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Events on Sunday 12 September 1683 3
1683Battle of ViennaSaving EuropeSobieski led the relief of Vienna, stopping the Ottoman Empires expansion into Europe.
1683Second Siege of Vienna -- the decisive repulseThe Ottoman siege of Vienna (14 July - 12 September 1683) is the high-water mark of Ottoman power in Europe and the turning point of Ottoman-European relations. Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha leads 140,000 troops to Vienna's walls. The city holds under Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg. On 12 September, Jan III Sobieski of Poland leads 80,000 relief troops in the largest cavalry charge in history (the Winged Hussars' charge down the Kahlenberg), destroying the Ottoman army in three hours. Kara Mustafa is strangled in Belgrade on Christmas Day 1683. The retreat from Vienna begins a 240-year process of Ottoman territorial contraction in Europe.
1683Second siege of Vienna -- the turning pointThe Ottoman siege of Vienna (July-September 1683) is the high-water mark of Ottoman expansion in Europe and the beginning of the long retreat. Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha leads an army of 140,000 to Vienna's walls; the city holds under Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg. On 12 September 1683, a relief army under Jan III Sobieski of Poland and Charles of Lorraine descends from the Kahlenberg heights and destroys the Ottoman army in one of the most decisive cavalry charges in history. Kara Mustafa is strangled on the sultan's orders. The retreat from Vienna never reverses.