Apollo 8 was the second manned mission of the Apollo space program.
Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell and Lunar
Module Pilot William Anders became the first humans to travel beyond
Earth orbit and into an orbit around the Moon. It was also the first
manned launch of the Saturn V rocket. NASA prepared for the mission in
only four months. The hardware involved had only been used a few
times—the Saturn V had only launched twice before, and the Apollo
spacecraft had only just finished its first manned mission, Apollo 7.
However the success of the mission paved the way for the successful
completion of John F. Kennedy's goal of landing on the Moon before the
end of the decade. After launching on December 21, 1968, the crew took
three days to travel to the Moon, which they orbited for twenty hours.
While in lunar orbit they made a Christmas Eve television broadcast
that is thought to be one of the most watched of all time.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_8
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1775:
The American Revolutionary War began with the Battle of Lexington and
Concord.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lexington_and_Concord)
1943:
World War II: German troops entered the Warsaw Ghetto to round up
Jews.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto)
1989:
A gun turret exploded on board the USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Iowa_%28BB-61%29)
1995:
The Oklahoma City bombing, the largest domestic terrorist attack in
the history of the United States, killed 168 people.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius." -- Benjamin Disraeli
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Disraeli)
Aramaic is a Semitic language with a 3,000-year history. It has been
the language of administration of empires and the language of divine
worship. It is the original language of a large section of the
biblical books of Daniel and Ezra. It was probably the language of
Jesus, it is the main language of the Talmud, and it is still spoken
today as a first language by numerous small communities. Aramaic
belongs to the Afro-Asiatic language family. Within this diverse
family, Aramaic belongs to the Semitic subfamily. Aramaic is a part of
the Northwest Semitic group of languages, which also includes the
Canaanite languages (including Hebrew).
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aramaic_language
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1025:
Boleslaus the Brave was crowned in Gniezno and became the first King
of Poland.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boleslaus_I_of_Poland)
1906:
A major earthquake and subsequent fires devastated San Francisco,
California.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1906_San_Francisco_earthquake)
1942:
World War II: Sixteen B-25 Mitchell bombers from the aircraft carrier
USS Hornet carried out the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doolittle_Raid)
1980:
Rhodesia became the Republic of Zimbabwe, with Canaan Banana as the
country's first President.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe)
1992:
General Abdul Rashid Dostum revolted against the Democratic Republic
of Afghanistan and allied with Ahmed Shah Massoud to capture the
Afghan capital of Kabul.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Republic_of_Afghanistan)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"Music can be all things to all persons. It is like a great dynamic
sun in the center of a solar system which sends out its rays and
inspiration in every direction.... Music makes us feel that the
heavens open and a divine voice calls. Something in our souls responds
and understands." -- Leopold Stokowski
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leopold_Stokowski)
The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 made landfall on the city of
Galveston, Texas on September 8, 1900. It had estimated winds of 135
miles per hour (217 km/h), making it a Category 4 storm on the
Saffir-Simpson scale. The hurricane caused great loss of life. The
death toll has been estimated to be between 6,000 and 12,000
individuals. The number most cited in official reports is 8,000,
giving the storm the third-highest number of casualties of any
Atlantic hurricane, after the Great Hurricane of 1780, and 1998's
Hurricane Mitch. The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 is to date the
deadliest natural disaster ever to strike the United States.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galveston_Hurricane_of_1900
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1895:
The Empire of Japan and the Qing Empire signed the Treaty of Maguan,
an 'unequal' treaty that ended the First Sino-Japanese War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Shimonoseki)
1937:
Daffy Duck made his debut in a short cartoon by the Warner Bros.
Studio.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daffy_Duck)
1942:
Captured French General Henri Giraud escaped from his castle prison.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Giraud)
1961:
The CIA-backed Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba began.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion)
1975:
The Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh, ending the Cambodian Civil War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian_Civil_War)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"We ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love
will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love
that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land
of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only
survival, the only meaning." -- Thornton Wilder
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thornton_Wilder)
Colditz Castle is a castle in the town of Colditz near Leipzig,
Dresden, and Chemnitz in the Bundesland (province) of Saxony in
Germany. Used as a workhouse for the indigent and a mental institution
for over 100 years, it became notorious as a Prisoner of War camp for
"Incorrigible Allied officers who had repeatedly escaped from other
camps" and the Deutschfeindlich (anti-Germans) during World War II.
