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March 1
The König class was a group of four battleships built for the Imperial German Navy on the eve of World War I. The class was composed of König, Grosser Kurfürst, Markgraf, and Kronprinz (pictured). The Königs were an improvement over the preceding Kaiser class, mounting ten 30.5 cm (12 in) SK L/50 guns in five twin turrets. Two turrets were mounted forward of the main superstructure in a superfiring pair, the third was placed on the centerline amidships, and the fourth and fifth turrets were aft, also in a superfiring pair. This allowed all 10 guns to fire in a large arc. The most powerful warships of the German High Seas Fleet at the outbreak of war in 1914, the class operated as a unit throughout World War I. The ships took part in the Battle of Jutland, where they acted as the German vanguard. They survived the war and were interned at Scapa Flow in November 1918. All four ships were scuttled on 21 June 1919. (This article is part of a featured topic: Battleships of Germany.)
March 2
Palmyra is an ancient city in present-day Homs Governorate, Syria. Inhabited since the Neolithic period, it entered recorded history in the early second millennium BC. Palmyra became part of the Roman Empire in the first century AD. Palmyrene merchants established colonies along the Silk Road and the city grew wealthy from trade caravans. Many monumental projects were erected, such as the Great Colonnade, the Temple of Bel, and distinctive tower tombs. Palmyra reached the apex of its power in the 260s, when its king Odaenathus defeated the Persian emperor Shapur I. After Odaenathus's assassination in 267, his widow Zenobia rebelled against Rome and conquered the Roman East. Palmyra was destroyed in 273 by the Roman emperor Aurelian. Restored on a smaller scale, it remained a minor trading center until it was sacked by the Timurids in 1400 and became a small village. During the Syrian civil war in 2015, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant destroyed large parts of the ancient city. (Full article...)
March 3
Tourette syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder which begins during childhood or adolescence. It is characterized by tics (video shown) such as blinking, coughing, sniffing, or facial movements that are a somewhat suppressible response to an unwanted urge. Once considered rare, Tourette's occurs in about 1% of people under eighteen, although many go undiagnosed or never seek medical care. There is no specific test for diagnosis and Tourette's is not always correctly identified because most cases are mild. Extreme cases in adulthood are rare and Tourette's does not affect intelligence or life expectancy. Education is an integral part of management of the syndrome, and explanation and reassurance are often sufficient. The cause is believed to involve environmental and unknown genetic factors. The condition was named for Georges Gilles de la Tourette, who published an account of nine patients in 1885. (Full article...)
March 4
A Wizard of Earthsea is a fantasy novel written by American author Ursula K. Le Guin (pictured). First published by the small press Parnassus in 1968, it is considered a classic of fantasy and of children's literature. Set in the fictional archipelago of Earthsea, the story centers around a gifted mage named Ged. His prickly nature drives him into a duel with an older pupil at a school of wizardry, during which his spell goes awry and releases a shadow creature that attacks him. The novel follows his journey to be free of the creature. Often described as a coming-of-age story, the book explores Ged's process of learning to cope with power and come to terms with death. Taoist themes are reflected in a fundamental balance in the universe of Earthsea, which wizards are supposed to maintain. Margaret Atwood called the novel one of the "wellsprings" of fantasy literature. It was followed by five other volumes sharing a setting; the six works are collectively known as the Earthsea Cycle. (Full article...)
March 5
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J. R. Kealoha (died March 5, 1877) was a Native Hawaiian who fought in the American Civil War at a time when the Kingdom of Hawaii was an independent nation. He enlisted in the 41st United States Colored Infantry (USCT), formed in Pennsylvania. Participating in the Siege of Petersburg, he met the Hawaiʻi-born Colonel Samuel Armstrong, who recorded their encounter. With the 41st USCT, Kealoha was present at the surrender of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865. He returned to Hawaiʻi, where he died and was buried in an unmarked grave in Honolulu's Oʻahu Cemetery. In 2010, Kealoha and more than 100 other Native Hawaiian and Hawaiʻi-born "Hawaiʻi Sons of the Civil War" were commemorated with a bronze plaque erected along the memorial pathway at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. In 2014, a grave marker (pictured) was dedicated over Kealoha's burial site. (Full article...)
