The Battle of Goodenough Island was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II fought between 22 and 27 October 1942. Japanese forces had been stranded on Goodenough Island, Papua, during the Battle of Milne Bay. Aircraft and ships headed from Milne Bay to Buna and vice versa had to pass close to Goodenough Island, and a presence on the island could provide warning of enemy operations. The island also had flat areas suitable for the construction of emergency airstrips. The Allies attacked the island prior to the Buna campaign. A force consisting of the Australian 2/12th Battalion and attached units landed on the southern tip at Mud Bay and Taleba Bay on 22 October and, following a short but heavy fight, during which the Australians found it difficult to advance, the Japanese forces withdrew to Fergusson Island on 27 October. The island was developed by the Allies after the battle and became a major base for operations later in the war.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Goodenough_Island
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1895:
At Gare Montparnasse in Paris, an express train derailed after overrunning the buffer stop and crashed through the station wall, with the locomotive landing on the street below (pictured). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montparnasse_derailment
1940:
After evading French and Spanish authorities, Belgian prime minister Hubert Pierlot arrived in London, marking the beginning of the Belgian government in exile. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_government_in_exile
1966:
With their album The Supremes A' Go-Go, the Supremes became the first all-female group to reach number one on the Billboard 200 chart. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Supremes
2015:
A sword-wielding man attacked students and teachers in a high school in Trollhättan, killing three people in Sweden's deadliest school attack. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trollh%C3%A4ttan_school_attack
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
lady-in-waiting: 1. A lady, often a noblewoman, in the household of a queen, princess, or other woman of higher rank who attends her as a personal assistant, generally a role considered an honour. 2. A woman who is a maid or servant to a lady, similar to a valet for a gentleman. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lady-in-waiting
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
We spend our lives fighting to get people very slightly more stupid than ourselves to accept truths that the great men have always known. They have known for thousands of years that to lock a sick person into solitary confinement makes him worse. They have known for thousands of years that a poor man who is frightened of his landlord and of the police is a slave. They have known it. We know it. … You and I are the boulder-pushers. All our lives, you and I, we’ll put all our energies, all our talents into pushing a great boulder up a mountain. The boulder is the truth that the great men know by instinct, and the mountain is the stupidity of mankind. --Doris Lessing https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Doris_Lessing