SMS Scharnhorst was an armored cruiser of the Imperial German Navy and the lead ship of her class. Named after the Prussian reformer General Gerhard von Scharnhorst, the ship entered service on 24 October 1907. After brief service with the High Seas Fleet in Germany in 1908, she was assigned to the German East Asia Squadron based in Tsingtao, China in 1909, becoming the squadron flagship. Over the next five years, she went on several tours of Asian ports and was present in Japan for the coronation of the Taishō Emperor in 1912. After the outbreak of World War I, Scharnhorst and her sister ship SMS Gneisenau, accompanied by three light cruisers and several colliers, sailed across the Pacific Ocean—in the process evading the various Allied naval forces sent to intercept them—before arriving off the southern coast of South America. On 1 November 1914, Scharnhorst and the rest of the East Asia Squadron encountered and overpowered a British squadron at the Battle of Coronel. The stinging defeat prompted the British Admiralty to dispatch two battlecruisers to hunt down and destroy Scharnhorst '​s flotilla, which they accomplished at the Battle of the Falkland Islands on 8 December 1914.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Scharnhorst

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1432:

The first battle of the Lithuanian Civil War between the forces of Švitrigaila and Sigismund Kęstutaitis was fought near the modern town of Ashmyany. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuanian_Civil_War_(1431%E2%80%9335)

1854:

In his apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogmatic definition of the Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Virgin Mary was conceived free of original sin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immaculate_Conception

1941:

Second World War: Led by Takashi Sakai, the Imperial Japanese Army invaded Hong Kong and quickly achieved air superiority by bombing Kai Tak Airport. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hong_Kong

1980:

Former Beatle John Lennon (pictured with Yoko Ono) was shot and killed in the entrance of the Dakota apartments in New York City. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_John_Lennon

1998:

The Australian Cricket Board's cover-up of Shane Warne and Mark Waugh's involvement with bookmakers was revealed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_the_bookmaker_controversy

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

menorah: (Judaism) A candelabrum with nine branches used in Jewish worship on Hanukkah. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/menorah

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

No one saves us but ourselves, No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path Buddhas merely teach the way. By ourselves is evil done, By ourselves we pain endure, By ourselves we cease from wrong, By ourselves become we pure. as translated by   --Paul Carus https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Carus