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The siege of Bukhara took place in February 1220, during the Mongol conquest of the Khwarazmian Empire. Genghis Khan, ruler of the Mongol Empire, had launched an assault on the Khwarazmian Empire after being provoked by Shah Muhammad II. Genghis personally led a force of between 30,000 and 50,000 warriors across the Kyzylkum Desert to surprise the defenders of Bukhara. This city had been thought to be far from danger, and so was garrisoned by fewer than 20,000 men. After a failed sortie, the outer city surrendered on 10 February. Khwarazmian loyalists continued to defend the citadel for a further ten days, before it was breached and taken. Most of the city's population was enslaved or conscripted. Although Bukhara was then destroyed by fire, the destruction was relatively mild compared to that suffered by other cities conquered by the Mongols; within a short space of time the city was once again a centre of trade and learning, and it profited greatly from the Pax Mongolica. (Full article...)

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On this day

February 10: Feast day of Saint Scholastica (Christianity); Chinese New Year (2024); National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe in Italy

Delegates at the Inter-Allied Women's Conference

1258 – The last Abbasid caliph surrendered Baghdad to the besieging Mongol army of Hulegu Khan, who later sacked the city, killing hundreds of thousands of people.
1919 – The Inter-Allied Women's Conference opened as a counterpart to the Paris Peace Conference, marking the first time that women were allowed formal participation in an international treaty negotiation.
1939 – Spanish Civil War: The Nationalists concluded their conquest of Catalonia and sealed the border with France.
2009 – The first accidental hypervelocity collision between two intact satellites in low Earth orbit took place when Iridium 33 and Kosmos 2251 destroyed each other.

Ira Remsen (b. 1846)
Edith Clarke (b. 1883)
Joseph Lister (d. 1912)
Joan Curran (d. 1999)

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Chillon Castle is an island castle located on Lake Geneva to the south of Veytaux in Vaud, Switzerland. It is situated at the eastern end of the lake, on the narrow shore between Montreux and Villeneuve, and close to the Fort de Chillon, which is embedded in the neighbouring hillside. The oldest parts of the castle have not been dated definitively, but the first written record of the castle was in 1005. It was built to control the road from Burgundy to the Great St Bernard Pass, on the site of an earlier Roman outpost. From the mid 12th century, the castle became the summer home of the Counts of Savoy, who kept a fleet of ships on Lake Geneva. It was greatly expanded during the 13th century. The castle became a prison in the 16th century, housing among others the Genvois monk François Bonivard, before reverting to being a residence and then again becoming a prison in 1733. Since the end of the 18th century, the castle has been a tourist attraction.

Photograph credit: Giles Laurent

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