Paul Tibbets (1915–2007) was a brigadier general in the United States
Air Force, best known as the pilot of the Enola Gay, the first aircraft
to drop an atomic bomb. Tibbets enlisted in the army in 1937 and
qualified as a pilot the next year. After the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor he flew anti-submarine patrols over the Atlantic. In July 1942 he
became the deputy group commander of the 97th Bombardment Group, the
first such group deployed to the United Kingdom as part of the Eighth
Air Force. He flew the lead plane in the first American daylight heavy
bomber mission against Occupied Europe on August 17, 1942, and again in
the first American raid of more than 100 bombers on October 9. After
flying 43 combat missions, he joined the staff of the Twelfth Air Force
in North Africa. He returned to the United States in February 1943 to
help with the development of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. In September
1944, he was appointed the commander of the 509th Composite Group, which
conducted the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the war, he was
involved in the development of the Boeing B-47 Stratojet. He left the
Air Force in 1966, working for Executive Jet Aviation until 1987.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Tibbets>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1498:
Girolamo Savonarola of Florence was executed for heresy,
uttering prophecies, sedition, and other crimes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girolamo_Savonarola>
1701:
Scottish privateer William Kidd was executed for piracy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kidd>
1895:
Representatives of the Astor Library and Lenox Library agreed
to merge and form the New York Public Library, now the second-largest
public library in the United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Public_Library>
1951:
Delegates of the 14th Dalai Lama and the government of the
newly established People's Republic of China signed the Seventeen Point
Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, affirming Chinese
sovereignty over Tibet.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeen_Point_Agreement_for_the_Peaceful_Liberation_of_Tibet>
2010:
Jamaica's military and police force began a manhunt for drug
lord Christopher Coke, beginning three days of armed conflict with the
Shower Posse cartel.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Kingston_unrest>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
thagomizer:
(anatomy) An arrangement of spikes found on the tails of various
stegosaurs.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/thagomizer>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Plants of great vigor will almost always struggle into blossom,
despite impediments. But there should be encouragement, and a free
genial atmosphere for those of more timid sort, fair play for each in
its own kind.
--Margaret Fuller
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Margaret_Fuller>