In the summer of 1813 USS Chesapeake left Boston harbor to challenge HMS Shannon. The battle was exceedingly bloody and incredibly brief, and gave birth to one of the navy’s most famous mottos.
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.