The Flag of Hong Kong is red with a stylised, white, five-petal
Bauhinia blakeana flower in the centre. The red colour on this
regional flag is the same as that on the national flag. The Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region flag was adopted on 16 February 1990,
and received formal approval from the Preparatory Committee on 10
August 1996. The flag was first officially hoisted on 1 July 1997, in
a historical ceremony marking the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong
from the United Kingdom to the PRC. The precise use of the regional
flag is regulated through laws passed by the 58th executive meeting of
the State Council held in Beijing. The former colonial flag was used
from 27 July 1959, to 30 June 1997, when Hong Kong was under British
rule. It was a blue Union Jack ensign with the Hong Kong coat of arms
on a white disk centred on the outer half of the flag.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Hong_Kong
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1853:
Russian battleships led by Pavel Nakhimov destroyed an Ottoman fleet
at the Battle of Sinop, precipitating the Crimean War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_War)
1936:
The Crystal Palace, built for the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London,
England, was destroyed by fire.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crystal_Palace)
1939:
The Winter War: The Red Army invaded Finland, but were stalled at the
Mannerheim Line.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War)
1979:
The Wall, a rock opera and concept album by Pink Floyd, was first
released.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wall)
1999:
Large-scale anti-globalization protests disrupted the World Trade
Organization Ministerial Conference in Seattle, USA.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/anti-globalization)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"Hello. My name is Iñigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to
die." -- Mandy Patinkin as "Iñigo Montoya" in The Princess Bride
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mandy_Patinkin)
Cyberpunk is a genre of science fiction that focuses on computers or
information technology, usually coupled with some degree of breakdown
in social order. The plot of cyberpunk writing often centers on a
conflict among hackers, artificial intelligences, and mega
corporations, tending to be set within a near-future dystopian Earth,
rather than the "outer space" locales prevalent at the time of
cyberpunk's inception. Much of the genre's "atmosphere" echoes film
noir, and written works in the genre often use techniques from
detective fiction. While this gritty, hard-hitting style was hailed as
revolutionary during cyberpunk's early days, later observers concluded
that in terms of literature, most cyberpunk narrative techniques were
less innovative than those of the New Wave, twenty years earlier.
Primary exponents of the cyberpunk field include William Gibson, Bruce
Sterling, John Shirley and Rudy Rucker. The term became widespread in
the 1980s and remains current today.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1777:
San José de Guadalupe, the first town in the Spanish colony of
California, was founded.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Jose%2C_California)
1854:
The Eureka Flag was flown for the first time during the Eureka
Stockade rebellion in Australia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_Flag)
1890:
The Diet of Japan, modelled after the German Reichstag, first met,
when the Meiji Constitution went into effect in Japan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_of_Japan)
1944:
Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas at the Johns Hopkins Hospital
performed the first Blalock-Taussig shunt operation to treat blue baby
syndrome.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Blalock)
1947:
The United Nations General Assembly voted to approve the Partition
Plan for Palestine, a plan to resolve the Arab-Jewish conflict in the
British Mandate of Palestine.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1947_UN_Partition_Plan)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its
victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under
robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber
baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be
satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us
without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
-- C.S. Lewis
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/C.S._Lewis)
Tom Brinkman is an American politician and a fiercely conservative
Republican member of the Ohio House of Representatives from Cincinnati
known as "Dr. No" for his opposition to higher taxes and public
spending. Before his election to the Ohio General Assembly, he was
active in Cincinnati politics and has been popular among rank-and-file
conservatives for his strong pro-life and anti-tax stances. However,
Brinkman's reputation is of a principled but iconoclastic man who is
ineffective because he is unwilling to compromise and is unpopular
among party officials—the state chairman once told the press
"Brinkman, in my opinion, is not a very intelligent human
being"—because he has frequently challenged the Republican leadership
and even endorsed the Democratic candidate for governor in 2002.
Brinkman was a candidate for the Republican nomination for Congress to
replace Rob Portman in the Second District of Ohio in the special
primary held June 14, 2005, but finished third with one-fifth the
vote, losing to Jean Schmidt who ultimately won the seat.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Brinkman
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1660:
Christopher Wren and other leading scientists met at Gresham College
in London, England and founded a learned society now known as the
Royal Society.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Society)
1905:
Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith first presented his "Sinn Féin
Policy".
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Griffith)
1925:
The country music radio program Grand Ole Opry was first broadcast on
WSM radio in Nashville, USA.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Ole_Opry)
1943:
World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin met at the
Tehran Conference.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehran_Conference)
1990:
After being elected as leader of the British Conservative Party, John
Major succeeded Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Major)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees." -- William Blake
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Blake)
The Canon T90, introduced in 1986, was the top of the line in Canon's
T series of 35 mm single-lens reflex cameras. It was the last
professional-level manual-focus camera from Canon and thus the last to
use the Canon FD lens mount. Although it was overtaken by the
autofocus revolution and Canon's new, incompatible EOS after only a
year in production, the T90 pioneered many concepts seen in high-end
Canon cameras up to the present day, particularly the user interface,
industrial design, and the high level of automation. The T90 gained
the semi-official nickname The Tank from Japanese photojournalists
because of its ruggedness. Many still rate it highly even nearly 20
years after its introduction.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_T90
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1095:
At the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II called for the First
Crusade.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Clermont)
1868:
Indian Wars: The U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment led by George Armstrong
Custer defeated Chief Black Kettle and the Cheyenne Indians in the
Battle of Washita River.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Washita_River)
1895:
Alfred Nobel signed his will, setting aside the bulk of his estate to
establish the Nobel Prize after his death.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Nobel)
1926:
Restoration of Colonial Williamsburg in the Historic Triangle on the
Virginia Peninsula, United States began.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Williamsburg)
2001:
The Hubble Space Telescope detected sodium in the atmosphere of the
extrasolar planet HD 209458b, the first planetary atmosphere outside
our solar system to be measured.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_209458b)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"Put every great teacher together in a room, and they'd agree about
everything; put their disciples in there and they'd argue about
everything." -- Bruce Lee
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bruce_Lee)
Mary II reigned as Queen of England and Ireland from 13 February 1689
until her death, and as Queen of Scotland (technically as Mary II of
Scotland) from 11 April 1689 until her death. Mary, a Protestant, came
to the Throne following the Glorious Revolution, which resulted in the
deposition of her Roman Catholic father, James II. Mary reigned
jointly with her husband and first cousin, William III, who became the
sole ruler upon her death. Popular histories usually know the joint
reign as that of "William and Mary". Mary, although a Sovereign in her
own right, did not wield actual power during most of her reign. She
did, however, govern the realm when her husband was abroad fighting
wars.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_II_of_England
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1778:
The expedition led by James Cook reached Maui, the second largest of
the Hawaiian Islands.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maui)
1917:
The National Hockey League was formed with its first five teams: the
Montreal Canadiens, the Montreal Wanderers, the Ottawa Senators, the
Quebec Bulldogs, and the Toronto Arenas.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Hockey_League)
1922:
Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon became the first people to enter
Pharaoh Tutankhamun’s tomb in over 3000 years.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tutankhamun)
1942:
World War II: Josip Tito and the Yugoslav Partisans convened the first
meeting of the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of
Yugoslavia at Bihać in northwestern Bosnia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVNOJ)
1950:
Battle of Chosin Reservoir: Chinese forces in North Korea launched a
massive counterattack against South Korean and United States armed
forces, ending any thought of a quick end to the Korean War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chosin_Reservoir)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"If I were to be given the opportunity to present a gift to the next
generation, it would be the ability for each individual to learn to
laugh at himself." -- Charles M. Schulz
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_M._Schulz)
The ATLAS experiment is one of the five particle detector experiments
being constructed at the Large Hadron Collider, a new particle
accelerator at CERN in Switzerland. It will be 45 meters long,
25 meters in diameter, and will weigh about 7,000 tons. The project
involves roughly 2,000 scientists and engineers at 151 institutions in
34 countries. The construction is scheduled to be completed in 2007.
