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SS Mauna Loa was a steam-powered cargo ship of the Matson Navigation Company that was sunk in the Bombing of Darwin in February 1942. Built in 1919 for the United States Shipping Board, she was christened West Conob and renamed Golden Eagle in 1928, sailing for a variety of owners. In 1934, she was taken over by the Matson Navigation Company for service between Hawaii and the U.S. mainland and renamed Mauna Loa. Shortly before the United States' entry into World War II, Mauna Loa was chartered by the United States Department of War to carry supplies to the Philippines. The ship was part of an aborted attempt to reinforce Allied forces under attack by the Japanese on Timor in mid-February 1942. After the return of her convoy to Darwin, Northern Territory, Mauna Loa was one of eight ships sunk in Darwin Harbour in the first Japanese bombing attack on the Australian mainland on 19 February. The remains of her wreck and her cargo are a dive site in the harbor. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Lucy Monroe

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... that the English clergyman Frank Thewlis was related to Prime Minister Harold Wilson and wore a red handkerchief in his jacket pocket when preaching to show his support for Wilson's Labour Party?
... that the war in Uganda (1986–1994) involved rebel armies led by a prophetess, her father, spirits, "Hitler", ex-ministers, and Joseph Kony?
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... that although the 1786 tignon law in Spanish Louisiana was intended to hinder free black women, those who followed it made the tignon a "mark of distinction"?
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... that Keith Gill's username, "DeepFuckingValue", was chosen to reflect his belief in value investing?

In the news

Perseverance and Ingenuity

Porfirije is enthroned as the 46th Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
NASA's Mars 2020 mission craft, containing the Perseverance rover and the Ingenuity helicopter (artist's impressions pictured), successfully lands on Mars.
A winter storm in North America leaves at least 49 people dead and several million others without clean water or power.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala becomes the first woman and the first African to be appointed Director-General of the World Trade Organization.

On this day

February 19

Old Trafford

1600 – The stratovolcano Huaynaputina, in present-day Peru, erupted in the largest recorded volcanic explosion in South America.
1674 – Charles II of England signed the Treaty of Westminster to end the Third Anglo-Dutch War, confirming English and Dutch sovereignty over New Netherland and Surinam, respectively.
1811 – Peninsular War: Outnumbered French forces under Édouard Mortier routed and nearly destroyed Spanish troops at the Battle of the Gebora near Badajoz, Spain.
1910 – Old Trafford (modern façade pictured), a football stadium in Greater Manchester, England, hosted its inaugural match, between Manchester United and Liverpool.
2011 – Items from the Belitung shipwreck, the largest single collection of Tang-dynasty artefacts found in one location, were first exhibited in Singapore.

Nicolaus Copernicus (b. 1473)
Mary Dilys Glynne (b. 1895)
Harper Lee (d. 2016)

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Marcus Trescothick

The PCA Player of the Year is an annual cricket award, presented to the player adjudged to have been the best of the year in English county cricket. The award has been given since the 1970 season and the winner is chosen by a vote amongst the members of the players' trade union, the Professional Cricketers' Association (PCA). With the exception of the first year, when a joint award was made, the award has been bestowed upon one individual each season. The winning player is awarded the Reg Hayter Cup, named after a sports journalist who was also a member of the Marylebone Cricket Club, a Lord's Taverner, and a life member of Surrey County Cricket Club. The award was first presented in 1970, when Mike Procter of Gloucestershire County Cricket Club and Jack Bond of Lancashire County Cricket Club were joint winners. Seven players have won the award more than once, but only Sir Richard Hadlee and Marcus Trescothick (pictured) have been named Player of the Year on three occasions. On nineteen occasions, the PCA Player of the Year has also been named one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year for that season. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Planthoppers are insects in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha. This photograph shows three adult Phromnia rosea planthoppers on a stem, with three nymphs underneath; the adults fold their wings in a tent-like fashion, while the nymphs are clad in a dense tangle of white wax threads. Both the adults and the nymphs feed by sucking sap from the host plant.

Photograph credit: Charles James Sharp

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