HMS Royal Oak was one of five British Revenge-class battleships built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. Launched on 17 November 1914, the ship first saw combat at the Battle of Jutland. On 14 October 1939, she was torpedoed by the German submarine U-47 while anchored at Scapa Flow in Orkney, Scotland; 835 were killed that night or died later of their wounds. The loss of the outdated ship—the first of the five Royal Navy battleships and battlecruisers sunk in the Second World War—did little to affect the numerical superiority enjoyed by the British navy and its allies, but the sinking had a considerable effect on wartime morale. Günther Prien, the U-boat commander, became the first German submarine officer to be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. Demonstrating that the German navy was capable of bringing the war to British home waters, the raid resulted in rapid changes to dockland security and the construction of the Churchill Barriers around Scapa Flow. (Full article...)

Cyclone Bulbul

• Cyclone Bulbul (satellite image shown) hits the Indian and Bangladeshi coasts of the Bay of Bengal, killing at least 24 people.
• After weeks of protests over electoral fraud, Bolivian president Evo Morales and other high-ranking politicians are forced to resign, and opposition senator Jeanine Áñez becomes interim president.
• The Supreme Court of India delivers a unanimous verdict in favour of the construction of a Hindu temple at a disputed holy site in Ayodhya.
• A border corridor is opened between Pakistan and India, allowing Indian Sikh pilgrims visa-free access to Kartarpur Sahib for the first time since the partition.