The experiment is expected to measure phenomena that involve highly
massive particles which were not measurable using earlier lower-energy
accelerators and might shed light on new theories of particle physics
beyond the Standard Model. ATLAS is designed as a general-purpose
experiment, so that regardless of what is produced by the collision of
the accelerator's proton beams, the results can be measured as
accurately as possible.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATLAS_experiment
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1034:
Malcolm II of Scotland died. Duncan, the son of his second daughter,
instead of Macbeth, the son of his eldest daughter, inherited the
throne to become the King of Scots.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macbeth_of_Scotland)
1795:
Stanisław II August Poniatowski, the last King of Poland, was forced
to abdicate after the Partition of Poland by Austria, Prussia and
Russia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislaus_II_Augustus_Poniatowski%2C_King_of_…)
1960:
The Mirabal sisters, who opposed the dictatorship of military
strongman Rafael Leonidas Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, were
beaten and strangled to death.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirabal_sisters)
1984:
Band Aid: 36 leading pop musicians of Britain and Ireland gathered in
a Notting Hill studio to record the song "Do They Know It's Christmas"
to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Band_Aid_%28band%29)
1992:
Velvet Divorce: Legislators in Czechoslovakia voted to split their
country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, effective January 1,
1993.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvet_Divorce)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"Only by not forgetting the past can we be the master of the future."
-- Ba Jin
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ba_Jin)
The military history of Canada entails millennia of armed actions in
the territory encompassing modern Canada, and the role of the Canadian
military in conflicts and peacekeeping worldwide. For at least 10,000
years, the area that would become Canada was the site of intertribal
wars among First Nation groups. Beginning in the 10th century, the
arrival of Europeans led to conflicts with the Natives and among the
invading Europeans in the New World. Starting in the 17th century, the
region was the site of fighting between the French and the British for
more than a century. New challenges soon arose when the northern
colonies chose not to join the American Revolution and remained loyal
to the British crown. The victorious Americans looked to extend their
republic and launched invasions in 1775 and in 1812. After Canada's
independence, and amid much controversy, a fully-fledged Canadian
military was created. Canada's links to Britain remained strong, and
Canadian forces joined their British counterparts in the Boer War, the
First and Second World Wars. Since the Second World War, Canada has
been committed to multilateralism and has gone to war only within
large, UN-sanctioned coalitions such as in the Korean War, the Gulf
War, and the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_Canada
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1639:
Jeremiah Horrocks made the first observation of a transit of Venus
from his home near Preston, England.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/transit_of_Venus)
1642:
Dutch explorer Abel Tasman reached Tasmania. He named the island
Anthoonij van Diemenslandt.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasmania)
1859:
The Origin of Species by British naturalist Charles Darwin was first
published, and immediately sold out its initial print run.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Origin_of_Species)
1963:
On live television, Jack Ruby shot and fatally wounded Lee Harvey
Oswald, the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ruby)
1971:
After collecting a ransom payout of US$200,000, "D. B. Cooper" leaped
out of the rear stairway of the airplane he had hijacked and
disappeared.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers,
having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or
into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according
to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms
most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."
-- Charles Darwin
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin)
"Cool" is a pop song written by American singer-songwriter Gwen
Stefani and Dallas Austin for Stefani's debut solo album Love. Angel.
Music. Baby. The song's musical style, and its production by Austin,
was heavily inspired by music from the 1980s, and its lyrics chronicle
a relationship in which two lovers have separated, but remain "cool"
with each other and good friends. It received praise from critics, and
parallels have been drawn by the media between the lyrical content of
"Cool" and the real-life relationship Stefani had with Tony Kanal, a
fellow group member of Stefani's in No Doubt. The song was released as
the fourth single in the summer of 2005, and although it failed to
match the chart success of its predecessor "Hollaback Girl", which
reached number one in several countries, "Cool" is considered to be a
worldwide hit as it reached number one in Canada, the top ten in
Australia, and the top twenty in the United Kingdom and the United
States, where it became Stefani's fifth top-twenty single.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_%28song%29
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1644:
John Milton published Areopagitica, arguing for the right to free
speech and against publication censorship during the English Civil
War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Areopagitica)
1869:
The clipper Cutty Sark was launched at Dumbarton in Scotland.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutty_Sark)
1971:
The People's Republic of China was given China's permanent seat on the
United Nations Security Council.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_and_the_United_Nations)
1985:
Omar Rezaq and two others from the Abu Nidal terrorist group hijacked
EgyptAir Flight 648 over the Mediterranean Sea.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Nidal)
2003:
Rose Revolution: Eduard Shevardnadze resigned as President of Georgia
following weeks of mass protests over disputed election results.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Revolution)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"As good almost kill a man as kill a good book. Who kills a man kills
a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book,
kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were in the eye."
