These are the 5 rounds every player got on June 27, 2026, with the answers and the history behind them. This day is finished, so nothing here spoils a puzzle you can still play — today’s Daily Challenge is a different five events.
Not enough completed runs on this day to report an average without singling out an individual player’s score — we publish one from 5 finishers up.
Round 1
Battle of Red Cliffs
Battle of Red Cliffs · 208 · Antiquity
Why there: The battle unfolded along the Yangtze, the wide southern river that formed a natural defensive barrier where the southern warlords could exploit their naval strength and force Cao Cao's northern, land-based army to fight on unfamiliar water.
Why then: With the Han dynasty's central authority collapsed in 208, rival warlords carved up the realm, and Cao Cao's bid to conquer the south before consolidation could set in made this the decisive moment that fixed the coming Three Kingdoms division.
- The Battle of Red Cliffs (208 CE) saw the allied forces of Sun Quan and Liu Bei defeat the much larger army of Cao Cao.
- Cao Cao's ships were reportedly linked together, making them vulnerable to a devastating fire attack.
- The battle paved the way for the Three Kingdoms period and is dramatized in the novel 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms.'
Round 2
Battle of Kasserine Passe
Battle of Kasserine Passe · 1943 · 20th Century
Why there: Kasserine Pass was a narrow gap through Tunisia's Atlas Mountains, a natural chokepoint controlling movement between the coastal plains, so whoever held it commanded the routes into Allied-held Algeria and the German-held Tunisian ports.
Why then: By early 1943 the Allied Torch landings had brought inexperienced U.S. forces into direct contact with Rommel's battle-tested Afrika Korps, and this first clash exposed doctrinal and command weaknesses at the exact moment mechanized armored warfare had matured into the decisive arm.
- This was the first major engagement between U.S. and German forces in World War II.
- The defeat led to George S. Patton being given command of the U.S. II Corps.
- Rommel's Afrika Korps inflicted heavy casualties before Allied reinforcements halted the advance.
Round 3
Battle of the Neva
Battle of the Neva · 1240 · Medieval
Why there: The Neva's mouth was the gateway between the Gulf of Finland and Novgorod's inland waterways, controlling access to the crucial Baltic trade route, so whoever held it commanded the flow of commerce and any invasion route toward the city.
Why then: In 1240 Novgorod stood exposed as the Mongol invasion crippled the other Rus principalities, while Sweden and the crusading orders pressed northward to seize Baltic trade and convert the region, making the river mouth a contested frontier precisely at that moment.
- The Battle of the Neva (1240) was won by Prince Alexander Yaroslavich over a Swedish force.
- His victory gave him the surname 'Nevsky', meaning 'of the Neva'.
- He would win another famous victory two years later on a frozen lake.
Round 4
Treaty of Rapallo
Treaty of Rapallo · 1922 · 20th Century
Why there: The pact was signed at Rapallo because it sat near Genoa, where the wider economic conference was being held on the Italian Riviera, letting the two delegations quietly break away and meet at a nearby coastal town.
Why then: In 1922 both Weimar Germany and Soviet Russia were diplomatically isolated pariahs of the postwar order—one crushed by Versailles reparations, the other shunned after its revolution—giving them a shared incentive to align just as the victorious powers tried to reintegrate them on their own terms.
- The treaty was signed in 1922 between Weimar Germany and Soviet Russia.
- Both nations renounced territorial and financial claims against each other.
- It was signed during the Genoa Conference and led to secret military cooperation.
Round 5
Battle of Zenta
Battle of Zenta · 1697 · Early Modern
Why there: Zenta sat on the Tisza river along the contested Habsburg-Ottoman frontier, and the Sultan's army was caught vulnerable while fording this waterway, letting Eugene of Savoy strike the half that remained stranded on the exposed bank.
Why then: The 1690s marked the tail end of the Great Turkish War, when the failed 1683 siege of Vienna had reversed Ottoman momentum and a reformed, professionalized Imperial army under aggressive young commanders could finally push the overextended Porte out of Hungary.
- The Battle of Zenta was fought on 11 September 1697 near the Tisza river in present-day Serbia.
- Prince Eugene of Savoy commanded the Habsburg victory, catching the Ottoman army crossing the river.
- The defeat led to the 1699 Treaty of Karlowitz, ceding much of Hungary to the Habsburgs.
Every Daily Challenge is five real events, one from each of five different eras, identical for every player, scored up to 10,000 points a round on how close you land in space and in time. Read how to play, see where the events come from, or play today’s.