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USS Arizona was a Pennsylvania-class battleship built for the United States Navy in the mid-1910s. Commissioned in 1916, the ship remained stateside during World War I. In 1919 the vessel represented American interests in the Mediterranean during the Greco-Turkish War. Several years later, she was transferred to the Pacific Fleet and was assigned to it for the rest of her career. Arizona spent most of her time between the wars training, including participation in the annual Fleet Problems, and aided survivors of 1933 Long Beach earthquake. In 1940, she joined the Pacific Fleet in its new base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii to deter the Japanese Empire. During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, Arizona was bombed, exploded and sank, killing 1,177 officers and crewmen. The next day, the United States declared war on Japan. Unlike many of the other ships sunk or damaged that day, Arizona was not repaired. Her wreck still lies at the bottom of Pearl Harbor, and is the final resting place for the remains of most of those who died. They are commemorated by the USS Arizona Memorial which straddles her hull. (more...)

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

43 BC:

Cicero, widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists, was assassinated. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicero

1724:

In Toruń, Royal Prussia, Polish authorities executed the city's mayor and nine other Lutheran officials following tensions between Protestants and Catholics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumult_of_Thorn_%28Toru%C5%84%29

1815:

Michel Ney, Marshal of France, was executed by a firing squad near Paris' Jardin du Luxembourg for supporting Napoleon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Ney

1972:

The crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft took the photograph "The Blue Marble" , the first clear image of an illuminated face of Earth, on their way to the Moon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Marble

2007:

A crane barge that had broken free from a tugboat crashed into an oil tanker near Daesan, South Korea, causing the country's worst-ever oil spill. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_South_Korea_oil_spill

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

tip one's hand (v): (idiomatic) To inadvertently reveal any secret, particularly a secret that puts one at an advantage or disadvantage http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tip_one%27s_hand

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

That which is not just, is not Law; and that which is not Law, ought not to be obeyed. --Algernon Sydney http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Algernon_Sydney