The Nazi Schutzstaffel made Colditz a Sonderlager (high security
prison), the only one of its type within Germany. Hermann Göring even
declared Colditz "escape proof." This was in part because of its lack
of escapes during its term as prison camp in World War I, but mostly
due to it being the only German POW camp with more guards than
prisoners. Yet despite this audacious claim, there were multiple
escapes by British, French, Polish, Dutch, and Belgian inmates.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colditz_Castle
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1746:
Battle of Culloden: In Scotland, the final battle of the Jacobite
Rising.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Culloden)
1917:
Vladimir Lenin returned to Petrograd from exile in Finland.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin)
1935:
The radio program Fibber McGee and Molly debuted.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibber_McGee_and_Molly)
1943:
Dr. Albert Hofmann discovered the psychedelic effects of LSD.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSD)
1947:
Texas City Disaster: Thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate in Texas
City's port exploded.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_Disaster)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich
and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and
beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men’s souls,
has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery
and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in.
Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has
made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much
and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than
cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities,
life will be violent and all will be lost." -- Charlie Chaplin in The
Great Dictator
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charlie_Chaplin)
In Judaism, the the name of God is more than a distinguishing title.
It represents the Jewish conception of the divine nature, and of the
relation of God to the Jewish people. The various Jewish names of God
represent God as he is known, and represents divine attributes. Awe
at the sacredness of the names of God and as manner to show respect
and reverence for them, made the scribes of sacred texts pause before
copying them. The numerous names of God have been a source of debate
amongst biblical scholars. Some have advanced it as proof that the
Torah has many authors, while others affirm that the different aspects
of God have different names, depending on the role God is playing, the
context in which he is referred to and the specific attributes
highlighted.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_God_in_Judaism
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1738:
George Frideric Handel's opera Serse, loosely based on Xerxes I of
Persia, was performed for the first time.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serse)
1755:
A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson was first
published.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Dictionary_of_the_English_Language)
1947:
African American Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers broke the
color line in baseball.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Robinson)
1985:
Marvin Hagler defeated Thomas Hearns to retain the boxing
championship.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Hagler)
1989:
The Hillsborough disaster, one of the biggest tragedies of European
football, occurred.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsborough_disaster)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"Here forms, here colours, here the character of every part of the
universe are concentrated to a point; and that point is so marvellous
a thing ... Oh! marvellous, O stupendous Necessity— by thy laws thou
dost compel every effect to be the direct result of its cause, by the
shortest path. These are miracles..." -- Leonardo da Vinci
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci)
Tamil is a Dravidian language related to Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam
among others. As one of the few living classical languages, it has an
unbroken literary tradition of over two millenia with the earliest
writings having been dated to circa 500 B.C. Tamil, like other
Dravidian languages, is agglutinative and the writing is largely
phonetic. It is spoken by a majority of people in Tamil Nadu and
northern and north-eastern Sri Lanka while a significant emigrant
population lives in Singapore, Malaysia and other parts of the world.
It is officially recognised in India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and South
Africa.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_language
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1828:
Spelling reformer Noah Webster copyrighted the first edition of his
dictionary of American English.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_Webster)
1865:
John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln with a Deringer pistol at
Ford's Theatre.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wilkes_Booth)
1912:
The transatlantic ocean liner RMS Titanic collided with an iceberg on
her maiden voyage.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Titanic)
1931:
The Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed by a provisional government
led by Niceto Alcalá-Zamora.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niceto_Alcal%E1-Zamora)
1970:
An oxygen tank aboard the NASA spacecraft Apollo 13 exploded.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_13)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible
worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true." -- James Branch Cabell
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Branch_Cabell)
Timpani are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of
drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl
commonly made of copper. They are played by striking the head with a
special drum stick called a timpani stick. Unlike most drums, they
produce a definite pitch when struck. Timpani evolved from military
drums to become a staple of the classical orchestra in the 17th
century. Today, they are used in many types of musical ensembles
including concert, marching, and even rock bands. The basic timpano
consists of a drumhead stretched across the opening of a bowl
typically made of copper or, in less expensive models, fiberglass.
