USS Lexington (CV-2) was an early aircraft carrier built for the
United States Navy during the 1920s. Originally designed as a
battlecruiser, she was converted into an aircraft carrier during
construction to comply with the terms of the 1922 Washington Naval
Treaty. Lexington was at sea when the Pacific War began in 1941,
ferrying fighter aircraft to Midway Island. She was sent to the Coral
Sea in February 1942 to block any Japanese advances into the area.
Together with the carrier Yorktown, she successfully attacked Japanese
shipping off the east coast of New Guinea in early March. Lexington
rendezvoused with Yorktown in the Coral Sea in early May. A few days
later the Japanese began Operation MO, the invasion of Port Moresby,
Papua New Guinea, and the two American carriers attempted to stop the
invasion. Aircraft from Lexington and Yorktown succeeded in badly
damaging the carrier Shōkaku, but Japanese aircraft crippled Lexington.
Vapors from leaking aviation gasoline tanks sparked a series of
explosions and fires that could not be controlled, and the carrier had
to be scuttled by an American destroyer during the evening of 8 May to
prevent her capture.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Lexington_(CV-2)>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1918:
World War I: Following his armed forces' defeat to the Allied
Powers, Bulgarian Tsar Ferdinand I abdicated in favor of his son
Boris III (pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_III_of_Bulgaria>
1935:
Italian forces under General Emilio De Bono invaded Abyssinia
during the opening stages of the Second Italo-Abyssinian War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Bono%27s_invasion_of_Abyssinia>
1963:
Oswaldo López Arellano replaced Honduran President Ramón
Villeda Morales in a violent coup and initiated two decades of military
rule.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1963_Honduran_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat>
1993:
American armed forces attempted to capture officials of
Somalian warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid's organization at the Battle of
Mogadishu.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mogadishu_(1993)>
2003:
Roy Horn of the American entertainment duo of Siegfried & Roy
was mauled by a tiger during a performance at The Mirage hotel and
casino resort on the Las Vegas Strip.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegfried_%26_Roy>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
unitive:
Causing or characterized by unity or union.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/unitive>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
We have no elected government, nor are we likely to have one, so
I address you with no greater authority than that with which liberty
itself always speaks. I declare the global social space we are building
to be naturally independent of the tyrannies you seek to impose on us.
You have no moral right to rule us nor do you possess any methods of
enforcement we have true reason to fear. Governments derive their just
powers from the consent of the governed. You have neither solicited nor
received ours. We did not invite you. You do not know us, nor do you
know our world. Cyberspace does not lie within your borders.
--John Perry Barlow
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Perry_Barlow>