The Attack on Sydney Harbour was raid during World War II by submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy on the cities of Sydney and Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia. On the night of 31 May–1 June, three Ko-hyoteki class midget submarines, each with a two-member crew, entered Sydney Harbour to sink Allied warships. After being detected and attacked, the crews of two of the midget submarines scuttled their boats and committed suicide without engaging Allied vessels. The third attempted to torpedo the heavy cruiser USS Chicago but instead sank the converted ferry HMAS Kuttabul, killing 21 sailors. This midget submarine then disappeared, its fate remaining a mystery until 2006, when amateur scuba divers discovered the wreck off Sydney's northern beaches. Immediately following the raid the five Japanese fleet submarines that carried the midgets to Australia embarked on a campaign to disrupt merchant shipping in eastern Australian waters. The midget submarine attacks are among the best-known examples of Axis naval activity in Australian waters during World War II. The main impact was psychological and popular fear of an impending invasion forced the Australian military to upgrade defences.
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_________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1795:
French Revolution: Under the terms of a new constitution that was ratified during the aftermath of the Reign of Terror and the subsequent Thermidorian Reaction, the Directory succeeded the National Convention as the executive government of France. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Directory)
1917:
British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour issued the Balfour Declaration, proclaiming British support for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration_of_1917)
1936:
BBC Television Service launched the world's first regular, public all-electronic television service with a high level of image resolution which became known as high-definition television. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_One)
1947:
American industrialist and aviator Howard Hughes flew Spruce Goose, the largest flying boat ever built, on its maiden flight from the coast of Long Beach, California, USA. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughes_H-4_Hercules)
2000:
Expedition 1: American astronaut William Shepherd and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko became the first resident crew to arrive at the International Space Station. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station)
_______________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
tmesis: (n) (prosody) The insertion of one or more words between the components of a compound word. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tmesis)
______________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Space isn't remote at all. It's only an hour's drive away if your car could go straight upwards. --Fred Hoyle (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fred_Hoyle)