The "infinite monkey theorem" is a popular misnomer for an idea from Émile
Borel's book on probability, published in 1909. The book introduced the
concept of "dactylographic monkeys" seated in front of typewriter keyboards
and hitting keys at random. Borel exemplified a proposition in the theory of
probability called Kolmogorov's zero-one law by saying that the probability
is one that such a monkey will eventually type every book in France's
Bibliothèque nationale de France (National Library). There need not be
infinitely many monkeys; a single monkey who executes infinitely many
keystrokes suffices. Subsequent restatements by other people have replaced
the National Library not only with the British Museum but also with the
Library of Congress; a popular retelling says that the monkeys would
eventually type out the collected works of William Shakespeare.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem
Today's selected anniversaries:
1517 - Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses onto the door of a church in
Wittenberg, Germany, marking the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/95_Theses
1863 - The Maori Wars resumed as British forces in New Zealand led by
General Duncan Cameron began their Invasion of the Waikato along the Waikato
River.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_the_Waikato
1922 - Benito Mussolini became the youngest Premier in the history of
Italy at age 39.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Mussolini
1941 - Gutzon Borglum and 400 workers completed the colossal busts of
U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and
Abraham Lincoln at Mount Rushmore.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rushmore_National_Memorial
1984 - Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India was assassinated by two of
her own bodyguards. Riots soon broke out in New Delhi.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indira_Gandhi
Wikiquote of the day:
("It's always worthwhile to make others aware of their worth.") ~Malcolm
Forbes
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Malcolm_Forbes)
Louis XIV reigned as King of France and King of Navarre from 14 May
1643 until his death. He was a minor when he inherited the Crown; he
did not actually assume personal control of the government until the
death of his chief minister, Jules Cardinal Mazarin, in 1661. Louis,
who is known as "The Sun King" and as "Louis the Great", ruled France
for seventy-two years - a longer reign than any other French or other
major European monarch. Louis attempted to increase the power of
France in Europe, fighting four major wars - the War of Devolution, the
Dutch War, the War of the Grand Alliance and the War of the Spanish
Succession. He worked successfully to create an absolutist and
centralised state; he is often cited as an example of an enlightened
despot. He is supposed to have once remarked, "L'état, c'est
moi!" (I am the state!), but this quotation is most likely
apocryphal.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XIV_of_France
Today's selected anniversaries:
1470 The Earl of Warwick restored Henry VI of England to the
throne during the Wars of the Roses.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Neville%2c_16th_Earl_of_Warwick)
1831 After months of hiding, African American slave Nat Turner
was captured and arrested for leading a brutally suppressed
slave rebellion.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Turner)
1961 Tsar Bomba, a Soviet hydrogen bomb, was detonated over
Novaya Zemlya Island in the Arctic Sea; it was the largest
nuclear weapon ever detonated.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba)
1974 At the Rumble in The Jungle, Muhammad Ali knocked out
George Foreman.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rumble_in_the_Jungle)
1995 In a referendum, the province of Quebec voted 50.6% in
favour of remaining a part of Canada.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Quebec_referendum)
Wikiquote of the day:
"The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are
creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, - and the activity
of making them, changes both the maker and the destination." ~ John
Schaar
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Schaar)
The speed of light in a vacuum is exactly equal to 299,792,458 metres
per second (approximately 186,282 miles per second). This exact speed
is a definition, not a measurement, as the metre is defined in terms
of the speed of light and not vice versa. According to standard
modern physical theory, all electromagnetic radiation, including
visible light, propagates (or moves) at a constant speed in vacuo,
known as the speed of light, which is a physical constant denoted as
c. According to the theory of special relativity, all observers will
measure the speed of light as being the same, regardless of the
reference frame of the observer or the velocity of the object
emitting the light.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light
Today's selected anniversaries:
1787 Mozart's opera Don Giovanni received its first performance
in Prague.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Giovanni)
1886 New York City office workers spontaneously "invented" the
ticker tape parade.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ticker_tape_parade)
1923 Mustafa Kemal Atat�rk became the first President of the
Republic of Turkey, a new nation founded from remnants of
the Ottoman Empire.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemal_Atat�rk)
1945 The first ballpoint pens went on sale at a department store
in New York City for US$12.50 each.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballpoint_pen)
1956 The Suez Crisis began: Israel invaded the Sinai Peninsula
and pushed Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Crisis)
