In Australian service, Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport aircraft have been operated by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). A total of forty-eight of the aircraft have served the RAAF since 1958, when No. 36 Squadron began replacing its Douglas C-47 Dakotas, and the C-130J model is still in Australian service today. As the RAAF's first strategic airlifters, the aircraft have frequently been used to deliver disaster relief in Australia and the Pacific region, as well as to support military deployments overseas. They saw extensive service during the Vietnam War, transporting troops and cargo to South East Asia and undertaking aeromedical evacuation. Nineteen of the RAAF's fleet of twenty-four C-130s took part in relief efforts in 1974–75 after Cyclone Tracy struck Darwin. Since then, the aircraft have been involved in humanitarian missions to New Guinea, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Cambodia, Bali, Sumatra, and New Zealand. They have also seen service during the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the Fijian coups in 1987, operations in Somalia in 1993, INTERFET operations in East Timor in 1999–2000, and beginning in 2001, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_C-130_Hercules_in_Australian_service> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1517: Ottoman–Mamluk War: Ottoman forces defeated the Egyptian Mamluk army in the Battle of Ridaniya and brought the severed head of the last Mamluk sultan Tuman bay II into Cairo. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ridaniya> 1689: The Convention Parliament convened to justify the overthrow of James II, the last Roman Catholic King of England, who had vacated the throne when he fled to France in 1688. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_II_of_England> 1906: The SS Valencia was wrecked off the coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, in a location so treacherous it was known as the Graveyard of the Pacific. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Valencia> 1957: New York City police arrested George Metesky, better known as the "Mad Bomber", for planting over 30 bombs over 16 years throughout the city. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Metesky> 1969: Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev survived an assassination attempt, an incident that was not revealed to the public until after the fall of the Soviet Union. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brezhnev_assassination_attempt> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: posology: 1. (pharmacy) The study of the dosages of drugs, especially the determination of appropriate dosages. 2. (mathematics, historical, rare) In the works of English philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832): the study of quantity; mathematics. <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/posology> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:   Men must know that in this theater of Man's life it is reserved only for God and Angels to be lookers on.   --Francis Bacon <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Francis_Bacon>