Operation Cobra was an offensive launched by the First United States
Army under Omar Bradley against the German 7th Army commanded by Paul
Hausser in the Cotentin Peninsula during the Normandy campaign of World
War II. The attack commenced on 25 July 1944, having been delayed
several times by poor weather. Supporting offensives had drawn the bulk
of German armored reserves toward the British and Canadian sectors, and
the lack of men and materiel available to the Germans meant they were
unable to form successive lines of defense. After a slow start the
offensive gathered momentum and by 27 July most organized resistance had
been overcome and the Americans advanced rapidly. The German response
was ineffectual and the entire Normandy front soon collapsed. Operation
Cobra, together with concurrent offensives by the British Second Army
and the Canadian First Army, was decisive in securing an Allied victory
in the Normandy campaign and the loss of the German position in
northwestern France.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cobra>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1788:
Mozart completed his Symphony No. 40, one of his two extant
minor-key symphonies.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._40_%28Mozart%29>
1893:
The Corinth Canal, which bisects Greece's narrow Isthmus of
Corinth, was formally opened, connecting the Ionian Sea's Gulf of
Corinth with the Aegean Sea's Saronic Gulf.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinth_Canal>
2000:
Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde en route from Paris to New
York, crashed in Gonesse, France, killing all 109 passengers on board
and four people on the ground.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_4590>
2010:
WikiLeaks published 75,000 classified documents about the War
in Afghanistan in one of the largest leaks in U.S. military history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_War_documents_leak>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
cutting:
1. (countable, uncountable) The action of the verb to cut.
2. (countable) A section removed from a larger whole.
3. (countable) A newspaper clipping.
4. (countable, horticulture) A leaf, stem, branch, or root removed from
a plant and cultivated to grow a new plant.
5. (countable) An abridged selection of written work, often intended for
performance.
6. (countable, Britain) An open passage at a level lower than the
surrounding terrain, dug for a canal, railway, or road to go through.
7. (uncountable, cinematography, sound engineering) The editing of film
or other recordings.
8. (uncountable, machining) The process of bringing metals to a desired
shape by chipping away the unwanted material.
9. (uncountable, psychology) The act of cutting one's own skin as a
symptom of a personality disorder; self-harm.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cutting>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The real "haves" are they who can acquire freedom, self-
confidence, and even riches without depriving others of them. They
acquire all of these by developing and applying their potentialities. On
the other hand, the real "have nots" are they who cannot have aught
except by depriving others of it. They can feel free only by diminishing
the freedom of others, self-confident by spreading fear and dependence
among others, and rich by making others poor.
--Eric Hoffer
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eric_Hoffer>