HMS St Vincent was the lead ship of her class of three dreadnought
battleships, built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th
century. She was equipped with ten 12-inch (305 mm) guns in five gun
turrets. After commissioning in 1910, her entire career was spent with
the Home and Grand Fleets, often serving as a flagship. In the Battle of
Jutland in May 1916, the ship discharged 98 shells from her main guns,
firing first at the crippled German light cruiser SMS Wiesbaden.
Targeting the battlecruiser SMS Moltke, her first hit wrecked the
sickbay and slightly damaged the surrounding superstructure and hull,
causing minor flooding. The second hit penetrated the rear armour of the
superfiring turret at the rear of the ship. Apart from Jutland and the
inconclusive Action of 19 August several months later, her service
during World War I generally consisted of routine patrols and training
in the North Sea. Deemed obsolete after the war, the ship was reduced to
reserve and used as a training ship. St Vincent was sold for scrap in
1921 and broken up the following year.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_St_Vincent_(1908)>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1284:
The Statute of Rhuddlan incorporated the Principality of Wales
into England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_Rhuddlan>
1875:
French composer Georges Bizet's opera Carmen (poster pictured),
based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, premiered
at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen>
1924:
The Free State of Fiume, a short-lived independent free state
located in the modern city of Rijeka, Croatia, was annexed by the
Kingdom of Italy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_State_of_Fiume>
1943:
Second World War: During a German aerial attack on London, 173
people were killed in a stampede while trying to enter Bethnal Green
tube station, which was being used as an air-raid shelter.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethnal_Green_tube_station>
1991:
Motorist Rodney King was beaten by Los Angeles policemen,
causing public outrage that increased tensions between the African
American community and the police department over the issues of police
brutality and social inequalities in the area.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_King>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
trilemma:
1. A circumstance in which a choice must be made between three options that
seem equally undesirable or, put another way, in which a choice must be
made among three desirable options, only two of which are possible at
the same time.
2. (logic) An argument containing three alternatives, jointly exhaustive
either under any condition(s) or under all condition(s) consistent with
the universe of discourse of that argument, that each imply the same
conclusion.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/trilemma>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The anomaly of war is that the best men get themselves killed
while crafty men find their chance to govern in a manner contrary to
justice.
--Émile Chartier
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/%C3%89mile_Chartier>