Bill Newton (8 June 1919 – 29 March 1943) was an
Australian recipient of the
Victoria Cross, honoured for his actions as a bomber pilot in Papua New Guinea during March 1943. Raised in
Melbourne, he joined the
Citizen Military Forces in 1938 and enlisted in the
Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in February 1940. He served as a
flying instructor in Australia before being posted to
No. 22 Squadron, which began operating
Boston light bombers in New Guinea late in 1942. Having just taken part in the
Battle of the Bismarck Sea, he was on his fifty-second mission when he was shot down. Newton was still posted as missing when given the Victoria Cross in October 1943. It later emerged that he was captured by the Japanese and
beheaded. Newton was the only Australian airman to receive a Victoria Cross for action in the
South West Pacific theatre of World War II, and the sole Australian to be so decorated while flying with an RAAF squadron. (Full article...)
... that the Tang-dynasty politician Fang Yi'ai was put to death and his wife
Princess Gaoyang was forced to commit suicide after their failed rebellion against
Emperor Gaozong?
Edinburgh is the capital city of
Scotland and one of its 32
council areas. Located in the south-east of Scotland, it is bounded to the north by the
Firth of Forth estuary and to the south by the
Pentland Hills. With a population of 506,520 in mid-2020, Edinburgh is the
second-largest city in Scotland by population and the
seventh-largest in the United Kingdom. The
royal burgh of Edinburgh was founded by
King David I in the early 12th century on land belonging to the Crown, and has been capital of Scotland since at least the 15th century. This aerial photograph, with
Edinburgh Castle in the foreground, was taken around 1920.