On 20 August 917, the date given by Theophanes Continuatus and its sister chronicles, the army of Simeon I of Bulgaria routed a Byzantine army under Leo Phokas by the river Achelous, near the fortress of Anchialus, today Pomorie on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast. John Skylitzes dates the battle to 6 August instead. The empire had made peace in the east to throw its forces at Bulgaria, and the chroniclers describe a promising start that collapsed into flight and slaughter. Leo Phokas escaped; several of his commanders did not. No Byzantine source says how many men fought or died, and the large figures sometimes quoted come from an Arab writer whose story may describe a different war.
The Battle of Anchialus, 917: Byzantium's bloody disaster
20 August 917 · 1109 years ago
At the Battle of Anchialus on 20 August 917, Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria crushed a large Byzantine army led by Leo Phokas near the Black Sea coast. The Byzantine attack began well, but a Bulgarian counterattack turned the day into a rout and then a massacre.
Read the full story of The Battle of Anchialus, 917: Byzantium's bloody disaster ›Battle of Saragossa, 1710: the allies take back Aragon
20 August 1710 · 316 years ago
Near Zaragoza, the Bourbon Spanish army of the Marquis de Bay was badly beaten by Guido Starhemberg's allied forces in the War of the Spanish Succession. The victory opened Madrid to Archduke Charles, but the allies soon had to leave the capital and were defeated.
Read the full story of Battle of Saragossa, 1710: the allies take back Aragon ›Also on this day
1794: Major General Anthony Wayne reported victory over "the combined force of the hostile Indians, and a considerable number of the volunteers and militia of Detroit" on the Miami, today's Maumee, near the British post at the foot of the rapids. Lieutenant Boyer's journal records the same fight near the British garrison. Wayne described ground "covered with old fallen timber, probably occasioned by a tornado". According to two entries in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, the Shawnee chief Blue Jacket had taken command from Little Turtle. Wayne put the enemy "from every account" at 2,000 combatants and his troops actually engaged at short of 900; Boyer gives the most general opinion as 1,500, a third of them thought to be Canadians. The adjutant general's return printed with Wayne's report lists 33 killed and 100 wounded, 133 dead and wounded in all. Boyer counts 30 killed and 100 wounded, and 40 enemy dead left on the field. The National Park Service calls the battle the ending event in the struggle for dominance in the Old Northwest Territory; the battlefield lies in Maumee, Ohio, 0.25 mile north of the state monument and of the site formerly thought to be the field.1
