Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 March 31b

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From today's featured article

Lou Spence (1917–1950) was a fighter pilot and squadron commander in the Royal Australian Air Force during World War II and the Korean War. In 1941 he was posted to North Africa with No. 3 Squadron, which operated P-40 Tomahawks and Kittyhawks; he was credited with shooting down two German aircraft and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC). He commanded No. 452 Squadron in 1944, flying Supermarine Spitfires in defence of Australia's North-Western Area against the Japanese, and was mentioned in despatches. In February 1950 he took command of No. 77 Squadron, operating P-51 Mustangs as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan. He led his squadron in the opening months of the Korean War, and was awarded a bar to his DFC, as well as the US Legion of Merit and the US Air Medal, for his leadership. Spence was killed during a low-level mission over South Korea in September 1950. (Full article...)

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In the news

Ever Given blocking the Suez Canal

Dozens of civilians are killed and 35,000 others displaced after Islamist rebels seize the city of Palma in Mozambique.
Former President of Madagascar Didier Ratsiraka dies at the age of 84.
The cargo ship Ever Given is freed after it had run aground, blocking the Suez Canal (satellite image shown) for six days and resulting in a traffic jam of more than 350 vessels.
A fire at the Rohingya refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, kills at least 15 people and injures hundreds of others.

On this day

March 31: Cesar Chavez Day in various U.S. states (1927)

Eiffel Tower

1521 – Ferdinand Magellan and fifty members of his crew went ashore to present-day Limasawa to participate in the first Catholic Mass in the Philippines.
1761 – Lisbon experienced its second major earthquake in six years, with effects felt as far north as Scotland.
1889 – The Eiffel Tower (pictured) in Paris was inaugurated.
1921 – The Australian Air Force was formed, replacing the short-lived Australian Air Corps and separating it from the army.
1995 – American singer-songwriter Selena, known as the "queen of Tejano music", was murdered by the president of her fan club, Yolanda Saldívar, in Corpus Christi, Texas, deeply affecting the Latino community.

Anne Hyde (d. 1671)
Panoutsos Notaras (b. 1740 or 1752)
Mary Greyeyes (d. 2011)

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Today's featured picture

The SOCATA TBM (now Daher TBM) is a family of high-performance single-engine turboprop business and utility light aircraft manufactured by Daher. This SOCATA TBM 900 was photographed in flight during the 2015 EAA AirVenture Oshkosh airshow in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The aircraft features a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-64 engine, and a five-blade carbon-fiber propeller, which increases performance and decreases cabin noise. In a passenger configuration, the pressurized cabin is typically fitted with highly finished interiors, featuring luxury materials such as leather and wood veneers.

Photograph credit: Michael Mainiero

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