar. The Orionids, which occur in late October, sometimes last into November, the Western zodiac signs for the month of November are Scorpio and Sagittarius. Novembers birthstones are the topaz which symbolizes friendship and the citrine and its birth flower is the chrysanthemum. This list does not necessarily imply either official status or general observance, November 18, Amavasya In Catholic tradition, November is the Month of the Holy Souls in Purgatory
4.
December
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December is the twelfth and final month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars. It is the seventh and last month to have the length of 31 days, December got its name from the Latin word decem because it was originally the tenth month of the year in the Roman calendar, which began in March. The winter days following December were not included as part of any month, later, the months of January and February were created out of the monthless period and added to the beginning of the calendar, but December retained its name. In Ancient Rome, one of the four Agonalia, this day in honor of Sol Indiges was held on December 11 and these dates do not correspond to the modern Gregorian calendar. The Anglo-Saxons referred to December/January as Ġēolamonaþ, the French Republican Calendar contained December within the months of Frimaire and Nivôse. December contains the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, the day with the fewest daylight hours, and the summer solstice in the Southern Hemisphere, December in the Northern Hemisphere is the seasonal equivalent to June in the Southern Hemisphere and vice versa. In the Northern hemisphere, the beginning of the winter is traditionally 21 December or the date of the solstice. The zodiac signs for the month of December are Sagittarius and Capricorn, decembers birth flower is the narcissus. Decembers birthstones are the turquoise, zircon, and tanzanite and this list does not necessarily imply either official status or general observance. December 18, Amavasya In Catholic tradition, December is the Month of the Advent of Christ
5.
November 9
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November 9 is the 313th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 52 days remaining until the end of the year and this date is slightly more likely to fall on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday than on Saturday or Sunday, and slightly less likely to occur on a Tuesday or Thursday. 694 – At the Seventeenth Council of Toledo, Egica, a king of the Visigoths of Hispania, accuses Jews of aiding Muslims,1313 – Louis the Bavarian defeats his cousin Frederick I of Austria at the Battle of Gammelsdorf. 1330 – At the Battle of Posada, Basarab I of Wallachia defeats the Hungarian army of Charles I Robert,1456 – Ulrich II, Count of Celje, last ruler of the County of Cilli, is assassinated in Belgrade. 1520 – More than 50 people are sentenced and executed in the Stockholm Bloodbath 1620 – Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower sight land at Cape Cod,1688 – Glorious Revolution, William of Orange captures Exeter. 1697 – Pope Innocent XII founds the city of Cervia,1720 – The synagogue of Judah HeHasid is burned down by Arab creditors, leading to the expulsion of the Ashkenazim from Jerusalem. 1729 – Spain, France and Great Britain sign the Treaty of Seville,1791 – Foundation of the Dublin Society of United Irishmen. 1799 – Napoleon Bonaparte leads the Coup of 18 Brumaire ending the Directory government,1851 – Kentucky marshals abduct abolitionist minister Calvin Fairbank from Jeffersonville, Indiana, and take him to Kentucky to stand trial for helping a slave escape. 1857 – The Atlantic is founded in Boston, Massachusetts,1861 – The first documented football match in Canada is played at University College, Toronto. 1862 – American Civil War, Union General Ambrose Burnside assumes command of the Army of the Potomac,1867 – Tokugawa shogunate hands power back to the Emperor of Japan, starting the Meiji Restoration. 1872 – The Great Boston Fire of 1872,1883 – The Royal Winnipeg Rifles of the Canadian Armed Forces is founded. 1887 – The United States receives rights to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii,1906 – Theodore Roosevelt is the first sitting President of the United States to make an official trip outside the country. He did so to progress on the Panama Canal. 1907 – The Cullinan Diamond is presented to King Edward VII on his birthday,1913 – The Great Lakes Storm of 1913, the most destructive natural disaster ever to hit the lakes, destroys 19 ships and kills more than 250 people. 1914 – SMS Emden is sunk by HMAS Sydney in the Battle of Cocos,1918 – Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicates after the German Revolution, and Germany is proclaimed a Republic. 1921 – The Italian National Fascist Party comes into existence,1923 – In Munich, Germany, police and government troops crush the Beer Hall Putsch in Bavaria. The failed coup is the work of the Nazis,1935 – The Congress of Industrial Organizations is founded in Atlantic City, New Jersey, by eight trade unions belonging to the American Federation of Labor. 1937 – The Chinese Army withdraws from the Battle of Shanghai,1940 – Warsaw is awarded the Virtuti Militari
6.
