SI Super Intelligence curated directories

History · Curated list

Battles: the 30 most written about

Battle of Stalingrad, Battle of Waterloo, Attack on Pearl Harbor and 27 more, ranked by how much of the world has written about each one.

Entries
30
Photographed
30
Fetched
2026-09-25
Battle of Stalingrad
Battle of Stalingrad · Major World War II battle from 1942 to 1943 · Abram Krichevsky (Q4241405) / TASS (Q223799), Public domain

Battles, ranked

Most written-about first. Each description summarises the battle's Wikipedia article, which its name links to.

  1. Battle of Stalingrad 1

    Battle of Stalingrad

    Major World War II battle from 1942 to 1943

    A major battle of World War II on the Eastern Front, in which the Soviet Union fought Nazi Germany and its Axis allies for control of Stalingrad, a city in southern Russia. With fierce fighting at close quarters and heavy civilian losses from bombing from the air, it is seen as the biggest and bloodiest fight for a city in the history of war, and no battle of World War II killed more people.

    Wikidata · Photo: Abram Krichevsky (Q4241405) / TASS (Q223799), Public domain

  2. Battle of Waterloo 2

    Battle of Waterloo

    1815 battle of the Waterloo campaign

    The last battle fought by Napoleon I, on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo, in which two armies of the Seventh Coalition beat the French Imperial Army under his command.

    Wikidata · Photo: William Sadler, Public domain

  3. Attack on Pearl Harbor 3

    Attack on Pearl Harbor

    1941 Japanese attack on the US

    A surprise military strike by the Empire of Japan on the US Pacific Fleet at its naval base, Pearl Harbor, on Oahu, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, when the US was still neutral in World War II.

    Wikidata · Photo: Unknown navy photographer, Public domain

  4. Battle of Thermopylae 4

    Battle of Thermopylae

    480 BC engagement of the Greco-Persian Wars

    A three-day battle fought in 480 BC at Thermopylae, where Greek city-states allied under Spartan leadership, commanded by Leonidas I, faced the Achaemenid Persian Empire of Xerxes. It was one of the best-known battles of the second Persian invasion of Greece and of the Greco-Persian Wars as a whole.

    Wikidata · Photo: Unknown, Public domain

  5. Battle of Hastings 5

    Battle of Hastings

    Battle between English and Normans in 1066

    The battle that began the Norman Conquest of England, fought on 14 October 1066 when William, Duke of Normandy, and his Norman-French army met the English under Harold Godwinson, the Anglo-Saxon king. Fought about 7 mi (11 km) northwest of Hastings, near today's town of Battle, East Sussex, it ended in a decisive Norman victory.

    Wikidata · Photo: Myrabella, Public domain

  6. Battle of Badr 6

    Battle of Badr

    First major battle in early Islam (624)

    Also called the Raid of Badr, and in the Qur'an and among Muslims the Day of the Criterion, a battle fought on 13 March 624 CE near Badr, a city of Medina Province in today's Saudi Arabia. Muhammad, leading an army of his Sahaba, defeated a Quraysh army led by Amr ibn Hisham, whom Muslims know better as Abu Jahl.

    Wikidata · Photo: Abu Ali Bal'ami, Public domain

  7. Fall of Constantinople 7

    Fall of Constantinople

    1453 Ottoman conquest of the Byzantine capital

    The capture of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire, by the Ottoman Empire on 29 May 1453, the climax of a siege of 53 days that had begun on 6 April.

    Wikidata · Photo: Unknown, Public domain

  8. Battle of Marathon 8

    Battle of Marathon

    490 BC battle in the Greco-Persian Wars

    A battle of 490 BC, in the first Persian invasion of Greece, between the citizens of Athens, helped by Plataea, and a Persian army commanded by Artaphernes and Datis.

    Wikidata · Photo: John Steeple Davis, Public domain

  9. Battle of France 9

    Battle of France

    German invasion of France in 1940

    Also called the Fall of France, the German invasion of France and the Low Countries in the Second World War, carried out under a plan called Fall Gelb.

    Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0 de

  10. Battle of Austerlitz 10

    Battle of Austerlitz

    1805 battle of the War of the Third Coalition

    The decisive battle of the War of the Third Coalition, fought near Austerlitz on Monday 2 December 1805, in which Emperor Napoleon I's Grande Armée beat a combined army of Russia and Austria.

    Wikidata · Photo: François Gérard, Public domain

  11. Battle of Berlin 11

    Battle of Berlin

    Last major offensive of the European theatre of World War II

    One of the final great offensives of World War II in Europe, known as the Fall of Berlin and designated by the Soviets the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation.

