Ford Island is an islet in the center of Pearl Harbor, Oahu, in the US state of Hawaii. Its original area of 334 acres (135 ha) was increased during the 1930s to 441 acres (178 ha) with fill dirt after the US Navy dredged Pearl Harbor to accommodate battleships. The island was the site of a Hawaiian fertility ritual until missionaries stopped the practice by 1830. It was given by Kamehameha I to Spanish deserter Francisco de Paula Marín, and was later owned by physician Seth Porter Ford. In 1917 the US Army bought part of it for use by an aviation division, and by 1939 it was taken over by the US Navy. It was at the center of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964. By the late 1990s hundreds of millions of dollars had been invested in real estate development and infrastructure. Ford Island is home to the USS Arizona memorial, the USS Missouri museum, the Pacific Warfighting Center, and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1837:

British troops swiftly defeated rebels led by William Lyon Mackenzie and Anthony Van Egmond at the Battle of Montgomery's Tavern, the only major confrontation of the Upper Canada Rebellion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Canada_Rebellion

1942:

Second World War: A small unit of Royal Marines launched Operation Frankton, in which they damaged six ships in the port of Bordeaux in German-occupied France. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Frankton

1988:

A 6.8 Ms earthquake struck the Spitak region of Armenia, killing at least 25,000 people (aftermath pictured). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Armenian_earthquake

2011:

The United States transferred its last base in the Al Anbar Governorate to the Iraqi government, ending the Anbar campaign. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anbar_campaign_%282003%E2%80%932011%29

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

presence of mind: Focused alertness, good sense, quick-thinking resourcefulness, or stability of feeling and thought, especially in spite of circumstances which are distracting, stressful, or otherwise challenging. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/presence_of_mind

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Every person who is seeing me now — some are seeing me within months of my saying this, some are likely to see this years after I have said this, but whenever all of you are seeing it — that will be the moment you’re seeing it — as this is the moment I’m saying it. And what that means to me is: living in the moment. The moment between past and present, or present and past. The moment between after and next, the hammock in the middle of after and next. The moment. Treasure it. Use it with love.   --Norman Lear https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Norman_Lear