SMS Grosser Kurfürst was the second battleship of the four-ship König class of the German Imperial Navy. Her name refers to Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg. Launched on 5 May 1913, she served during World War I. She was armed with ten 30.5-centimeter (12.0 in) guns in five twin turrets. Along with her three sister ships, König, Markgraf, and Kronprinz, Grosser Kurfürst took part in most of the fleet actions during the war, including the Battle of Jutland on 31 May and 1 June 1916. The ship was subjected to heavy fire at Jutland, but was not seriously damaged. She shelled Russian positions during Operation Albion in September and October 1917. In her service career, she collided with König and Kronprinz, grounded several times, was torpedoed once, and hit a mine. After the war, Grosser Kurfürst and most of the capital ships of the High Seas Fleet were interned by the Royal Navy in Scapa Flow, and later scuttled by their German crews.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Grosser_Kurf%C3%BCrst_%281913%29

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1809:

Mary Dixon Kies became one of the first American women to receive a patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Dixon_Kies

1936:

Second Italo-Abyssinian War: Italian troops captured Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, unopposed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_of_the_Iron_Will

1981:

After a sixty-six day hunger strike, Irish republican Bobby Sands died of starvation in HM Prison Maze. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Sands

1994:

American teenager Michael P. Fay was caned in Singapore for theft and vandalism, a punishment that the United States deemed to be excessive for a teenager committing a non-violent crime. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_P._Fay

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

lustrum: 1. (Ancient Rome, religion, historical) A ceremonial purification of all the people, performed every five years after the taking of the census; a lustration. 2. (by extension, literary) A period of five years. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lustrum

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

To God, world history is the royal stage where he, not accidentally but essentially, is the only spectator, because he is the only one who can be that. Admission to this theater is not open to any existing spirit. If he fancies himself a spectator there, he is simply forgetting that he himself is supposed to be the actor in that little theater and is to leave it to that royal spectator and poet how he wants to use him in that royal drama, The Drama or Dramas. This applies to the living, and only they can be told how they ought to live; and only by understanding for oneself can one be lead to reconstruct a dead person’s life, if it must be done at all and if there is time for it. But it is indeed upsidedown, instead of learning by living one’s own life, to have the dead live again, then to go on wanting to learn from the dead, whom one regards as never having lived, how one ought-indeed, it is unbelievable how upside-down it is — to live — if one is already dead.   --Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Concluding_Unscientific_Postscript_to_Philosophical_Fragments