Leap year
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A leap year is a calendar year containing one additional day added to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical or seasonal year. By inserting an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected, a year that is not a leap year is called a common year. For example, in the Gregorian calendar, each year has 366 days instead of the usual 365. In the Bahai Calendar, a day is added when needed to ensure that the following year begins on the vernal equinox. For example, Christmas Day fell on a Tuesday in 2001, Wednesday in 2002, the length of a day is also occasionally changed by the insertion of leap seconds into Coordinated Universal Time, owing to the variability of Earths rotational period. Unlike leap days, leap seconds are not introduced on a regular schedule, in the Gregorian calendar, the standard calendar in most of the world, most years that are multiples of 4 are leap years. In each leap year, the month of February has 29 days instead of 28, adding an extra day to the calendar every four years compensates for the fact that a period of 365 days is shorter than a tropical year by almost 6 hours. Some exceptions to this rule are required since the duration of a tropical year is slightly less than 365.25 days. For example, the years 1700,1800, and 1900 were not leap years, over a period of four centuries, the accumulated error of adding a leap day every four years amounts to about three extra days. The Gregorian calendar therefore removes three leap days every 400 years, which is the length of its leap cycle and this is done by removing February 29 in the three century years that cannot be exactly divided by 400. The years 1600,2000 and 2400 are leap years, while 1700,1800,1900,2100,2200 and 2300 are common years, by this rule, the average number of days per year is 365 + 1⁄4 − 1⁄100 + 1⁄400 =365.2425. The rule can be applied to years before the Gregorian reform, the Gregorian calendar was designed to keep the vernal equinox on or close to March 21, so that the date of Easter remains close to the vernal equinox. The Accuracy section of the Gregorian calendar article discusses how well the Gregorian calendar achieves this design goal, the following pseudocode determines whether a year is a leap year or a common year in the Gregorian calendar. The year variable being tested is the representing the number of the year in the Gregorian calendar. Care should be taken in translating mathematical integer divisibility into specific programming languages, if then else if then else if then else February 29 is a date that usually occurs every four years, and is called leap day. This day is added to the calendar in leap years as a corrective measure, the Gregorian calendar is a modification of the Julian calendar first used by the Romans. The Roman calendar originated as a calendar and named many of its days after the syzygies of the moon, the new moon. The Nonae or nones was not the first quarter moon but was exactly one nundina or Roman market week of nine days before the ides and this is what we would call a period of eight days
7.
Gregorian calendar
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The Gregorian calendar is internationally the most widely used civil calendar. It is named after Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it in October 1582, the calendar was a refinement to the Julian calendar involving a 0. 002% correction in the length of the year. The motivation for the reform was to stop the drift of the calendar with respect to the equinoxes and solstices—particularly the northern vernal equinox, transition to the Gregorian calendar would restore the holiday to the time of the year in which it was celebrated when introduced by the early Church. The reform was adopted initially by the Catholic countries of Europe, the last European country to adopt the reform was Greece, in 1923. Many countries that have used the Islamic and other religious calendars have come to adopt this calendar for civil purposes. The reform was a modification of a made by Aloysius Lilius. His proposal included reducing the number of years in four centuries from 100 to 97. Lilius also produced an original and practical scheme for adjusting the epacts of the moon when calculating the date of Easter. For example, the years 1700,1800, and 1900 are not leap years, but the years 1600 and 2000 are. The canonical Easter tables were devised at the end of the third century, when the vernal equinox fell either on 20 March or 21 March depending on the years position in the leap year cycle. As the rule was that the full moon preceding Easter was not to precede the equinox, the date was fixed at 21 March for computational purposes, the Gregorian calendar reproduced these conditions by removing ten days. To unambiguously specify a date, dual dating or Old Style, dual dating gives two consecutive years for a given date, because of differences in the starting date of the year, and/or to give both the Julian and the Gregorian dates. The Gregorian calendar continued to use the calendar era, which counts years from the traditional date of the nativity. This year-numbering system, also known as Dionysian era or Common Era, is the predominant international standard today, the Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar. A regular Gregorian year consists of 365 days, but as in the Julian calendar, in a leap year, in the Julian calendar a leap year occurs every 4 years, but the Gregorian calendar omits 3 leap days every 400 years. In the Julian calendar, this day was inserted by doubling 24 February. In the modern period, it has become customary to number the days from the beginning of the month, some churches, notably the Roman Catholic Church, delay February festivals after the 23rd by one day in leap years. Gregorian years are identified by consecutive year numbers, the cycles repeat completely every 146,097 days, which equals 400 years
8.
