120px|Australian troops enter Bardia.
The Battle of Bardia was fought over three days between 3 and 5
January 1941, as part of Operation Compass in the Second World War.
Australian Major General Iven Mackay's 6th Division assaulted the
strongly held Italian fortress of Bardia, Libya, assisted by air
support and naval gunfire, and under the cover of an artillery barrage.
The 16th Infantry Brigade attacked at dawn from the west, where the
defences were known to be weak. This allowed the infantry and 23
Matilda II tanks of the 7th Royal Tank Regiment to enter the fortress
and capture all their objectives, along with 8,000 prisoners. In the
second phase of the operation, the 17th Infantry Brigade exploited the
breach made in the perimeter. On the second day, the 16th Infantry
Brigade captured the township of Bardia, cutting the fortress in two.
On the third day, the 19th Infantry Brigade advanced south from Bardia,
supported by artillery and the Matilda tanks. Meanwhile, the Italian
garrisons in the north surrendered to the 16th Infantry Brigade and the
Support Group of the British 7th Armoured Division. The victory at
Bardia enabled the Allied forces to continue the advance into Libya and
ultimately capture almost all of Cyrenaica. (more...)
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1888:
The 91 cm refracting telescope at the Lick Observatory near San Jose,
California, at the time the largest telescope in the world, was used
for the first time.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lick_Observatory>
1911:
A 7.7 Mw earthquake destroyed the city of Almaty in Russian Turkestan.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1911_Kebin_earthquake>
1919:
Emir Faisal of Iraq signed an agreement with Zionist leader Chaim
Weizmann on the development of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and an
Arab nation in a large part of the Middle East.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faisal%E2%80%93Weizmann_Agreement>
1976:
The multilateral International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights, part of the International Bill of Human Rights, came
into effect.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Covenant_on_Economic%2C_Social_and_Cultural_Rights>
1990:
United States invasion of Panama: General Manuel Noriega, the deposed
"strongman of Panama", surrendered to American forces.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Noriega>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
and how (phrase):
(idiomatic, colloquial) Used to strongly confirm preceding utterance
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/and_how>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
He who looks on a true friend looks, as it were, upon a kind of image
of himself: wherefore friends, though absent, are still present; though
in poverty, they are rich; though weak, yet in the enjoyment of health;
and, what is still more difficult to assert, though dead, they are
alive.
--Cicero
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cicero>
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