Roy King (1894–1941) was a fighter ace in the Australian Flying Corps (AFC) during World War I. He was credited with twenty-six victories in aerial combat, making him the second most successful ace in the AFC after Harry Cobby, and the fourth highest-scoring Australian ace of the war. A civil pilot and engineer between the wars, he served in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) from 1939 until his death. King initially saw active service as a lighthorseman in Egypt in 1916. He transferred to the AFC as a mechanic in January 1917, and was commissioned that year as a pilot. Posted to No. 4 Squadron, he flew Sopwith Camels and Snipes on the Western Front. He scored seven of his victories in the Snipe, more than any other pilot. His exploits earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Distinguished Service Order, and a mention in despatches. Returning to Australia in 1919, King spent some years in civil aviation before co-founding a successful engineering business. He joined the RAAF following the outbreak of World War II and held several training commands, rising to the rank of group captain shortly before his sudden death in November 1941 aged forty-seven. (Full article...)
... that after being scorched by wildfires, the blackened branches of the mountain maytenus readily sprout?
... that the Diaspora Yeshiva Band infused rock and bluegrass with Jewish lyrics, creating a music style it called "Hasidic rock" or "Country and Eastern"?
1443 – Having deserted the army of the Ottoman Empire, Skanderbeg went to Krujë in Middle Albania and using a forged letter from Sultan Murad II to the Governor of Krujë, became lord of the city.
The Bayreuth canon consists of those operas by the GermancomposerRichard Wagner(pictured) that have been performed at the Bayreuth Festival. The festival, which is dedicated to the staging of these works, was founded by Wagner in 1876 in the Bavarian town of Bayreuth, and has continued under the directorship of his family since his death. The operas in the Bayreuth canon are the last ten of the thirteen that Wagner completed. He rejected the first three — Die Feen, Das Liebesverbot and Rienzi — as apprentice works. Although these have been staged elsewhere, and Rienzi was very popular into the early 20th century, the works in the canon exceed them, both in the number of performances given and in the number of available recordings. The term Bayreuth canon is therefore sometimes glossed as meaning the composer's mature operas. Georg Solti was the first conductor to complete studio recordings of all the works in the canon, starting in 1958 with Das Rheingold and finishing in 1986 with Lohengrin. (Full list...)
The orbicular batfish (Platax orbicularis) is a batfish endemic to the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It has a thin, disc-shaped body, and male can grow up to 50 centimetres (20 in) in length. In the wild, the orbicular batfish lives in brackish or marine waters, usually around reefs, at depths from 5 to 30 metres (20 to 100 ft). It is also a popular aquarium fish, although captive specimens generally do not grow as long as wild ones.
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