Battle Facts

In 585 BC, a solar eclipse occurred in the middle of a battle between the Lydians and the Medes. They promptly ceased fighting and signed a peace treaty.

José Prudencio Padilla had 22 ships against Spain's 32 at Lake Maracaibo - and one secret weapon. The Catatumbo lightning strikes the same Venezuelan sky up to 28 times a minute, lighting up the Spanish fleet in the dark. Padilla's ambush secured Venezuela's independence in a single afternoon in 1823. This same storm still fires 260 nights a year - the most concentrated lightning on Earth.