The Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (AFSWP) was a United States
military agency responsible for those aspects of nuclear weapons that
remained under military control after the Manhattan Project was
succeeded by the Atomic Energy Commission on 1 January 1947. These
included the maintenance, storage, security and handling of nuclear
weapons, and support for nuclear weapons testing. Early nuclear weapons
were complex and cumbersome, and stored as components rather than
complete devices due to the short shelf life of their lead-acid
batteries and modulated neutron initiators, and the heat generated by
the fissile cores. As nuclear weapons development proceeded, mass-
produced models became available that were easier to store, handle,
maintain and assemble, and the AFSWP became more involved in stockpile
management, and providing administrative, technical and logistical
support. In 1959, the AFSWP became the Defense Atomic Support Agency
(DASA), a field agency of the Department of Defense.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_Forces_Special_Weapons_Project>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1818:
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, a novel by the British
author Mary Shelley, was first published anonymously in London.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein>
1892:
The immigration station on Ellis Island in New York Harbor
opened, processing almost 12 million immigrants to the United States
over the course of its existence.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_Island>
1957:
The revised Thai criminal code came into force, strengthening
the law on lèse-majesté in Thailand to include insult, and treating it
as a crime against national security.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A8se-majest%C3%A9_in_Thailand>
2011:
A suicide bombing took place outside a Coptic Orthodox church
in Alexandria, Egypt, following a New Year service, killing 23 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Alexandria_bombing>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
calends:
1. Often with initial capital: the first day of a month, particularly
(Ancient Rome, historical) the first day of a month of the Roman
calendar.
2. (by extension) A day for settling debts and other accounts.
3. (by extension, biblical, Judaism, obsolete) Synonym of Rosh Hodesh
(“the Jewish festival of the new moon, which begins the months of the
Hebrew calendar”)
4. (rare) Synonym of calendar; (figurative) an account, a record.
5. (figurative, obsolete) The first day of something; a beginning.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/calends>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I pray you to forgive Both bad and good. Last season's fruit is
eaten And the fullfed beast shall kick the empty pail. For last year's
words belong to last year's language And next year's words await
another voice.
--T. S. Eliot
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot>