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From today's featured article

British sailors preparing bombs during the operation

Operation Goodwood was a series of air raids launched from aircraft carriers of the British Home Fleet against the German battleship Tirpitz in Kaafjord, Norway. It was the Royal Navy's last attack on Tirpitz, which posed a significant threat to the Allied convoys travelling to the Soviet Union. The Fleet departed its base on 18 August 1944 and first launched air raids against Kaafjord on the morning and evening of 22 August. Further attacks were made on 24 and 29 August. All of these attacks failed, and only two bombs struck Tirpitz. German forces suffered the loss of 12 aircraft and damage to 7 other ships. The British lost 17 aircraft and a frigate. HMS Nabob, an escort carrier, was also badly damaged. Historians attribute Operation Goodwood's failure to shortcomings of the Fleet Air Arm's aircraft and armament. The mission to sink Tirpitz was subsequently transferred to the Royal Air Force. (Full article...)

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In the news

Ural Airlines Airbus A321 in 2013

At least 80 people are killed in a bombing at a wedding in Kabul, Afghanistan.
All 233 people on board Ural Airlines Flight 178 (aircraft pictured) survive a crash following bird strikes in both engines of an Airbus A321.
Typhoon Lekima impacts the Philippines, the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan and East China, killing at least 80 people.
At least 75 people are killed and more than 50 others injured in a fuel tanker truck explosion in Morogoro, Tanzania.

On this day

August 22

America

1138 – English forces repelled a Scottish army at the Battle of the Standard near Northallerton in Yorkshire.
1639 – The East India Company bought a small strip of land on what is today Chennai, the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, from the King of the Vijayanagara Empire, Peda Venkata Raya.
1851 – The yacht America (pictured) won the Cup of One Hundred Sovereigns race, later renamed the America's Cup, near the Isle of Wight, England.
1944 – World War II: Wehrmacht infantry carried out an assault operation against the civilian residents of nine villages located in the Amari Valley on the Greek island of Crete.
2012 – A series of ethnic clashes between the Orma and Pokomo tribes of Kenya's Tana River District resulted in the deaths of at least 52 people.

Isabella of France (d. 1358) · Claude Debussy (b. 1862) · Dorothy Parker (b. 1893)

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Today's featured picture

SMS Arcona was a member of the Carola class of steam corvettes built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the 1880s. Intended for service in the German colonial empire, the ship was designed with a combination of steam and sail power for extended range, and was equipped with a battery of ten 15-centimeter (5.9 in) guns. Arcona was laid down at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) in Danzig in 1881, she was launched in May 1885, and she was completed in December 1886.

Photograph credit: unknown; restored by Adam Cuerden

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