USS Iowa (BB-61)

USS Iowa (BB-61).
USS Iowa is a retired battleship, the lead ship of her class and the last lead ship of any class of United States battleships. Iowa served with the Pacific Fleet in 1944, shelling beachheads at Kwajalein and Eniwetok and screening aircraft carriers operating in the Marshall Islands. She also served as the flagship of the Third Fleet, flying Admiral William F. Halsey's flag at the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay. During the Korean War, Iowa was involved in raids on the North Korean coast, after which she was decommissioned. She was reactivated in 1984 and operated in both the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets to counter the recently expanded Soviet Navy. In April 1989, an explosion wrecked her No. 2 gun turret, killing 47 sailors. Iowa was decommissioned for the last time in October 1990 after 19 total years of active service. In 2012 she was donated to the nonprofit Pacific Battleship Center and opened as a museum in Los Angeles. (This article is part of a featured topic: Iowa-class battleships.)

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Crécy campaign

Crécy campaign.
The Crécy campaign was an expedition by an English army from the north of Normandy to the County of Boulogne, devastating the French countryside on a wide front, followed by the successful siege of Calais. It began on 12 July 1346 during the Hundred Years' War. Led by King Edward III, the English stormed and sacked Caen, slaughtering the population. They then devastated the country to the suburbs of Rouen before cutting a swath along the Seine's left bank to Poissy, 20 miles (30 km) from Paris. Turning north, the English became trapped in territory which the French had denuded of food. They escaped by fighting their way across the Somme against a French blocking force. Two days later, on ground of their choosing, the English inflicted a heavy defeat on the French at the Battle of Crécy on 26 August, before moving on to besiege Calais. After an eleven-month siege, which severely stretched both countries' financial and military resources, the town fell. (This article is part of a featured topic: Crécy campaign.)

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Santería

Santería.
Santería is an African diasporic religion that developed among Afro-Cuban communities during the late 19th century. It arose through the syncretism of the Yoruba religion of West Africa, the Roman Catholic form of Christianity, and Spiritism. Santería is an initiatory tradition with no central authority. It is polytheistic and revolves around deities called oricha. Deriving their names and attributes from traditional Yoruba divinities, they are equated with Roman Catholic saints. Each human is believed to have a personal link to a particular oricha. Practitioners venerate the oricha at altars, where offerings include fruit, liquor, flowers and sacrificial animals. A central ritual involves practitioners drumming, singing, and dancing to encourage an oricha to possess one of their members and thus communicate with them. Healing rituals and the preparation of herbal remedies and talismans also play a prominent role. The number of initiates is estimated to be in the high hundreds of thousands.

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Chandler's Ford shooting

Chandler's Ford shooting.
The Chandler's Ford shooting was an attempted robbery on 13 September 2007 in which two men were shot dead by officers of London's Metropolitan Police while robbing a cash-in-transit van. The Met had been tracking a gang who had stolen an estimated £500,000 from security vans and learned that the gang intended to rob the HSBC bank in Chandler's Ford. Armed officers hid nearby early in the morning, with snipers in overlooking buildings. Shortly after the G4S van's arrival, a masked Mark Nunes demanded at gunpoint that the guard hand over the cash box. A police sniper shot Nunes in the chest. A second gangster, Andrew Markland, picked up Nunes's gun and was shot twice by another sniper. Officers gave first aid but both men died. An IPCC investigation concluded that the snipers had acted properly, though it found flaws in the planning. An inquest reached a verdict of lawful killing, after which the IPCC recommended that an independent firearms commander be appointed to lead future operations.