March 6
The water pipit (Anthus spinoletta) is a small songbird which breeds in the mountains of Southern Europe and Southern Asia eastwards to China. It is a short-distance migrant; many birds move to lower altitudes or wet open lowlands in winter. In breeding plumage it has greyish-brown upperparts, weakly streaked with darker brown, and pale pink-buff underparts fading to whitish on the lower belly. The head is grey with a broad white eyebrow, and the outer tail feathers are white. The winter colours are duller, with more brown. Water pipits construct a cup-like nest on the ground under vegetation or in cliff crevices and lay four to six speckled greyish-white eggs, which hatch in about two weeks with about two more weeks until the chicks fledge. Although pipits occasionally catch insects in flight, they feed mainly on small invertebrates picked off the ground or vegetation, and also on some plant material. The species population is large and stable overall. (Full article...)
March 7
Interstate 675 (I-675) is a 7.7-mile-long (12.4 km) auxiliary Interstate Highway, state trunkline highway and loop route in the US state of Michigan. Splitting from I-75 and US Highway 23, which run north concurrently along the eastern side of Saginaw, I-675 heads west into the downtown area and spans the Saginaw River on the Henry G. Marsh Bridge. After an interchange with M-58, the Interstate turns northward, then runs northeasterly to connect back to I-75. The Marsh Bridge was constructed as an alternative to the Zilwaukee Bridge, which is just southeast of this junction on I-75 over the Saginaw; the I-75 bridge was until 1988 a drawbridge that would impede traffic on the freeway for up to four hours at a time. Construction of I-675 started in 1969 and the freeway opened in 1971. Sections near downtown were reconstructed from 2009 through 2011 to update one of the freeway's interchanges and to rebuild the Marsh Bridge. (Full article...)
March 8
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The Inter-Allied Women's Conference opened in Paris on 10 February 1919, several weeks after the start of the Paris Peace Conference, the meeting of the victorious Allies of World War I to set peace terms for the Central Powers. The women's conference was convened after the war to introduce women's issues to the process. On 18 January Marguerite de Witt-Schlumberger, vice-president of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, asked Woodrow Wilson, the U.S. president, to allow women to participate in the discussions that would inform the treaty negotiations. After first being rebuffed, suffragists were allowed to make a presentation before the Commission on International Labour Legislation, and on 10 April a resolution was presented to the League of Nations Commission. Though the women failed to achieve many of their aims, they gained the right for women to serve in the League of Nations organisation. (Full article...)
March 9
Hurricane Hattie was the strongest and deadliest tropical cyclone of the 1961 Atlantic hurricane season. The ninth tropical storm and seventh hurricane of the season, Hattie became a major hurricane on October 28 and strengthened to Category 5, with reported maximum sustained winds of 165 mph (270 km/h). It produced hurricane-force winds and caused one death on San Andres Island, and it dropped rainfall of up to 11.5 in (290 mm) on Grand Cayman. It weakened to Category 4 before making landfall on October 31 in British Honduras (now Belize). In Belize City, 70% of the buildings were damaged, leaving more than 10,000 people homeless and prompting the government to relocate the country's capital inland to Belmopan. Across the country, 307 people were killed. Elsewhere in Central America, Hattie killed 11 people in Guatemala and one in Honduras. (This article is part of a featured topic: 1961 Atlantic hurricane season.)
March 10
The bombing of Tokyo during the early hours of 10 March 1945 by the U.S. Army Air Forces was a devastating firebombing raid on the Japanese capital city. Bombs dropped from 279 Boeing B-29 Superfortresses burned out much of eastern Tokyo. More than 90,000 Japanese, mostly civilians, were killed and one million left homeless, making it the single most destructive air attack of World War II. The Japanese air and civil defenses proved inadequate, and only 14 American aircraft and 96 airmen were lost. The previous, generally unsuccessful, air raids on Japan had focused on industrial facilities. This was the first major firebombing raid against a Japanese city, and the tactics used became a standard part of the American strategic bombing campaign until the end of the war. The attack is commemorated at two official memorials, several neighborhood memorials and a privately run museum. (Full article...)
