In Australia, Boeing CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift helicopters have been operated by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) for most of the period since 1974. Twenty-six Chinooks have entered Australian service, comprising twelve CH-47C variants, four CH-47Ds and ten CH-47Fs. They have been operated by both the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and the Australian Army. Twelve CH-47C Chinooks were ordered in 1970 and entered service with the RAAF in 1974. The eleven surviving Chinooks were retired in 1989 as a cost-saving measure. However, it was found that the ADF's other helicopters could not replace their capabilities, so four were upgraded to CH-47D standard, and returned to service with the army in 1995. The army acquired two more CH-47Ds in 2000 and another pair in 2012. The CH-47Ds were replaced with ten new CH-47F Chinooks during 2015 and 2016. They have mainly been used to support the army, though they have performed a wide range of other tasks. Chinooks formed part of the Australian contribution to the Iraq War in 2003 and to the war in Afghanistan.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_CH-47_Chinook_in_Australian_service

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1793:

Charlotte Corday assassinated the French revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat in his bathtub (depicted); his death became a pretext for the subsequent Reign of Terror. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Corday

1878:

At the conclusion of the Congress of Berlin, the great powers of Europe signed the Treaty of Berlin to redraw the map of the Balkans. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Berlin_%281878%29

1973:

Watergate scandal: Under questioning by Senate investigators, White House deputy chief of staff Alexander Butterfield revealed the existence of a secret taping system in the Oval Office. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_White_House_tapes

2008:

War in Afghanistan: Taliban guerrillas attacked U.S. troops at the Battle of Wanat in Nuristan Province. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Wanat

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

calvous: 1. (formal, medicine, rare) Lacking most or all of one's hair; bald, hairless. 2. (botany, rare) Lacking bristles or pappuses. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/calvous

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The eye instinctively looks for analogies and amplifies them, so that a face imagined in the pattern of a wallpaper may become more vivid than a photograph.   --Kenneth Clark https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kenneth_Clark