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The flag of Singapore was first adopted in 1959, the year Singapore became self-governing within the British Empire. It was reconfirmed as the national flag when the Republic gained independence on 9 August 1965. The design is a horizontal bicolour of red above white, placed in the canton by a white crescent moon facing a pentagon of five small white five-pointed stars. The elements of the flag denote a young nation on the ascendant, universal brotherhood and equality, and national ideals. Vessels at sea do not use the national flag as an ensign. Merchant vessels and pleasure craft fly a civil ensign of red charged in white with a variant of the crescent and stars emblem in the centre. Non-military government vessels such as coast guard ships fly a state ensign of blue with the national flag in the canton, charged with an eight-pointed red and white compass rose in the lower fly. Naval warships fly a naval ensign similar to the state ensign, but in white with a red compass rose emblem. Rules defined by the Singapore Arms and Flag and National Anthem Act govern the use and display of the national flag. (more...)

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From Wikipedia's newest articles:

• ... that musicologist Wye Jamison Allanbrook showed how compositions by Mozart (pictured) were influenced by the social dances of his time?
• ... that senior Singaporean legal officer Sivakant Tiwari was lead counsel in inquiries into the Spyros disaster (1978), the Singapore Cable Car disaster (1984), and the Hotel New World disaster (1988)?
• ... that Armajaro's hedge fund manager is known as "Chocolate Finger" for his exploits in cocoa trading?
• ... that professional baseball player J. T. Wise is the great-nephew of 1960 World Series MVP Bobby Richardson?
• ... that women are now allowed to smoke hookahs at the Crazy Water Park in Gaza?
• ... that observations and samplings from Jasper Seamount show that it is very similar to Hawaiian volcanoes?
• ... that the Michigan Department of Transportation has erroneously marked Forest Highway 16 as "County Road H-16" on their maps since 1992?
• ... that unlike other proletarian parties at the time, such as the Japan Labour-Farmer Party, the Labour-Farmer Party and the Social Democratic Party, the Japan Farmers Party based itself solely amongst the peasantry instead of a worker–peasant class alliance?
  
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• A landslide in Gansu province, People's Republic of China, kills 127 people, with 2,000 more missing.
• Two Afghan civilians and eight international aid workers are killed in Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan.
• The deadliest flooding in Pakistan's history kills over 1,600 people, affecting around twelve million overall.
• Wildfires in western Russia (satellite image pictured) kill at least 50 people and destroy thousands of homes.
• Voters in Kenya approve the adoption of a proposed new constitution.
• The Sun undergoes a series of four large coronal mass ejections, resulting in strong aurorae.
• At least 85 people are killed and more than 200 others injured during rioting in Karachi, Pakistan.
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August 9: National Day in Singapore (1965); National Women's Day in South Africa; International Day of the World's Indigenous People

• 1173 – The construction of a campanile, which would eventually become the Leaning Tower of Pisa (pictured), began.
• 1483 – The first mass in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican City was celebrated.
• 1945 – World War II: USAAF bomber Bockscar dropped an atomic bomb named "Fat Man", devastating Nagasaki, Japan.
• 1969 – Followers of cult leader Charles Manson murdered pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others in her home in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles.
• 1974 – The Watergate scandal: Richard Nixon became the first (and to date only) President of the United States to resign from office.
• 1988 – Ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky was traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings, leading to the popularization of the sport in California, but also upsetting so many Canadians that some even considered him a "traitor" to his home country.

More anniversaries: August 8 – August 9 – August 10