O, good one!
Without getting political, I kinda cringed when I heard our President tell the people of Cario that Morocco was the first nation to formally recognize the USA (I've read Barbara Tuchman's "The First Salute" a book dedicated to that important first.) and thought that maybe someone had mixed up wiki entries. Any way, it was important enough to make it into the Marine's hymn:
From the halls of Moctezuma, to the shores of Tripoli....

Here, Here..................Let's get Dan on it.

You're right, it would be so nice to have Dan on command, have him do our research and present it in fun to listen to tidy little lectures.

I don't know how obscure you'd call it, but the Battle of Salamis was a pretty critical struggle whose loss by the Greeks could have altered the course of democracy in Western culture completely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Salamis

I have to agree. The battle of Salamis is overshadowed a lot by Thermopylae, but it was really just as important. Thermopylae had no tactical value but unified the Greeks later on. Salamis allowed the Greeks control over the sea lanes and essentially denied the Persians supplies from Persia.

I bought 2% milk instead of 1%. I then put the 1% cap on the new milk so the wife wouldnt know.. Is this historically significant?... no. But I won this battle. Oh yes..... I won.

A interesting battle for me is the River Rasin in Monroe, MI in the war of 1812. What I know about the battle was that the American forces and civilian population were completely defeated, but it marked the beginning of the end for the British presence in the United States. The Americans were so badly defeated by a British and Indian force that no survivors were left at the sight on the River Rasin after the battle. This horrible defeat and subsequent slaughter became the cry of America during the War of 1812.

If I'm not mistaken, the Battle of Horseshoe Bend followed this as an American response to the raids by the Creek tribes. This is the battle that made the reputation of Sam Houston which was a young officer under Gen. Jackson. It is believed that Houston stood on top of the Creek fortifications (in plain sight for enemy snipers) rallying his troops to attack and became a local hero. Kind of a weird what-if moment, if that doesn't happen or Houston is killed, he doesn't go on into politics, doesn't get disenfranchised with the people of Tennessee, and doesn't eventually end up leading a Texian revolution in Mexico.

I'd say the Fall of Constantinople was important for many reasons.

First of all, it is what completed the Ottoman Turks conquest of the land we now call Turkey. That area had been Greek for hundreds of years, and became Turkish as a result of these conquests. Secondly, because of the fight Constantine XI put up - basically, he stayed until the end, determined that if this be the end, the Byzantines should at least go down FIGHTING, he became a national Greek hero. When Athens gained independance hundreds of years later, they put up a statue to this Emperor, and he became the national saint of Greece.

Also, this battle marked the end of the walled city as an effective defense - it was the first time cannons had been used to break down walls, and everyone could see how effective they were. Constantinople had the most imposing walls of any city at the time, and if it could fall by being battered by a cannon, then what good were walls anymore?

Finally, this was the end of the Roman Empire. The West had fallen almost a thousand years previous, but the Eastern Empire had thrived for a while afterwards. The fall of Constantinople was the end of any secular state that could be directly linked to Rome - the only link left to the old Empire was the Pope at this point.

The Turks were so affected by it that they put a waning moon on their flag, whereas all other Muslim nations put a waxing moon as their symbol. The waning moon symbolizes what the sky looked like on the night Constantinople fell.

EDIT: The size of the cannon the Turks brought was amazing as well. It could fire a 1500 pound ball. Just think of that. The whole thing was EPIC.

For me the Battle of Chunuk Bair during the Gallipoli Campaign of WWI. After heavy fighting and huge losses Kiwi forces took the second highest point on the Gallipoli peninsula. They held Chunuk Bair for three days and two nights under constant counter attack and heavy bombardment from both Turkish artillery and the Royal Navy (Who though that taking Chunuk Bair was impossible so any troops on the hill must be Turkish!)

Eventually it was friendly artillery fire that forced the Wellington Regiment to withdraw. By the time they made it down to the beach they had suffered 80% casualties. Had they had the support to hold the hill the whole Gallipoli Champaign could have succeeded. This would have enabled the British and the French to resupply the Russians on the eastern front.

Imagine what would have happened if the Russian Army, resupplied and with Bulgarian & Greek support, had been victorious on the eastern front? Would the Bolshevik revolution have happened in 1917? Would there have been a Stalin? Would the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in 1941?

What would have happened had Harold not defeated the Norwegians in York before force marching his army south to face William? What if Harold was defeated at York, William landed in England unopposed, and yet William had to face the Norwegian army somewhere between the coast and the northern border of Wessex? There still existed a sizable Danish population between York and the Channel as a result of the earlier wars between the Saxons and Danish sea lords. They could easily assimilate into a larger Norwegian force. Add to that some Scots. Then how likely would William have the opportunity to face these Norse opponents on a proper battlefield? Forests seem more likely to me. William would be forced to seek out the Norwegian army, not the other way around. Norse could easily winter anywhere from Northumbria to Scotland. Nobody will oppose them like the Saxons would oppose a foreign force in the south. It's just a guess anyway. Harold's victory may have provided William a nearly guaranteed success. After all, Harold decided the greater threat was from Norway, not Normandy. He expended a great deal of force marching to York, defeating the Vikings, and then force marching all the way south to meet William in battle.

I always felt the Saxons got a bad wrap for this loss. They beat the shit out of one invader and almost repelled a second invader at the same time. The second even outmatched them in equipment and weapons.

Hello,

Yeah, it was standard practice for the new American government to pay the ransoms too. American shipping enjoyed the protection of the Royal Navy before America broke away from Britain. It was the task of Commodore William Bainbridge to pay the tribute to the Dey of Algiers under orders from Congress. Although America did send a punitive fleet to blockade the slavers it mounted to very little. The US Marines I think were back by a large amount of mercenaries, of Greeks and Arabs. The then Captain Bainbridge made a very naive error when he went to the bay of Algiers by anchoring his ship in front of the enemies in shore guns, he then had to submit to the Sultans wishes and serve as his messenger to Constantinople. His only notable victory was over HMS Java, a smaller ship than his and with a totally inexperienced crew with no really gunnery practise. He also surrendered to a French warship, without firing a shot; I think this was early in his career.

In both ‘wars’ with the slavers America suffered very little casualties and achieved very little. The reason why we know this because the slavers were still hard at work until the Royal Navy under Admiral Pellew was sent to sort out this mess. In 1816, the Royal Navy with a small Dutch force set about destroying Algiers port and gun placements. They freed the Christian slaves and we secured the return of US ransom monies. This was the end of the slave trade in this area at least.

Any random battle with few numbers fighting off or even attacking much larger numbers is very fascinating to me. Anything from the Templars fighting with extreme determination to the SS units from various axis nations, holding on against lost causes!

My guess is there would have been two England, Norse England with its capital in York and French England with its capital in London.

battle of Mortain, Part of the battle for normandy .

Mortain was a key town during the german offensive known as operaion luttich. Had it succeeded, the germans would have cut the allied invasion force in half. But fortunately for the allies, the 2nd Battalion of the US 120th Regiment managed to hold on to hill 314, a dominant feature around the town. they managed to hold the line long enough for Allied air power to arrive and halt the german assault. of the 700 men which defended the hill, 300 men were killed.

the failure of operation luttich led to the germans almost getting completely encircled in the failaise pocket.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_L%C3%BCttich

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falaise_pocket