Kronan was the flagship of the Swedish navy in the Baltic Sea in the 1670s. When built, she was one of the largest seagoing vessels in the world. After four years of service, the ship foundered in rough weather at the Battle of Öland on 1 June 1676, with the loss of about 800 men (including the navy's acting supreme commander Lorentz Creutz and other senior officers), over 100 guns, and large quantities of silver and gold coin. This was a hard blow for Sweden during the Scanian War (1675–79), as besides being the largest and most heavily armed ship in the Swedish navy, Kronan had been an important status symbol for the monarchy of the young Charles XI. The inexperienced Creutz has been blamed by many historians for the sinking of Kronan, although recent research points to Sweden's general lack of a well-developed naval organization and officer corps at the time. Most of her guns were salvaged in the 1680s, but eventually the wreck fell into obscurity before its exact position was rediscovered in 1980. Yearly diving operations have since surveyed and excavated the site, and many of the artifacts recovered have been put on display at the Kalmar County Museum.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kronan_(ship)

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1757:

Seven Years' War: British forces under Robert Clive defeated troops under Siraj ud-Daulah at the Battle of Plassey, allowing the British East India Company to annex Bengal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Plassey

1887:

The Parliament of Canada passed the Rocky Mountains Park Act, creating Banff National Park as the country's first national park. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banff_National_Park

1919:

Estonian War of Independence: Estonian troops engaged the forces of the Pro-German Government of Latvia near Cēsis, Latvia, recapturing the area four days later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_C%C4%93sis_(1919)

1926:

The College Board administered the first SAT, a major standardized test for university and college admissions in the United States. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAT

1982:

Chinese American Vincent Chin died after being beaten into a coma in Highland Park, Michigan, US, by two automotive workers who had mistaken him for Japanese and who were angry about the success of Japanese auto companies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Vincent_Chin

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

unbeknownst: (followed by to) Without the knowledge of. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/unbeknownst

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

I believe the only reality is how we treat each other. The morality comes from the absence of any grander scheme, not from the presence of any grander scheme.   --Joss Whedon https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joss_Whedon