The drumhead is connected to a hoop, which is then attached to the
bowl via a number of tuning screws called tension rods placed
regularly along the circumference. The head's tension can be adjusted
by loosening or tightening the rods. Most timpani have six to eight
tension rods.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timpani
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1598:
King Henry IV of France issued the Edict of Nantes, allowing freedom
of religion to the Huguenots.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edict_of_Nantes)
1883:
Alferd Packer was convicted of cannibalism.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alferd_Packer)
1919:
British and Gurkha troops opened fire on a peaceful political
gathering in Amritsar, Punjab in India, killing hundreds of Sikhs,
Hindus and Muslims.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amritsar_Massacre)
1943:
World War II: The discovery of a mass grave of Polish prisoners-of-war
executed by Soviet forces in the Katy? Forest Massacre was announced
in Germany, driving a wedge between the Allies, the Polish
government-in-exile in London, and the Soviet Union.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_Massacre)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within
limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add
"within the limits of the law" because law is often but the tyrant's
will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual." --
Thomas Jefferson
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson)
In cryptography, a Caesar cipher is one of the simplest and most
well-known classical encryption techniques. It is a type of
substitution cipher in which each letter in the plaintext is replaced
by a letter some fixed number of positions further down the alphabet.
For example, with a shift of 3, A would be replaced by D, B would
become E, and so on. The method is named after Julius Caesar, who
used it to communicate with his generals. The encryption step
performed by a Caesar cipher is often incorporated as part of more
complex schemes, such as the Vigenère cipher, and still has modern
application in the ROT13 system. As for all single alphabet
substitution ciphers, the Caesar cipher is easily broken and in
practice offers no communication security.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar_cipher
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
467:
Anthemius became Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthemius)
1633:
The formal interrogation of Galileo Galilei by the Inquisition began.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei)
1961:
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to enter outer
space.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin)
1980:
Terry Fox dipped his artificial leg in the Atlantic Ocean and began
his trans-Canada run towards the Pacific Ocean to raise money for
cancer research.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Fox)
1981:
Columbia, the first space shuttle, was launched for its first flight.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Columbia)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"A living body is not merely an integration of limbs and flesh but it
is the abode of the soul which potentially has perfect perception,
perfect knowledge, perfect power, and perfect bliss." -- Mahavira
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mahavira)
Garry Kasparov is a chess grandmaster and one of the strongest human
chess players in the world. He is highest rated on the FIDE January
2005 list at 2804, and he is the highest rated player ever with his
2851 ELO in 1999. He was classical world chess champion from 1985
until 2000. Over the last decade, he has played a series of matches
against IBM-built chess machines, including Deep Blue and X3D Fritz.
Kasparov, who announced his retirement from serious chess on March 10
2005, has been credited with the invention of Advanced Chess, as a new
form of chess in which a human and a computer join their forces.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Kasparov
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1921:
The Hashemite Emirate of Transjordan, now Jordan, was established.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transjordan)
1945:
World War II: The Buchenwald concentration camp was liberated.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buchenwald)
1951:
Korean War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman relieved General Douglas
MacArthur of overall command in Korea.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_MacArthur)
1965:
Fifty-one tornadoes struck six Midwestern states in the United States
during the Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Sunday_Tornado_Outbreak)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"Our institutions were not devised to bring about uniformity of
opinion; if they had we might well abandon hope. It is important to
remember, as has well been said, 'the essential characteristic of true
liberty is that under its shelter many different types of life and
character and opinion and belief can develop unmolested and
unobstructed'." -- Charles Evans Hughes
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Evans_Hughes)
Ryanair is an airline based in Ireland. It is Europe's largest
low-cost carrier, operating 209 low-fare routes to 94 destinations
across 17 European countries. Over the years it has evolved into the
world's most profitable airline, running at remarkable margins by
relentlessly driving costs down. Ryanair has been characterised by
rapid and continuing expansion, enabled by the deregulation of the air
industry in Europe in 1997. It operates a fleet of 74 Boeing 737s, and
currently has firm orders for an additional 225 Boeing 737-800
airplanes by 2010, with options on a further 193. Ryanair is one of
Europe's most controversial companies, praised and criticised in equal
measure. Its supporters praise its commitment to exceptionally low
fares, its radical management, its populism, and its willingness to
challenge what Ryanair calls the 'establishment' within the airline
industry. Critics, meanwhile, have attacked its labor union policies,
and have charged that it practises deceptive advertising.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryanair
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1919:
Mexican Revolution leader Emiliano Zapata was shot dead.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emiliano_Zapata)
1941:
The Axis Powers established the Independent State of Croatia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_State_of_Croatia)
1959:
Akihito, future Emperor of Japan, weds Michiko.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akihito)
1963:
The submarine USS Thresher was lost at sea, with all hands.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Thresher_%28SSN-593%29)
1998:
The Belfast Agreement was signed
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belfast_Agreement)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the
love of ourselves." -- William Hazlitt
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Hazlitt)