The Southern Cross Expedition, officially known as the British Antarctic
Expedition 1898–1900, was the first British venture of the Heroic Age
of Antarctic Exploration, and the forerunner of the more celebrated
journeys of Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton. The brainchild of
the Norwegian-born, half-British explorer and schoolmaster Carsten
Borchgrevink, it was the first expedition to over-winter on the
Antarctic mainland, the first to visit the Great Ice Barrier since James
Clark Ross in 1839–43, and the first to successfully land on the
Barrier's surface. It also pioneered the use of dogs and sledges in
Antarctic travel. The expedition was privately financed by the British
magazine publisher Sir George Newnes. Taken south in the ship Southern
Cross in August 1898, Borchgrevink's party spent the winter of 1899 at
Cape Adare, the north-west extremity of the Ross Sea.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Cross_Expedition>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1805:
War of the Third Coalition: French forces under Marshal Michel
Ney defeated Austrian forces in Elchingen, present-day Germany.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Elchingen>
1938:
One of the most-produced American fighter aircraft, the Curtiss
P-40 Warhawk (pictured), made its first flight in Buffalo, New York.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss_P-40_Warhawk>
1940:
Second World War: During the Blitz, a 1,400 kg (3,100 lb)
semi-armour piercing fragmentation bomb fell on the road above Balham
station, which was being used as an air-raid shelter, killing at least
64 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balham_station>
1969:
The British fifty pence coin was introduced to replace the ten
shilling note, but its size initially caused people to mistake it for
both the old half crown and the new ten pence piece.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifty_pence_(British_coin)>
1981:
Hosni Mubarak was elected President of Egypt, one week after
Anwar Sadat was assassinated.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosni_Mubarak>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
iatrogenic:
(of a medical condition) Induced by the words or actions of the
physician.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/iatrogenic>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
seeming's enough for slaves of space and time — ours is the now and
here of freedom. Come
--E. E. Cummings
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/E._E._Cummings>