1998 The Truth and Reconciliation Commission presented its
report on Apartheid in South Africa.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_and_Reconciliation_Commission)
Wikiquote of the day:
"We're just being ourselves and having fun playing baseball. The
biggest thing is when people look at our team, they can see that
we're having a lot of fun." ~ Johnny Damon
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Johnny_Damon)
Greco-Buddhism is the term used to describe the cultural syncretism
between the culture of Classical Greece and Buddhism, which developed
over a period of close to 800 years in Central Asia in the area
corresponding to modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan, between the 4th
century BCE and the 5th century CE. Greco-Buddhism influenced the
artistic (and, possibly, conceptual) development of Budhism, and in
particular Mahayana Buddhism, before it was adopted by Central and
Northeastern Asia from the 1st century CE, ultimately spreading to
China, Korea and Japan. Numerous Greco-Buddhist works of art display
the intermixing of Greek and Buddhist influences, around such
creation centers as Gandhara. The subject matter of Gandharan art was
definitely Buddhist, while most motifs were of Western Asiatic or
Hellenistic origin. The interraction between Hellenistic Greece and
Buddhism started when Alexander the Great conquered Asia Minor and
Central Asia in 334 BCE, going as far as the Indus, thus establishing
direct contact with India, the birthplace of Buddhism.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco%2dBuddhism
Today's selected anniversaries:
312 Constantine the Great adopted Christianity and defeated
Maxentius in the Battle of Milvian Bridge.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Milvian_Bridge)
1886 In New York Harbor, U.S. President Grover Cleveland
dedicated the Statue of Liberty, a gift from France to
commemorate the centennial of the United States Declaration
of Independence.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Liberty)
1918 Czechoslovakia gained its independence from Austria-Hungary.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Republic_of_Czechoslovakia)
1922 Fascist armed squads marched on Rome to take over the
Italian government.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_on_Rome)
Wikiquote of the day:
"The antagonism between science and religion, about which we hear
so much, appears to me to be purely factitious - fabricated, on the
one hand, by short-sighted religious people who confound a certain
branch of science, theology, with religion; and, on the other, by
equally short-sighted scientific people who forget that science
takes for its province only that which is susceptible of clear
intellectual comprehension; and that, outside the boundaries of
that province, they must be content with imagination, with hope,
and with ignorance." ~ T. H. Huxley
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Henry_Huxley)
Portuguese is a Romance language predominately spoken in Portugal,
Brazil, Angola, Mozambique and East Timor. With more than 200 million
native speakers, Portuguese is one of the few languages spoken all
over the world. In terms of speakers, Portuguese is the fifth or
sixth mother tongue language in the world. The language was spread
worldwide in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as Portugal
created the first and the longest lived modern-world colonial and
commercial empire (1415-1975), spanning from Brazil in the Americas
to Macau in China and Japan. As a result, Portuguese is now the
official language of several independent countries and is widely
spoken or studied as a second language in many others. There are
still more than 20 Portuguese Creole languages. It is an important
minority language in Andorra, Luxembourg and Namibia. Large
Portuguese-speaking immigrant communities exist in many cities around
the world, including Paris in France and Boston, New Bedford, and
Newark in the United States.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_language
Today's selected anniversaries:
1795 The United States and Spain signed the Treaty of
Friendship, Limits, and Navigation, which established the
boundaries between Spanish colonies and the U.S.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinckney%27s_Treaty)
1904 The first section of the New York Subway opens, running
between City Hall and the Bronx.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Subway)
1958 General Ayub Khan deposed Iskander Mirza in a bloodless
coup d'état to become the second President of Pakistan,
less than 3 weeks after Mirza had appointed him the
enforcer of martial law.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayub_Khan)
1998 Gerhard Schröder became the Chancellor of Germany.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Schr%F6der)
Wikiquote of the day:
"I'm not against God. I'm against the misuse of God." ~ Marilyn
Manson
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marilyn_Manson)
The term race is used in a wide variety of contexts, with related but
often distinct meanings. Its use is often controversial, largely
because of the political and sociological implications of different
definitions, but also because of disagreements over such issues as
whether humans can be meaningfully divided into multiple races. In
biology, some use race to mean a division within a species,
synonomous with subspecies or variety. Race serves to group members
of a species that have, for a period of time, become geographically
or genetically isolated from other members of that species, and as a
result have diverged genetically and developed certain shared
characteristics that differentiate them from the others. Many
biologists feel that in this usage we may justifiably speak of
dividing Homo sapiens into races. Others, however, assert that in
humans there is in fact insufficient categorical variation to justify