    Wikidata · Photo: Carl Weinrother, CC BY-SA 3.0 de

  12. Battle of Kursk 12

    Battle of Kursk

    1943 tank battle in the Soviet Union

    Also called the Battle of the Kursk Salient, a major battle of World War II's Eastern Front, fought in the summer of 1943 near Kursk, in southwestern Russia, between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union and won by the Soviets. No single battle in the history of war has been larger.

    Wikidata · Photo: Red Army photographer?, CC BY 4.0

  13. Normandy landings 13

    Normandy landings

    World War II landing operation in Europe

    The landings, with their airborne operations, of 6 June 1944 that opened the Allied invasion of Normandy, Operation Overlord, in the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often called D-Day, it was the biggest invasion from the sea in history.

    Wikidata · Photo: Chief Photographer's Mate (CPHoM) Robert F. Sargent, Public domain

  14. Battle of Grunwald 14

    Battle of Grunwald

    1410 battle of the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War

    A battle of the war between the Teutonic Order and the Polish–Lithuanian alliance, fought on 15 July 1410 and also known as the Battle of Žalgiris or the (First) Battle of Tannenberg. The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, led by King Władysław II Jagiełło (Jogaila) and Grand Duke Vytautas, crushed the Order, whose Grand Master was Ulrich von Jungingen.

    Wikidata · Photo: Jan Matejko, Public domain

  15. Battle of Verdun 15

    Battle of Verdun

    Battle on the Western Front during the First World War

    The First World War's longest battle, which lasted from 21 February to 18 December 1916 in the hills to the north of Verdun, on the Western Front in France.

    Wikidata · Photo: Unknown, Public domain

  16. Battle of the Somme 16

    Battle of the Somme

    WWI battle pitting France and Britain against Germany

    Also called the Somme offensive, a battle of the First World War in which the armies of the French Republic and the British Empire fought the German Empire. It lasted from 1 July to 18 November 1916, along both banks of the upper Somme in France.

    Wikidata · Photo: Ernest Brooks, Public domain

  17. Battle of Tours 17

    Battle of Tours

    732 battle of the Umayyad invasion of Gaul

    A key battle of the Umayyad invasion of Gaul, on 10 October 732, known also as the Battle of Poitiers and as the Battle of the Highway of the Martyrs. Charles Martel's Frankish and Aquitanian forces won it against the Umayyad invaders of Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi, who governed al-Andalus.

    Wikidata · Photo: Charles de Steuben, Public domain

  18. Battle of Cannae 18

    Battle of Cannae

    Largest battle of the Second Punic War (216 BC)

    A key battle of the Second Punic War between Carthage and the Roman Republic, fought on 2 August 216 BC near Cannae, an ancient village in Apulia, southeast Italy. Hannibal's Carthaginians and their allies encircled a bigger Roman and Italian army under the consuls Gaius Terentius Varro and Lucius Aemilius Paullus and all but destroyed it.

    Wikidata · Photo: File:Battle cannae destruction.gif : Frank Martini. Cartographer, Department of History, United States Military…, Public domain

  19. Battle of Mohács 19

    Battle of Mohács

    1526 battle of the Ottoman–Hungarian Wars

    A battle near Mohács, in the Kingdom of Hungary, on 29 August 1526. The Hungarians of King Louis II faced an invading Ottoman army led by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha, his grand vizier.

    Wikidata · Photo: Mór Than, Public domain

  20. Battle of Moscow 20

    Battle of Moscow

    World War II campaign in Russia

    A military campaign of World War II, made up of two periods of strategically important fighting along 600 km (370 mi) of the Eastern Front between October 1941 and January 1942. The Soviet defence stopped Germany's attack on Moscow, the Soviet Union's capital and biggest city.

    Wikidata · Photo: Knorring / Олег Кнорринг, CC BY-SA 3.0

  21. Battle of Leipzig 21

    Battle of Leipzig

    1813 battle of the Napoleonic Wars

    Also called the Battle of the Nations, fought at Leipzig, Saxony, from 16 to 19 October 1813. The Coalition armies of Russia, Sweden, Prussia and Austria, led by Tsar Alexander I, Karl von Schwarzenberg, Gebhard von Blücher and Charles John, Crown Prince of Sweden, decisively defeated the Grande Armée of Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French.

    Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain

  22. Battle of Iwo Jima 22

    Battle of Iwo Jima

    Major World War II battle in the Pacific Theater

    A major battle of World War II in which the United States Marine Corps (USMC), Navy (USN) and Army (USA) landed on Iwo Jima and in the end took the island from the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). The American invasion, Operation Detachment, aimed to capture the island and its two airfields, Central Field and South Field.

