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From today's featured article

Map of RAAF area commands in 1944

Area commands were the major operational and administrative formations of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) between 1940 and 1954. Four commands were raised in 1940, early in World War II, to oversee operations, training and maintenance within their geographical boundaries. In 1941–42 the structure was revised to make a total of five commands, along with four functional groups that assumed the training and maintenance roles. The area commands focused on operations until the end of hostilities. A new area command covering RAAF units in New Guinea existed from 1944 to 1947. By the early 1950s, the area command structure was no longer considered appropriate, and in 1953 it was transformed into Home Command (controlling operations), Training Command, and Maintenance Command. The area commands ceded their authority to these functional commands in 1954, and were disbanded by the end of 1956. (This article is part of a featured topic: RAAF area commands.)

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Did you know ...

Achilles Schucan

... that one of the Rhaetian Railway's trains is named after Achilles Schucan (pictured), its first director?
... that the 2003 Siberian taiga wildfires caused bears and tigers to move into populated areas?
... that Oleksandr Demenko was wounded in the siege of Mariupol and held captive by Russia for 20 months, and now leads an NGO for Ukrainian LGBTQ soldiers and veterans?
... that the San Diego Zoo made a special bread for the panda Yun Zi, instead of kibble, to prepare him for his time in China?
... that although George Leonard Huxley was leading academic initiatives and civil rights efforts in Ireland in the 1960s and 1970s, he did not become a citizen of Ireland until 2018?
... that a French translation of The Sound Pattern of English includes only chapters 1, 2, 7, 8, and 9?
... that Swiss architect Ferdinand Stadler was awarded the first prize in a Federal Palace competition in Bern, but the project was instead awarded to an architect who had not even entered?
... that students from Harvard and Yale enlisted as strikebreakers during the 1912 Boston streetcar strike?
... that Alirio García Flamenco found serving in the Iraq War to be more comfortable than the extreme heat that he experienced in Western Sahara?

In the news

King Khalid International Airport

The Houthis launch a series of attacks on Saudi Arabian airports, including King Khalid International Airport (satellite image shown), killing at least 20 people and injuring more than 370 others.
South African jurist Navi Pillay is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Canadian poet Anne Carson is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
American software engineer Margaret Hamilton dies at the age of 90.

On this day

October 14

Death of Harold on the Bayeux Tapestry

1066 – Norman Conquest: William the Conqueror's forces defeated the English army near Hastings and killed Harold Godwinson (event pictured), the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England.
1805 – War of the Third Coalition: French forces under Marshal Michel Ney defeated Austrian forces in Elchingen, present-day Germany.
1913 – The worst mining accident in the United Kingdom's history took place when an explosion resulted in 440 deaths at the Universal Colliery in Senghenydd, Wales.
1943 – The Second Philippine Republic, a Japanese puppet state, was established with Jose P. Laurel as its first president.
1964 – Members of the Politburo voted to remove Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and replace him with Leonid Brezhnev.

Charles de Tricornot de Rose (b. 1876)
Mohamed Saïl (b. 1894)
Marie Lang (d. 1934)
Wu Yize (b. 2003)

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From today's featured list

Dimitar Berbatov

From 1999 to 2010, Bulgarian footballer Dimitar Berbatov scored 48 international goals in 78 appearances, playing for the Bulgarian national team as the forward, finishing as the joint all-time top scorer for the team along with Hristo Bonev. Making his debut against Greece in November 1999, he scored his first goal for the team in February 2000 in a friendly against Chile. In 2007, he scored twice in the final of the Cyprus International Football Tournament to give him his only title with the team. In the penultimate year of his international career, he scored his sole hat-trick against Georgia in October 2009. Scoring his last two goals in a friendly against Malta in November of the same year, he retired from the team in February 2010, aged 29. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The white-booted racket-tail (Ocreatus underwoodii) is a species in the hummingbird family, Trochilidae. It is found in Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela, where it inhabits humid forests and forest edges, most commonly at elevations of 1,600 to 2,200 metres (5,200 to 7,200 ft). The species shows pronounced sexual dimorphism: males have elongated outer tail feathers with bare shafts ending in distinctive oval flags, while both sexes have white leg puffs. It feeds primarily on nectar, but also catches small insects in flight. The female lays two eggs in a tiny cup nest constructed from plant fibres and lichen. This male white-booted racket-tail of the subspecies O. u. melanantherus was photographed in Refugio Paz de las Aves, a nature reserve in Ecuador, showing its green plumage and racket-shaped tail feathers while in flight.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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