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Effigy of Edward III

The siege of Calais (4 September 1346 – 3 August 1347) marked the conclusion of the Crécy campaign, during the Edwardian phase of the Hundred Years' War. On 26 August 1346, an English army under King Edward III (effigy pictured) inflicted a heavy defeat on a large French army led by King Philip VI at the Battle of Crécy. A week later they invested the well-fortified port of Calais, which had a strong garrison under the command of Jean de Vienne. Edward made several unsuccessful attempts to breach the walls or to take the town by assault. During the winter and spring the French were able to run in supplies and reinforcements by sea, but in late April the English established a fortification which enabled them to command the entrance to the harbour and cut off the further flow of supplies. On 3 August Calais capitulated. The town provided the English with an important strategic lodgement, and was not recaptured by the French until 1558. (This article is part of a featured topic: Hundred Years' War, 1345–1347.)

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Shireen Abu Akleh

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In the news

Ayman al-Zawahiri

Ayman al-Zawahiri (pictured), the leader of al-Qaeda, is killed by a U.S. drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan.
In association football, UEFA Women's Euro 2022 concludes with England defeating Germany in the final.
In cycling, Annemiek van Vleuten wins the Tour de France Femmes.
Flooding in the U.S. state of Kentucky kills at least 37 people and leaves at least 30 others missing.

On this day

August 3

Auckland Sky Tower

1857 – Indian Rebellion: An eight-day siege of a fortified outbuilding in Arrah occupied by 68 defenders against more than 10,000 men ended when a relief party dispersed the besiegers.
1903 – Macedonian rebels in Kruševo proclaimed a republic, which existed for ten days before Ottoman forces destroyed the town.
1913 – An agricultural workers' strike in Wheatland degenerated into a riot, becoming one of the first major farm-labor confrontations in California.
1940 – World War II: Italian forces began a conquest of British Somaliland, capturing the region in 16 days.
1997 – The Sky Tower (pictured), the tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere at 328 m (1,076 ft), opened in Auckland, New Zealand.

Hamilton Fish (b. 1808)
Tony Bennett (b. 1926)
Frumka Płotnicka (d. 1943)

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Today's featured picture

The Dakota Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of North Dakota and South Dakota. This is the Dakota Territory's historical coat of arms, illustrated by Henry Mitchell in State Arms of the Union, published by Louis Prang in 1876. The design is based on the great seal of the territory, which was officially described as follows:

A tree in the open field, the trunk of which is surrounded by a bundle of rods, bound with three bands; on the right plow, anvil, sledge, rake and fork; on the left, bow crossed with three arrows; Indian on horseback pursuing a buffalo toward the setting sun; foliage of the tree arched by half circle of thirteen stars, surrounded by the motto: "Liberty and Union, one and inseparable, now and forever".

Illustration credit: Henry Mitchell; restored by Andrew Shiva

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