    Wikidata · Photo: Joe Rosenthal, Public domain

  23. Battle of Vienna 23

    Battle of Vienna

    1683 battle between the Christian European States and the Ottomans

    A battle on Kahlenberg Mountain, outside Vienna, on 12 September 1683, after a two-month Ottoman siege of the city. The Holy Roman Empire, under Habsburg leadership, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, both under the Polish King John III Sobieski, fought the Ottomans and the states that were their vassals and tributaries.

    Wikidata · Photo: Juliusz Kossak, Public domain

  24. Battle of the Teutoburg Forest 24

    Battle of the Teutoburg Forest

    Roman defeat by Germanic tribes in 9 AD

    Called the Varian Disaster by Roman historians, a major battle between the Roman Empire and an alliance of Germanic peoples, fought from 8 to 11 September 9 CE, possibly near today's Kalkriese. It opened with the Germanic alliance, led by Arminius, a Germanic chieftain and an officer of Varus's auxilia, ambushing three Roman legions under Publius Quinctilius Varus and their auxiliaries.

    Wikidata · Photo: Unknown, CC BY-SA 3.0

  25. Battle of Gaugamela 25

    Battle of Gaugamela

    Major battle of the Wars of Alexander the Great (331 BC)

    Also called the Battle of Arbela, a battle of 331 BC between Alexander the Great's Macedonian army and the Persian army of King Darius III. The second and last battle between the two kings, it is seen as the final blow to the Achaemenid Empire, which Alexander then conquered completely.

    Wikidata · Photo: Jan Brueghel the Elder, Public domain

  26. Battle of Borodino 26

    Battle of Borodino

    1812 battle of the French invasion of Russia

    Also called the Battle of the Moskva, fought on 7 September 1812 near the village of Borodino, on the edge of Moscow, during Napoleon's invasion of Russia, between the Grande Armée and the Imperial Russian Army.

    Wikidata · Photo: Auguste-Joseph Desarnot, Public domain

  27. Battle of Manzikert 27

    Battle of Manzikert

    1071 Seljuk victory over the Byzantines

    Also called the Battle of Malazgirt, fought on 26 August 1071 near Manzikert, Iberia, between the Seljuk Empire and the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine army's crushing defeat, and the capture of Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes, did much to weaken Byzantine authority in Armenia and Anatolia, and opened the way for Anatolia's gradual Turkification.

    Wikidata · Photo: Rohan Master, Public domain

  28. Battle of Uhud 28

    Battle of Uhud

    625 Muslim–Quraysh War battle

    A battle of the Muslim–Quraysh wars between the Quraysh and the early Muslims, fought on Saturday, 23 March 625 AD, in a valley north of Medina near Mount Uhud.

    Wikidata · Photo: Anonymous (Author), Public domain

  30. Battle of Hattin 30

    Battle of Hattin

    1187 Saladin victory over the Crusaders

    A battle of 4 July 1187 in which the army of the Ayyubid Sultanate of Egypt, under Sultan Saladin, met the Crusader states of the Levant. It is also called the Battle of the Horns of Hattin, after the shape of the extinct volcano of that name nearby.

    Wikidata · Photo: Anonymous Unknown author, Public domain

How this list was made

Every Wikidata item that is a battle, and that has its own English Wikipedia article, ranked by the number of Wikimedia sites with a page about it — Wikipedia's language editions, mostly, and sister projects such as Wikiquote. That counts how many communities independently thought it worth describing, and nobody can buy a place on it. The top 30 are shown.

Fetched from Wikidata on 2026-09-25. Each description is this site's summary of the entry's Wikipedia article, which its name links to: the wording is ours, the facts are Wikipedia's, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. To correct an entry, correct it there; the next refresh carries the change.

More in History

One practical note: staying online

If you are reading this on the way somewhere: Computatus eSIM sells prepaid data eSIMs for 190 countries, installed by QR code before you leave, so maps, tickets and messages work without a roaming bill.

See plans for the most visited destinations from $1.79
The destinations travellers ask about most, with the cheapest plan for each, as exported 2026-07-31.
Country Cheapest plan Price
United States 1GB per day $2.33 Get it →
France 2GB per day $2.15 Get it →
Italy 2GB per day $1.81 Get it →
United Kingdom 2GB per day $1.81 Get it →
Germany 2GB per day $1.81 Get it →
Canada 1GB per day $2.47 Get it →
India 1GB per day $3.26 Get it →
Australia 1GB per day $1.79 Get it →

See all Computatus eSIM plans →

A commission on plans bought through these links is what pays for this site. Nothing above depends on it: every entry is chosen and ranked before any price is looked up.