Sōryū was an aircraft carrier built for the Imperial Japanese Navy
during the mid-1930s. The ship's aircraft were employed during the
Second Sino-Japanese War in the late 1930s and supported the Japanese
invasion of French Indochina in mid-1940. During the first months of the
Pacific War, she took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Battle of
Wake Island, the conquest of the Dutch East Indies, and the bombing of
Darwin, Australia. In the Battle of Midway in June 1942, Sōryū and
three other carriers of the First Air Fleet bombarded American forces on
Midway Atoll, and were attacked by aircraft from the island and the
carriers Enterprise, Hornet, and Yorktown. Dive bombers from Yorktown
crippled Sōryū and set her afire. Japanese destroyers rescued the
survivors, but she could not be salvaged and was ordered to be scuttled
to allow her attendant destroyers to be released for further operations.
She sank along with the bodies of 711 out of 1,103 officers and enlisted
men. The loss of Sōryū and three other carriers at Midway was a
crucial strategic defeat for Japan, leading to the Allies' ultimate
victory in the Pacific.
Read more:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_aircraft_carrier_S%C5%8Dry%C5%AB>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1913:
Emily Davison, an activist for women's suffrage in the United
Kingdom, was fatally injured when she was trampled by King George V's
horse at the Epsom Derby.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Davison>
1920:
The Kingdom of Hungary lost 72% of its territory and 64% of its
population with the signing of the Treaty of Trianon in Paris.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Trianon>
1961:
U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita
Khrushchev unsuccessfully met in Vienna to discuss numerous issues in
the relationship between their countries.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_summit>
1975:
Governor Jerry Brown signed the California Agricultural Labor
Relations Act, the first law in the United States guaranteeing
collective bargaining rights to farmworkers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Agricultural_Labor_Relations_Act>
1989:
Following the death of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the
Assembly of Experts elected Ali Khamenei to be the Supreme Leader of
Iran.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Khamenei>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
sexton:
A church official who looks after a church and its graveyard and may act
as a gravedigger and bell-ringer.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sexton>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The grass is not, in fact, always greener on the other side of
the fence. Fences have nothing to do with it. The grass is greenest
where it is watered. When crossing over fences, carry water with you and
tend the grass wherever you may be.
--Robert Fulghum
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Fulghum>