Today's featured article
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The Admiralty Islands campaign was a series of battles in the New Guinea campaignofWorld War II in which the United States Army's 1st Cavalry Division occupied the Japanese-held Admiralty Islands. Acting on reports from airmen that there were no signs of enemy activity and the islands may have been evacuated, General Douglas MacArthur accelerated his timetable for capturing the islands and ordered an immediate reconnaissance in force. The campaign began on 29 February 1944 when a force landed on Los Negros, the third largest island in the group. By using a small, isolated beach where the Japanese had not anticipated an assault, the force achieved tactical surprise, but the islands proved to be far from unoccupied. A furious battle developed for control of the Admiralties. In the end, air superiority and command of the sea allowed the Allies to heavily reinforce their position on Los Negros. The 1st Cavalry Division could then overrun the islands. The campaign officially ended on 18 May 1944. The Allied victory completed the isolation of the major Japanese base at Rabaul that was the ultimate objective of the Allied campaigns of 1942 and 1943. A major air and naval base was developed in the Admiralty Islands that became an important launching point for the campaigns of 1944 in the Pacific. (more...)
Recently featured: Charlie Macartney – Voluntary Human Extinction Movement – Altrincham
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Did you know...
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... that Augustus Brine's portrait (pictured) was painted by John Singleton Copley when Brine was a thirteen-year-old midshipman?
... that residents and preservationists have fought to save the Julia C. Lathrop Homes from demolition by the Chicago Housing Authority?
... that Ian Molyneux, who was awarded a posthumous George Medal for trying to disarm a murderous sailor on a nuclear submarine, had previously started and run an under-12 rugby league team?
... that the miniatures in the Grandes Heures of Anne of Brittany show not only over 300 plants in detail, but influence from Leonardo da Vinci?
... that the Casting Crowns' song "East to West" received 78 adds in its first week, a record at Christian radio?
... that in 1997, after winning the 2000 Guineas, the racehorse Entrepreneur started with the shortest odds at the Epsom Derby in fifty years?
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In the news
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The Mahon Tribunal into political corruption in Ireland concludes with findings against high-profile politicians, including two former Taoisigh.
Malian President Amadou Toumani Touré (pictured) is ousted in a coup d'état.
Mohammed Merah, the suspect in a series of fatal shootings in southern France, dies during a police siege.
Hungarian mathematician Endre Szemerédi wins the Abel Prize for his contributions to discrete mathematics and theoretical computer science.
George Tupou V, the King of Tonga, dies in Hong Kong at the age of 63.
Lindsey Vonn and Marcel Hirscher win the Alpine Skiing World Cup.
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On this day...
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1484 – William Caxton printed the first English translation of Aesop's Fables.
1913 – First Balkan War: After a five-month siege, the Bulgarian Second Army captured the Ottoman city of Adrianople.
1939 – Spanish Civil War: Nationalists began their final offensive of the war, at the end of which they controlled almost the entire country.
1978 – Four days before the scheduled opening of Japan's Narita International Airport (pictured), a group of protesters destroyed much of the equipment in the control tower with Molotov cocktails.
1997 – PoliceinRancho Santa Fe, California, discovered the bodies of 39 members of Heaven's Gate who had died in an apparent cult suicide.
1999 – Jack Kevorkian, an American advocate for and practitioner of physician-assisted suicide, was found guilty of murder in the death of a terminally ill patient.
More anniversaries: March 25 – March 26 – March 27
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