The name Niagara Falls is derived from a native American word that means “a thundering noise.” You can imagine the surprise of area residents, therefore, when, just after midnight on March 30, 1848, the thunder suddenly stopped.
The Reconquista, or Christian reconquest of Iberia, took nearly 800 years. The fighting did not come without great attempts by Muslim powers across the strait trying to reestablish their presence in mainland Europe. The last gasp of that effort came in the 1330s, when the powerful Marinid sultanate of what is modern Morocco invaded in an attempt to reverse Christian gains and secure the perilous position of the Sultanate of Granada.