No. 77 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force squadron headquartered
at RAAF Base Williamtown, New South Wales. It operates F/A-18 Hornet
multi-role fighters (pictured) and is controlled by No. 81 Wing. Formed
at Pearce, Western Australia, in 1942, the squadron flew P-40 Kittyhawks
in the South West Pacific during World War II. After the war, it re-
equipped with P-51 Mustangs and deployed to Japan with the British
Commonwealth Occupation Force. The squadron was about to return to
Australia when the Korean War broke out in 1950; it converted to Gloster
Meteor jets in 1951 and claimed five MiG-15s and over 5,000 buildings
and vehicles destroyed during the war for the loss of almost 60
aircraft. Re-equipped with CAC Sabres, the squadron briefly saw action
during the Malayan Emergency in 1959–60. It operated Mirage III
supersonic jets from 1969 to 1987, when it converted to Hornets. The
squadron supplied aircraft to Diego Garcia in 2001–02 to support the
war in Afghanistan, and deployed to the Middle East as part of the
military intervention against ISIL in 2015–16. No. 77 Squadron is due
to re-equip with F-35 Lightnings in 2021.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._77_Squadron_RAAF>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1770:
Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, a historic Catholic
mission church in present-day Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, and the
site of the first Christian confirmation in Alta California, was
established.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_San_Carlos_Borromeo_de_Carmelo>
1839:
Qing Chinese government official Lin Zexu ordered the
destruction of nearly 1.2 million kg (2.6 million lbs) of opium in
Humen, precipitating the First Opium War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lin_Zexu>
1937:
Nearly six months after Edward, Duke of Windsor, abdicated the
British throne, he married American socialite Wallis Simpson in a
private ceremony near Tours, France.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallis_Simpson>
1968:
American artist Andy Warhol and two others were shot and
wounded at his New York City studio "The Factory" by radical feminist
Valerie Solanas.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Warhol>
2012:
Dana Air Flight 992, a passenger flight from Abuja to Lagos,
Nigeria, suffered dual engine failure and crashed into a building,
resulting in the deaths of all 153 on board and ten more on the ground.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Air_Flight_992>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
grapple:
1. (transitive) To seize something and hold it firmly.
2. (transitive, figuratively) Normally used with with: to ponder and
intensely evaluate a problem.
3. (transitive) To fasten, as with a grapple; to fix; to join indissolubly.
4. (intransitive) To use a grapple.
5. (intransitive) To wrestle or tussle.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/grapple>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Americans have been selling this view around the world: that
progress comes from perfect protection of intellectual property.
Notwithstanding the fact that the most innovative and progressive space
we've seen — the Internet — has been the place where intellectual
property has been least respected. You know, facts don't get in the way
of this ideology.
--Lawrence Lessig
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lawrence_Lessig>