Mike Jackson (born 1944) is a retired British Army officer and one of
its most high-profile generals since the Second World War. Originally
commissioned into the Intelligence Corps in 1963, he transferred to the
Parachute Regiment. On the first of his tours of duty in Northern
Ireland with the regiment, he was present as an adjutant at the events
of Bloody Sunday (1972), when soldiers opened fire on protesters,
killing 13 people. He was assigned to a staff post at the Ministry of
Defence in 1982 before assuming command of the 1st Battalion, The
Parachute Regiment, in 1984. Jackson served his first tour in the
Balkans in 1994, commanding a multi-national division of the
Implementation Force, and was appointed commander of NATO's Allied Rapid
Reaction Corps in 1997. In this role, he controversially refused to obey
an order from American General Wesley Clark (his immediate superior in
the NATO chain of command during the Kosovo War) to block the runways of
Pristina Airport. Upon his return to the UK, Jackson was promoted to
full general and later served as Chief of the General Staff, the
professional head of the British Army, from 2003 to 2006.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Jackson>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1602:
The Dutch East India Company—the first company to issue
stock, one of the first multinational corporations, and possibly the
first megacorporation—was established.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_East_India_Company>
1815:
After escaping from exile in Elba, Napoleon Bonaparte entered
Paris, officially beginning his "Hundred Days" rule.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Days>
1854:
At a meeting in Ripon, Wisconsin, US, an anti-slavery political
party decided to name itself the Republican Party.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_(United_States)>
1944:
World War II: Four thousand U.S. Marines made a landing on
Emirau Island in the Bismarck Archipelago to develop an airbase as part
of Operation Cartwheel.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landing_on_Emirau>
2006:
Cyclone Larry made landfall in Far North Queensland, eventually
causing nearly AU$1 billion in total damage and destroying over 80
percent of Australia's banana crop.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Larry>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
forethoughtful:
Having or full of forethought; provident; proactive; visionary.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/forethoughtful>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The trees are cloth'd with leaves, the fields with grass; The
blossoms blow; the birds on bushes sing; And Nature has accomplish'd all
the Spring. as translated by
--John Dryden
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dryden>