Despite early success and the capture of the towns of Rastenburg and Gumbinnen, In the Battle of Tannenberg in 1914 and the Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes in 1915, the Russians were decisively defeated and forced to retreat, followed by the German Army advancing into Russian territory.

Despite the losses this entailed, some 390 warships were reportedly sent to attack Damietta in 739, and in 747, aided for the first time by ships from the Italian city-states, the Byzantines decisively defeated the combined Syrian and Alexandrian fleets off Cyprus, breaking the naval power of the Umayyad Caliphate.

Despite interference on his behalf by Cassidy Riley, Raven was decisively beaten after the Diamonds drove him through a table and then pinned him.

Despite Gorbachev's attempts to discourage Russia's electorate from voting for him, Yeltsin was popularly elected as president, handily defeating five other candidates with more than 57 percent of the vote.

Despite these setbacks, the Roman forces were more capable in siegecraft than the Carthaginians and recaptured all the major cities that had joined the enemy, as well as defeating a Carthaginian attempt to reinforce Hannibal at the battle of the Metaurus.

Despite sustainining enormous casualties, the Serbian army managed to recover, regrouped and returned to the Macedonian front to lead a final breakthrough through enemy lines on 15 September 1918, liberating Serbia and defeating the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Bulgaria.

Despite defeating North Korea in the final group game 3 – 0, Ivory Coast failed to qualify for the knock-out stages.

Despite these difficulties, the Corps played a key role in defeating Superboy-Prime.

Despite the opposition of many in his own party, including not only Vare ’ s powerful Philadelphia machine, but also many “ wets ” who revolted and created a separate Liberal Party that autumn — thereby giving the Democratic candidate two lines on the November ballot — Pinchot narrowly prevailed, defeating Hemphill by a margin of 1, 068, 874 to 1, 010, 204.

Despite this early setback Bangor ended the 2008 – 09 season with yet more silverware as they retained the Welsh Cup by defeating Aberystwyth Town 2 – 0 in a match held at Parc Y Scarlets, Llanelli.

Despite his inexperience, Peterson nevertheless came within 45 votes of defeating Stuart Smith on the third and final ballot of a delegated convention held on January 25, 1976.

Despite this, Filipović was given a wildcard into the world tournament where he shocked the kickboxing world by defeating highly regarded K-1 fighter Mike Bernardo.

Despite early defeats, elements of the US II Corps, reinforced by British reserves, rallied and held the exits through mountain passes in western Tunisia, defeating the Axis offensive plans.

Despite the Mongol's territorial gains, in September 1260, the Egyptian Mamluks rallied, defeating the Mongols at the historic battle of Ain Jalut and driving them back across the Euphrates River.

Despite their financial troubles, Wrexham went on to win the 2004 – 05 Football League Trophy by defeating Southend United 2 – 0 after extra time, in Wrexham's first appearance at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

Despite the ruling she remained in place as the candidate for the 1997 general election, when she became an MP defeating Conservative MP Nirj Deva.

Despite being pushed all the way by Stockport County, Hereford secured third place and promotion with a match to spare by defeating Brentford 3 – 0 at Griffin Park.

Despite his absence, the Crawfords finally lived up to their promise, taking the first-half title with a 26-6 record, then defeating the New York Cubans in a close seven-game series for their only undisputed NNL pennant.

Despite this, he still often helps them with defeating the villains they face, claiming that Yugi or one of his friends helped him and he owes them, or that the villain's desires are in direct conflict with his own interests.

Despite being able to launch his missile, the Legion are soundly defeated by the League, with Wonder Woman, Flash, Batman, and Green Lantern defeating Cheetah, Mirror Master, Bane, and Star Sapphire in that order, respectively.

Despite the censorship going on in Britain at the time, this battle was the first indication the British public had that defeating Germany would not be as easy as some had thought.

Despite being a one-legged creature, the character is believed to be very agile and powerful, always defeating his enemies.

Despite defeating Superman in one-on-one battle ( by throwing him out of a ring and causing a disqualification, rather than through physical force ), his lack of a superpower meant he was initially given menial chores around the ship and later kicked out of the Legion for trying to take down Grimbor without back-up.

Despite the changes, the Torontos won the Stanley Cup in 1914, defeating the Montreal Canadiens in a playoff to decide the NHA champion.

Despite Dani defeating Legion, he maintains this attitude and she leaves.

Despite the unrest, Chelsea, under Mourinho, won the League Cup again by defeating Arsenal FC in the final at the Millennium Stadium.

