Otto Becher (1908–77) was a senior officer in the Royal Australian
Navy. After graduating from the Royal Australian Naval College in 1926,
he was posted to a series of staff and training positions prior to
specialising in gunnery. He assisted in the extraction of Allied troops
from the Namsos region of Norway during the Second World War and was
awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Following service in the
Mediterranean theatre, he returned to Australia as officer-in-charge of
the gunnery school at HMAS Cerberus for two years. He was given command
of HMAS Quickmatch in 1944 and earned a Bar to his Distinguished Service
Cross for operations against Japanese forces in the Pacific. After the
war he was posted to the Navy Office and later to the aircraft carrier
HMAS Sydney; in 1951 he was given command of the destroyer HMAS
Warramunga. Warramunga formed part of Australia's contribution to the
United Nations forces engaged in the Korean War; he was awarded the
Distinguished Service Order for his role. Promoted to rear admiral in
1959, he served as Flag Officer Commanding Australian Fleet and then as
Flag Officer-in-Charge East Australia Area before retiring in 1966.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Becher>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1759:
Seven Years' War: British forces defeated the French at the
Battle of the Plains of Abraham near Quebec City, New France, though
General James Wolfe was mortally wounded.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Plains_of_Abraham>
1814:
War of 1812: Fort McHenry in Baltimore's Inner Harbor was
attacked by British forces during the Battle of Baltimore, later
inspiring Francis Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner", which
later became the national anthem of the United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Scott_Key>
1933:
Elizabeth McCombs became the first woman elected to the
Parliament of New Zealand.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_McCombs>
1988:
Hurricane Gilbert reached a minimum pressure of 888 mb
(26.22 inHg) with sustained flight-level winds of 185 mph (295 km/h),
making it the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record at the time.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Gilbert>
2008:
Five synchronised bomb blasts took place within a span of few
minutes in Delhi, India, resulting in 30 deaths and 130 injuries.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13_September_2008_Delhi_bombings>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
gooseberry:
1. A fruit closely related to the currant.
2. Any of several other unrelated fruits, such as the Chinese gooseberry
(kiwifruit) or the Indian gooseberry (amla).
3. (British, informal) An unwanted additional person: Robert and Susan were
so in love that nobody could go near them without feeling like a
gooseberry.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gooseberry>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
You will have to know life … If you are to become a writer
you’ll have to stop fooling with words … It would be better to give
up the notion of writing until you are better prepared. Now it’s time
to be living. I don’t want to frighten you, but I would like to make
you understand the import of what you think of attempting. You must not
become a mere peddler of words. The thing to learn is to know what
people are thinking about, not what they say.
--Sherwood Anderson
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sherwood_Anderson>