Kingdom of Asturias
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The Kingdom of Asturias was a kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula founded in 718 by the Visigothic nobleman Pelagius of Asturias. It was the first Christian political entity established after the Umayyad conquest of Visigoth Hispania in 718 or 722 and that year, Pelagius defeated an Umayyad army at the Battle of Covadonga, in what is usually regarded as the beginning of the Reconquista. The Kingdom of Asturias transitioned into the Kingdom of León in 924, the kingdom originated in the western and central territory of the Cantabrian Mountains, part of the Gallaecia, particularly the Picos de Europa and the central area of Asturias. The main political and military events during the first decades of the kingdoms existence took place in the region. Ptolemy says that the Astures extended along the area of current Asturias. The gradual formation of Asturian identity led to the creation of the Kingdom of Asturias after Pelagius coronation, the Chronica Albeldense, in narrating the happenings of Covadonga, stated that Divine providence brings forth the King of Asturias. The kingdom was established by the nobleman Pelayo, possibly an Asturian noble, Pelayos kingdom was initially little more than a rallying banner for existing guerilla forces. In the progress of the Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, however, in the northern mountains, urban centers were practically nonexistent and the submission of the country had to be achieved valley by valley. Muslim troops often resorted to the taking of hostages to ensure the pacification of the conquered territory. During the last phase of his campaign, he reached the northwest of the Peninsula. In the latter city he placed a small Berber detachment under a governor, Munuza, as guarantee of the submission of the region, some nobles – some argue that Pelayo was among them, had to surrender hostages from Asturias to Cordoba. The legend says that his sister was asked for, and a marriage alliance sought with the local Berber leader, later on, Munuza would try to do the same at another mountain post in the Pyrenees, where he rebelled against his Cordoban Arab superiors. The Berbers had been converted to Islam barely a generation earlier, however, the only near contemporary chronicler accounting for the events of the tme, the Christian Chronicle of 754, makes no mention of the incident. The identity of Pelayo, however, is still a subject. The leader of the Astures, whose origin is debated by historians, had at that time his home in Bres, there the locals were able to ambush the Muslim detachment, which was annihilated. The rest of its survivors continued south to the plains of Leon, under Pelayos leadership, the attacks on the Berbers increased. Munuza, feeling isolated in an increasingly hostile, decided to abandon Gijón. However, he was intercepted and killed by Astures at Olalíes and he then married his daughter, Ermesinda, to Alfonso, the son of Peter of Cantabria, the leading noble at the still-independent Visigothic dukedom of Cantabria
9.
Mauregatus of Asturias
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Mauregatus the Usurper was the king of Asturias from 783 to 788 or 789. He was a son of Alfonso I, supposedly by a Moorish serf. He usurped the throne on the death of Silo, his brother-in-law, the nobility had elected Alfonso II at Adosindas insistence, but Mauregatus assembled a large army of supporters and forced Alfonso into Álava. Nothing is known in detail of his reign, the adoptionist dispute was raging between Elipandus, Archbishop of Toledo, and Beatus of Liébana and even occasioned the intervention of Charlemagne. Mauregatus also sent back an invading Muslim force, during his reign a hymn to Saint James was composed with an acrostic mentioning the kings name. This is considered to presage the legend of the burial at Santiago de Compostela
10.
