On This Day
1264 – After tricking the Venetian galley fleet into sailing east to the Levant, the Genoese capture an entire Venetian trade convoy at the Battle of Saseno.[6]
The Battle of Saseno took place on 14 August 1264 near Saseno Island off the coast of Albania, between a fleet of the Republic of Genoa and a trade convoy of the Republic of Venice, during the War of Saint Sabas. Since the outbreak of the war in 1256, the Genoese had experienced only defeats in direct confrontations with the Venetian navy, and had therefore resorted to raiding the Venetian commerce convoys to the Levant that were critical to the Venetian economy.
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778 – The Battle of Roncevaux Pass takes place between the army of Charlemagne and a Basque army.[1]
The Battle of Roncevaux Pass (French and English spelling, Roncesvalles in Spanish, Orreaga in Basque) in 778 saw a large force of Basques ambush a part of Charlemagne’s army in Roncevaux Pass, a high mountain pass in the Pyrenees on the present border between France and Spain, after his invasion of the Iberian Peninsula.
Born On This Day
1499 – John de Vere, 14th Earl of Oxford, English politician (d. 1526)[56]
John de Vere, 14th Earl of Oxford (14 August 1499 – 14 July 1526) was an English peer and landowner.
By inheritance, he was Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and in June 1520, at the age of twenty, he attended King Henry VIII at the Field of the Cloth of Gold.
The young earl was considered a wastrel: in 1523 the king ordered him to moderate his hunting, to eat and drink less, to give up late nights, and to be less extravagant in his dress.
He died at the age of twenty-six.
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1171 – Alfonso IX, king of León and Galicia (d. 1230)
Alfonso IX (15 August 1171 – 23 or 24 September 1230) was King of León from the death of his father Ferdinand II in 1188 until his own death.
FYI
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Wise Trivia
By Clay Risen, The New York Times: Wally Amos, Creator of Famous Amos Cookies, Dies at 88
With a background as a talent agent, his aunt’s recipe and a winning personality, he built one of the world’s best-known brands of baked goods.
Wallace Amos Jr. (July 1, 1936 – August 13, 2024) was an American television personality, entrepreneur, and author from Tallahassee, Florida. He was the founder of the Famous Amos chocolate chip cookie, the Cookie Kahuna, and Aunt Della’s Cookies gourmet cookie brands, and he was the host of the adult reading program, Learn to Read.
By Ernie Smith, Tedium: Platforms Built On Quicksand Given the choice between protecting creators and protecting a business relationship with a dominant, toxic company, Patreon chooses the business relationship. Maybe they shouldn’t.
By Colleen Mondor: #12: They had me at fighting physicists
Mike Ritland: Purple Heart Veteran Author Benjamin Sledge
Recipes
By Molly Adams, Simply Recipes: The 1-Ingredient Upgrade for the Best Scrambled Eggs J. Kenji López-Alt’s secret to creamier, softer scrambled eggs.
By Betty Crocker Kitchens: Labor Day Recipes
Just the Recipe: Paste the URL to any recipe, click submit, and it’ll return literally JUST the recipe- no ads, no life story of the writer, no nothing EXCEPT the recipe.
DamnDelicious
RecipeTinEats
- Spinach French Onion Cob Dip – Australia’s favourite dip! June 19, 2026Meet Australia’s favourite dip!!! This Spinach French Onion Cob Dip is made using a French Onion Soup mix and is served in a cob bread loaf. It is unapologetically retro, gloriously unfashionable, breaks every real-food rule I preach, and is completely addictive!! Spinach French Onion Cob Dip This dip has been a fixture at Australian... […]Nagi
- Easy Slow Cooker BBQ Shredded Beef June 16, 2026Slow Cooker BBQ Shredded Beef is what you make when you want a big batch of crowd-pleasing food with relatively little effort. The succulent pulled beef is smothered in an incredible homemade barbecue sauce, and there’s so many ways to serve it – pile into sliders, heap onto plates or stuff into baked potatoes! Easy... […]Nagi
wikimedia
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for June 21 June 21, 2026Picture of the day Bags of organic fertiliser adorn newly-planted fields against a backdrop of the Western Catchment in the Nilgiri mountains. Tamil Nadu, India
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for June 20 June 20, 2026Picture of the day Flower of a Geranium sanguineum, bloody crane's-bill. Focus stack of 51 photos.
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Welcome to the Stump the Bookseller blog!
Stump the Bookseller is a service offered by Loganberry Books to reconnect people to the books they love but can’t quite remember. In brief (for more detailed information see our About page), people can post their memories here, and the hivemind goes to work. After all, the collective mind of bibliophiles, readers, parents and librarians around the world is much better than just a few of us thinking. Together with these wonderful Stumper Magicians, we have a nearly 50% success rate in finding these long lost but treasured books. The more concrete the book description, the better the success rate, of course. It is a labor of love to keep it going, and there is a modest fee. Please see the How To page to find price information and details on how to submit your Book Stumper and payment.
Thanks to everyone involved to keep this forum going: our blogging team, the well-read Stumper Magicians, the many referrals, and of course to everyone who fondly remembers the wonder of books from their childhood and wants to share or revisit that wonder. Isn’t it amazing, the magic of a book?