The McDonnell Douglas A-4G Skyhawk, a variant of the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk attack aircraft, was developed for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), and first flown on 19 July 1967. Ten were delivered in 1967 and another ten in 1971, and the type was in service with the RAN until 1984. They joined the air group of the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne, and were primarily used to provide air defence for the fleet and take part in exercises throughout the Pacific region. They did not see combat. Ten A-4Gs were destroyed as a result of equipment failures and non-combat crashes during the type's service with the Navy, causing the deaths of two pilots. The RAN had no need for most of its fixed-wing aircraft after Melbourne was decommissioned in 1982, and the ten remaining A-4Gs were sold to the Royal New Zealand Air Force in 1984; they were initially used for training purposes, and were retired in 2001. Eight A-4Ks, including six former A-4Gs, were sold to Draken International in 2012, and are in service supporting United States military training exercises. Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_A-4G_Skyhawk> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1817: Having been unsuccessful in his attempt to seize the Kingdom of Hawaii for Russia, Georg Anton Schäffer was forced to depart for China. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Anton_Sch%C3%A4ffer> 1845: The last major fire to affect Manhattan destroyed 345 buildings and caused at least $5 million in damage. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_New_York_City_Fire_of_1845> 1916: First World War: "The worst 24 hours in Australia's entire history" occurred when Australian forces suffered heavy losses in their unsuccessful assault on the Germans at the Battle of Fromelles in France. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fromelles> 1992: A car bomb killed anti-Mafia judge Paolo Borsellino and five policemen in Palermo, Italy, less than two months after the murder of his friend and colleague Giovanni Falcone. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Via_D%27Amelio_bombing> 1997: The Provisional Irish Republican Army permanently resumed its ceasefire to end its 25-year campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Irish_Republican_Army_campaign> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: flerd: A mixed group of ruminants, such as sheep and cattle. <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/flerd> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:   It seems to me that today, if the artist wishes to be serious — to cut out a little original niche for himself, or at least preserve his own innocence of personality — he must once more sink himself in solitude. There is too much talk and gossip; pictures are apparently made, like stock-market prices, by competition of people eager for profit; in order to do anything at all we need (so to speak) the wit and ideas of our neighbors as much as the businessmen need the funds of others to win on the market. All this traffic sharpens our intelligence and falsifies our judgment.   --Edgar Degas <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edgar_Degas>