Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 January 12

No. 1 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force unit headquartered at RAAF Base Amberley, Queensland. It operates F/A-18F Super Hornet multi-role fighters (pictured). The squadron formed under the Australian Flying Corps in 1916 and saw action in the Middle East during World War I. Initially equipped with obsolete B.E.2s, it converted to Bristol Fighters in 1917. No. 1 Squadron was re-established as part of the RAAF in 1925. During World War II, it flew Lockheed Hudson bombers in the Malayan and Dutch East Indies campaigns, suffering heavy losses. It later operated Bristol Beauforts and de Havilland Mosquitos. The squadron re-formed with Avro Lincoln heavy bombers in 1948. From 1950 to 1958 it was based in Singapore, and was responsible for most of the Commonwealth air campaign during the Malayan Emergency. On returning to Australia it re-equipped with English Electric Canberra jets. It operated F-4E Phantoms from 1970 to 1973, as a stop-gap pending delivery of the F-111C swing-wing bomber. The F-111 remained in service for 37 years until replaced by the Super Hornet in 2010. A detachment has been deployed to the Middle East since September 2014 as part of Australia's contribution to the military intervention against ISIL. (Full article...)

Part of the No. 90 (Composite) Wing RAAF series, one of Wikipedia's featured topics.

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From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

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• ... that the Lumaha'i Beach, at the mouth of the Lumaha'i River in Hawaii, is remembered as the scenic location for a song sequence in the 1958 film South Pacific?
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• French police free hostages from two buildings following a shooting at the headquarters of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris.
• Maithripala Sirisena is elected President of Sri Lanka.
• Attacks by Boko Haram on the Nigerian town of Baga leave hundreds of people dead and more than 35,000 displaced.
• Archaeologists announce the discovery of the tomb of Khentakawess III, a previously unknown ancient Egyptian queen.
• Angola, Malaysia, New Zealand, Spain, and Venezuela take their seats on the United Nations Security Council.
• Lithuania becomes the 19th member of the Eurozone.

Ongoing:

Ebola outbreak –

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

Recent deaths:

Edward Brooke – Mario Cuomo

January 12: Coming of Age Day in Japan (2015); Zanzibar Revolution Day in Tanzania (1964)

• 1554 – Bayinnaung, who later assembled the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia, was crowned king of the Burmese Taungoo Dynasty.
• 1838 – In order to avoid persecution by anti-Mormons, Latter Day Saint movement founder Joseph Smith (pictured), along with his followers, fled Kirtland, Ohio for Far West, Missouri.
• 1895 – The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, a conservation organization in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, was founded.
• 1945 – World War II: The Soviet Union's Red Army crossed the Vistula River in Poland on their way to invade Germany.
• 1969 – In American football, the New York Jets upset the Baltimore Colts to win Super Bowl III in one of the greatest upsets in American sports history.

More anniversaries: January 11 – January 12 – January 13

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