Allied naval bombardments of Japan during the last weeks of World War II
in 1945 targeted industrial and military facilities. Warships of the
United States Navy, the British Royal Navy, and the Royal New Zealand
Navy, mostly cruisers and battleships, caused heavy damage to several
factories, as well as nearby civilian areas. One goal was to provoke the
Japanese military into committing some of its reserve force of aircraft
into battle, but the Allied forces were not attacked, and none of their
warships suffered damage. US Navy ships attacked the cities of Kamaishi
and Muroran, a joint American and British force bombed targets around
the city of Hitachi, and cruisers and destroyers shelled areas including
Nojima Saki and Shionomisaki. In the final bombardment on 9 August,
Kamaishi was hit again by American, British and New Zealand warships. Up
to 1,739 Japanese were killed, and as many as 1,497 were wounded. The
Allies lost 32 prisoners of war during the bombardments of Kamaishi.
Read more:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_naval_bombardments_of_Japan_during_World_War_II>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1811:
Seventy-two people died when a theater in Richmond, Virginia,
U.S., was destroyed by fire—the worst urban disaster in American
history at the time.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_Theatre_fire>
1871:
Thespis, the first comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan, made
its debut at the Gaiety Theatre, London, UK.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thespis_%28opera%29>
1898:
At the French Academy of Sciences, physicists Pierre and Marie
Curie (both pictured) announced the discovery of a new element, naming
it radium.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium>
1996:
Six-year-old American beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey was found
beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder,
Colorado, a murder that generated extensive coverage from the American
media.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_JonBen%C3%A9t_Ramsey>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
box:
1. (transitive) To place inside a box; to pack in one or more boxes.
2. (transitive) Usually followed by in: to surround and enclose in a way
that restricts movement; to corner, to hem in.
3. (transitive) To mix two containers of paint of similar colour to
ensure that the color is identical.
4. (transitive, agriculture) To make an incision or hole in (a tree) for
the purpose of procuring the sap.
5. (transitive, architecture) To enclose with boarding, lathing, etc.,
so as to conceal (for example, pipes) or to bring to a required form.
6. (transitive, engineering) To furnish (for example, the axle of a
wheel) with a box.
7. (transitive, graphic design, printing) To enclose (images, text,
etc.) in a box.
8. (transitive, object-oriented programming) To place a value of a
primitive type into a corresponding object.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/box>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
All about us we see a world in revolt; but revolt is negative, a
mere finishing-off process. In the midst of destruction we carry with us
also our creation, our hopes, our strength, our urge to be fulfilled.
The climate changes as the wheel turns, and what is true for the
sidereal world is true for man. The last two thousand years have brought
about a duality in man such as he never experienced before, and yet the
man who dominates this whole period was one who stood for wholeness, one
who proclaimed the Holy Ghost. No life in the whole history of man has
been so misinterpreted, so woefully misunderstood as Christ's.
--Henry Miller
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_Miller>