Dorothy Olsen (1916–2019) was an American aircraft pilot and member of
the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) during World War II. She
developed an interest in aviation at a young age and earned her private
pilot's license in 1939, when it was unusual for women to be pilots. In
1943, Olsen joined the newly formed WASPs as a civil service employee.
After training in Texas, she was assigned to the Sixth Ferrying Group in
Long Beach, California, where she worked ferrying new aircraft from the
factories where they were built to U.S. airbases. She flew more than 20
types of military airplanes, including high-performance fighters –
such as the P-51 and the twin-engine P-38 – which she favored over
larger aircraft such as bombers. After the war, Olsen retired from
flying and moved to the state of Washington, where she married, raised a
family, and lived for the rest of her life. In 2009, she was awarded the
Congressional Gold Medal honoring her service during the war.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Olsen>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1776:
American Revolution: The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence
Plantations became the first of the Thirteen Colonies to renounce its
allegiance to the British Crown.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_of_Rhode_Island_and_Providence_Plantations>
1942:
World War II: Aircraft from Imperial Japanese Navy vessels
attacked Allied naval forces, beginning the Battle of the Coral Sea, the
first naval action in which the participating ships never sighted or
fired directly at each other.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Coral_Sea>
1974:
An all-female Japanese team reached the summit of Manaslu in
the Himalayas, becoming the first women to climb a peak higher than
8,000 metres (26,247 ft) above sea level.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manaslu>
1979:
Margaret Thatcher became the first female prime minister of the
United Kingdom.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
Yoda condition:
(programming, informal) A logical condition with the usual order of
operands reversed for various reasons, such as avoiding accidental
misuse of = (assignment) instead of == (equality), a mistake that is
harder to spot when using the normal order of operands.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Yoda_condition>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows,While proudly
riding o’er the azure realmIn gallant trim the gilded vessel
goes; Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm;Regardless of the
sweeping whirlwind’s sway,That, hush’d in grim repose, expects his
evening prey.
--Thomas Gray
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Gray>
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