Shinano was an aircraft carrier built by the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II, the largest one built up to that time. Laid down in May 1940 as the third of the Yamato-class battleships, the ship's partially complete hull was ordered to be converted to a carrier following Japan's disastrous loss of four fleet carriers at the Battle of Midway in mid-1942. Her conversion was still incomplete in November 1944 when she was ordered to sail from the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal to Kure Naval Base to complete her fitting out and to transfer a load of 50 Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka rocket-propelled kamikaze flying bombs. Hastily dispatched with an inexperienced crew and serious design and construction flaws, the ship had inadequate pumps, no fire-control systems, and no carrier aircraft. She was sunk en route, just 10 days after commissioning, on 29 November 1944, by four torpedoes from the US Navy submarine Archerfish. Over a thousand sailors and civilians were rescued, but some 1,435 were lost, including her captain. She remains the largest warship ever sunk by a submarine.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1200:

Isabella of Angoulême was crowned queen consort of England at the age of twelve, after having married King John two weeks earlier. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_of_Angoul%C3%AAme

1871:

Four large fires broke out in the United States, including the Great Chicago Fire and the Peshtigo Fire in Wisconsin, the latter being the deadliest fire in U.S. history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peshtigo_Fire

1897:

Composer Gustav Mahler was appointed the director of the Vienna Court Opera. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Mahler

1932:

The Indian Air Force was founded as an auxiliary air force of the Indian Empire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Air_Force

1962:

Newsmagazine Der Spiegel revealed the unpreparedness of the West German armed forces against the communist threat from the east, and was accused of treason shortly afterwards. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiegel_scandal

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

memoriter: 1. That is or has been recited from memory; that has been learned by heart. 2. Of, pertaining to, or involved with the practice of recitation or learning by heart. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/memoriter

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The permanent mental attitude which the sensitive intelligence derives from philosophy is an attitude that combines extreme reverence with limitless skepticism.   --John Cowper Powys https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Cowper_Powys