Pyrrhic victory, a success that brings such significant harm to the victor that it differs little from defeat.  Although the triumphant party in a Pyrrhic victory is considered the overall winner, the costs incurred and their future repercussions diminish the sense of genuine success.  It is sometimes known as a hollow victory.  https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pyrrhic-victory   

Pyrrhus (319/318–272 BC) was a Greek king and statesman of the Hellenistic period.  He was king of the Molossians, of the royal Aeacid house, and later he became king (Malalas also called him toparch) of Epirus.  He was one of the strongest opponents of early Rome, and had been regarded as one of the greatest generals of antiquity.  Several of his victorious battles caused him unacceptably heavy losses, from which the phrase "Pyrrhic victory" was coined.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrhus_of_Epirus#   

The Battle of Agincourt was an English victory in the Hundred Years' War.  It took place on 25 October 1415 (Saint Crispin's Day) near Azincourt, in northern France. The unexpected victory of the vastly outnumbered English troops against the French army boosted English morale and prestige, crippled France, and started a new period of English dominance in the war.  That advantage lasted for 14 years, until England was defeated by France in 1429 during the Siege of Orléans.  After several decades of relative peace, the English had resumed the war in 1415 amid the failure of negotiations with the French.  In the ensuing campaign, many soldiers died from disease, and the English numbers dwindled; they tried to withdraw to English-held Calais but found their path blocked by a considerably larger French army.  Despite their numerical disadvantage, the battle ended in an overwhelming victory for the English.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Agincourt    

March 20 is UN French Language Day, one of six such days established by UNESCO to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity and to promote the equal use of its working languages.  The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (International Organization of the French-speaking World) was founded on this day in 1970.  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/d%C3%A9tente#English    

While the Nordic countries have long dominated the World Happiness Report, 2026 brought one surprise.  For the first time in the report's 14-year history, a Latin American country made its way into the top five as Costa Rica continued its multi-year rise to fourth place, jumping from 23rd in 2023.  The rankings, produced annually by Gallup, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre, and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, are based on a three-year average of how residents in 140 countries rate their own lives alongside factors such as GDP, social support, life expectancy, perceived freedom, generosity and corruption.  For the second year in a row, no major English-speaking countries made the top 10, with Australia at 15th, the United States at 23rd, Canada at 25th and the UK at 29th.  See the list including #1 Finland, and #2 Iceland at https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260317-the-worlds-happiest-countries-for-2026   

March 20, 2026