Operation Cobra was an offensive launched by the First United States Army under Omar Bradley against the German 7th Army commanded by Paul Hausser in the Cotentin Peninsula during the Normandy campaign of World War II. The attack commenced on 25 July 1944, having been delayed several times by poor weather. Supporting offensives had drawn the bulk of German armored reserves toward the British and Canadian sectors, and the lack of men and materiel available to the Germans meant they were unable to form successive lines of defense. After a slow start the offensive gathered momentum and by 27 July most organized resistance had been overcome and the Americans advanced rapidly. The German response was ineffectual and the entire Normandy front soon collapsed. Operation Cobra, together with concurrent offensives by the British Second Army and the Canadian First Army, was decisive in securing an Allied victory in the Normandy campaign and the loss of the German position in northwestern France.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1788:

Mozart completed his Symphony No. 40, one of his two extant minor-key symphonies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._40_%28Mozart%29

1893:

The Corinth Canal, which bisects Greece's narrow Isthmus of Corinth, was formally opened, connecting the Ionian Sea's Gulf of Corinth with the Aegean Sea's Saronic Gulf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinth_Canal

2000:

Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde en route from Paris to New York, crashed in Gonesse, France, killing all 109 passengers on board and four people on the ground. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_4590

2010:

WikiLeaks published 75,000 classified documents about the War in Afghanistan in one of the largest leaks in U.S. military history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_War_documents_leak

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

cutting: 1. (countable, uncountable) The action of the verb to cut. 2. (countable) A section removed from a larger whole. 3. (countable) A newspaper clipping. 4. (countable, horticulture) A leaf, stem, branch, or root removed from a plant and cultivated to grow a new plant. 5. (countable) An abridged selection of written work, often intended for performance. 6. (countable, Britain) An open passage at a level lower than the surrounding terrain, dug for a canal, railway, or road to go through. 7. (uncountable, cinematography, sound engineering) The editing of film or other recordings. 8. (uncountable, machining) The process of bringing metals to a desired shape by chipping away the unwanted material. 9. (uncountable, psychology) The act of cutting one's own skin as a symptom of a personality disorder; self-harm. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cutting

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The real "haves" are they who can acquire freedom, self- confidence, and even riches without depriving others of them. They acquire all of these by developing and applying their potentialities. On the other hand, the real "have nots" are they who cannot have aught except by depriving others of it. They can feel free only by diminishing the freedom of others, self-confident by spreading fear and dependence among others, and rich by making others poor.   --Eric Hoffer https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eric_Hoffer