Richard O'Connor was a British Army general who commanded the Western Desert Force (WDF) in the early years of World War II. O'Connor was the field commander for Operation Compass, in which he and the WDF completely destroyed a much larger Italian army. This victory nearly drove the Axis from Africa entirely, and led Adolf Hitler to send the Deutsches Afrikakorps under Erwin Rommel, to try and reverse the situation. O'Connor was later captured and spent over two years in an Italian prisoner of war camp for senior officers. He made a number of escape attempts with General Sir Philip Neame and Lieutenant General Sir Adrian Carton De Wiart, and was eventually successful. O'Connor commanded VIII Corps in Normandy in 1944 and later during Operation Market Garden. In 1945 he was general officer in command, Eastern Command in India, and then headed the North West Army in the closing days of British rule in the subcontinent. He held the highest level of knighthood in four different orders of chivalry.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1790: French Revolution: Louis XVI of France gave his royal assent to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Constitution_of_the_Clergy)

1898: Pierre and Marie Curie (pictured) announced the discovery of a new element, later to be named radium. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Sklodowska-Curie)

1966: The first Kwanzaa was celebrated by Maulana Karenga, a professor at CSU Long Beach (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwanzaa)

1991: The Supreme Soviet officially dissolved itself and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Soviet)

2004: An earthquake in the Indian Ocean generated a tsunami that killed upwards of 200,000 people, mostly in Indonesia.

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

"It is not the facts which guide the conduct of men, but their opinions about facts; which may be entirely wrong. We can only make them right by discussion." -- Norman Angell (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Norman_Angell)