But the ending of the siege was even more surprising than the siege itself.
In 1627, France's Cardinal Richelieu began the siege of the Huguenot fortress at La Rochelle with royal troops.
The ongoing saga of the siege of the PSN has resulted in news items practically every other day since the attacks started.
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In 1862, the siege of the Confederate city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, began when Union naval forces took up position off of the city.
The Scarlets responded by putting Leinster under serious pressure but Malcolm O'Kelly's big hit helped lift the siege as the ball was turned over.
In other assignments, Chance reported from Mumbai, India, where he covered the 2008 militant attacks on the city and the siege of the landmark Taj Majal Hotel.
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His tenure at the Home Office saw the siege at the Libyan People's Bureau in London during which a policewoman was shot, the miners' strike and the forging of an extradition treaty with Spain despite the Gibraltar dispute.
Joe McMahon lifted the siege in the 52nd minute to cut Donegal's lead to four points but within a minute the game was as good as over when McFadden blasted to the net after the Tyrone defence had been ripped apart.
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"I have seen nothing to suggest that anything about April itself makes people violent, " Robert Blaskiewicz, who runs the blog Skeptical Humanities, said in a 2011 interview with CNN about the 20-year anniversary of the siege of the Waco compound.
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He also covered the Israeli siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in May 2002.
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When American forces undertake big military operations, such as the recent siege around the Shia holy town of Najaf, it is he who calls many of the shots.
Polygamy is illegal in the US, but the authorities have reportedly been reluctant to confront the FLDS for fear of sparking a tragedy similar to the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian sect in Waco, Texas, which led to the deaths of around 80 members.
The laboratory at Wetherby has dealt with cases as diverse as the bodies recovered from the Waco siege at the Branch Davidians compound in Texas in 1993, to the assassination of the Swedish prime minister Olof Palme in 1986 and the disappearance of Huddersfield man Peter Falconio in Australia in July 2001.
One other report from old London is Daniel Defoe's "A Journal of the Plague Year, " a fictional, though chillingly persuasive, account of the metropolis under siege from the Great Plague in 1665.
The hosts laid siege to the Leinster line only for Easter and Will Skinner to both suffer a dose of whitewash fever, while just before the hour Care pounced on a turnover and chipped ahead, only for Luke Fitzgerald to race back to the rescue for the Irish.
Gen Mladic is also charged over the 44-month siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo from May 1992 in which 10, 000 people died.
The NFL, under siege on the issue of player safety, announced new penalties in its investigation of performance bounties and the New Orleans Saints.
This is a logical question considering the fact that a variety of areas throughout the globe have been under siege during the past year.
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In the 95th minute, with Brentford laying siege to the opposing goal, Jamie McCombe, Doncaster's 6-foot-5 centerback threw his lanky frame in the air, his flailing arm clearly deflecting the ball.
Libyan lawmakers approved the bill during the weekend, with guns still drawn on the streets, and the militias seemed to be gradually lifting their siege in the capital.
But underscoring the confusion surrounding militias, protesters then lay siege to the headquarters of another militia, the Rafallah Sahati brigade, apparently unaware that it was approved by the Ministry of Defense and tasked with guarding a sizable weapons storehouse in the city.
It dates back to the 1600s after the siege of Vienna by the Ottoman Turks.
Tradition has it that Victorian Cross medals were cast out of the bronze of two cannons captured from the Russians at the siege of Sebastopol in the Crimea.
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Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, was heavily criticised for his slow reaction to the Beslan siege and for the botched storming of the school, where 331 people died, half of them children.
Mr Bush said the siege has slowed down the reform of Mr Arafat's Palestinian Authority, which America and other world leaders say must take place before there can be a Palestinian state.
While the 'ndrangheta threatens, strikes and keeps business under siege, the state fails in its duty to guarantee the physical security that firms need.
The population of 20, 000 doubled overnight when residents of the neighboring camp, Nahr al-Bared - under siege by the Lebanese army - fled their homes and moved in here.
In the fall, the Powhatans waged war against these colonists, and launched a siege against the fort.
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Late last month, holed up in the Hotel du Golf in Abidjan where he had been under siege since the election by forces loyal to Mr Gbagbo, Mr Ouattara decided it was time to resort to his own forces.
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