On September 29, 480 BC, at the Battle of Salamis, the Greek fleet under Themistocles defeated the Persian fleet under Xerxes I. An excerpt from the article:
"The Battle of Salamis was a naval battle between Greek and Persian forces in the Saronic Gulf, Greece in September 480 BCE. The Greeks had recently lost the Battle of Thermopylae and drawn the naval Battle at Artemision, both in August 480 BCE, as King Xerxes I (r. 486-465 BCE) and his Persian army went on the rampage. The Greeks won at Salamis, one of the greatest and most significant military victories in antiquity. Overcoming superior numbers with daring tactics and sheer determination, the allied Greek forces won a freedom which would allow a never-before-seen period of artistic and cultural endeavour which would form the foundations of Western culture for millennia."