the classification of humans into multiple races in a strictly
biological sense. Many social scientists therefore view race as a
social construct, and have sought to understand it as such.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race
Today's selected anniversaries:
1863 The Football Association, the oldest governing body in
football, was formed in London, England.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Football_Association)
1881 The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral took place in Tombstone,
Arizona.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunfight_at_the_O.K._Corral)
1955 Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem declared himself President of
South Vietnam, replacing Nguyen Emperor Bao Dai as the head
of state.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ngo_Dinh_Diem)
1979 President Park Chunghee of South Korea was assassinated by
the director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency and
a long-time friend, Kim Jaekyu.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Chunghee)
2000 Laurent Gbagbo took over as president of C�te d'Ivoire
following a popular uprising against military ruler
Robert Gu��.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurent_Gbagbo)
2001 U.S. President George W. Bush signed the "Uniting and
Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools
Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001",
more commonly known as the USA PATRIOT Act, into law.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_PATRIOT_Act)
Wikiquote of the day:
"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways
you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to
all the people you can, as long as ever you can." ~ John Wesley
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Wesley)
Karl Dönitz was a naval leader in Nazi Germany during World War II.
Despite never joining the Nazi Party, Dönitz attained the high rank
of Grand Admiral and served as Commander in Chief of Submarines,
and later Commander in Chief of the German War Navy. Under his
command, the U-boat fleet fought the Battle of the Atlantic,
attempting to starve the United Kingdom of vital supply shipments.
He also briefly served as President of Germany following the death
of Adolf Hitler. Following the war, Dönitz went on trial as a war
criminal in the Nuremberg Trials, charged with conspiracy to commit
crimes against peace and planning, initiating and waging wars of
aggression. Dönitz produced an affidavit from Admiral Chester
Nimitz who testified that the United States had used unrestricted
warfare as a tactic in the Pacific and that American submarines did
not rescue survivors in situations where their own safety was in
question. Ultimately, the tribunal found Dönitz guilty of both
charges. He served ten years in Spandau Prison, West Berlin. Later,
numerous Allied officers sent letters to Dönitz expressing their
dismay over the verdict of his trial.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_D%F6nitz
Today's selected anniversaries:
1415 Battle of Agincourt: Despite being greatly outnumbered,
Henry V of England and his lightly armored infantry and
archers defeated the heavily armored French cavalry in a
muddy battlefield.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Agincourt)
1971 The People's Republic of China replaced the Republic of
China as China's representative in the United Nations.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_and_the_United_Nations)
1983 Operation Urgent Fury: The United States and Caribbean
allies invaded Grenada, six days after Prime Minister
Maurice Bishop and several of his supporters were executed
in a violent coup d'état.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Grenada)
2001 Windows XP, the latest desktop version of the Windows
operating system from Microsoft, was released.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP)
Wikiquote of the day:
"Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live." ~ Dorothy
Thompson
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dorothy_Thompson)
Crime fiction is a generic term used in literature for a genre of
fiction that deals with crimes, their detection, criminals and their
motives. As such, it is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction
and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction. It
should be noted, however, that boundaries can be, and indeed are,
blurred. It has several sub-genres, including detective fiction,
mystery fiction, legal thriller, courtroom drama, and hard-boiled
fiction. Crime fiction began to be considered as a serious genre only
as late as 1900. The earliest inspiration for books and novels from
this genre came from earlier dark works of Edgar Allan Poe. The
evolution of locked room mysteries was one of the landmarks in the
history of crime fiction, as it helped involve the reader to a major
extent. Sherlock Holmes mysteries are said to have been singularly
responsible for the huge popularity in this genre. Later a set of
stereotypic formulae began to appear to cater to various tastes.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_fiction
Today's selected anniversaries:
4004 BC The universe was created, according to the Ussher-Lightfoot
Calendar.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ussher%2dLightfoot_Calendar)
1911 First use of aircraft in war: an Italian pilot flew from
Libya to survey Turkish lines during the Italo-Turkish War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italo%2dTurkish_War)
1958 Belgian cartoonist Peyo introduced a new set of comic strip
characters, The Smurfs.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Smurfs)
1983 Suicide bombers destroyed two barracks of the international
peacekeeping force in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 241 U.S.
