The Tanque Argentino Mediano ("Argentine Medium Tank", or "TAM") is the main battle tank in service with the Argentine Army. Lacking the experience and resources to design a tank, the Argentine Ministry of Defense contracted German company Thyssen-Henschel. The vehicle was based on the chassis of the German Marder infantry fighting vehicle. The TAM met the Argentine Army's requirement for a modern light-weight and fast tank with a low silhouette and sufficient firepower to defeat contemporary armored threats. Development began in 1974, and full-scale production started in 1979. Economic difficulties halted production in 1983, but manufacturing began anew in 1994 until the army's order of 200 tanks was fulfilled. The TAM series includes seven different variants, such as a 155 mm (6.1 in) self-propelled howitzer and a self-propelled mortar vehicle. In total, over 280 such vehicles were built, including armored personnel carriers, artillery and mortar pieces. The TAM has never seen combat, although 17 VCTP (Infantry Fighting Vehicles based on the TAM chassis) were deployed to Croatia for the United Nations UNPROFOR peacekeeping mission.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAM_(tank)
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1189:
Richard the Lionheart was crowned King of England in Westminster. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_I_of_England
1777:
American Revolutionary War: The British Army and their Hessian allies defeated an American militia in the Battle of Cooch's Bridge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cooch%27s_Bridge
1838:
Future American abolitionist Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass
1942:
The Holocaust: In possibly the first Jewish ghetto uprising, residents of the Łachwa Ghetto in occupied Poland, informed of the upcoming "liquidation" of the ghetto, unsuccessfully fought against their Nazi captors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%81achwa_Ghetto
2001:
The Troubles: Protestant loyalists began picketing a Catholic primary school for girls in the Protestant portion of Ardoyne, Belfast, Northern Ireland. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Cross_dispute
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
chirality: The phenomenon, in chemistry, physics and mathematics, in which an object differs from its mirror image. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chirality
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
The greatest man of action is he who is the greatest, and a life-long, dreamer. For in him the dreamer is fortified against destruction by a far-seeing eye, a virile mind, a strong will, a robust courage. And so has perished the kindly dreamer — on the cross or in the garret. A democracy should not let its dreamers perish. They are its life, its guaranty against decay. Thus would I expand the sympathies of youth. --Louis Sullivan https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_Sullivan