Sunday, September 21, 2014

Today in the Sobel Timeline: September 21

On September 21, 1839, Louis Papineau, leader of the Patriotes, a Francophone resistance organization in Quebec, led an army of 3,800 men from that confederation and Nova Scotia in an attack on Quebec City. Governor Henry Scott was prepared for the attack, and Papineau's men were met with an overwhelming volley of gunfire that left them dead or forced to flee the city. Papineau himself died in the attack; his last words were, "Our cause is just and will prevail. But flesh and blood can do little against a wall of lead and iron." Despite the defeat of the Patriotes, Quebec's Anglophone population continued to fear future insurrections.

On September 21, 1890, the War for Salvation between the United States of Mexico and New Granada ended in Mexican victory with the surrender of the last active New Granadan general, Roberto Bermudez, who had occupied the southern area of Guatemala early in the war.

On September 21, 1939, a third and final flight of German airmobiles landed in Arabia, debarking an additional 2,000 elite troops, bringing the total to 6,000. The Germans and their Arab allies faced 3,500 British troops, allies of the Ottoman government, who had also been airlifted into the area the day before.

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