Artur Phleps (1881–1944) was an Austro-Hungarian, Romanian and German
officer who held the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer und General der
Waffen-SS (lieutenant general) in the Waffen-SS during World War II. He
was an Austro-Hungarian Army officer before and during World War I,
specialising in mountain warfare and logistics. During the interwar
period, he joined the Romanian Army and became an adviser to King Carol.
After he spoke out against the government, he was sidelined and forcibly
retired from the army. In 1941 he left Romania and joined the Waffen-SS.
He saw action on the Eastern Front before raising two Waffen-SS mountain
divisions and one corps in occupied Yugoslavia. Units under his command
committed many crimes against the civilian population of the Independent
State of Croatia. This was the subject of international controversy when
Kurt Waldheim's service as Phleps' translator became public in the mid-
1980s, during his successful bid for the Austrian presidency. In
addition to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, Phleps was awarded the
German Cross in Gold, and after he was killed in September 1944, he was
awarded the Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artur_Phleps>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1549:
After the death of Pope Paul III, a papal conclave with an
unprecedented number of cardinal electors convened to determine his
successor.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_conclave,_1549%E2%80%9350>
1777:
El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe, the first civil settlement
in the Spanish colony of Alta California, was founded as a farming
community.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Jose,_California>
1890:
The Diet of Japan (pictured in session), a bicameral
legislature modelled after both the German Reichstag and the British
Westminster system, first met after the Meiji Constitution went into
effect.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Diet>
1963:
Five minutes after takeoff from Montreal, Trans-Canada Air
Lines Flight 831 crashed, killing all 118 people aboard.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Canada_Air_Lines_Flight_831>
2007:
Philippine soldiers led by Senator Antonio Trillanes, on trial
for the 2003 Oakwood mutiny, staged a mutiny and temporarily seized a
conference room in The Peninsula Manila hotel.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila_Peninsula_rebellion>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
capacious:
Having a lot of space inside; roomy.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/capacious>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Simple, sincere people seldom speak much of their piety. It
shows itself in acts rather than in words, and has more influence than
homilies or protestations.
--Louisa May Alcott
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louisa_May_Alcott>