Silverplate was the codename for the United States Army Air Forces' participation in the Manhattan Project during World War II. Originally the name for the aircraft modification project for the B-29 Superfortress bomber to enable it to drop an atomic weapon, Silverplate eventually came to identify the training and operational aspects of the program as well. Modifications began in November 1943 on a prototype B-29 known as the "Pullman", used for bomb flight testing at Muroc Army Air Field in California commencing in March 1944. Seventeen production Silverplate aircraft were ordered in August 1944 for 509th Composite Group training, and to allow the 216th Army Air Forces Base Unit to test bomb configurations. In February 1945, 28 more were ordered, including Bockscar (pictured), the plane that carried out the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in August 1945. A total of 65 Silverplate B-29s were made. The use of the Silverplate codename was discontinued after the war; modifications to an additional 80 aircraft continued under a new codename, Saddletree.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1014:

Byzantine–Bulgarian wars: Forces of the Byzantine Empire defeated troops of the Bulgarian Empire at the Battle of Kleidion in the Belasica Mountains near present-day Klyuch, Bulgaria. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kleidion

1858:

Japan reluctantly signed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, an unequal treaty giving the United States various commercial and diplomatic privileges. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Amity_and_Commerce_(United_States%E2%80%93Japan)

1899:

The first Hague Convention, among the first formal statements of the laws of war and war crimes in international law, was signed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hague_Conventions_of_1899_and_1907

1958:

US President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law, establishing a new federal non- military space agency known as NASA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA

1987:

Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President J. R. Jayewardene signed the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to resolve the ongoing Sri Lankan Civil War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Sri_Lanka_Accord

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

platypusary: A place where platypuses are nurtured. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/platypusary

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Whether or not it was a coincidence, Jurgen met precisely the vampire of whom he had inveigled his father into thinking. She was the most seductively beautiful creature that it would be possible for Jurgen's father or any other man to imagine: and her clothes were orange-colored, for a reason sufficiently well known in Hell, and were embroidered everywhere with green fig–leaves. "A good morning to you, madame," says Jurgen, "and whither are you going?" "Why, to no place at all, good youth. For this is my vacation, granted yearly by the Law of Kalki —" "And who is Kalki, madame?" "Nobody as yet: but he will come as a stallion. Meanwhile his Law precedes him, so that I am spending my vacation peacefully in Hell, with none of my ordinary annoyances to bother me." "And what, madame, can they be?" "Why, you must understand that it is little rest a vampire gets on earth, with so many fine young fellows like yourself going about everywhere eager to be destroyed."   --James Branch Cabell https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Branch_Cabell