On this day in 1781, General George Washington, commanding a force of 17,000 French and Continental troops, begins the siege known as the Battle of Yorktown against British General Lord Charles Cornwallis and a contingent of 9,000 British troops at Yorktown, Virginia, in the most important battle of the Revolutionary War.
Earth's rotation causes the trade winds, in a way. If Earth didn't rotate, the wind at these latitudes would blow straight from the subtropical highs to the ITCZ.n the Northern Hemisphere, the Earth rotates counterclockwise so the wind is deflected to the right. The Southern Hemisphere rotates clockwise deflecting the wind to the left. Regardless, the Coriolis effect only influences the direction of the wind, not its speed.
Earth's Spin. Earth rotating clockwise is the result of a chain reaction that started when Earth's star formed as the result gas clouds collapsing. During the collapse of the gas, one direction was shorter and a disc formed. Due to the law of conservation of angular momentum, the disc gained an overall spin, which was passed to all the objects of notable mass within its solar system; these objects are commonly known as planets.