SS Pennsylvanian was a cargo ship built in 1913 for the American-
Hawaiian Steamship Company. She was employed in inter-coastal service
via the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and the Panama Canal after it opened.
Pennsylvanian was one of the first two steamships to travel eastbound
through the canal when it opened in August 1914. During World War I she
was requisitioned by the U.S. Navy and commissioned as USS Pennsylvanian
(ID-3511) in September 1918, but renamed two months later to USS
Scranton (pictured). She carried cargo and animals to France, and
returned American troops after the Armistice in 1918. After her Navy
service ended in 1919, her original name of Pennsylvanian was restored
and she resumed relatively uneventful cargo service for her original
owners over the next twenty years. Early in World War II, the ship was
requisitioned by the War Shipping Administration, and shipped cargo on
New York – Caribbean routes and transatlantic routes. In mid-July
1944, Pennsylvanian was scuttled as part of the breakwater for one of
the Mulberry artificial harbors built to support the Normandy Invasion.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Pennsylvanian>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1461:
Yorkist troops defeated Lancastrian forces at the Battle of
Towton in Yorkshire, England, the largest battle in the Wars of the
Roses up until that time with approximately 20,000 casualties.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Towton>
1882:
The Knights of Columbus, the world's largest Catholic fraternal
service organization, was founded by Michael J. McGivney in New Haven,
Connecticut, US.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_Columbus>
1969:
The New People's Army (flag pictured), the armed wing of the
Communist Party of the Philippines, was formed.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_People%27s_Army>
1974:
A group of farmers in Shaanxi province, China, discovered a
vast collection of terracotta statues depicting the armies of the first
Emperor of China Qin Shi Huang, now known as the Terracotta Army.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army>
1981:
Dick Beardsley and Inge Simonsen jointly won the first running
of the London Marathon.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Marathon>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
otorhinolaryngology:
(medicine) The study of diseases of the ear, nose and throat.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/otorhinolaryngology>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Sunlight's a thing that needs a window Before it enter a dark
room. Windows don't happen.
--R. S. Thomas
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/R._S._Thomas>