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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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Did you know ...

Canadian Police and Peace Officers' Memorial

... that the Canadian Police and Peace Officers' Memorial (pictured) had to be redesigned after six years to accommodate more names?
... that when acting in HBO television series Big Little Lies, Darby Camp received suggestions from Reese Witherspoon, who plays her onscreen mother?
... that Dorans Lane in Liverpool is named after Felix Doran, who "seems to cling ghost-like to the area"?
... that 80 acres (32 ha) of Hog Island were farmland in 1923, but only 15 acres (6 ha) were above water in 1974?
... that Impa is one of the oldest characters in Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda series?
... that the WandaVision episode "We Interrupt This Program" was pitched like an episode of CSI, deviating from the sitcom genre of preceding episodes?
... that Royal Navy officer John Wells managed to escape the Nore mutiny through a gun port in his ship, returning later to accept the mutineers' surrender?
... that during Tag des offenen Denkmals, Germany's largest annual cultural event, thousands of historic monuments are opened for free?

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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