March 11
The Coffin Stone is a large sarsen stone at the foot of Blue Bell Hill near Aylesford in the south-eastern English county of Kent. Now lying prone on the ground, the stone is a rectangular slab that measures 4.42 metres (14 ft 6 in) in length. Another large slab now rests on it, and two smaller stones are nearby. The megalith lies on the eastern side of the River Medway, not far from the chambered long barrows of Little Kit's Coty House and Kit's Coty House constructed in the fourth millennium BCE, during Britain's Early Neolithic period, and various archaeologists formerly argued that the stone may have formed part of one such structure. An archaeological excavation of the site led by Paul Garwood in 2008 and 2009 found that the Coffin Stone was only placed in its present location in the 15th or 16th centuries. The archaeologists found no evidence of a chambered long barrow at the site. In the 1830s it was reported that local farmers found human bones near the stone. (Full article...)
March 12
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Ethiopian historiography embodies the ancient, medieval, early modern and modern disciplines of recording the history of Ethiopia. Ethiopian historical writing can be traced back to the Kingdom of Aksum (c. AD 100 – c. 940). The writing of history became an established genre in Ethiopian literature during the early Solomonic dynasty (1270–1974), when written histories were usually in the form of royal biographies, dynastic chronicles, hagiographic literature and universal histories in the form of annals. These reinforced the genealogical traditions of Ethiopia's rulers, who claimed descent from Solomon. Modern Ethiopian historiography was developed by native Ethiopians and by Hiob Ludolf (1624–1704), the German orientalist. The traditionalist Heruy Wolde Selassie (1878–1938) employed Western historiographic methods. Historiography of the 20th century focused largely on the Abyssinian Crisis of 1935 and the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. (Full article...)
March 13
Apollo 9 (March 3–13, 1969) was the third crewed mission in the United States Apollo program. Launched by a Saturn V rocket and flown in Low Earth Orbit, the mission flight-qualified the Lunar Module, showing that its crew could fly it independently, then rendezvous and dock, as would be required for Apollo 11, the first crewed lunar landing. Commander James McDivitt, Command Module Pilot David Scott, and Lunar Module Pilot Rusty Schweickart tested systems and procedures critical to landing on the Moon. A spacewalk tested the extravehicular life support backpack. McDivitt and Schweickart, entering the lunar module through the docking tunnel, became the first humans to pass between spacecraft without going outside them, two months after Soviet cosmonauts spacewalked to transfer between Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5. Apollo 9, a complete success, was followed by Apollo 10, the dress rehearsal for Apollo 11. (Full article...)
March 14
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Muhammad III (1257–1314) was the Nasrid ruler of the Emirate of Granada in Al-Andalus on the Iberian Peninsula from 1302 until 1309. He built upon the military successes of his father Muhammad II against Castile, and expanded Granada's territory by capturing Bedmar in 1303. A treaty with Castile the following year recognised Granada's conquests in return for Muhammad's pledge of fealty and tribute to King Ferdinand IV. In 1306, Muhammad conquered Ceuta in North Africa, putting Granada in control of both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar. He built the Alhambra's Great Mosque (destroyed in the sixteenth century by Philip II), a nearby public bathhouse and the Partal Palace (pictured). Poor sight eventually forced him to rely heavily on his advisors, especially Ibn al-Hakim al-Rundi, his vizier, who became the de facto ruler. Muhammad was deposed in a palace coup when Granada was on the verge of a new war against Castile, Aragon, and the Marinids. (Full article...)
March 15
Alloxylon pinnatum, the Dorrigo waratah, is a tree of the family Proteaceae found in warm-temperate rainforest of south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales in eastern Australia. It has shiny green leaves that are either lobed and up to 30 cm (12 in) long, or spear-shaped and up to 15 cm (5.9 in) long. The prominent pinkish-red flower heads with 50 to 140 individual flowers appear in spring and summer. These are followed by rectangular woody seed pods, which bear two rows of winged seeds. Known for many years as Oreocallis pinnata, it was transferred to the new genus Alloxylon by Peter Weston and Mike Crisp in 1991; the genus contains four species previously classified in Oreocallis that are found in Australasia. The tree's terminal tubular flowers indicate that it is pollinated by birds. Classified as "near threatened" under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992, the Dorrigo waratah has proven difficult to keep alive in cultivation. (Full article...)
March 16
The Bridgeport, Connecticut, Centennial half dollar is a fifty-cent piece issued by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1936 as a commemorative coin. Designed by Henry Kreis, the obverse (pictured) depicts the showman P. T. Barnum, who was one of Bridgeport's most famous residents, mayor of the city, helped develop it, and is buried there. Bridgeport authorities wanted a commemorative coin, and authorizing legislation passed Congress without opposition. Kreis had designed the Connecticut Tercentenary half dollar (1935), and he produced designs showing Barnum and a modernistic eagle similar to the one on the Connecticut piece. The coins were vended to the public beginning in September 1936 at a price of $2. Too late for most of the centennial celebrations, the coins sold well. Unsold pieces were bought up by coin dealers and wholesale quantities were available on the secondary market until the 1970s. The Bridgeport half dollar sells in the low hundreds of dollars, depending on condition. (Full article...)
March 17
William F. Raynolds (March 17, 1820 – October 18, 1894) was an explorer, engineer and army officer who served in the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War. He oversaw the construction of numerous lighthouses; at least six of them are still standing and in use. During the occupation of Mexico in 1848, Raynolds led a party that was the first to summit Pico de Orizaba, the highest mountain in Mexico and believed at that time to be the highest in North America. In 1859, Raynolds was placed in charge of the first government-sponsored expedition into the Yellowstone region. Heavy snowpack prevented the expedition from reaching the Yellowstone Plateau, forcing them to cross Union Pass in the Wind River Range. The expedition then entered Jackson Hole and surveyed the Teton Range, now within Grand Teton National Park. Raynolds retired from the army in 1884 with the rank of colonel after a 40-year career. (Full article...)
March 18
Arnold Bax (1883–1953) was an English composer, poet, and author. Best known for his orchestral music, he also wrote songs, choral music, chamber pieces, and solo piano works. In addition to a series of symphonic poems, he wrote seven symphonies, and was for a time widely regarded as the leading British symphonist. Bax was born in Streatham to a prosperous family who encouraged his music career, and his private income enabled him to follow his own path as a composer without regard for fashion or orthodoxy. While still a student at the Royal Academy of Music, Bax became fascinated with Ireland and the Celtic Revival. In the years before the First World War he lived in Ireland and became a member of Dublin literary circles, writing fiction and verse under the pseudonym Dermot O'Byrne. His best-known work is the symphonic poem Tintagel (1917). In 1942 Bax was appointed Master of the King's Music. (Full article...)
March 19
The Sonestown Covered Bridge is a Burr arch truss covered bridge over Muncy Creek in Davidson Township, Sullivan County, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Built c. 1850, the bridge is 110 feet (34 m) long, and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1980. The bridge is named for the nearby unincorporated village of Sonestown; it was built to provide access to a gristmill, which operated until the early 20th century. The bridge construction is cruder than the other two surviving covered bridges in Sullivan County, with each Burr arch formed from six straight beams set at angles instead of a smooth curve. Despite being repaired or restored several times from 1969, as of 2016 the bridge was deemed "basically intolerable requiring high priority of corrective action" on the National Bridge Inventory. It is the shortest covered bridge in the county and as of 2015 had average daily traffic of 50 vehicles. (Full article...)
March 20
Aries is the ninth studio album by Mexican recording artist Luis Miguel (pictured). Released by WEA Latina in 1993, it features pop ballads and dance numbers with R&B influences. "Ayer" and "Hasta Que Me Olvides", two of the album's three singles released for sale, topped the US Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart. "Hasta el Fin" and "Tú y Yo" were released as promotional singles, both peaking at number four on that chart. Aries stayed at number one on the US Billboard Latin Pop Albums for 19 weeks. It sold over one million copies in Mexico, and over two million copies worldwide through 2000. Upon its release, the album received mixed reviews from music critics; they were divided on the dance tunes and ballads, although Miguel's vocals and the album's arrangements garnered positive reactions. The Aries Tour promoted the record in Latin America and the United States. Miguel received several accolades for the album, including the Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album. (Full article...)
March 21
The island of stability in nuclear physics is a predicted set of isotopes of superheavy elements whose half-lives may be considerably longer than those experimentally observed for these elements. Its theoretical existence is attributed to stabilizing effects of closed nuclear shells and magic numbers of protons and neutrons. The island of stability is generally thought to center near copernicium and flerovium isotopes with around 184 neutrons, separated from known stable and long-lived nuclides. While stabilizing effects are expected to be greatest for nuclides with around 114 protons, other islands of stability might also exist around heavier nuclides with higher magic numbers. Estimates of the stability of elements on the island are usually around a half-life of minutes or days, with some estimates of up to millions of years. The synthesis of nuclides with up to 118 protons and 177 neutrons has demonstrated a slight stabilizing effect supporting the island's existence. (Full article...)
March 22
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God of War is an action-adventure game franchise. Sony's Santa Monica Studio developed all the main entries, released on the PlayStation 2, 3, and 4 video game consoles by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The story follows Kratos (cosplayer pictured), a Spartan warrior who was tricked into killing his family by the Greek god of war Ares. God of War (2005), God of War II (2007), and God of War III (2010) constitute the original trilogy centered on vengeance; other games include Chains of Olympus (2008) and Ghost of Sparta (2010) for the PlayStation Portable, Betrayal (2007) for mobile phones, and Ascension (2013). A main title based on Norse mythology, also called God of War (2018), centers on redemption, with future games in this setting planned. The series has received numerous awards, including Game of the Year recognitions for the 2005 and 2018 installments. As of May 2019, the franchise has sold over 32 million games worldwide. (This article is part of a featured topic: God of War franchise.)
March 23
Naruto is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. It tells the story of a young ninja, Naruto Uzumaki, who seeks to gain recognition from his peers and dreams of becoming the leader of his village. The series is based on two one-shot manga by Kishimoto: Karakuri (1995) and Naruto (1997). It was serialized in Shueisha's magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1999 to 2014, and released in book form in 72 volumes. An anime television series of 220 episodes was produced by Pierrot and Aniplex; it ran in Japan from 2002 to 2007, and its English adaptation aired on Cartoon Network from 2005 to 2009. Naruto: Shippuden, a sequel to the original series, premiered in Japan in 2007 and ended in 2017 after 500 episodes. The English adaptation was broadcast on Disney XD from 2009 to 2011, and on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block beginning in 2014. Pierrot has also developed eleven movies and eleven original video animations. Naruto is the fourth best-selling manga series ever. (Full article...)
March 24
to the Virgin Mary
The Hours of Mary of Burgundy is a book of hours, a form of devotional book for lay people, completed in Flanders around 1477. It was probably commissioned for Mary of Burgundy, then the wealthiest woman in Europe; Mary was the only child of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and wife of Maximilian I, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. The book contains 187 folios (folio 14v pictured), each measuring 22.5 by 15 centimetres (8.9 in × 5.9 in). It consists of the Roman Liturgy of the Hours, 24 calendar roundels, 20 full-page miniatures and 16 quarter-page format illustrations. It includes meticulously detailed illustrations and borders by the influential illuminator known by the notname of the Master of Mary of Burgundy. Other miniatures, considered of an older tradition, were contributed by Simon Marmion, Willem Vrelant and Lieven van Lathem. The two best-known illustrations contain a revolutionary trompe-l'œil technique of showing a second perspective through an open window. (Full article...)
March 25
Megarachne was a predatory freshwater arthropod of the order of eurypterids, often called sea scorpions. Two fossil specimens of the genus have been discovered, in San Luis, Argentina, in deposits of Late Carboniferous age from the Gzhelian stage. Megarachne ("great spider") was initially misidentified as a spider. With a body length of 54 cm (1.77 ft), it was a medium-sized eurypterid, similar to others within the Mycteropoidea, a rare group known primarily from South Africa and Scotland. The mycteropoids evolved a specialized method of feeding referred to as sweep-feeding, raking through the substrate of riverbeds to capture and eat smaller invertebrates. Due to their fragmentary fossil record and similarities between the genera, Megarachne and two other members of its family, Mycterops and Woodwardopterus, have been hypothesized to represent different developmental stages of a single genus. (Full article...)
March 26
Ubinas is a stratovolcano in the Moquegua Region of southern Peru, 60 kilometres (37 mi) east of the city of Arequipa. Part of the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andes, it rises 5,672 metres (18,609 ft) above sea level. Its summit is cut by a caldera 1.4 kilometres (0.87 mi) wide and 150 metres (490 ft) deep, which itself contains a smaller crater. Below the summit, Ubinas is a steep cone with a prominent notch on the southern side. The most active volcano in Peru, it has a history of small- to moderate-sized explosive eruptions and persistent degassing and ash emissions. An eruption in 1667, its largest since prehistoric times, produced scoria falls and pyroclastic flows. In 2006 and 2007 eruption columns led to ash fall in the region, resulting in health issues and evacuations. During the most recent activity, from 2013 to 2019, a lava flow formed inside the crater, and as ash fell, surrounding towns had to be evacuated. (Full article...)
