[Daily article] July 2: Battle of Schellenberg

The Battle of Schellenberg was fought on 2 July 1704 during the War of
the Spanish Succession. The engagement was part of the Duke of
Marlborough's campaign to save the Habsburg capital of Vienna from a
threatened advance by King Louis XIV's Franco-Bavarian forces ranged in
southern Germany. Marlborough had commenced his 250 mile (400 km) march
from Bedburg, near Cologne, on 19 May. En route, the Allies needed to
secure a fortified bridgehead and magazine on the Danube through which
their supplies could cross to the south of the river into the heart of
Bavaria. For this purpose, Marlborough selected the town of Donauwörth.
Once the French knew of the Allies' objective, they dispatched Count
d'Arco with an advance force of 12,000 men from their main camp at
Dillingen to strengthen and hold the Schellenberg heights above the
town. Rejecting a protracted siege Marlborough decided in favour of a
quick assault before the position could be made impregnable. After two
failed attempts to storm the barricades the Allied commanders, acting in
unison, finally managed to overwhelm the defenders. The deliberate
devastation of the Elector's lands in Bavaria failed to bring Max
Emanuel. Only when Marshal Tallard arrived with reinforcements, and
Prince Eugene of Savoy arrived from the Rhine to bolster the Allies, was
the stage finally set for the decisive action at the Battle of Blenheim
the following month.

Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Schellenberg>

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Today's selected anniversaries:

626:

During the Xuanwu Gate Incident, Prince Li Shimin led his forces