The WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) served in the
United States Naval Reserve during World War II. In July 1942, the
Naval Reserve was authorized to accept women as commissioned officers
and at the enlisted level, effective until six months after the war,
which freed up many men for ship duty. Mildred H. McAfee (pictured), on
leave as president of Wellesley College, became the first director of
the WAVES. The notion of women serving in the Navy was not widely
supported in Congress or by the Navy, but it was supported by the Navy's
Women's Advisory Council, Margaret Chung, and Eleanor Roosevelt, the
First Lady of the United States. The WAVES were primarily white, but
eventually included 72 African-American women. Serving at 900 stations
in the United States and the territory of Hawaii, many of the women
experienced workplace hostility, but almost all of them looked upon
their service as beneficial.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAVES>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1864:
A crack in the Dale Dyke Dam in Sheffield, England, caused it
to fail, and the resulting flood killed 238 people and damaged more than
600 homes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Sheffield_Flood>
1941:
World War II: The Lend-Lease Act was signed into law, allowing
the United States to supply the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China,
France and other Allied nations with vast amounts of war materiel.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lend-Lease>
1999:
Infosys became the first Indian-registered company to have its
shares listed on NASDAQ.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infosys>
2009:
A teenage gunman engaged in a shooting spree at a secondary
school in Winnenden, Germany, killing 16, including himself.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnenden_school_shooting>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
jibe:
1. (transitive) To reproach with contemptuous words; to deride, to mock,
to taunt.
2. (transitive) To say in a mocking or taunting manner.
3. (intransitive) To make a mocking remark or remarks; to jeer. […]
4. (intransitive, Canada, US, informal) To accord or agree.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jibe>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Science, by itself, provides no panacea for individual, social,
and economic ills. It can be effective in the national welfare only as a
member of a team, whether the conditions be peace or war. But without
scientific progress no amount of achievement in other directions can
insure our health, prosperity, and security as a nation in the modern
world.
--Vannevar Bush
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vannevar_Bush>