USS Princess Matoika was a transport ship for the United States Navy
during World War I. Before the war, she was a Barbarossa-class ocean
liner for the Hamburg America Line and North German Lloyd. Interned with
the outbreak of World War I, she was seized by the U.S. in 1917 and
carried more than 50,000 U.S. troops between 1918 to 1919. As a U.S.
Army transport ship, in July 1920, she was a last-minute substitute to
carry much of the U.S. team to the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp. From
the perspective of the team, the trip was disastrous; athletes published
their grievances in an action known today as the mutiny of the Matoika.
In civilian service, she was SS Princess Matoika until 1922,
SS President Arthur until 1927, and SS City of Honolulu until she was
scrapped in 1933. On her maiden voyage in 1924 as President Arthur of
the Jewish-owned American Palestine Line, she reportedly became the
first ocean liner to fly the Zionist flag at sea and the first ocean
liner to have female officers.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Princess_Matoika>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1836:
At least 425 Texian prisoners of war were executed in the
Goliad massacre, under orders from Mexican president Antonio López de
Santa Anna.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliad_massacre>
1941:
World War II: A group of Serbian-nationalist officers of the
Royal Yugoslav Air Force carried out a coup d'état after Yugoslavia
joined the Axis powers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat>
2009:
A failure of the dam holding Situ Gintung, an artificial lake
in Tangerang, Indonesia, caused floods that killed at least 100 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situ_Gintung>
2015:
Himeji Castle, the largest and most visited Japanese castle,
re-opened after five years of restoration work.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himeji_Castle>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
bestow:
1. To apply or make use of (someone or something); to employ, to use.
2. (specifically, obsolete) To apply (money) for some purpose; to
expend, to spend.
3. To impart (something) gratuitously; to present (something) to someone
or something, especially as a gift or an honour; to confer, to give.
4. (archaic)
5. To place or put (someone or something) somewhere or in a certain
situation; to dispose of.
6. To deposit (something) for safekeeping; to lay up (something) in
store; to stow.
7. (also reflexive) To provide (someone or oneself) with accommodation;
to find quarters for (someone or oneself); to lodge, to quarter.
8. (obsolete)
9. (reflexive) To behave or conduct (oneself); to acquit.
10. (also reflexive) To give (someone or oneself) in marriage.
11. (obsolete, rare) An act of presenting a thing to someone or
something, especially as a gift or an honour; a bestowal.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bestow>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Every age has its peculiar folly; some scheme, project, or
phantasy into which it plunges, spurred on either by the love of gain,
the necessity of excitement, or the mere force of imitation. Failing in
these, it has some madness, to which it is goaded by political or
religious causes, or both combined.
--Charles Mackay
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Mackay>
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