Roy Phillipps (1892–1941) was an Australian fighter ace of World
War I. He achieved fifteen victories in aerial combat, four of them in
a single action on 12 June 1918. A grazier between the wars, he joined
the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in 1940 and was killed in a plane
crash the following year. Born in New South Wales but raised in Western
Australia, Phillipps joined the Australian Imperial Force as an
infantryman in April 1915, seeing action at Gallipoli and on the Western
Front. Wounded twice in 1916, he transferred to the Australian Flying
Corps (AFC) and, having falsified his age, was accepted for pilot
training in May 1917. As a member of No. 2 Squadron in France,
Phillipps flew mainly S.E.5 fighters, and was awarded two Military
Crosses and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions. He finished
the war a major, commanding No. 6 (Training) Squadron in England. He
returned to Australia in 1919 and left the AFC. Soon after the outbreak
of World War II, he enlisted in the RAAF. At his death he was ranked
squadron leader, commanding No. 2 Elementary Flying Training School at
Archerfield, Queensland.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Phillipps>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1240:
The Disputation of Paris began in the court of King Louis IX,
in which four rabbis defended the Talmud against Nicholas Donin's
accusations of blasphemy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disputation_of_Paris>
1381:
The first mass protest in the Peasants' Revolt began in
Blackheath, England, caused by political and socioeconomic tensions due
to the Black Death and high taxes as a result of the Hundred Years' War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peasants%27_Revolt>
1942:
On her thirteenth birthday, Anne Frank began keeping her diary
during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diary_of_a_Young_Girl>
1967:
The U.S. Supreme Court delivered its decision in the landmark
civil rights case Loving v. Virginia, striking down laws restricting
interracial marriage in the United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_v._Virginia>
1987:
Cold War: During a speech at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate by the
Berlin Wall, U.S. President Ronald Reagan challenged Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall!"
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tear_down_this_wall!>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
killer poke:
(computing) Any method of inducing physical harm to a computer or
peripheral by software means, especially by inserting invalid values
into a control register or by building up harmonic oscillations in a
hard disk, etc.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/killer_poke>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
We all know that a good example is more effective than advice. So
set a good example, and it won't take long for others to follow.
--Anne Frank
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anne_Frank>
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