Battle of Caishi
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The Battle of Caishi was a major naval engagement of the Jin–Song Wars of China that took place on November 26–27,1161. Soldiers under the command of Wanyan Liang, the Jurchen emperor of the Jin dynasty, Yu Yunwen, a civil official, commanded the defending Song army. The paddle-wheel warships of the Song fleet, equipped with trebuchets that launched incendiary bombs made of gunpowder and lime, starting in 1125 the Jin had conquered all Song territories north of the Huai River. In 1142, a peace treaty settled the border between the two states, putting the Jin in control of northern China and the Song in control of the south, Wanyan Liang was enthroned in 1150, and was intent on uniting northern and southern China under a single emperor. In 1158, he asserted that the Song had violated the 1142 treaty and he began preparations for the war in the following year. He instituted a draft in which all able-bodied men were required to enlist, the draft was unpopular, precipitating revolts that were later suppressed. The Jin army left the capital of Kaifeng on October 15,1161, the Song were fortified along the Yangtze front. Wanyan Liang planned to cross the river at Caishi, south of modern-day Nanjing and he embarked from the shore of the Yangtze on November 26, and clashed with Song forces led by Yu Yunwen in a naval engagement. Wanyan Liang lost the battle and retreated to Yangzhou, Wanyan Liang was assassinated in a military camp by his own men shortly after the Caishi battle. A military coup had taken place in the Jin court while Wanyan Liang was absent, a peace treaty signed in 1165 ended the conflict between Song and Jin. Song sources likely inflated the number of Jin soldiers and casualties at Caishi, modern studies suggest that the battle was smaller and that both sides were more evenly matched than traditional accounts suggest. Nonetheless, the victory boosted the morale of the Song infantry, the Song were a Chinese dynasty. To their north were the Jurchens, a confederation of tribes from Manchuria in northeast Asia. Aguda established the Jin dynasty in 1115 and adopted the title of emperor, the Jin negotiated a joint attack with the Song against the Khitans. They planned the attack for 1121 and then rescheduled to 1122, in 1122, the Jurchens captured the Liao Supreme and Western Capitals. The Song tried yet failed to capture the Liao Southern Capital of Yan, the military weakness of the Song gave the Jin more diplomatic leverage over them. Negotiations between the Song and Jin produced a treaty in 1123, but bilateral relations deteriorated because of disputes over the Sixteen Prefectures. In 1125, the Jurchens invaded the Song, by 1127, Jin had conquered most of northern China and besieged the Song capital of Kaifeng twice
11.
Song dynasty
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The Song dynasty was an era of Chinese history that began in 960 and continued until 1279. It succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, coincided with the Liao and Western Xia dynasties and it was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or true paper money nationally and the first Chinese government to establish a permanent standing navy. This dynasty also saw the first known use of gunpowder, as well as the first discernment of true north using a compass, the Song dynasty is divided into two distinct periods, Northern and Southern. During the Northern Song, the Song capital was in the city of Bianjing. The Southern Song refers to the period after the Song lost control of its half to the Jurchen Jin dynasty in the Jin–Song Wars. During this time, the Song court retreated south of the Yangtze, the Southern Song dynasty considerably bolstered its naval strength to defend its waters and land borders and to conduct maritime missions abroad. To repel the Jin, and later the Mongols, the Song developed revolutionary new military technology augmented by the use of gunpowder, in 1234, the Jin dynasty was conquered by the Mongols, who took control of northern China, maintaining uneasy relations with the Southern Song. Möngke Khan, the fourth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire and his younger brother Kublai Khan was proclaimed the new Great Khan, though his claim was only partially recognized by the Mongols in the west. In 1271, Kublai Khan was proclaimed the Emperor of China, after two decades of sporadic warfare, Kublai Khans armies conquered the Song dynasty in 1279. The Mongol invasion led to a reunification under the Yuan dynasty, the population of China doubled in size during the 10th and 11th centuries. The Northern Song census recorded a population of roughly 50 million, much like the Han and this data is found in the Standard Histories. However, it is estimated that the Northern Song had a population of some 100 million people and this dramatic increase of population fomented an economic revolution in pre-modern China. The expansion of the population, growth of cities, and the emergence of a national economy led to the withdrawal of the central government from direct involvement in economic affairs. The lower gentry assumed a role in grassroots administration and local affairs. Appointed officials in county and provincial centers relied upon the gentry for their services, sponsorship. Social life during the Song was vibrant, citizens gathered to view and trade precious artworks, the populace intermingled at public festivals and private clubs, and cities had lively entertainment quarters. The spread of literature and knowledge was enhanced by the expansion of woodblock printing. Technology, science, philosophy, mathematics, and engineering flourished over the course of the Song, although the institution of the civil service examinations had existed since the Sui dynasty, it became much more prominent in the Song period
12.
