George Gosse (16 February 1912 – 31 December 1964) was an
Australian recipient of the George Cross, the highest non-combat award
for heroism or courage that could be awarded to a member of the
Australian armed forces at the time. Gosse served in the Royal
Australian Navy between 1926 and 1933, and in 1940 joined the Royal
Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve. He served in the UK before being
sent to British India as a naval mine clearance specialist. Returning to
the UK in late 1944, in April 1945 he was given command of a party
responsible for mine clearance in the recently captured Bremen Harbour
in Germany. He displayed courage in defusing three mines under very
difficult conditions between 8 May and 19 May 1945, for which he was
awarded the George Cross. After the war Gosse reached the rank of
lieutenant commander, retiring in 1958. He died of a heart condition in
1964. His medal set is displayed in the Hall of Valour at the Australian
War Memorial.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Gosse>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1857:
Queen Victoria announced the choice of Ottawa, then a small
logging town, as the capital of the British colony of Canada.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa>
1909:
The Manhattan Bridge, connecting Lower Manhattan to Downtown
Brooklyn and considered to be the forerunner of modern suspension
bridges, opened to traffic.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Bridge>
1965:
Military officers led by Jean-Bédel Bokassa began a coup
d'état against the government of Central African Republic president
David Dacko.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Sylvestre_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat>
1999:
Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin became acting president
upon President Boris Yeltsin's unexpected resignation.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Putin>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
auld lang syne:
(idiomatic) Days gone by; former times.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/auld_lang_syne>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I believe our students must first seek to understand the
conditions, as far as possible without national prejudices, which have
led to past tragedies and should strive to determine the great
fundamentals which must govern a peaceful progression toward a
constantly higher level of civilization. There are innumerable
instructive lessons out of the past, but all too frequently their
presentation is highly colored or distorted in the effort to present a
favorable national point of view. In our school histories at home,
certainly in years past, those written in the North present a strikingly
different picture of our Civil War from those written in the South. In
some portions it is hard to realize they are dealing with the same war.
Such reactions are all too common in matters of peace and security. But
we are told that we live in a highly scientific age. Now the progress of
science depends on facts and not fancies or prejudice. Maybe in this age
we can find a way of facing the facts and discounting the distorted
records of the past.
--George Marshall
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Marshall>
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