July of 1863 represented a significant turning point in the American Civil War. The capture of Vicksburg represented final victory in the campaign in the west, cementing Union control of the Mississippi river, while victory at Gettysburg shifted the momentum of the war in the east. Given the importance, and staggering costs, of these battles, it should be no surprise that the nation has largely forgotten a much smaller, yet still important battle the same month, nearly seven thousand miles away from the US capitol.
More Essex class aircraft carriers were built than any other capital ship in the 20th century, and the class would be witness to events that would come to define the modern world, and the age of the aircraft carrier.
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.