HMAS Melbourne was an aircraft carrier of the Royal Australian Navy. She was laid down for the Royal Navy in 1943 as the lead ship of the Majestic class of light aircraft carriers, but work on her was suspended when World War II ended. The carrier was purchased by the Australian government in 1947, and upgraded to become the third ship in the world constructed with an angled flight deck. Renamed for the Australian city of Melbourne, the ship was commissioned in 1955. Melbourne never served in combat, but collided with and sank two destroyers during her career: HMAS Voyager in 1964, and USS Frank E. Evans in 1969. These, along with several minor incidents, led to the reputation that the carrier was jinxed. The last carrier in Australian service, Melbourne was decommissioned in 1982. Although sold to China for breaking, the People's Liberation Army Navy studied Melbourne over many years to further plans for a Chinese aircraft carrier. The British carrier HMS Invincible was to be acquired as a replacement, but this was cancelled following the Falklands War and the 1983 Australian federal election.
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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1258:
Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid caliphate, surrendered to Hulagu Khan and the Mongols after almost a two-week siege. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Baghdad_%281258%29
1567:
After an explosion destroyed the house in Kirk o' Field, Edinburgh, where he was staying, the strangled body of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, the King consort of Scotland, was found in a nearby orchard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Stuart%2C_Lord_Darnley
1763:
Britain, France, and Spain signed the Treaty of Paris to end the Seven Years' War, significantly reducing the size of the French colonial empire while at the same time marking the beginning of an extensive period of British dominance outside of Europe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Paris_%281763%29
1840:
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha married Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom at the Chapel Royal, becoming prince-consort. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert%2C_Prince_Consort
1930:
The Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang launches the failed Yen Bai mutiny in the hope of ending French colonial rule in Vietnam. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yen_Bai_mutiny
1996:
Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov in a game of chess, the first ever game won by a chess-playing computer against a World Chess Champion under chess tournament conditions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Blue_%28chess_computer%29
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
periphrastic (adj): 1. Expressed in more words than are necessary. 2. Indirect in naming an entity; circumlocutory http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/periphrastic
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Don't be afraid of death so much as an inadequate life. --Bertolt Brecht http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht