The Bayern-class battleships were four super-dreadnoughts, laid down
from 1913 to 1915 by the Imperial German Navy. Sachsen and Württemberg
were never completed, after U-boats were found to be more valuable to
the war effort. Bayern (pictured) and Baden, the last German battleships
completed during World War I, were commissioned into the fleet too late
to take part in the Battle of Jutland (31 May – 1 June 1916). Bayern
was assigned to the naval force that drove the Imperial Russian Navy
from the Gulf of Riga during Operation Albion in October 1917, though
the ship was severely damaged by a mine and had to be withdrawn to Kiel
for repairs. Baden replaced Friedrich der Grosse as the flagship of the
High Seas Fleet, but saw no combat. Bayern and Baden were interned in
Scapa Flow, Scotland, following the Armistice in November 1918; in June
1919, Bayern was scuttled along with other fleet ships at the command of
Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayern-class_battleship>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1821:
The Province of Guatemala proclaimed the independence of
Central America from the Spanish Empire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_Independence_of_Central_America>
1916:
Tanks, the "secret weapons" of the British Army during the
First World War (Mark I tank pictured), were first used in combat at the
Battle of the Somme in Somme, Picardy, France.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme>
1944:
World War II: Following the Greek People's Liberation Army
victory in the Battle of Meligalas, more than 700 prisoners of war and
about 50 civilians were massacred.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Meligalas>
2008:
Late-2000s financial crisis: The global financial services firm
Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy while holding over $600 billion in
assets, the largest such filing in U.S. history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankruptcy_of_Lehman_Brothers>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
jumbo:
Especially large or powerful.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jumbo>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Party is known to encourage prejudice, and to lead men astray in
the judgment of character. Thus it is we see one half the nation
extolling those that the other half condemns, and condemning those that
the other half extols. Both cannot be right, and as passions, interests
and prejudices are all enlisted on such occasions, it would be nearer
the truth to say that both are wrong. Party is an instrument of error,
by pledging men to support its policy, instead of supporting the policy
of the state. Thus we see party measures almost always in extremes, the
resistance of opponents inducing the leaders to ask for more than is
necessary. Party leads to vicious, corrupt and unprofitable
legislation, for the sole purpose of defeating party. Thus have we seen
those territorial divisions and regulations which ought to be permanent,
as well as other useful laws, altered, for no other end than to
influence an election. Party, has been a means of entirely destroying
that local independence, which elsewhere has given rise to a
representation that acts solely for the nation, and which, under other
systems is called the country party, every legislator being virtually
pledged to support one of two opinions; or, if a shade of opinion
between them, a shade that is equally fettered, though the truth be with
neither.
--The American Democrat
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_American_Democrat>