From today's featured articles
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The Blockhaus d'Éperlecques, La Coupole and the Fortress of Mimoyecques were secret military bases built in north-eastern France by Nazi Germany between March 1943 and July 1944. They were constructed by German specialists, civilian forced labourers and prisoners of war used as slave labour, and were intended to serve as launch sites for the Nazis' secret weapons, the V-2 rocket and the V-3 supergun. La Coupole (railway tunnel pictured) and the Blockhaus, located near Saint-Omer, were designed to launch dozens of V-2 rockets daily against London and other targets in England. The Fortress of Mimoyecques, near Boulogne-sur-Mer, would have housed the V-3 supergun, designed to fire 600 projectiles an hour at London. All three facilities were put out of action by the Allies' Operation Crossbow bombing campaign between August 1943 and August 1944 and were never used for their intended purposes. They were captured by Allied forces in September 1944 and partly demolished on Winston Churchill's orders to ensure that they could not be used to threaten the United Kingdom again. They were abandoned after the war, and opened to the public in the 1980s and 1990s as museums and memorials to the workers and airmen who died during the bombing. (Full articles: Blockhaus d'Éperlecques – La Coupole – Fortress of Mimoyecques)
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From today's featured list
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Amateur radio frequency bands in India are used by over 16,000 licenced users of amateur radio. Five categories of licences are granted by the Wireless and Planning and Coordination Wing (WPC), a branch of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. In addition, the WPC allocates frequency spectrum in India. To obtain a licence in the first four categories, candidates must pass the Amateur Station Operator's Certificate examination conducted by the WPC. This exam is held monthly in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, every two months in Ahmedabad, Nagpur and Hyderabad, and every four months in some smaller cities. After passing the examination, the candidate must clear a police interview. Each licence category has certain privileges allotted to it, including the allotment of frequencies, output power, and the emission modes. (Full list...)
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Today's featured picture
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The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced in 1982 by Commodore International. Its low retail price and easy availability led to the system becoming the market leader for three years. It remains the best-selling single personal computer model of all time.
Photo: Evan Amos
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