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Stanley McDougall

The First Battle of Dernancourt was fought on 28 March 1918 near Dernancourt in northern France during World War I. Two Australian divisions had been sent south from Belgium to help stem the tide of the German Spring Offensive towards Amiens and, with the British 35th Division, they held a line west and north of the Ancre river and the area between the Ancre and Somme. The German 2nd Army concentrated its assault between Albert and Dernancourt, attacking off the line of march after a short artillery preparation. The dawn attack was under the cover of fog, but other than one small penetration in the early morning that was quickly repelled, the Germans failed to break through the Allied defences. An Australian sergeant, Stanley McDougall (pictured), was awarded the Victoria Cross for his part in defeating the German penetration. A week later the Germans renewed their attempts to advance in the sector, culminating in the Second Battle of Dernancourt when the Germans were again defeated. (Full article...)

Drawing from Brush's aircraft patent application

• ... that Mary Taylor Brush filed a 1917 patent (drawing shown) for a design to make aircraft "practically invisible when in the air"?
• ... that the Aberbargoed Grasslands in Wales were designated a Special Area of Conservation primarily due to their population of marsh fritillary butterflies, which had been threatened by an arson attack?
• ... that sculptor Dan Lam was born in a refugee camp in Morong, Philippines?
• ... that a deep-sea fish known as a black ruff was caught in a salmon net in the Firth of Forth and donated to the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art in 1901?
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• ... that musician Finneas made a cameo appearance as an Uber driver in the music video for Tove Lo's song "Bikini Porn"?
• ... that at the age of 10, Sky Brown became the youngest professional skateboarder in the world?

Flag of North Macedonia

• North Macedonia (flag pictured) becomes a NATO member state.
• Igor Matovič becomes Prime Minister of Slovakia following elections in February.
• Edwin Catmull and Pat Hanrahan receive the Turing Award for their work on computer-generated imagery.

March 28: Serfs Emancipation Day in Tibet (1959)

Fabre Hydravion

• 1802 – German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers discovered Pallas, the second asteroid ever identified, but then considered to be a planet.
• 1862 – American Civil War: An invasion of the New Mexico Territory by the Confederate States Army was halted by Union forces at the Battle of Glorieta Pass.
• 1910 – French aviator Henri Fabre's floatplane, the Fabre Hydravion (pictured), became the first aircraft to take off from water under its own power at the Étang de Berre near Martigues in southern France.
• 1930 – The name of Turkey's largest city was changed from Constantinople to Istanbul, with the government requesting other countries to use Turkish names for its cities.
• 2015 – A siege of a hotel in Mogadishu by Al-Shabaab militants, which began the previous day and killed at least 20 people, ended with the Somali Armed Forces recapturing the premises.

Stephen Harding (d. 1134) · Gussie Busch (b. 1899) · Eileen Crofton (b. 1919)