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Raymond Brownell (17 May 1894 – 12 April 1974) was a senior officer in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and a World War I flying ace. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force at the outbreak of World War I and served in the Gallipoli campaign before transferring to the Western Front. Awarded the Military Medal for his actions during the Battle of Pozières, he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in 1917. Moving with his squadron to Italy, he was awarded the Military Cross and credited with shooting down 12 aircraft. After the war, Brownell returned to Australia and was group captain at the outbreak of World War II. Establishing the RAAF base in Singapore, he returned to Australia in 1941 and was appointed to lead No. 1 Training Group. He was Air Officer Commanding Western Area for over two years, then led the No. 11 Group on Morotai. Retiring from the RAAF in 1947, Brownell became a partner in a stockbroking firm. He died in 1974; his autobiography was published posthumously. (Full article...)

• ...that the Roman de Fergus is the earliest piece of non-Celtic vernacular literature to have survived from Scotland?
• ...that the Philharmonia Hungarica made the first complete recording of Haydn's symphonies, was an orchestra founded by Hungarian exiles and funded by the West German government during the Cold War?
• ...that the dachas of the Russian poets Boris Pasternak, Korney Chukovsky, and Bulat Okudzhava in the village of Peredelkino near Moscow are open to the public as memorial houses?
• ...that an aerosani is a type of air-powered, armoured snowmobile, which was used for transport, reconnaissance, and raiding by the Red Army in the Winter War and the Second World War?
• ...that a push–pull converter is a type of DC-to-DC converter that uses a transformer to step the voltage of a DC power supply?
• ...that the Chicana artist Yolanda Lopez became famous with the painting "Virgen de Guadalupe", which represents Lopez's personal investigation into Virgen de Guadalupe's status in Mexican society?

Lawrence Wong

• Protests break out in New Caledonia, a territory of France in the Pacific, over voting rights changes.
• Lee Hsien Loong steps down after nearly 20 years as the prime minister of Singapore, and is succeeded by Lawrence Wong (pictured).
• Robert Fico, the prime minister of Slovakia, is hospitalised after an assassination attempt.
• Switzerland, represented by Nemo with "The Code", wins the Eurovision Song Contest.
• A series of solar storms impact Earth, creating aurorae seen farther from the poles than usual.

May 17: International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia

Anne of Denmark

• 1590 – Anne of Denmark (pictured) was crowned the queen consort of Scotland in a ceremony at Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh.
• 1863 – American Civil War: At the Battle of Big Black River Bridge in Mississippi, Union forces under John A. McClernand defeated a Confederate rearguard and captured around 1,700 men.
• 1900 – The first copies of the children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum were printed.
• 1954 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, outlawing racial segregation in public schools because "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal" and therefore unconstitutional.
• 1987 – An Iraqi jet fired two Exocet missiles at the American frigate USS Stark, killing 37 personnel and injuring 21 others.

Boobies are a group of seabirds closely related to gannets. They are large birds with long pointed wings and long bills.

Boobies hunt fish by diving from a height into the sea and pursuing their prey underwater. They have facial air sacs under their skin that cushion the impact with the water. Boobies normally lay one or more chalky blue eggs on the ground or sometimes in a tree nest. Their name is based on the Spanish slang term bubi, meaning "dunce".

Photo credit: United States Coast Guard
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