The Take Ichi convoy was an Imperial Japanese Navy convoy of World
War II. Under the command of Rear Admiral Sadamichi Kajioka (pictured),
the convoy left Shanghai on 17 April 1944, carrying two infantry
divisions to reinforce Japan's defensive positions in the Philippines
and western New Guinea. United States Navy submarines attacked the
convoy on 26 April and 6 May, sinking four transports and killing more
than 4,000 soldiers. These losses caused the convoy to be diverted to
Halmahera, where the surviving soldiers and their equipment were
unloaded. The failure to bring the two divisions to their destination
without loss contributed to the Imperial General Headquarters' decision
to move Japan's defensive perimeter back by 1,000 km (600 mi). The
divisions' combat power was also blunted by their losses, and while they
both saw action against United States Army forces, they contributed
little to Japan's attempt to defend its empire.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_Ichi_convoy>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1782:
Construction began on the Grand Palace in Bangkok, the official
residence of the king of Thailand.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Palace>
1915:
Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition: SY Aurora, anchored in
McMurdo Sound, broke loose during a gale, beginning a 312-day ordeal in
the Ross Sea and Southern Ocean for her 18-man crew.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SY_Aurora%27s_drift>
2004:
The final episode of the television sitcom Friends was aired.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friends>
2013:
Amanda Berry escaped from the Cleveland, Ohio, home of her
captor, Ariel Castro, having been held there with two other women for
ten years.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_Castro_kidnappings>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
descend:
1. Senses relating to moving from a higher to a lower position.
2. (transitive) To pass from a higher to a lower part of (something,
such as a flight of stairs or a slope); to go down along or upon.
3. (transitive) Of a flight of stairs, a road, etc.: to lead down (a
hill, a slope, etc.).
4. (transitive, archaic) To move (someone or something) from a higher to
a lower place or position; to bring or send (someone or something) down.
5. (intransitive) To physically move or pass from a higher to a lower
place or position; to come or go down in any way, such as by climbing,
falling, flowing, walking, etc.; to move downwards; to fall, to sink.
6. (astrology) Of a zodiac sign: to move away from the zenith towards
the horizon; to sink; also, of a planet: to move to a place where it has
less astrological significance.
7. (astronomy) Of a celestial body: to move away from the zenith towards
the horizon; to sink; also, to move towards the south.
8. (biology, physiology) Of a body part: to move downwards, especially
during development of the embryo; specifically, of the testes of a
mammal: to move downwards from the abdominal cavity into the scrotum.
9. (chemistry, obsolete) Of a liquid substance: to distil out from
another substance and gather at the bottom of a container; also, to
distil a substance to obtain another liquid substance in this manner.
10. (intransitive) To slope or stretch downwards.
11. (intransitive, chiefly historical) To alight from a carriage, a
horse, etc.; also, to disembark from a vessel; to land.
12. (intransitive, figurative)
13. To come or go down, or reduce, in intensity or some other quality.
14. Of a physical thing (such as a a cloud or storm) or a (generally
negative) immaterial thing (such as darkness, gloom, or silence): to
settle upon and start to affect a person or place.
15. In speech or writing: to proceed from one matter to another;
especially, to pass from more general or important to specific or less
important matters to be considered.
16. Chiefly followed by into or to: of a situation: to become worse; to
decline, to deteriorate.
17. Chiefly followed by on or upon: to make an attack or incursion, from
or as if from a vantage ground; to come suddenly and with violence.
18. Chiefly followed by on or upon: to arrive suddenly or unexpectedly,
especially in a manner that causes disruption or inconvenience.
19. (reflexive) To come down to a humbler or less fortunate, or a worse
or less virtuous, rank or state; to abase or lower oneself; to
condescend or stoop to something.
20. (reflexive, chiefly poetic or religion) Chiefly in the form descend
into (or within) oneself: to mentally enter a state of (deep) meditation
or thought; to retire.
21. (mathematics) Of a sequence or series: to proceed from higher to
lower values.
22. (music) To pass from a higher to a lower note or tone; to fall in
pitch.
23. Senses relating to passing down from a source to another thing.
24. (transitive, obsolete, rare) To trace (a lineage) from earlier to
later generations.
25. (intransitive) Of a characteristic: to be transmitted from a parent
to a child.
26. (intransitive, often passive voice) Chiefly followed by from or
(obsolete) of: to come down or derive from an ancestor or ancestral
stock, or a source; to originate, to stem.
27. (intransitive, chiefly law) Of property, a right, etc.: to pass down
to a generation, a person, etc., by inheritance. [...]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/descend>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The most extravagant idea that can be born in the head of a
political thinker is to believe that it suffices for people to enter,
weapons in hand, among a foreign people and expect to have its laws and
constitution embraced. No one loves armed missionaries; the first lesson
of nature and prudence is to repulse them as enemies.
--Maximilien Robespierre
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maximilien_Robespierre>