TODAY IN HISTORY
October 21, 1600: Tokugawa Ieyasu’s army defeats the “Western Army” of Ishida Mitsunari at the Battle of Sekigahara. The victory left Ieyasu in virtually uncontested control of Japan and is generally marked as the beginning of the Tokugawa Shogunate, even though Ieyasu wasn’t officially appointed shōgun until 1603.
October 21, 1805: Though outnumbered, a British Royal Navy fleet under Horatio Nelson (who was killed in action) decisively defeats a combined Franco-Spanish fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar, near Cape Trafalgar in southern Spain. Britain had established naval supremacy over France years earlier through engagements like the 1798 Battle of the Nile. Trafalgar confirmed that naval supremacy and was the last major naval engagement of the Napoleonic wars. Napoleon’s plan to build a great new navy that would finally defeat Britain’s was derailed by his defeat on land years later.
INTERNATIONAL
UAE diplomat Lana Nusseibeh has entered the race to be the next United Nations secretary-general. There were already six candidates for that post, none of whom appear to have enough support from the UN Security Council (at least nine votes in favor with no veto from any of the five permanent members) to win the job. The UAE has ingratiated itself well enough with all five of the veto holding members that Nusseibeh may be able to navigate that requirement, but it’s unclear whether she can get to nine “yes” votes overall.
MIDDLE EAST
ISRAEL-PALESTINE
US congressional candidate Brad Lander was among some 80 volunteers who were participating in an olive harvest near the West Bank city of Bethlehem when they were detained by the Israeli military (IDF) on Wednesday. Lander was released fairly quickly, probably to minimize the international fallout, but the status of the rest of the volunteers is unclear. The Israeli Foreign Ministry accused Lander of staging a “calculated political provocation” in a restricted military area, but there’s no indication that Lander or any of the other volunteers (or, indeed, local Palestinian residents) were aware of any restrictions.
