The Beograd class consisted of three destroyers built for the Royal Yugoslav Navy in the late 1930s, to a French design. Beograd was constructed in France, and Zagreb and Ljubljana were built in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. During the German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, Zagreb was scuttled to prevent its capture, and the other two were seized by the Italians. The Royal Italian Navy operated the two captured ships as convoy escorts between Italy, the Aegean Sea and North Africa. One was lost in the Gulf of Tunis in April 1943; the other was seized by the Germans in September 1943 after the Italian surrender, and was operated by the German Navy. There are conflicting reports about the fate of the last ship, but it was lost in the final weeks of the war. In 1967, a French film was made about the scuttling of Zagreb. In 1973, the President of Yugoslavia and wartime Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito awarded the Order of the People's Hero posthumously to the two officers who scuttled Zagreb.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beograd-class_destroyer
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
284:
Diocletian (pictured on coin) became Roman emperor, eventually establishing reforms that ended the Crisis of the Third Century. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocletian
1776:
American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Fort Lee marked the invasion of New Jersey by British and Hessian forces and the subsequent general retreat of the Continental Army. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Lee_Historic_Park
1917:
First World War: The Battle of Cambrai began with British forces having initial success over Germany's Hindenburg Line. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cambrai_(1917)
1952:
The Slánský trial, a show trial against Czech General Secretary Rudolf Slánský and 13 other members of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, was held. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sl%C3%A1nsk%C3%BD_trial
1990:
Andrei Chikatilo, one of the Soviet Union's most prolific serial killers with 56 convicted murders, was arrested in Novocherkassk. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Chikatilo
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
vigesimal: 1. Occurring in intervals of twenty. 2. To the base 20. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vigesimal
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Only earthbound man still clings to the dark and poisoning superstition that his world is bounded by the nearest hill, his universe ends at river shore, his common humanity is enclosed in the tight circle of those who share his town or his views and the color of his skin. It is — It is your job, the task of young people in this world, to strip the last remnants of that ancient, cruel belief from the civilization of man. --Robert F. Kennedy https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_F._Kennedy
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