Despite this, Mourinho achieved what was hailed as one of his career highlights after Inter managed to progress to the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals by defeating Mourinho's former team Chelsea in both legs ( 2 – 1 win at San Siro, then followed by a 1 – 0 win at Stamford Bridge ).

Despite the lack of support, the Marathas managed to defeat the Nizam over a period of five years.

Despite the boast of Lord Moira to the British parliament on having increased the state coffers, the Gurkha War had in reality cost more than the combined cost of the campaigns against the Marathas and the Pindaris for which Lord Moira's administration is better known: Sicca Rs.

Despite their repeated attempts, the Portuguese, the British and the Marathas failed to subdue the power of the Siddi's, who were themselves allied with the Mughal Empire.

Despite several years of front-page stories, the average citizen was unable to get a complete picture of McCarthy until he saw on the television screen what the reporters had been seeing all along but had no effective way of communicating.

Despite the fact that he was regarded as an outstanding engineer, he seemed to be a very poor administrator, although no one quite knew what was wrong with him.

Despite the difficulty in definition, many philosophers believe that there is a broadly shared underlying intuition about what consciousness is.

Despite the 1891 discovery by Eugène Dubois of what is now called Homo erectus at Trinil, Java, it was only in the 1920s when such fossils were discovered in Africa, that intermediate species began to accumulate.

Despite deteriorating health, he continued what he called his " Universal Work ," which included fasting and seclusion, until his death on 31 January 1969.

Despite several historians ' accounts of what happened between 1865 and 1870, Solano López was not wholly responsible for the war.

Despite its undoubted success, this in turn led to what many saw as an " Americanisation " of the area, with even its private security force kitted out in something resembling New York Police uniforms.

Despite having completed only a quarter of what he had intended to write, he left a substantial body of work.

Despite attempts to improve its agricultural base and emphasize locally manufactured products and indigenous materials, Seychelles continues to import 90 % of what it consumes.

Despite some similarities between these two causes, the creation science movement represented a shift from overtly religious to covertly religious objections to evolutionary theory — raising what it claimed to be scientific evidence in support of a literal interpretation of the Bible.

Despite high speed play and rapid exchanges, a player can see clearly what side of the racket was used to hit the ball.

Despite this, the band did not feel part of the hardcore scene ; as Mars later stated, " we were confused about what we were ".

Despite the book's one-sided and prejudiced statements about gay men, one middle-aged matron from a small town in Wisconsin was heard to say " Until I read this book, I never actually knew precisely what it was that homosexuals did ".

Despite his extensive knowledge of ancient history, classics, archaeology and what would be termed today cultural anthropology, he apparently had not even read enough in his nominal major to pass the required examination.

Despite the dubious nature of the document, wheels were set in motion for its publication ; members of the Conservative Party combining with Foreign Office officials in what Chester, Fay, and Young characterised as a " conspiracy.

Despite the economic difficulties, what truly produced the demise of the UAR was Nasser's inability to find a suitable political system for the new regime.

Despite this, Clouseau does appear to show some awareness that he is not the most competent or intelligent person, as he is notably embarrassed by and quick to brush aside his more extreme acts of clumsiness with phrases such as " I know that ", and attempts to appear elegant and refined regardless of what calamity he has just caused.

Despite what he considered its technical deficiencies, Ravel was a strong advocate of Russian music and praised its spontaneity, orchestral color, and exoticism.

Despite Rheinübung and the damaging attack on the Lützow, in July 1941 Raeder began planning for what he called " the battle of the Atlantic ", a plan to send every single warship in the Kriegsmarine into the Atlantic to take on the Royal Navy in one colossal battle that almost certainly result in the destruction of the German force, but would hopefully make the British victory a Pyrrhic one.

Despite what is seen in many movies, access doors between passenger cabins and baggage holds are rare in modern airliners.

Despite these assurances, residents have been very vocal in their concerns that the neighborhood will lose its unique eclectic appeal and have panned what they call the destruction of one of the few locally owned business districts in the valley.

Despite what the statute may suggest, the regime makes sense.

Despite her career in music, she was deaf in one ear, which made it difficult for her to understand what others were saying.

Despite its progress, there are still many fundamental problems faced by this field as " unlike medicine, evaluation is not a discipline that has been developed by practicing professionals over thousands of years, so we are not yet at the stage where we have huge encyclopaedias that will walk us through any evaluation step-by-step ", or provide a clear definition of what evaluation entails ( Davidson, 2005 ).