1805 October 21st The Battle of Trafalger.

• 1805 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Trafalgar: A British fleet led by Vice Admiral Lord Nelson defeats a combined French and Spanish fleet off the coast of Spain under Admiral Villeneuve, signaling almost the end of French maritime power and leaves Britain's navy unchallenged until the 20th century.

• Battle of Trafalgar

  Battle of Trafalgar
  Part of the Trafalgar Campaign
  The Battle of Trafalgar, as seen from the starboard mizzen shrouds of the Victory by J. M. W. Turner (oil on canvas, 1806 to 1808)
  Date 21 October 1805 Location Cape Trafalgar, Spain 36.29299°N 6.25534°W Result Decisive British victory
  Belligerents
  United Kingdom	First French Empire  Spain
  Commanders and leaders
  Horatio Nelson  †  Cuthbert Collingwood	Pierre-Charles Villeneuve  (POW)  Federico Gravina (DOW)
  Strength
  33 ships (27 ships of the line and six others)	41 ships (France: 18 ships of the line and eight others Spain: 15 ships of the line)
  Casualties and losses
  458 dead 1,208 wounded Total: 1,666.	France: 10 ships  captured, one ship destroyed, 2,218 dead, 1,155 wounded, 4,000 captured. Spain: 11 ships captured, 1,025 dead, 1,383 wounded, 4,000 captured. Aftermath: Some 3,000 prisoners drowned in the storm after the battle Total: 13,781

  
  

  Vice Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson, byLemuel Francis Abbott

  
  

  Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, the French Admiral
  
  

  
  

  Federico Gravina y Napoli, the Spanish Admiral

  The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement fought by the Royal Navyagainst the combined fleets of the French andSpanish Navies, during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of theNapoleonic Wars (1803–
  1815).

  The battle was the most decisive naval victory of the war. Twenty-seven British ships of the line led by Admiral Lord Nelson aboardHMS Victory defeated thirty-three French and Spanish ships of the line under French AdmiralPierre-Charles Villeneuve off the southwest coast of Spain, just west of Cape Trafalgar. The Franco-Spanish fleet lost twenty-two ships, without a single British vessel being lost.

  The British victory spectacularly confirmed the naval supremacy that Britain had established during the eighteenth century and was achieved in part through Nelson's departure from the prevailing naval tactical orthodoxy, which involved engaging an enemy fleet in a single line of battle parallel to the enemy to facilitate signalling in battle and disengagement, and to maximise fields of fire and target areas. Nelson instead divided his smaller force into two columns directed perpendicularly against the larger enemy fleet, with decisive results.