USS Connecticut was the lead ship of the six Connecticut-class battleships. Due to the Royal Navy's commissioning of HMS Dreadnought seven months earlier, Connecticut was obsolete before she was commissioned; thus, she was the last lead ship of any class of pre-dreadnought battleship commissioned by the United States Navy. Connecticut served as a flagship for the Jamestown Exposition, which commemorated the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown colony. She later sailed with the Great White Fleet on a circumnavigation of the Earth to showcase the United States Navy's growing fleet of blue-water-capable ships. After completing her service with the Great White Fleet, Connecticut participated in several flag-waving exercises intended to protect American citizens abroad until she was pressed into service as a troop transport at the end of World War I to expedite the return of American Expeditionary Forces from France. For the remainder of her career, Connecticut sailed to various places in both the Atlantic and Pacific while training newer recruits to the Navy. However, the provisions of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty stipulated that many of the older battleships, Connecticut among them, would have to be disposed of, so she was decommissioned on 1 March 1922 and sold for scrap on 1 November 1923.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1744:

War of the Austrian Succession: British ships began attacking the Spanish rear of a France–Spanish combined fleet in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast near Toulon, France. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Toulon_%281744%29

1819:

Under the terms of the Adams-Onís Treaty, Spain sold Florida and other North American territory to the United States for about US$5 million. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adams-On%C3%ADs_Treaty

1943:

Members of the White Rose, a nonviolent resistance movement in Nazi Germany that became known for a leaflet campaign that called for active opposition to Adolf Hitler's regime, were found guilty of treason and guillotined. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rose

1959:

Lee Petty won the first Daytona 500 NASCAR auto race at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, USA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daytona_500

2006:

At least six men staged Britain's biggest robbery ever, stealing £53,116,760 in bank notes from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securitas_depot_robbery

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

moniker (n): A personal name or nickname http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/moniker

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Life is short, and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth. --Arthur Schopenhauer http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_Schopenhauer