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From today's featured article

The first UK Phantom on a test flight in 1968

From 1968 to 1992, the United Kingdom used the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II as one of its principal combat aircraft. The Phantom was procured to serve in both the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm and the Royal Air Force (RAF) in several different roles. Most Phantoms operated by the UK were built as a special batch containing a significant amount of British technology. Two variants were initially built: the F-4K was a carrier-based air-defence interceptor for the Fleet Air Arm, while the F-4M was initially used by the RAF for tactical strike and reconnaissance, before transitioning to an air defence role in the 1970s. In the mid-1980s, a third Phantom variant was obtained when fifteen former US Navy F-4J aircraft were purchased to augment the UK's air defences. Although the Fleet Air Arm ceased using the Phantom in 1978, the RAF retained it until 1992, when it was withdrawn as part of a series of post-Cold War defence cuts. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

The aftermath of the Kirkby train crash

... that the train driver in the Kirkby train crash (pictured) was found to have been using his mobile phone before the collision?
... that a tour promoting the EP For Your Validation sold out in ten minutes?
... that despite being named in college as the best at his position in the U.S., football player Buster Maddox only appeared in one NFL game?
... that the Doctor Who episode "Lux" is set in Miami, Florida, despite being filmed in Penarth, Wales?
... that Jean-Mohammed Abd-el-Jalil, a Moroccan Franciscan friar, was permitted by the Pope to keep "Muhammad" as his baptismal name?
... that Robert Mugabe's motorcade was known for speeding and killing people?
... that Elizabeth Holtzman's opponent ran an ad saying "maybe I'd like to have her as a daughter, but not as a DA" before her election as the first female Brooklyn District Attorney?
... that fighter pilot Morton D. Magoffin made pilots in his group sprint around an airfield for not saluting him?

In the news

Nicușor Dan

Author Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi win the International Booker Prize for Heart Lamp: Selected Stories.
Nicușor Dan (pictured) is elected as president of Romania.
In the Portuguese legislative election, the Democratic Alliance wins the most seats in parliament.
Austria, represented by JJ with the song "Wasted Love", wins the Eurovision Song Contest.
A tornado outbreak leaves at least 27 people dead in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States.

On this day

May 27

Manchu Prince Dorgon

1644 – Manchu regent Dorgon (depicted) defeated rebel leader Li Zicheng of the Shun dynasty at the Battle of Shanhai Pass, allowing the Manchus to enter and conquer the capital city of Beijing.
1799 – War of the Second Coalition: Austrian forces defeated the French Army of the Danube, capturing the strategically important Swiss town of Winterthur.
1954 – The security clearance of American nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, head of Project Y, was revoked.
1967 – Australians voted overwhelmingly to include Indigenous Australians in population counts for constitutional purposes and to allow the federal government to make special laws affecting them in states.
1997 – A destructive F5-rated tornado tracked through a subdivision of homes northwest of Jarrell, Texas, killing 27 people.

Diego Ramírez de Arellano (d. 1624)
Julia Ward Howe (b. 1819)
Cilla Black (b. 1943)
Gérard Jean-Juste (d. 2009)

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Today's featured picture

Anemonoides blanda, the Balkan anemone, Grecian windflower, or winter windflower, is a species of flowering plant in the family Ranunculaceae. The species is native to southeast Europe and the Middle East. It grows up to 10 to 15 centimetres (4 to 6 inches) tall and is valued for its daisy-like flowers, which appear in early spring, a time when little else is in flower. The flowers are found in various colors and are radially symmetrical, containing seven or more sepals and petals. This purple A. blanda flower was photographed in Bamberg, Germany.

Photograph credit: Reinhold Möller

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