HMS Argus was a British aircraft carrier that served in the Royal Navy
from 1918 to 1944. Converted from an ocean liner, she became the first
example of the standard pattern of aircraft carriers, with a full-length
flight deck allowing aircraft to take off and land. The ship was
involved for several years in the development of the optimum design for
other aircraft carriers. She spent one brief deployment on the China
Station in the late 1920s before being placed in reserve. Argus was
recommissioned and partially modernised shortly before the Second World
War. In July 1940 she made the first of her many ferry trips to fly off
fighters to Malta. In 1942 she was pressed into front-line service
despite her lack of speed and armament. She provided air cover during
the invasion of French North Africa and was slightly damaged by a bomb.
Argus was used again for deck-landing practice until September 1944. She
became an accommodation ship in December, was sold in late 1946 and was
scrapped in 1947.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Argus_%28I49%29>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1852:
The Argentine Confederation was defeated in the Platine War by
an alliance consisting of Brazil, Uruguay and the Argentine provinces of
Entre Ríos and Corrientes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platine_War>
1972:
The deadliest blizzard in history began in Iran and continued
for a week leaving more than 4,000 people dead.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Iran_blizzard>
2010:
An edition of L'Homme qui marche I, a bronze sculpture by
Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti, was sold for £65 million, setting
the record for the most expensive sculpture sold at auction.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Homme_qui_marche_I>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
inescutcheon:
(heraldry) A small escutcheon (“coat of arms; shield”) (such as an
escutcheon of pretence) which is charged (“represented”) on a larger
escutcheon.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/inescutcheon>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
He who does not realize to what extent shifting fortune and
necessity hold in subjection every human spirit, cannot regard as
fellow-creatures nor love as he loves himself those whom chance
separated from him by an abyss. The variety of constraints pressing upon
man give rise to the illusion of several distinct species that cannot
communicate. Only he who has measured the dominion of force, and knows
how not to respect it, is capable of love and justice.
--Simone Weil
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Simone_Weil>