Yangtze
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The Yangtze River, known in China as the Cháng Jiāng or the Yángzǐ Jiāng, is the longest river in Asia and the third-longest in the world. The river is the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country and it drains one-fifth of the land area of the Peoples Republic of China and its river basin is home to one-third of the countrys population. The Yangtze is the sixth-largest river by volume in the world. The Yangtze River plays a role in the history, culture. The prosperous Yangtze River Delta generates as much as 20% of the PRCs GDP, for thousands of years, the river has been used for water, irrigation, sanitation, transportation, industry, boundary-marking and war. The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River is the largest hydro-electric power station in the world, in recent years, the river has suffered from industrial pollution, agricultural run-off, siltation, and loss of wetland and lakes, which exacerbates seasonal flooding. Some sections of the river are now protected as nature reserves, a stretch of the upstream Yangtze flowing through deep gorges in western Yunnan is part of the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In mid-2014 the Chinese government announced it was building a transport network, comprising railways, roads and airports. Because the source of the Yangtze was not ascertained until modern times, Yangtze was actually the name of Chang Jiang for the lower part from Nanjing to the river mouth at Shanghai. In modern Chinese, Yangtze is still used to refer to the part of Chang Jiang from Nanjing to the river mouth. Yangtze never stands for the whole Chang Jiang, Chang Jiang is the modern Chinese name for the lower 2,884 km of the Yangtze from its confluence with the Min River at Yibin in Sichuan Province to the river mouth at Shanghai. Chang Jiang literally means the Long River, in Old Chinese, this stretch of the Yangtze was simply called Jiang/Kiang 江, a character of phono-semantic compound origin, combining the water radical 氵 with the homophone 工. Krong was probably a word in the Austroasiatic language of local peoples such as the Yue, similar to *krong in Proto-Vietnamese and krung in Mon, all meaning river, it is related to modern Vietnamese sông and Khmer kôngkea. By the Han Dynasty, Jiang had come to any river in Chinese. The epithet 長, means long, was first formally applied to the river during the Six Dynasties period, various sections of Chang Jiang have local names. From Yibin to Yichang, the river through Sichuan and Chongqing Municipality is also known as the Chuan Jiang or Sichuan River, in the Hubei Province, the river is also called the Jing Jiang or the Jing River after Jingzhou. In Anhui Province, the takes on the local name Wan Jiang after the shorthand name for Anhui. And Yangzi Jiang t 揚子江s 扬子江, p Yángzǐjiāng) or the Yangzi River, the name likely comes from an ancient ferry crossing called Yangzi or Yangzijin
13.
1476
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Year 1476 was a leap year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. March 2 – Battle of Grandson, Swiss victory against Burgundy, november 26 – Vlad the Impaler declares himself reigning Prince of Wallachia for the third and last time. He was killed on the march to Bucharest, probably before the end of December and his head was sent to his old enemy Sultan Mehmed of the Ottomans
14.
