Ronald Niel Stuart (1886 – 1954) was a British Merchant Navy Commodore and Royal Navy Captain who was highly commended following extensive and distinguished service at sea over a period of more than thirty five years. During World War I he received the Victoria Cross, the Distinguished Service Order, the French Croix de Guerre avec Palmes. and the United States' Navy Cross for a series of daring operations he conducted while serving in the Royal Navy during the First Battle of the Atlantic. Stuart's Victoria Cross was awarded following a ballot by the men under his command. This unusual method of selection was used after the Admiralty board was unable to choose which members of the crew deserved the honour after a desperate engagement between a Q-ship and a German submarine off the Irish coast. His later career included command of the liner RMS Empress of Britain and the management of the London office of a major transatlantic shipping company. Following his retirement in 1951, Stuart moved into his sister's cottage in Kent and died three years later. A sometime irascible man, he was reportedly embarrassed by any fuss surrounding his celebrity and was known to exclaim "Mush!" at any demonstration of strong emotion.

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_________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1880:

Australian bank robber and bushranger Ned Kelly was hanged in Melbourne. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Varna)

1889:

The U.S. territory of Washington officially became the 42nd U.S. state as the State of Washington. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington)

1918:

Germany and the Allies signed an armistice treaty in a railway carriage in France's Compiègne Forest, ending World War I on the Western Front. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armistice_with_Germany_(Compi%C3%A8gne)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armistice_with_Germany_%28Compi%C3%A8gne%29 )

1965:

Ian Smith, Premier of the British Crown Colony of Southern Rhodesia, issued the Unilateral Declaration of Independence, a move that the British government and the United Nations condemned as illegal. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unilateral_Declaration_of_Independence_(Rhodesi...)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unilateral_Declaration_of_Independence_%28Rhodesia%29 )

1975:

The Australian constitutional crisis came to a head as Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was dismissed from office by Governor-General Sir John Kerr. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Australian_constitutional_crisis)

_______________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

apotheosis (n) 1. Glorification, sometimes to a divine level; deification; crediting a person with god-like power. 2. (mythology) The process of becoming a deity. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/apotheosis)

______________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

As long as I am mayor of this city the great industries are secure. We hear about constitutional rights, free speech and the free press. Every time I hear these words I say to myself, 'That man is a Red, that man is a Communist.' You never hear a real American talk like that. --Frank Hague (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frank_Hague)