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Pilots of No. 77 Squadron in their F/A-18 Hornets, 2010

No. 77 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force squadron headquartered at RAAF Base Williamtown, New South Wales. It operates F/A-18 Hornet multi-role fighters (pictured) and is controlled by No. 81 Wing. Formed at Pearce, Western Australia, in 1942, the squadron flew P-40 Kittyhawks in the South West Pacific during World War II. After the war, it re-equipped with P-51 Mustangs and deployed to Japan with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force. The squadron was about to return to Australia when the Korean War broke out in 1950; it converted to Gloster Meteor jets in 1951 and claimed five MiG-15s and over 5,000 buildings and vehicles destroyed during the war for the loss of almost 60 aircraft. Re-equipped with CAC Sabres, the squadron briefly saw action during the Malayan Emergency in 1959–60. It operated Mirage III supersonic jets from 1969 to 1987, when it converted to Hornets. The squadron supplied aircraft to Diego Garcia in 2001–02 to support the war in Afghanistan, and deployed to the Middle East as part of the military intervention against ISIL in 2015–16. No. 77 Squadron is due to re-equip with F-35 Lightnings in 2021. (Full article...)

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Pilgrim Tercentenary half dollar
Pilgrim Tercentenary half dollar

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June 3: Feast day of Saint Charles Lwanga and the Uganda Martyrs (Roman Catholic Church, Church of England, Lutheranism)

Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol

From today's featured list

There is a collection of 20 video games in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, ranging from Pong to Minecraft. Curated by Paola Antonelli, the collection is part of the Applied Design installation in the Philip Johnson Architecture and Design Galleries. An initial fourteen games were announced in November 2012, with plans to expand the collection to up to forty games over time. Six more games were added in June 2013, as well as a game console. The video games are displayed in a minimalist fashion in order to showcase the design elements within them, while minimizing emotional factors such as nostalgia. Some games, such as Myst and The Sims, are solely displayed as a video presentation for practical reasons, but the museum is most interested in acquiring a game's proprietary source code. (Full list...)

Today's featured picture

Hagia Sophia

An interior view of the Hagia Sophia in 1852, when it was known as the Ayasofya Mosque. The building was originally constructed as a main Eastern Orthodox church and served in this role from 537 AD until the fall of Constantinople in 1453 (except between 1204 and 1261 when it was converted by the Fourth Crusaders to a Roman Catholic cathedral). When the Ottoman Turks under Mehmed II conquered Constantinople, the Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque and Christian relics and art were either removed or plastered over. It remained a mosque for almost 500 years, before being converted into a museum between 1931 and 1935. Famous in particular for its massive dome, it is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and influenced the design of numerous mosques in what is now Istanbul.

Artwork: Gaspare Fossati; lithograph: Louis Haghe; restoration: Adam Cuerden

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