Portal:Islands

USS Quincy being illuminated by searchlights of Chōkai, on fire and sinking from Japanese torpedoes

The Battle of Savo Island, also known as the First Battle of Savo Island and in Japanese sources as the First Battle of the Solomon Sea (第一次ソロモン海戦, Dai-ichi-ji Soromon Kaisen), and colloquially among Allied Guadalcanal veterans as the Battle of the Five Sitting Ducks, was a naval battle during the Solomon Islands campaign of the Pacific War of World War II between the Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied naval forces. The battle took place on 8–9 August 1942 and was the first major naval engagement of the Guadalcanal campaign, the first of several naval battles in the straits later named Ironbottom Sound, near the island of Guadalcanal.

The Imperial Japanese Navy, in response to Allied amphibious landings in the eastern Solomon Islands, mobilized a task force of seven cruisers and one destroyer under the command of Vice Admiral Gunichi Mikawa. This task force sailed from Japanese bases in New Britain and New Ireland down New Georgia Sound (also known as "The Slot") with the intention of interrupting the Allied landings by attacking the supporting amphibious fleet and its screening force. The Allied screen consisted of eight cruisers and fifteen destroyers under Rear Admiral Victor Crutchley, but only five cruisers and seven destroyers were involved in the battle. In a night action, Mikawa thoroughly surprised and routed the Allied force, sinking one Australian and three American cruisers, while suffering minimal damage in return. Rear Admiral Samuel J. Cox, director of the Naval History and Heritage Command, considers this battle and the Battle of Tassafaronga to be two of the worst defeats in U.S. naval history, surpassed only by the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. (Full article...)

Menorcan cuisine refers to the typical food and drink of Menorca.

Menorca is a rocky island in the Balearic archipelago in Spain, consisting of eight municipalities. Featuring a Mediterranean climate, the weather is milder in the south while in the north there are strong winds all year round. Marine salt, carried by the wind to the pastures where cows graze, is what gives the cheese its typical flavour. Seafood is a major element of the island's cuisine, but additionally, there are horses, pigs (used for cold cuts) and cows (the skin of which is used to produce leather, and the milk to produce cheese). Agriculture is small-scale and varied, consisting of typical Mediterranean products. Within this typical Mediterranean cuisine there are also the influences of various invading people, particularly the English, who brought plum cake, puddings, and punch. The rural and marine cuisine is mostly based on greens and vegetables from one's own garden, locally produced meat, and fish and seafood caught in the same day. Olive oil, although not produced on the island, is also a fundamental ingredient in local dishes. (Full article...)

• ... that a Rhode Island TV station broadcast for 14 months and then was off the air for 26 years before returning?
• ... that a Rhode Island TV station started out by re-running an inventory of 50 hours of cartoons and 14 old movies?
• ... that Hidayat Arsani, the governor of the Bangka Belitung Islands in Indonesia, was dumped into a trash can as a baby by his birth parents?
• ... that the ancient Hawaiian village known as the Kāneiolouma Complex is across the street from a popular beach on the island of Kauaʻi?
• ... that Saint John's Island was the site of one of the British Empire's largest quarantine centres and held one of the first experimental drug rehabilitation centres?
• ... that Monet decorated his house at Giverny with Kuniyoshi's In the Snow at Tsukahara, Sado Island, one of about 231 Japanese prints in Monet's personal collection?