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British Army Gazelle helicopter

A British Army helicopter was destroyed in a friendly fire incident during theFalklands War, killing its four occupants. In the early hours of 6 June 1982, theRoyal Navy destroyerHMS Cardiff was looking for aircraft supplying the Argentine forces on theFalkland Islands. AGazelle helicopter(example pictured) of theArmy Air Corps was making a delivery to British troops onEast Falkland.Cardiff's crew assumed that it was hostile and fired two missiles, destroying it. AlthoughCardiff was suspected, scientific tests on the wreckage were inconclusive. No formal inquiry was held until four years later. Defending their claim that the helicopter had been lost in action, theMinistry of Defence stated that they did not want to upset relatives until they had ascertained how it had been shot down. A board of inquiry identified factors including a lack of communication between the army and the navy, and the army's decision to turn off helicopters'identification friend or foe transmitters. (Full article...)

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Roman baths (Amman)

... that two headless white marble statues found inAmman'sRoman baths(pictured) in 2020 were carved from stone quarried in Greece?
... thatHoly Cross Church in Kentucky was built on land donated by the namesake ofa brand of whiskey?
... thatKanailal Sarkar, the opposition candidate formayor of Calcutta in 1963, had been jailed during the1930 protest movement against British rule in India?
... that Canadian football playerPieter Vanden Bos was traded from theRoughriders to theRough Riders?
... that workers in European lace workshops and schools chantedcatchy, often gruesome rhymes?
... that the tenure ofWallis and Futuna's longest-serving senator,Soséfo Makapé Papilio, ended when he was found dead in a car submerged in the sea?
... thatvelvet worms hadan ancient relative with two pairs ofantennae?
... that both athletes forAmerican Samoa at the 2024 Summer Olympics represented the territory because their relatives were born there?
... that "the world's ugliest woman" won the women's worldgurning title 28 times?

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On this day

April 4:Hansik in Korea (2024);Qingming Festival (traditional Chinese, 2025)

Alexios I Komnenos

503 BC –Roman consulAgrippa Menenius Lanatus celebrated atriumph for a military victory over theSabines.
1081 – TheKomnenos dynastycame to full power with the coronation ofAlexios I Komnenos(pictured) asByzantine emperor.
1859 –Bryant's Minstrels premiered theminstrel song "Dixie" in New York City as part of theirblackface show.
1949 – Twelve nations signed theNorth Atlantic Treaty, establishingNATO, an internationalmilitary alliance whereby its member states agree tomutual defense in response to an attack by any external party.

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Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University

In 1920, theUniversity of Oxford admitted women to degrees for the first time during theMichaelmas term. The conferrals took place at theSheldonian Theatre on 14 October, 26 October, 29 October, 30 October and 13 November. That same year, on 7 October, women also became eligible for admission as full members of the university. Before 1920, it is estimated that around 4,000 women studied at Oxford since the opening of the university's first women's colleges in 1879. One graduate wasAnnie Rogers, who took undergraduate exams in 1875 and 1877 and was finally given a degree in 1920, when she was 64 years old. The last survivor of the first conferral ceremony wasConstance Savery, who died at the age of 101 in 1999. (Full list...)

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Thered panda is amammal native to theeastern Himalayas andsouthwestern China. It has dense reddish-brown fur with a black belly and legs, and a ringed tail. It has a head-to-body length of 51–63.5 cm (20–25 in) and a 28–48.5 cm (11–19 in) tail, and it weighs between 3.2 and 15 kg (7 and 33 lb). It is genetically close toraccoons,weasels andskunks. Solitary, largelyarboreal and well adapted to climbing, it inhabitsconiferous,temperate broadleaf and mixed forests, favouring steep slopes with densebamboo cover close to water sources. It uses elongated wrist bones ("false thumbs") to grasp bamboo. It feeds mainly onbamboo shoots and leaves. Red pandas mate in early spring, giving birth to litters of up to four cubs in summer. On theIUCN Red List asendangered since 2015, the species is threatened bypoaching anddeforestation-based habitatdestruction andfragmentation.

Photograph credit: Mathias Appel

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