British nuclear tests were conducted at Maralinga in the Woomera
Prohibited Area in South Australia between 1956 and 1963. A total of
seven major nuclear tests took place at Maralinga, with explosive yields
ranging from approximately 1 to 27 kilotonnes of TNT (4 to 110
terajoules). Two major test series were conducted: Operation Buffalo
(final test pictured) in 1956 and Operation Antler the following year.
One bomb used cobalt pellets as a tracer for determining yield,
resulting in rumours that Britain was developing a cobalt bomb. The site
was also used for trials of neutron initiators and tests on the
compression of nuclear weapon cores and the effects of fire on atomic
weapons. It was left contaminated with radioactive waste, and a clean-up
was attempted in 1967. A further clean-up was completed in 2000. In
1994, the Australian government paid $13.5 million in compensation to
the traditional owners, the Maralinga Tjarutja people. The land was
restored to them in 2014.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_nuclear_tests_at_Maralinga>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1580:
Explorer Francis Drake's galleon Golden Hind (replica pictured)
sailed into Plymouth, England, completing his circumnavigation of the
globe.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Hind>
1917:
World War I: The Battle of Polygon Wood, part of the Battle of
Passchendaele, began near Ypres, Belgium.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Polygon_Wood>
1933:
As gangster Machine Gun Kelly surrendered to the FBI, he
supposedly shouted "Don't shoot, G-Men!", which became a nickname for
FBI agents.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_Gun_Kelly>
1983:
Soviet lieutenant colonel Stanislav Petrov averted a potential
nuclear war by identifying as a false alarm signals that appeared to
indicate an impending U.S. missile attack.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
jovial:
1. (comparable) Cheerful and good-humoured; jolly, merry.
2. (not comparable, astrology, obsolete) Pertaining to the astrological
influence of the planet Jupiter; having the characteristics of a person
under such influence (see sense 1).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jovial>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Do I dare to eat a peach? I shall wear white flannel trousers,
and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to
each. I do not think that they will sing to me. I have seen them
riding seaward on the waves Combing the white hair of the waves blown
back When the wind blows the water white and black. We have lingered
in the chambers of the sea By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and
brown Till human voices wake us, and we drown.
--T. S. Eliot
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot>