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HMS Neptune was a dreadnought battleship built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century, the sole ship of her class. Laid down at HM Dockyard, Portsmouth, in January 1909, she was the first British battleship to be built with superfiring guns. Shortly after her completion in 1911, she carried out trials of an experimental fire-control director and then became the flagship of the Home Fleet. Neptune became a private ship in early 1914 and was assigned to the 1st Battle Squadron. The ship became part of the Grand Fleet when it was formed shortly after the beginning of the First World War in August 1914. Aside from participating in the Battle of Jutland in May 1916, and the inconclusive action of 19 August several months later, her service during the war generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea. Neptune was deemed obsolete after the war and was reduced to reserve before being sold for scrap in 1922 and subsequently broken up. (Full article...)

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In the news

Trifid and Lagoon nebulae

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile releases the first light images (example shown) from its new 8.4-metre (28 ft) telescope.
In basketball, the Oklahoma City Thunder defeat the Indiana Pacers to win the NBA Finals.
An attack on a Greek Orthodox church in Damascus, Syria, kills at least 25 people.
The United States conducts military strikes on three nuclear facilities in Iran.
In rugby union, the Crusaders defeat the Chiefs to win the Super Rugby Pacific final.

On this day

June 28: Vidovdan in Serbia

Ned Kelly

1880 – Police captured Australian bank robber and cultural icon Ned Kelly (pictured) after a gun battle in Glenrowan, Victoria.
1895 – The U.S. Court of Private Land Claims ruled that James Reavis's claim to 18,600 sq mi (48,000 km²) of land in present-day Arizona and New Mexico was "wholly fictitious and fraudulent".
1904 – In the worst maritime disaster involving a Danish merchant ship, SS Norge ran aground on Hasselwood Rock and sank in the North Atlantic, resulting in more than 635 deaths.
1950 – Korean War: South Korean forces began the Bodo League massacre, summarily executing tens of thousands of suspected North Korean sympathizers.
1969 – In response to a police raid at the Stonewall Inn in New York City, groups of gay and transgender people began demonstrations, a watershed event for the worldwide gay rights movement.

Charles Cruft (b. 1852)
Olga Sapphire (b. 1907)
Meralda Warren (b. 1959)
Aparna Rao (d. 2005)

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Today's featured picture

Myosotis scorpioides, the water forget-me-not, is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the borage family, Boraginaceae. It is native to Europe and Asia, but is widely distributed elsewhere, including much of North America, as an introduced species and sometimes a noxious weed. It is an erect to ascending plant of up to 70 cm, bearing small (8-12 mm) flowers that become blue when fully open and have yellow centers. It is usually found in damp or wet habitats, such as bogs, ponds, streams, ditches, fen and rivers. This focus-stacked photograph shows a water forget-me-not growing in Niitvälja bog, Estonia.

Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus

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