[Wikipedia] February 27: Axis naval activity in Australian waters

[Faraaz Damji]

  There was considerable Axis naval activity in Australian waters during
  World War II.  A total of 54 German and Japanese warships and
  submarines entered Australian waters between 1940 and 1945 and
  attacked ships, ports and other targets.  Among the best-known attacks
  are the sinking of HMAS Sydney by a German raider in November 1941,
  the bombing of Darwin by Japanese naval aircraft in February 1942, and
  the Japanese midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour in May 1942.  In
  addition, many Allied merchant ships were damaged or sunk off the
  Australian coast by submarines and mines.  The level of Axis naval
  activity peaked in the first half of 1942 when Japanese submarines
  conducted anti-shipping patrols off Australia's coast and Japanese
  naval aviation attacked several towns in northern Australia.  The
  Japanese submarine offensive against Australia was renewed in the
  first half of 1943 but was broken off as the Allies pushed the
  Japanese onto the defensive.  Few Axis naval vessels operated in
  Australian waters in 1944 and 1945 and those that did had only a
  limited impact.  Due to the episodic nature of the Axis attacks and the
  relatively small number of ships and submarines committed, Germany and
  Japan were not successful in disrupting Australian shipping.

Read the rest of this article:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_naval_activity_in_Australian_waters


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Today's selected anniversaries:

1594:
  The King of Navarre was crowned King Henry IV of France at the
  Cathedral of Chartres near Paris, beginning the Bourbon dynasty.
  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_IV_of_France)

1801:
  Washington, D.C., a new planned city and capital of the United
  States, was placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress.
  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Washington%2C_D.C.)

1933:
  The Reichstag building in Berlin, the assembly location of the
  German Parliament, was set on fire, a pivotal event in the
  establishment of the Nazi regime in Germany.
  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_fire)

1940:
  American biochemists Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discovered the
  radioactive isotope Carbon-14, which today is used extensively as
  basis of the radiocarbon dating method to date archaeological,
  geological, and hydrogeological samples.
  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon-14)

1976:
  The rebel movement Polisario Front proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab
  Democratic Republic in Western Sahara.
  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahrawi_Arab_Democratic_Republic)


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Wiktionary's Word of the day:

  muse: To become lost in thought, to ponder.
  (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/muse)


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Wikiquote of the day:

  The heights by great men reached and keptWere not
  attained by sudden flight,But they, while their companions slept,Were
  toiling upward in the night.  -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
  (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_Wadsworth_Longfellow)