INS Vikrant (from Sanskrit for "courageous") was a Majestic-
class aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy. The ship was laid down as
HMS Hercules for the British Royal Navy during World War II and launched
on 22 September 1945, but construction was put on hold when the war
ended. India purchased the incomplete carrier in 1957, and construction
was completed in 1961. Vikrant was commissioned as the first aircraft
carrier of the Indian Navy and played a key role in enforcing the naval
blockade of East Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971. In its
later years, the ship underwent major refits to embark modern aircraft,
before being decommissioned in January 1997. Vikrant was preserved as a
museum ship in Cuffe Parade, Mumbai, until 2012. The ship was sold
through an online auction in January 2014 and scrapped in November 2014
after final clearance from the Supreme Court. The Indian Navy is
currently constructing its first home-built carrier, also named INS
Vikrant, scheduled to be commissioned by the end of 2018.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INS_Vikrant_(R11)>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1586:
Eighty Years' War: Spanish forces were victorious against a
combined Anglo-Dutch army in the Battle of Zutphen.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Zutphen>
1914:
World War I: German naval forces bombarded Papeete in French
Polynesia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardment_of_Papeete>
1922:
After nine days, the great fire of Smyrna was extinguished,
having caused tens of thousands of deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_fire_of_Smyrna>
1957:
François "Papa Doc" Duvalier was elected President of Haiti as
a populist before consolidating power and ruling as a dictator for the
rest of his life.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Duvalier>
1993:
A tugboat towing a barge collided with a rail bridge in Mobile,
Alabama, U.S., deforming the tracks and causing the derailment of a
passenger train eight minutes later, which killed 47 people and injured
an additional 103.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Big_Bayou_Canot_train_wreck>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
imbongi:
(chiefly South Africa) A praise singer, a traditional bard in Zulu
culture.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/imbongi>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I call the phantoms of a thousand hours Each from his voiceless
grave: they have in vision'd bowers Of studious zeal or love's delight
Outwatch'd with me the envious night: They know that never joy illum'd
my brow Unlink'd with hope that thou wouldst free This world from its
dark slavery, That thou, O awful LOVELINESS, Wouldst give whate'er these
words cannot express. The day becomes more solemn and serene When noon
is past; there is a harmony In autumn, and a lustre in its sky, Which
through the summer is not heard or seen, As if it could not be, as if it
had not been! Thus let thy power, which like the truth Of nature on my
passive youth Descended, to my onward life supply Its calm, to one who
worships thee, And every form containing thee, Whom, SPIRIT fair, thy
spells did bind To fear himself, and love all human kind.
--Percy Bysshe Shelley
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Percy_Bysshe_Shelley>