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Operation Buffalo's Breakaway nuclear test

British nuclear tests were conducted at Maralinga in the Woomera Prohibited Area in South Australia between 1956 and 1963. A total of seven major nuclear tests took place at Maralinga, with explosive yields ranging from approximately 1 to 27 kilotonnes of TNT (4 to 110 terajoules). Two major test series were conducted: Operation Buffalo (final test pictured) in 1956 and Operation Antler the following year. One bomb used cobalt pellets as a tracer for determining yield, resulting in rumours that Britain was developing a cobalt bomb. The site was also used for trials of neutron initiators and tests on the compression of nuclear weapon cores and the effects of fire on atomic weapons. It was left contaminated with radioactive waste, and a clean-up was attempted in 1967. A further clean-up was completed in 2000. In 1994, the Australian government paid $13.5 million in compensation to the traditional owners, the Maralinga Tjarutja people. The land was restored to them in 2014. (Full article...)

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Schlosspark Biebrich

... that Schlosspark Biebrich (pictured), the garden at a former residence of the Duchy of Nassau on the Rhine, is the venue of the Internationales Pfingstturnier Wiesbaden?
... that Eric Berger wrote about weather for the Houston Chronicle even before he became a certified meteorologist?
... that Poles who fought in the Russian Partition during the January Uprising were detained as political prisoners in Magdeburg and Graudenz, Prussia, even though the uprising never crossed the border?
... that Haripriya Banoth is the youngest member of the Telangana Legislative Assembly?
... that Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany wore comic-book-accurate Scarlet Witch and Vision Halloween costumes in the WandaVision episode "All-New Halloween Spooktacular!"?
... that research for the Cambridge Greek Lexicon was planned to last five years but was only completed after twenty-three?
... that Faith No More's "Digging the Grave" was featured on both Beavis and Butt-Head and Top of the Pops?
... that Lydia Wevers was the first scholar to write about the history of short stories in New Zealand?

In the news

Justin Trudeau

In the Canadian federal election, the ruling Liberal Party, led by Justin Trudeau (pictured), is re-elected to a minority government.
Former President of Algeria Abdelaziz Bouteflika dies at the age of 84.
SpaceX launches Inspiration4, the first all-civilian orbital spaceflight.
The United States, United Kingdom, and Australia sign a security pact that will provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines.

On this day

September 26: Banned Books Week begins (2021)

Replica of Golden Hind

1493 – Pope Alexander VI issued the papal bull Dudum siquidem, the last of the Bulls of Donation, marking the beginning of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
1580 – Explorer Francis Drake's galleon Golden Hind (replica pictured) sailed into Plymouth, England, completing his circumnavigation of the globe.
1917 – World War I: The Battle of Polygon Wood, part of the Battle of Passchendaele, began near Ypres, Belgium.
1933 – As gangster Machine Gun Kelly surrendered to the FBI, he supposedly shouted "Don't shoot, G-Men!", which became a nickname for FBI agents.
1983 – Soviet Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov averted a potential nuclear war by identifying as a false alarm signals that appeared to indicate an impending U.S. missile attack.

Fujiwara no Teika (d. 1241)
Edith Abbott (b. 1876)
Henri Fertet (d. 1943)

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Today's featured picture

Santi Giovanni e Paolo al Celio is an ancient basilica in Rome, located on the Caelian Hill. The first church was built there in 398, and a series of ancient Roman rooms with frescos were discovered under the nave during 19th-century excavations. The altar, in the background of this photograph, is built over a bath containing the remains of John and Paul, two Roman soldiers martyred under Emperor Julian in 362, and to whom the basilica is dedicated.Photograph credit: Livioandronico2013

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