-- John Milton in Areopagitica
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Milton)
The Ta-Yuan were a people of Ferghana in Central Asia, described in
the Chinese Chronicles and in the Chinese Former Han History,
following the travels of Zhang Qian in 130 BCE, and the numerous
embassies that followed him into Central Asia thereafter. These
Chinese accounts describe the Ta-Yuan as urbanized dwellers with
Indo-European features, living in walled cities and having "customs
identical to those of the Greco-Bactrians", a Hellenistic kingdom that
was ruling Bactria at that time in today's northern Afghanistan. The
Ta-Yuan are also described as manufacturers and great lovers of wine.
The Ta-Yuan were probably the descendants of the Greek colonies that
were established by Alexander the Great in Ferghana in 329 BCE, and
prospered within the Hellenistic realm of the Seleucids and
Greco-Bactrians, until they were isolated by the migrations of the
Yueh-Chih around 160 BCE. It has also been suggested that the name
"Yuan" was simply a transliteration of the words "Yona", or
"Yavana", used throughout antiquity in Asia to designate Greeks
("Ionians"), so that Ta-Yuan (lit. "Great Yuan") would mean
"Great Ionians".
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta-Yuan
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1830:
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey became Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Grey%2C_2nd_Earl_Grey)
1963:
Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn-in as the 36th President of the United
States aboard Air Force One after the assassination of President John
F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_assassination)
1967:
United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 was adopted unanimously
in the aftermath of the Six-Day War between Israel and its Arab
neighbours Egypt, Jordan, and Syria.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UN_Security_Council_Resolution_242)
1975:
Juan Carlos was declared King of Spain following the death of
Francisco Franco.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Carlos_I_of_Spain)
1986:
Mike Tyson defeated Trevor Berbick to claim the heavyweight boxing
championship of the World Boxing Council, and became the youngest
boxing champion of the world.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Tyson)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"O may I join the choir invisible of those immortal dead who live
again in minds made better by their presence; live in pulses stirred
to generosity, in deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn for miserable
aims that end with self, in thoughts sublime that pierce the night
like stars, and with their mild persistence urge men's search to
vaster issues." -- George Eliot
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Eliot)
Mário de Andrade was a Brazilian poet, novelist, musicologist, art
historian and critic, and photographer. One of the founders of
Brazilian modernism, he virtually created modern Brazilian poetry with
the publication of his Paulicéia Desvairada (Hallucinated City) in
1922. He has had an enormous influence on Brazilian literature in the
20th and 21st centuries, and as a scholar and essayist—he was a
pioneer of the field of ethnomusicology—his influence has reached
far beyond Brazil. Andrade was the central figure in the avant-garde
movement of São Paulo for 20 years. Trained as a musician and
best-known as a poet and novelist, Andrade was personally involved in
virtually every discipline that was connected with São Paulo
modernism, and became Brazil's national polymath. He was the driving
force behind the Week of Modern Art, the 1922 event that reshaped both
literature and the visual arts in Brazil. At the end of his life, he
became the founding director of São Paulo's Department of Culture,
formalizing a role he had long held as the catalyst of the
city's—and the nation's—entry into artistic modernity.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A1rio_de_Andrade
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1783:
The first successful untethered flight by humans was made in a hot air
balloon constructed by the Montgolfier brothers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/hot_air_balloon)
1877:
The invention of Thomas Edison's phonograph was announced.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/phonograph)
1920:
Anglo-Irish War: The Irish Republican Army killed more than a dozen of
British intelligence officers known as the Cairo Gang, and
paramilitary forces of the Royal Irish Constabulary opened fire on
players and spectators at a Gaelic football match in Dublin on Bloody
Sunday.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_Gang)
1969:
The first ARPANET link was established.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPANET)
1977:
God Defend New Zealand became one of the national anthems of New
Zealand.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Defend_New_Zealand)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"We must believe in free will — we have no choice." -- Isaac
Bashevis Singer
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Bashevis_Singer)