From today's featured article
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A No. 38 Squadron Caribou
No. 38 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) transport unit. Formed in 1943, the squadron ferried supplies and personnel during World War II between Australia and combat zones in New Guinea and Borneo, using Douglas Dakota aircraft. It was deployed to Singapore from 1950 to 1952, supplying Commonwealth forces engaged in the Malayan Emergency. It started flying de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribous (pictured) in 1964. Throughout Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War, the squadron prepared aircrew for operational service with No. 35 Squadron, and maintained a detachment in Papua and New Guinea to provide pilots with experience flying in tropical conditions. During the 1980s it provided search and rescue capabilities within Australia, working with Australian Army units. From 1999 until 2001, a detachment was deployed to East Timor as part of the Australian-led peacekeeping force in the newly independent nation. The squadron continued to fly the ageing Caribous until 2009, when it was re-equipped with eight Beechcraft King Air 350 aircraft. Currently stationed at RAAF Base Townsville, Queensland, it is responsible for light transport tasks and for training RAAF pilots to operate King Airs. (Full article...)
Part of the No. 90 (Composite) Wing RAAF series, one of Wikipedia's featured topics.
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Daieishō
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In the news
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Artist's impression of OSIRIS-REx
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On this day...
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September 15: International Day of Democracy; Mid-Autumn Festival (Chinese calendar, 2016); Independence Day in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua (1821); Battle of Britain Day in the United Kingdom; Free Money Day
British Mark I tank
- 1816 – HMS Whiting became wrecked on the Doom Bar, a treacherous shoal off the coast of Cornwall, England, that has caused over 600 known shipwrecks.
- 1862 – American Civil War: Confederate forces captured the Union garrison at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, taking more than 12,000 prisoners.
- 1916 – Tanks (pictured), the "secret weapons" of the British Army during the First World War, were first used in combat at the Battle of the Somme in Somme, Picardy, France.
- 1935 – Nazi Germany enacted the Nuremberg Laws, which deprived German Jews of citizenship, and adopted a new national flag emblazoned with a swastika.
- 1963 – A bomb planted by members of the Ku Klux Klan exploded in the 16th Street Baptist Church, an African American Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four children and injuring at least 22 others.
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