SMS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse was a German pre-dreadnought battleship of the Kaiser Friedrich III class, built as part of a program of naval expansion under Kaiser Wilhelm II. She was laid down in January 1898, launched in June 1899, and completed in May 1901, and was armed with a main battery of four 24-centimeter (9.4 in) guns in two twin gun turrets. The vessel served in the Home Fleet and later the High Seas Fleet for the first seven years of her career, participating in training cruises and maneuvers. Placed in reserve in 1910, the battleship was returned to active service in 1914 at the outbreak of World War I, tasked with coastal defense in the North Sea. The ship was deployed briefly to the Baltic but saw no action. In 1915, Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse was again withdrawn from service and relegated to secondary duties as a depot ship in Kiel and then a torpedo target ship. The vessel was sold for scrapping and broken up in 1920. (This article is part of a featured topic: Battleships of Germany.).

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/Battleships_of_Germany

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1831:

British naval officer and explorer James Clark Ross (portrait shown) successfully led the first expedition to reach the North Magnetic Pole. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Clark_Ross

1868:

The Navajo and the U.S. government signed an agreement, allowing those interned at Fort Sumner to return to their ancestral lands. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Bosque_Redondo

1988:

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty came into effect, banning all American and Soviet land-based missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 km (310 to 3,420 mi). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermediate-Range_Nuclear_Forces_Treaty

2015:

China's worst peacetime maritime disaster occurred when the cruise ship Dongfang zhi Xing capsized in the Yangtze, resulting in 442 deaths. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_Dongfang_zhi_Xing

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

oxishly: (rare) In a manner like that of an ox. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oxishly

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The invention of gunpowder and the constant improvement of firearms are enough in themselves to show that the advance of civilization has done nothing practical to alter or deflect the impulse to destroy the enemy, which is central to the very idea of war.   --Carl von Clausewitz https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_von_Clausewitz