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Ration boxes at Dieppe

British logistics in the Normandy campaign played a key role in the success of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of France in June 1944. The Allies had to land sufficient assaulting forces to overcome the initial opposition, and build them up faster than the Germans could respond. The British Second Army and Canadian First Army included six armoured divisions (including the Polish 1st Armoured Division), ten infantry divisions, two airborne divisions, nine independent armoured brigades and two commando brigades. Logistical units included 6 supply unit headquarters, 25 base supply depots, 83 detail issue depots, 25 field bakeries, 14 field butcheries and 18 port detachments. During the first seven weeks after the Normandy landings on D-Day, 6 June 1944, the advance was much slower than anticipated, but by 26 July, 675,000 personnel, 150,000 vehicles, 690,000 tonnes of stores and 69,000 tonnes of bulk petrol had been landed. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

General Dynamics F-16XL

... that the F-16XL aircraft (pictured) was built as a possible successor to the F-111 Aardvark, but after being rejected it served as part of NASA's High Speed Civil Transport project instead?
... that Australiformis semoni is a parasite that infests marsupials in Australia and New Guinea and whose infestation could cause debilitating ulcerative granulomatous gastritis?
... that Abigail Fillmore spearheaded the creation of the White House Library after reportedly being appalled at the fact that there was no library?
... that when first erected, the Abgig obelisk likely stood at 12.9 metres (42.3 ft) high, but was knocked down on the ground and broke into two pieces?
... that when South African anti-apartheid activist Kay Moonsamy went into exile, it was fifteen years before he saw his wife and children again?
... that, as required by the New START treaty, Russia notified the US of a missile test, which US officials believe failed days before Vladimir Putin announced Russia's suspension of the treaty?
... that Belén Barenys and Berta Prieto's short film was picked up by Filmin after they suggested the idea on Instagram?
... that spectators climbed up to Fortitude, Justice, and Liberty on College Street, Dublin, to get a view of Queen Victoria?

In the news

Kakhovka Dam in 2006

In Ukraine, the Kakhovka Dam (pictured) is breached, causing flooding and prompting mass evacuations.
At least 275 people are killed and over 1,175 others injured in a collision involving three trains in Balasore, India.
In cricket, the Indian Premier League concludes with the Chennai Super Kings defeating the Gujarat Titans in the final.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is re-elected President of Turkey in a runoff.
In auto racing, Josef Newgarden wins the Indianapolis 500.

On this day

June 6: National Day of Sweden

Shivaji

1513 – War of the League of Cambrai: Milanese forces with Swiss mercenaries defeated the French in Novara, forcing them to withdraw from the Duchy of Milan and Italy.
1674 – Shivaji (pictured), who led a resistance to free the Maratha from the Bijapur Sultanate and the Mughal Empire, was crowned the first chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire.
1882 – The Shewan army defeated Gojjame forces at the Battle of Embabo, an event that contributed to the supremacy of Shewa within the Ethiopian Empire.
1971 – Hughes Airwest Flight 706 collided with a US Marine Corps jet near Duarte, California, killing 50 people.
1985 – The remains of Josef Mengele, a Nazi physician notorious for performing human experiments on Auschwitz inmates, were exhumed in Embu das Artes, Brazil.

Regiomontanus (b. 1436)
Jean Pouliot (b. 1923)
Carl Jung (d. 1961)
Maria Alyokhina (b. 1988)

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Today's featured picture

The Interior of the Palm House on the Pfaueninsel Near Potsdam is the title of two oil-on-canvas paintings by Carl Blechen, completed between 1832 and 1834. Both depict four odalisques as they relax in a palm house (which was destroyed by fire in 1880) at the royal retreat of Pfaueninsel near Berlin, but have different angles of view and compositions. The works were commissioned by King Frederick William III of Prussia and are now in the Hamburger Kunsthalle and the Art Institute of Chicago, with an 1832 color study for the work found in the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin. This picture shows the Chicago version of the painting, which was gifted by Frederick William to his daughter Alexandra Feodorovna, the wife of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia. It remained in the Russian imperial collection until around 1917, became part of a Swiss collection around 1920, and was owned by private collectors prior to its purchase by the Art Institute of Chicago in 1996.

Painting credit: Carl Blechen

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