Arthur W. Radford (1896–1973) was a U.S. Navy admiral and naval
aviator. In over 40 years of military service, he held a variety of
posts including Vice Chief of Naval Operations, commander of the Pacific
Fleet and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Radford's first sea
duty was aboard the battleship USS South Carolina during World War I.
In the first years of World War II, he was the architect of the navy's
aviator training programs. In its final years he commanded aircraft
carrier divisions through several campaigns of the Pacific War. Noted as
a strong-willed and aggressive leader, Radford was a central figure in
the post-war debates on U.S. military policy, and was a staunch
proponent of naval aviation. He defended the Navy's interests in an era
of shrinking defense budgets during the 1949 "Revolt of the Admirals", a
contentious public fight over policy. As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs,
he advocated a strong nuclear deterrent in support of the New Look
policy of President Dwight Eisenhower. He retired from the military in
1957. He was the namesake of the Spruance-class destroyer USS Arthur W.
Radford.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_W._Radford>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1560:
The Treaty of Berwick was signed, setting the terms under which
an English fleet and army could enter Scotland to expel French troops
defending the Regency of Mary of Guise (pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Berwick_(1560)>
1870:
The current flag of Japan was first adopted as the national
flag for Japanese merchant ships.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Japan>
1940:
American biochemists Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discovered the
radioactive isotope carbon-14, which today is used extensively as the
basis of the radiocarbon dating method to date archaeological,
geological, and hydrogeological samples.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon-14>
1996:
The media franchise Pokémon was launched with the release of
the first version of the video game Pocket Monsters Aka and Midori.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon>
2015:
Russian statesman and politician Boris Nemtsov was assassinated
in central Moscow while returning from a meal out.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Boris_Nemtsov>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
vituperation:
1. The act of vituperating; severely blaming or censuring.
2. Criticism or invective which is sustained and considered to be overly
harsh; abuse, severe blame or censure.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vituperation>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers
of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved. Indeed, most of
their vices are attempted short cuts to love. When a man comes to die,
no matter what his talents and influence and genius, if he dies unloved
his life must be a failure to him and his dying a cold horror. It seems
to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or
action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death
brings no pleasure to the world. We have only one story. All novels, all
poetry, are built on the never-ending contest in ourselves of good and
evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good,
while virtue, is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while
virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is.
--East of Eden
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/East_of_Eden_(novel)>