SMS Emden was the second and final member of the Dresden class of light
cruisers built for the Imperial German Navy. Named for the town of
Emden, she was completed in July 1909 at the Imperial Dockyard in
Danzig, and spent most of her career with the German East Asia Squadron,
based in Tsingtao, China. At the outbreak of World War I, Emden captured
a Russian steamer and converted her into the commerce raider Cormoran.
In October 1914, Emden launched a surprise attack on Penang, sinking the
Russian cruiser Zhemchug and the French destroyer Mousquet.
Emden 's commander, Karl von Müller, then took her to raid the
Cocos Islands, where he landed a contingent of sailors to destroy
British facilities. On 9 November 1914, Emden was attacked by the
Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney, a more powerful ship, and seriously
damaged. Müller ran his ship aground to prevent her from sinking. Out
of a crew of 376, 133 were killed in the battle. Most of the survivors
were taken prisoner, though the landing party commandeered an old
schooner and eventually returned to Germany. Emden 's wreck was
quickly destroyed by wave action, but was not broken up for scrap until
the 1950s.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Emden_(1908)>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1822:
USS Alligator engaged three piratical schooners off the coast
of Cuba in one of the West Indies anti-piracy operations of the United
States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_9_November_1822>
1914:
First World War: In the Cocos Islands, the Australian light
cruiser HMAS Sydney sank SMS Emden, the last active Central Powers
warship in the Indian Ocean.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cocos>
1938:
Kristallnacht began as SA stormtroopers and civilians destroyed
and ransacked Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues in Germany and
Austria, resulting in at least 90 deaths and the deportation of over
25,000 others to concentration camps.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht>
1985:
At age 22, Garry Kasparov became the youngest ever undisputed
World Chess Champion by defeating then-champion Anatoly Karpov.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Kasparov>
1989:
East Germany announced the opening of the inner German border
and the Berlin Wall (pictured), marking the symbolic end of the Cold
War, the impending collapse of the Warsaw Pact, and the beginning of the
end of Soviet communism.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_German_border>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
dematerialize:
1. (intransitive) to disappear by becoming immaterial.
2. (transitive) to cause something to disappear by becoming immaterial.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dematerialize>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple
with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held
prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be
true. But our preferences do not determine what's true. We have a
method, and that method helps us to reach not absolute truth, only
asymptotic approaches to the truth — never there, just closer and
closer, always finding vast new oceans of undiscovered possibilities.
Cleverly designed experiments are the key.
--Carl Sagan
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan>