occupied France in the Normandy landings on D-Day, 6 June 1944, during
World War II. The untested 29th Infantry Division and nine companies of
U.S. Army Rangers assaulted the western half of the beach; the battle-
hardened 1st Infantry Division targeted the eastern half. The opposing
German 352nd Infantry Division troops, mostly teenagers with no
battalion-level training and some Eastern Front veterans, were largely
deployed in strongpoints along the coast. The initial assault waves of
tanks, infantry, and combat engineer forces were tasked with reducing
the coastal defenses to allow larger ships to land. Little went as
planned: most landing craft missed their targets, and the defenses were
unexpectedly strong. Troops could not clear the heavily defended exits
off the beach, delaying later landings. Groups of survivors eventually
improvised assaults, scaling the bluffs between the most heavily
defended points. By the end of the day, two small isolated footholds had
been won, and the original objective of a beachhead 5 miles deep was
achieved within days.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omaha_Beach>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1862:
American Civil War: The Union Army's victory in the First
Battle of Memphis virtually eradicated the Confederate naval presence on
the Mississippi River.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Memphis>
1882:
The Shewa kingdom made big strides towards gaining supremacy
over the Ethiopian Empire by defeating the Gojjam and gaining control of
territories south of the Gibe River.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Embabo>
1912:
The largest eruption of the 20th century created the Novarupta
volcano in the Alaska Peninsula, US.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novarupta>
1982:
A war in Lebanon began when Israeli forces invaded southern
Lebanon to root out members of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_Lebanon_War>
2004:
During a joint sitting of both houses of the Indian Parliament,
President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam announced that Tamil was to be made the
first legally recognised classical language of India.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_language>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
bisque:
1. A thick creamy soup made from fish, shellfish, meat or vegetables.
2. A pale pinkish brown colour.
3. (ceramics) A form of unglazed earthenware; biscuit. […]
4. (sports) An extra turn, free point or some other advantage allowed.
[…]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bisque>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is a fact that a man's dying is more the survivors' affair
than his own. Whether he realizes it or not, he illustrates the
pertinence of the adage: So long as we are, death is not; and when death
is present, we are not. In other words, between death and us there is no
rapport; it is something with which we have nothing to do — and only
incidentally the world and nature. And that is why all living creatures
can contemplate it with composure, with indifference, unconcern, with
egoistic irresponsibility.
--Thomas Mann
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Mann>
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