Marines and 58 French Paratroopers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_barracks_bombing)
2002 Moscow theater siege: Terrorists seized a crowded theater
in Moscow, took approximately 700 theatergoers and
performers hostage and demanded the immediate and
unconditional withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_theater_hostage_crisis)
Wikiquote of the day:
"There's a time when a man needs to fight, and a time when he needs
to accept that his destiny is lost, that the ship has sailed, and
that only a fool would continue. The truth is, I've always been a
fool." ~ Albert Finney as "Ed Bloom" in Big Fish
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Big_Fish)
Breastfeeding is the practice of a human mother feeding a baby (and
sometimes a toddler or a young child) with milk produced from her
mammary glands, usually directly from the nipples. Babies have a
sucking instinct allowing them to extract the milk. While many
mothers choose to breastfeed their child there are some who do not,
either for personal or medical reasons. Breast milk has been shown to
be very beneficial for a child, though, as with other bodily fluid
transfers, some conditions can be passed from the mother to the
infant. As an alternative the baby may be fed infant formula until
the time that the child may move on to baby food.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breastfeeding
Today's selected anniversaries:
1383 The 1383-1385 Crisis in Portugal: A period of civil war and
anarchy began when King Fernando died without a male heir
to the Portuguese throne.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1383-1385_Crisis)
1844 Millerites and members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
were greatly disappointed that Jesus Christ did not return
as predicted by preacher William Miller.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millerites)
1943 World War II: Kassel, Germany was severely bombed and
burned for seven days in a firestorm, killing at least
10,000, rendering 150,000 homeless.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Kassel_in_World_War_II)
1962 Cuban Missile Crisis: U.S. President John F. Kennedy
announced on television that Soviet nuclear weapons have
been discovered in Cuba, and that he had ordered a naval
"quarantine" of the island nation.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis)
Wikiquote of the day:
"It doesn't matter if we were down 3-0. You've just got to keep the
faith. The game is not over until the last out." ~ David Ortiz
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Ortiz)
Jazz is a musical art form, commonly characterized by blue notes,
syncopation, swing, call and response, polyrhythms and improvisation.
It has been called the first original art form to develop in the
United States of America. Jazz is rooted in West African cultural and
musical expression and in African American music traditions, in folk
blues and ragtime. Originating in African American communities near
the beginning of the 20th century, by the 1920s it had gained
international popularity. Since then, jazz has had a profoundly
pervasive influence on other musical styles worldwide. The word jazz
itself is rooted in American slang, but is of unknown origin, despite
many theories about its source. Rather than being a single, narrowly
definable style, in the early 21st century jazz is an ever-growing
family of musical styles, many of which continue to develop.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz
Today's selected anniversaries:
1600 Tokugawa Ieyasu established military supermacy over rival
Japanese clans in the Battle of Sekigahara, which marked
the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate, the final
shogunate to rule in Japan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sekigahara)
1805 Napoleonic Wars: Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson led the
British fleet to defeat a combined French and Spanish navy
in the Battle of Trafalgar.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Nelson%2c_1st_Viscount_Nelson)
1824 Joseph Aspdin, an English bricklayer, received the patent
for Portland cement.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_cement)
1854 Florence Nightingale and a staff of 38 nurses were sent to
the Crimean War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Nightingale)
1944 The first kamikaze attack: HMAS Australia was hit by a
Japanese plane carrying a 200 kg (441 pound) bomb off Leyte
Island in the Philippines.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/kamikaze)
1945 Argentine military officer and politician Juan Domingo Perón
married popular actress Evita.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Perón)
Wikiquote of the day:
"I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the
greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most
obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the
falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to
colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which
they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives."
~ Leo Tolstoy
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy)