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>
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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>
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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>
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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>