Mark Knopfler Born: Dire Straits' Fingerpicking Master
Mark Knopfler built Dire Straits around his distinctive fingerpicking guitar style, rejecting the punk era's aggression in favor of literary songwriting and clean, unhurried melodies. Albums like Brothers in Arms sold over 30 million copies worldwide, while his extensive film scoring work proved his musicianship extended far beyond the rock format.
August 12, 1949
77 years ago
What Else Happened on August 12
Cleopatra VII ends her life with an alleged asp bite, extinguishing the last spark of Egypt's independent Ptolemaic dynasty and handing the Nile valley to Rome …
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At the Battle of Didgori in 1121, King David IV of Georgia attacked a Seljuk force that outnumbered his army by a ratio sometimes estimated at 8-to-1. He used a…
Nur ad-Din Zangi defeated a combined Crusader force at Harim in 1164, capturing the Count of Tripoli, the Prince of Antioch, and other senior commanders in a si…
Kublai Khan sent two invasion fleets to Japan — in 1274 and in 1281. Both were destroyed by storms. The 1281 fleet was enormous: perhaps 140,000 men across 4,00…
Sweden and the Novgorod Republic finalized the Treaty of Nöteborg, establishing the first formal border between the two powers across the Karelian Isthmus. By d…
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