March 27
A virus is an infectious agent that reproduces inside the cells of living hosts. Unlike most living things, viruses do not have cells that divide; instead they force infected host cells to produce thousands of identical copies of the original virus, at an extraordinary rate. A virus consists of two or three parts: genes, made from either DNA or RNA, long molecules that carry the genetic information; a protein coat that protects the genes; and in some, an envelope of fat that surrounds and protects them when they are not contained within a host cell (and makes them vulnerable to soap). Viruses spread in different ways; some through the air by people when they cough or sneeze, others by the faecal–oral route, and some by direct contact or during sex. Over 4,800 species have been discovered, many of which cause disease in plants and animals, including common human diseases such as the common cold, chickenpox and cold sores, and serious epidemics and pandemics such as HIV/AIDS, Ebola, influenza, SARS and COVID-19. (Full article...)
March 28
The First Battle of Dernancourt was fought on 28 March 1918 near Dernancourt in northern France during World War I. Two Australian divisions had been sent south from Belgium to help stem the tide of the German Spring Offensive towards Amiens and, with the British 35th Division, they held a line west and north of the Ancre river and the area between the Ancre and Somme. The German 2nd Army concentrated its assault between Albert and Dernancourt, attacking off the line of march after a short artillery preparation. The dawn attack was under the cover of fog, but other than one small penetration in the early morning that was quickly repelled, the Germans failed to break through the Allied defences. An Australian sergeant, Stanley McDougall (pictured), was awarded the Victoria Cross for his part in defeating the German penetration. A week later the Germans renewed their attempts to advance in the sector, culminating in the Second Battle of Dernancourt when the Germans were again defeated. (Full article...)
March 29
Francis Willughby (1635–1672) was an English ornithologist and ichthyologist, and an early student of linguistics and games. At Trinity College, Cambridge, he was tutored by the mathematician and naturalist John Ray, who became a lifetime friend and colleague. Willughby, Ray, and others including John Wilkins were advocates of a new way of studying science, relying on observation and classification, rather than the received authority of Aristotle and the Bible. Willughby and Ray undertook journeys to gather information and specimens in England, Wales, and continental Europe, visiting museums, libraries and private collections as well as studying local animals and plants. After Willughby's early death, Ray completed the works they had jointly planned, publishing books on birds, fish and invertebrates that included innovative ways of classifying animals. Carl Linnaeus relied on Willughby and Ray's books in his Systema Naturae, the basis of binomial nomenclature. (Full article...)
March 30
Secretariat (March 30, 1970 – October 4, 1989) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who, in 1973, became the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years. Secretariat set speed records in all three Triple Crown races. His time of 1:592⁄5 in the Kentucky Derby still stands as the Churchill Downs track record for 1+1⁄4 miles. His disputed time in the Preakness Stakes was recognized as a stakes record in 2012. He won the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths, setting an American record for 1+1⁄2 miles on dirt that still stands. He also set a world record in the Marlboro Cup, and proved his versatility by winning two major stakes races on turf. His 1972–1973 racing career resulted in five Eclipse Awards, including American Horse of the Year honors both years. Of The Blood-Horse's Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century, Secretariat ranks second only to Man o' War. After siring several major stakes winners, Secretariat died at age 19 of complications from laminitis. (Full article...)
March 31
The 1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement is a bilateral treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom on nuclear weapons co-operation. It allows the two countries to exchange nuclear materials, technology and information, and was signed on 3 July 1958, after the British hydrogen bomb programme successfully tested a thermonuclear device. While the US has nuclear co-operation agreements with other countries, including France and other NATO countries, this agreement is by far the most comprehensive. Exemplifying the Anglo-American Special Relationship, it allowed American nuclear weapons to be supplied under Project E. The treaty has proved mutually beneficial, and paved the way for the Polaris Sales Agreement and the Trident nuclear programme submarines, including HMS Victorious (pictured), all of which use American missiles with British nuclear warheads. The most recent renewal of the treaty extended it to 31 December 2024. (Full article...)