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HMS Argus was a British aircraft carrier that served in the Royal Navy from 1918 to 1944. Converted from an ocean liner, she became the first example of the standard pattern of aircraft carriers, with a full-length flight deck allowing aircraft to take off and land. The ship was involved for several years in the development of the optimum design for other aircraft carriers. She spent one brief deployment on the China Station in the late 1920s before being placed in reserve. Argus was recommissioned and partially modernised shortly before the Second World War. In July 1940 she made the first of her many ferry trips to fly off fighters to Malta. In 1942 she was pressed into front-line service despite her lack of speed and armament. She provided air cover during the invasion of French North Africa and was slightly damaged by a bomb. Argus was used again for deck-landing practice until September 1944. She became an accommodation ship in December, was sold in late 1946 and was scrapped in 1947. (Full article...)

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Rizal Monument

... that while other countries built monuments to José Rizal a century after his birth, the Rizal Monument (pictured) in Madrid was built a century after his death?
... that Majidreza Rahnavard was the first Iranian to be executed in public in connection with the Mahsa Amini protests?
... that Southern Railway 1401 was one of eight locomotives that hauled the funeral train of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt?
... that Henrietta Bruckman founded the first fraternal organization for Jewish women in the United States?
... that only one person made a donation of land for the settlement and employment of British military veterans under a 1916 act of Parliament?
... that Valentín Carboni played in the same three youth teams as his brother Franco before they both received their first call-up to the Argentine senior national team in March 2022?
... that two Tuscarora men held their local newspaper hostage in an attempt to expose local police corruption, to no avail?
... that Phil Fletcher as Hacker T. Dog caused Lauren Layfield to make the "most famous snort" in the United Kingdom in 2016?

In the news

Comet C/2022 E3

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) (pictured) makes its closest approach to the Earth.
A suicide bombing in a mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan, kills 100 people and injures more than 220 others.
Petr Pavel is elected as president of the Czech Republic.
Cyclone Cheneso leaves at least 33 people dead in Madagascar.
A Palestinian attack at a synagogue in East Jerusalem kills seven Israeli civilians, following an Israeli raid in the Jenin refugee camp that killed ten Palestinians, including two civilians.

On this day

February 3: Feast day of Saint Laurence of Canterbury (Western Christianity); Four Chaplains' Day in the United States (1943)

James I of Aragon entering Murcia

1266 – Mudéjar revolt: King James I of Aragon entered the Muslim-held city of Murcia (depicted), conquered following its surrender three days earlier.
1852 – The Argentine Confederation was defeated in the Platine War by an alliance consisting of Brazil, Uruguay and the Argentine provinces of Entre Ríos and Corrientes.
1972 – The deadliest blizzard in history began in Iran and continued for a week leaving more than 4,000 people dead.
2010 – An edition of L'Homme qui marche I, a bronze sculpture by Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti, was sold for £65 million, setting the record for the most expensive sculpture sold at auction.

Horace Greeley (b. 1811)
Tatyana Velikanova (b. 1932)
C. N. Annadurai (d. 1969)

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Kayla Barron

Fifty-two United States astronauts have graduated from the United States Naval Academy (USNA). The Naval Academy is an undergraduate college in Annapolis, Maryland, with the mission of educating and commissioning officers for the United States Navy and Marine Corps. USNA graduates who enter aviation and space-related fields have the opportunity to be selected for astronaut training by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The first alumnus to fly as an astronaut was Alan Shepard, of the class of 1945. As of 2023, the most recent alumnus to be selected as an astronaut was Kayla Barron (pictured), of the class of 2010. Two alumni were part of Project Mercury, three were part of Project Gemini, seven were part of the Apollo program, three walked on the Moon, one was part of the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, and forty-two were part of the Space Shuttle program. (Full list...)

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The Library of Congress is a research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the de facto national library of the United States. Founded in 1800, it is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country and one of the largest libraries in the world. The library is housed in three buildings on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.: the Thomas Jefferson Building (completed in 1897), the John Adams Building (1938) and the James Madison Memorial Building (1976). It also maintains the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia, and a storage facility in Fort Meade, Maryland. The library's functions are overseen by the librarian of Congress, and its buildings are maintained by the architect of the Capitol. This photograph, taken by William Henry Jackson, shows the Thomas Jefferson Building around 1902.

Photograph credit: William Henry Jackson; restored by Mmxx

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