Vlad the Impaler
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Vlad III, known as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Dracula, was voivode of Wallachia three times between 1448 and his death. He was the son of Vlad Dracul, who became the ruler of Wallachia in 1436. Vlad and his brother, Radu, were held as hostages in the Ottoman Empire from 1442 to secure their fathers loyalty. Vlads father and eldest brother, Mircea, were murdered after John Hunyadi, Regent-Governor of Hungary, Hunyadi installed Vlads second cousin, Vladislav II, as the new voivode. Hunyadi launched a campaign against the Ottomans in the autumn of 1448. Vlad broke into Wallachia with Ottoman support in October, but Vladislav returned, Vlad went to Moldavia in 1449 or 1450, and later to Hungary. He invaded Wallachia with Hungarian support in 1456, Vlad began a purge among the Wallachian boyars to strengthen his position. He came into conflict with the Transylvanian Saxons, who supported his opponents, Dan and Basarab Laiotă, Vlad plundered the Saxon villages, taking the captured people to Wallachia where he had them impaled. Peace was only restored in 1460, the Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed II, ordered Vlad to pay homage to him personally, but Vlad had the sultans two envoys captured and impaled. In February 1462, he broke into Ottoman territory, massacring tens of thousands of Turks, Mehmed launched a campaign against Wallachia to replace Vlad with Vlads younger brother, Radu. Vlad attempted to capture the sultan at Târgovişte during the night of 16–17 June 1462, the sultan and the main Ottoman army left Wallachia, but more and more Wallachians deserted to Radu. Vlad went to Transylvania to seek assistance from Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, in late 1462, Vlad was held in captivity in Visegrád from 1463 to 1475. During this period, anecdotes about his cruelty started to spread in Germany and he was released at the request of Stephen III of Moldavia in the summer of 1475. He fought in Corvinuss army against the Ottomans in Bosnia in early 1476, Hungarian and Moldavian troops helped him to force Basarab Laiotă to flee from Wallachia in November. Basarab returned with Ottoman support before the end of the year, Vlad was murdered before 10 January 1477. Books describing Vlads cruel acts were among the first bestsellers in the German-speaking territories, Vlads reputation for cruelty and his patronymic gave rise to the name of the vampire Count Dracula in Bram Stokers 1897 novel Dracula. The expression Dracula, which is now known as the name of a vampire, was for centuries known as the sobriquet of a ruler of Wallachia. Diplomatic reports and popular stories referred to him as Dracula, Dracuglia and he himself signed his two letters as Dragulya or Drakulya in the late 1470s
15.
Stephen the Great
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Stephen III of Moldavia, known as Stephen the Great was voivode of Moldavia from 1457 to 1504. He was the son and co-ruler of Bogdan II of Moldavia who was murdered in 1451, Stephen fled to Hungary, and later to Wallachia. With the support of Vlad the Impaler, Voivode of Wallachia, he returned to Moldavia, Teoctist I, Metropolitan of Moldavia, anointed him prince. Stephen continued to pay a tribute to the Ottoman Empire. He broke into Poland and prevented Casimir IV Jagiellon, King of Poland, from supporting Peter Aaron, Stephen decided to recapture Chilia, an important port on the Danube, which brought him into conflict with Hungary and Wallachia. He besieged the town during the Ottoman invasion of Wallachia in 1462, two years later, he captured the town. He promised support to the leaders of the Three Nations of Transylvania against Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, Corvinus invaded Moldavia, but Stephen defeated him in the Battle of Baia. Peter Aaron broke into Moldavia with Hungarian support in December 1470, Peter Aaron and the boyars who had supported him were executed. He restored the old fortresses and erected new ones, which improved the system of Moldavia. The Ottomans expansion threatened the Moldavian ports in the region of the Black Sea, Stephen stopped paying tribute to the Ottoman sultan in 1473. Stephen defeated a large Ottoman army in the Battle of Vaslui in 1475, in 1476, the Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed II, routed him in the Battle of Valea Albă, but the lack of provisions and the outbreak of a plague forced the Ottomans to withdraw from Moldavia. Taking advantage of a truce with Matthias Corvinus, the Ottomans captured Chilia, Corvinus granted two Transylvanian estates to Stephen to compensate him for the loss of the two ports. Stephen paid homage to Casimir IV of Poland who promised to him to regain Chilia and Cetatea Albă. From 1486, Stephen again paid a tribute to the Ottomans. During the following years, dozens of churches and monasteries were built in Moldavia. Casimir IVs successor, John I Albert, wanted to grant Moldavia to his brother, Sigismund. John Albert broke into Moldavia in 1497, but Stephen and his Hungarian and Ottoman allies routed the Polish army in the Battle of the Cosmin Forest. Stephen again tried to recapture Chilia and Cetatea Albă, but he had to acknowledge the loss of the two ports to the Ottomans in 1503, during his last years, his son and co-ruler, Bogdan III, played an active role in the government
