Trafalgar Day

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Trafalgar Day is remembered in the United Kingdom on 21st October each year. It is not a public holiday, and celebrations are usually at best muted or even non-existent. It commemorates the victory of Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson’s British fleet over the French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21st October, 1805. It was widely celebrated by parades, dinners, gatherings of comrades and ex-servicemen and other events throughout much of the British Empire in the early 19th and 20th centuries.

After the massive losses and casualties of the First World War in 1918, celebrations of war across the board rapidly declined because of a general public distaste for triumphalism in any form which persists to this day. Newly established events such as Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday were seen as more appropriate.

However, the significance of Trafalgar was marked by a series of special events in 2005 (the 200th Anniversary of Nelson’s victory), especially in the United Kingdom and its waters, during which Queen Elizabeth II undertook her first International Fleet Review since her Silver Jubilee in 1977. Additionally, there were events in many major cities and ports in the UK to celebrate, not just the victory at Trafalgar, but the life of Lord Nelson himself.