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Map of RAAF area commands in 1944

Area commands were the major operational and administrative formations of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) between 1940 and 1954. Four commands were raised in 1940, early in World War II, to oversee operations, training and maintenance within their geographical boundaries. In 1941–42 the structure was revised to make a total of five commands, along with four functional groups that assumed the training and maintenance roles. The area commands focused on operations until the end of hostilities. A new area command covering RAAF units in New Guinea existed from 1944 to 1947. By the early 1950s, the area command structure was no longer considered appropriate, and in 1953 it was transformed into Home Command (controlling operations), Training Command, and Maintenance Command. The area commands ceded their authority to these functional commands in 1954, and were disbanded by the end of 1956. (This article is part of a featured topic: RAAF area commands.)

Achilles Schucan

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• ... that students from Harvard and Yale enlisted as strikebreakers during the 1912 Boston streetcar strike?
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King Khalid International Airport

• The Houthis launch a series of attacks on Saudi Arabian airports, including King Khalid International Airport (satellite image shown), killing at least 20 people and injuring more than 370 others.
• South African jurist Navi Pillay is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
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October 14

Death of Harold on the Bayeux Tapestry

• 1066 – Norman Conquest: William the Conqueror's forces defeated the English army near Hastings and killed Harold Godwinson (event pictured), the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England.
• 1805 – War of the Third Coalition: French forces under Marshal Michel Ney defeated Austrian forces in Elchingen, present-day Germany.
• 1913 – The worst mining accident in the United Kingdom's history took place when an explosion resulted in 440 deaths at the Universal Colliery in Senghenydd, Wales.
• 1943 – The Second Philippine Republic, a Japanese puppet state, was established with Jose P. Laurel as its first president.
• 1964 – Members of the Politburo voted to remove Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and replace him with Leonid Brezhnev.