The Battle of Morotai, part of the Pacific War, began on 15 September
1944, and continued until the end of the war in August 1945. The
fighting started when United States and Australian forces landed on the
south-west corner of Morotai, a small island in the Netherlands East
Indies (NEI), which the Allies needed as a base to support the
liberation of the Philippines later that year. The invading forces
greatly outnumbered the island's Japanese defenders, and secured their
objectives in two weeks. Japanese reinforcements were landed on the
island between September and November, but lacked the supplies needed to
effectively attack the Allied defensive perimeter. Intermittent fighting
continued until the end of the war, with the Japanese troops suffering
heavy loss of life from disease and starvation. South-western Morotai
was subsequently developed into a major Allied base, with facilities on
the island being used to support landings in the Philippines and Borneo.
Torpedo boats and aircraft based at Morotai also harassed Japanese
positions in the NEI. Morotai remained an important logistical hub and
command center until the Dutch reestablished their colonial rule in the
NEI.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Morotai>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1830:
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened (train pictured) as
the first locomotive-hauled railway to connect two major cities.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opening_of_the_Liverpool_and_Manchester_Railway>
1862:
American Civil War: Confederate forces captured the Union
garrison at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, taking more than 12,000 prisoners.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Harpers_Ferry>
1916:
Tanks, the "secret weapons" of the British Army during the
First World War, were first used in combat at the Battle of the Somme in
Somme, Picardy, France, leading to strategic Allied victory.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme>
1935:
Nazi Germany enacted the Nuremberg Laws, which deprived German
Jews of citizenship, and adopted a new national flag emblazoned with a
swastika.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Germany#Nazi_Germany>
1963:
A bomb planted by members of the Ku Klux Klan exploded in the
16th Street Baptist Church, an African American Baptist church in
Birmingham, Alabama, US, killing four children and injuring at least 22
others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16th_Street_Baptist_Church_bombing>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
rally cap:
(US, baseball) A baseball cap worn inside-out and backwards, or in
another unconventional manner, by players or fans, as a talisman in
order to will a team into a come-from-behind rally late in the game.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rally_cap>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
If I have seen further than others, it is because I am
surrounded by dwarfs.
--Murray Gell-Mann
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Murray_Gell-Mann>