The Albona class were mine-warfare ships used by the Italian Regia
Marina and the Royal Yugoslav Navy (KM). Fourteen ships were originally
laid down between 1917 and 1918 for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. The end
of World War I and the dissolution of Austria-Hungary left them
incomplete until 1920, when three ships were finished for the Regia
Marina. An additional five ships were completed for the KM in 1931. All
the completed ships could carry 24 to 39 naval mines. The five ships in
KM service were captured by Italian forces during the Axis invasion of
Yugoslavia and commissioned in the Regia Marina. Three of the ships were
returned to the KM-in-exile in late 1943 until they were transferred to
the Yugoslav Navy in August 1945. The three surviving ships were
stricken in 1962 and 1963. (This article is part of a featured topic:
Ships of the Royal Yugoslav Navy.).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/Ships_of_the_Royal_…>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1777:
American Revolutionary War: American forces commanded by George
Washington defeated British troops at the Battle of Princeton
(depicted).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Princeton>
1959:
As a result of the Alaska Statehood Act, the Territory of
Alaska became the 49th U.S. state, and the first outside the contiguous
United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska>
1990:
United States invasion of Panama: Manuel Noriega, the deposed
strongman of Panama, surrendered to American forces outside the
apostolic nunciature in Panama City.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Noriega>
2002:
Second Intifada: Israeli forces seized MV Karine A, which was
carrying 50 tons of smuggled weapons on behalf of the Palestinian
Authority.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karine_A_affair>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
there's many a slip twixt cup and lip:
(dated) In any situation, however well planned, something can always go
wrong.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/there%27s_many_a_slip_twixt_cup_and_lip>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of
all others.
--Cicero
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cicero>
Benjamin Jackson (January 2, 1835 – August 20, 1915) was a Canadian
sailor and farmer who was a decorated veteran of the American Civil War.
He began his career as a commercial seaman at the age of 16 and started
a farm in his mid-twenties. During the American Civil War, he served for
a year in the Union Navy and was deployed in the Union blockade of the
Confederate coastline. As a gun captain aboard USS Richmond, Jackson
served in the Battle of Mobile Bay. He disarmed multiple naval mines and
once picked up a live shell and threw it from the deck of the Richmond.
Jackson likely earned an enlistment bounty, as well as prize money by
capturing multiple blockade runners. He developed bronchitis, suffered a
serious hand injury, and eventually received a Civil War Campaign Medal.
After the war, he lived the rest of his life in Lockhartville, Nova
Scotia. He retired from commercial sailing in 1875 but continued
managing his farm. Jackson's grave remained unmarked until 2010, when a
headstone was erected.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Jackson_%28sailor%29>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1920:
Under the leadership of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer,
U.S. Department of Justice agents launched a series of raids against
radical leftists and anarchists in more than 30 cities and towns across
23 states.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_Raids>
1991:
Sharon Pratt Dixon was sworn in as the mayor of Washington,
D.C., becoming the first African-American woman to hold the position.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharon_Pratt>
2004:
The Stardust space probe flew by the comet Wild 2 and collected
particle samples from its coma, which were later returned to Earth.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/81P/Wild>
2016:
Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent Shia cleric in Saudi Arabia, was
executed by the Saudi government along with 46 other people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execution_of_Nimr_al-Nimr>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
odour of sanctity:
1. (chiefly Christianity, especially Middle Ages) A sweet smell, usually
likened to those of flowers, said to be emitted by the bodies of saints
during their life, or especially at or after death.
2. (figurative)
3. A person's reputation for, or state of, holiness.
4. (chiefly humorous or ironic) A (supposed) general aura of goodness or
virtue.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/odour_of_sanctity>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
My crime is that I have never labored to make myself popular —
I admit that much — and I have paid too little attention to fools who
are old enough to be senile but young enough to have power.
--Isaac Asimov
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov>
1 Wall Street is a skyscraper in the Financial District of Lower
Manhattan in New York. Designed in the Art Deco style, the building is
654 feet (199 m) tall and consists of two sections. The original
50-story building was constructed between 1929 and 1931 for Irving
Trust. A 28-story annex to the south (later expanded to 36 stories) was
built between 1963 and 1965. The building occupies a full city block
between Broadway, Wall Street, New Street, and Exchange Place. At the
time of its construction, 1 Wall Street occupied what was considered
one of the most valuable plots in the city. The building is one of New
York City's Art Deco landmarks, although architectural critics initially
ignored it in favor of such buildings as the Empire State Building and
the Chrysler Building. The original portion of the building is
designated as a New York City landmark. It is also a contributing
property to the Wall Street Historic District, a National Register of
Historic Places district created in 2007.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1_Wall_Street>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1801:
Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi discovered the dwarf planet
Ceres, naming it after the Roman goddess of agriculture and of motherly
love.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceres_%28dwarf_planet%29>
1810:
Lachlan Macquarie became Governor of New South Wales,
eventually playing a major role in the shaping of the social, economic
and architectural development of the colony in Australia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lachlan_Macquarie>
1960:
Three men were killed and two wounded in a mass shooting at a
public house in Sheffield, England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_House_mass_shooting>
1994:
The revolutionary leftist Zapatista Army of National Liberation
initiated twelve days of armed conflict in the Mexican state of Chiapas.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapatista_Army_of_National_Liberation>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
omnipotentiality:
(chiefly psychology, uncountable) The characteristic or feeling that
anything is possible, and there are no limits on what may be achieved;
(countable, rare) an instance of this.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/omnipotentiality>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Romance only dies with life. No pair of pincers will ever pull it
out of us. But there is a spurious sentiment which cannot resist the
unexpected and the incongruous and the grotesque. A touch will loosen
it, and the sooner it goes from us the better.
--E. M. Forster
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/E._M._Forster>