Operation Paravane was a British air raid of World War II on the German battleship Tirpitz. The attack on 15 September 1944 by 21 Royal Air Force heavy bombers did irreparable damage, rendering the ship unfit for combat. A series of raids conducted from April to August by Royal Navy aircraft carriers had sought unsuccessfully to sink or disable the battleship at her anchorage in Kaafjord in the far north of German- occupied Norway, encountering formidable German defences. In September, Avro Lancaster bombers from two elite squadrons of RAF Bomber Command, flying from an airfield in the Soviet Union, attacked using heavy bombs and air-dropped mines. All of the British aircraft returned to base. The Allies were unable to confirm the extent of the battleship's damage, and conducted two further heavy bomber raids against her in late 1944 that sank the ship with considerable loss of life.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1831:

The John Bull, the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world, ran for the first time in New Jersey on the Camden and Amboy Railroad. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bull_%28locomotive%29

1944:

World War II: American and Australian forces landed on the Japanese-occupied island of Morotai. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Morotai

1959:

Nikita Khrushchev began a state visit to the United States, becoming the first Soviet leader to do so. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1959_Khrushchev_visit_to_the_United_States

2008:

Financial crisis of 2007–2008: The global financial services firm Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy while holding over $600 billion in assets, the largest such filing in U.S. history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankruptcy_of_Lehman_Brothers

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

orphrey: 1. (obsolete) Any elaborate embroidery, especially when made of gold thread; an object (such as clothing or fabric) adorned with such embroidery. 2. (Christianity) An embroidered ornamental band or border on an ecclesiastical vestment, altar frontal, etc. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/orphrey

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

To be part of something one doesn't in the least understand is, I think, one of the most intriguing things about life. I like living. I have sometimes been wildly despairing, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.   --Agatha Christie https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Agatha_Christie