SMS Grosser Kurfürst was the second battleship of the four-ship König
class of the German Imperial Navy. Her name refers to Frederick William,
Elector of Brandenburg. Launched on 5 May 1913, she served during World
War I. She was armed with ten 30.5-centimeter (12.0 in) guns in five
twin turrets. Along with her three sister ships, König, Markgraf, and
Kronprinz, Grosser Kurfürst took part in most of the fleet actions
during the war, including the Battle of Jutland on 31 May and 1 June
1916. The ship was subjected to heavy fire at Jutland, but was not
seriously damaged. She shelled Russian positions during Operation Albion
in September and October 1917. In her service career, she collided with
König and Kronprinz, grounded several times, was torpedoed once, and
hit a mine. After the war, Grosser Kurfürst and most of the capital
ships of the High Seas Fleet were interned by the Royal Navy in Scapa
Flow, and later scuttled by their German crews.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Grosser_Kurf%C3%BCrst_%281913%29>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1809:
Mary Dixon Kies became one of the first American women to
receive a patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Dixon_Kies>
1936:
Second Italo-Abyssinian War: Italian troops captured Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia, unopposed.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_of_the_Iron_Will>
1981:
After a sixty-six day hunger strike, Irish republican Bobby
Sands died of starvation in HM Prison Maze.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Sands>
1994:
American teenager Michael P. Fay was caned in Singapore for
theft and vandalism, a punishment that the United States deemed to be
excessive for a teenager committing a non-violent crime.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_P._Fay>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
lustrum:
1. (Ancient Rome, religion, historical) A ceremonial purification of all
the people, performed every five years after the taking of the census; a
lustration.
2. (by extension, literary) A period of five years.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lustrum>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
To God, world history is the royal stage where he, not
accidentally but essentially, is the only spectator, because he is the
only one who can be that. Admission to this theater is not open to any
existing spirit. If he fancies himself a spectator there, he is simply
forgetting that he himself is supposed to be the actor in that little
theater and is to leave it to that royal spectator and poet how he wants
to use him in that royal drama, The Drama or Dramas. This applies to the
living, and only they can be told how they ought to live; and only by
understanding for oneself can one be lead to reconstruct a dead
person’s life, if it must be done at all and if there is time for it.
But it is indeed upsidedown, instead of learning by living one’s own
life, to have the dead live again, then to go on wanting to learn from
the dead, whom one regards as never having lived, how one ought-indeed,
it is unbelievable how upside-down it is — to live — if one is
already dead.
--Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Concluding_Unscientific_Postscript_to_Philosophical_Fragments>