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St Oswald's Church, Winwick

The Battle of Winwick was fought on 19 August 1648 between a Scottish Royalist army and a Parliamentarian army during the Second English Civil War. The Scottish army invaded north-west England and was attacked and defeated at Preston on 17 August. The surviving Royalists fled south, closely pursued. Two days later, hungry, cold, soaking wet, exhausted and short of dry powder, they turned to fight at Winwick. Parliamentarian infantry launched a full-scale assault which resulted in more than three hours of furious but indecisive close-quarters fighting. The Parliamentarians fell back, pinned the Scots in place with their cavalry and sent their infantry on a circuitous flank march. When the Scots saw this force appear on their right flank they broke and fled. Parliamentarian cavalry pursued, killing many. The surviving Scottish infantry surrendered either at Winwick church (pictured) or in nearby Warrington; their cavalry on 24 August at Uttoxeter. Winwick was the last battle of the war. (Full article...)

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Tomb of Joseph Crocé-Spinelli and Théodore Sivel

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On this day...

August 19

Edward I of England

1274 – Shortly after his return from the Ninth Crusade, Edward I (pictured) was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey, nearly two years after his father's death.
1934 – A referendum supported the recent merging of the posts of chancellor and president of Germany, consolidating Adolf Hitler's assumption of supreme power.
2002 – Second Chechen War: A Russian Mil Mi-26 was brought down by Chechen separatists with a man-portable air-defense system near Khankala, killing 127 people in the deadliest helicopter crash in history.
2017 – Around 250,000 farmed non-native Atlantic salmon were accidentally released into the wild near Cypress Island, Washington.

Edward Boscawen (b. 1711)
Gustave Caillebotte (b. 1848)
Clay Walker (b. 1969)
Donald William Kerst (d. 1993)

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Today's featured picture

The dusky seaside sparrow (Ammospiza maritima nigrescens) was a non-migratory subspecies of the seaside sparrow, found in Florida in the natural salt marshes of Merritt Island and along the St. Johns River. Discovered in 1872 by Charles Johnson Maynard, it was distinguished from other seaside sparrows by its dark coloration and distinct song. From the 1940s onwards, the dusky seaside sparrow population declined and eventually went extinct. This was the result of human activity in the area including pesticides and flooding applied to reduce mosquito populations, industrial expansion, and highway construction. The last definite known individual died on Discovery Island in Walt Disney World in 1987, and the species was declared extinct in 1990.

Photograph credit: P. W. Sykes, United States Fish and Wildlife Service

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