Regulamentul Organic was a quasi-constitutional organic law enforced
in 1831-1832 by the Imperial Russian authorities in Moldavia and
Wallachia (the two Danubian Principalities that were to become the
basis of the modern Romanian state). The official onset of a common
Russian protectorate lasting until 1854, and itself officially in
place until 1858, the document signified a partial confirmation of
traditional government (including rule by the hospodars). Conservative
in its scope, it also engendered a period of unprecedented reforms
which provided a setting for the Westernization of local society. The
Regulament offered the two Principalities their first common system of
government.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulamentul_Organic
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1606:
Guy Fawkes was executed for his involvement in the Gunpowder Plot
against the English Parliament and King James I.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes)
1747:
The London Lock Hospital, the first clinic specialising in the
treatment of venereal diseases, was opened.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Lock_Hospital)
1946:
In Yugoslavia, a new constitution established the six constituent
republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro,
Serbia and Slovenia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslavia)
1961:
Aboard Mercury-Redstone 2, Ham the Chimp became the first higher
primate to travel in outer space.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-Redstone_2)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
Science is clearly one of the most profound methods that humans have
yet devised for discovering truth, while religion remains the single
greatest force for generating meaning. Truth and meaning, science and
religion; but we still cannot figure out how to get the two of them
together in a fashion that both find acceptable... if some sort of
reconciliation between science and religion is not forthcoming, the
future of humanity is, at best, precarious. -- Ken Wilber
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ken_Wilber)
The New Radicals were an American rock band in the late 1990s,
centered on front man Gregg Alexander, who wrote and produced all of
their songs and was the sole constant member. They released only one
album, 1998's Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too, a pop rock album
heavily influenced by the funk, rock and soul of the 1970s,
containing—amongst radio-friendly modern rock tracks and love
songs—strong criticism of Corporate America. The band is best known
for their debut single "You Get What You Give", which became a top 5
hit in the United Kingdom and whose celebrity-dissing lyrics at the
end of the song provided a minor media spectacle. Tired of touring and
promotional interviews, Alexander disbanded the group in mid 1999
before the release of their second single, "Someday We'll Know", to
focus on writing and producing songs for other artists. As a result,
"Someday We'll Know" received little attention in most countries and
the band is widely considered a one-hit wonder.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Radicals
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1649:
King Charles I was beheaded for high treason in front of the
Banqueting House in London during the English Civil War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I_of_England)
1826:
The Menai Suspension Bridge, considered the world's first modern
suspension bridge, was opened, connecting the island of Anglesey and
the mainland of Wales.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menai_Suspension_Bridge)
1930:
The world's first radiosonde, a device attached to weather balloons to
measure various atmospheric parameters, was launched by meteorologist
Pavel Molchanov in Pavlovsk, USSR.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiosonde)
1948:
Nathuram Godse bowed before Mahatma Gandhi, wished him well, then shot
him to death with a Beretta pistol.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi)
1968:
Vietnam War: Viet Cong forces launched the Tết Offensive on Vietnamese
New Year's Day.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tet_Offensive)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
If the fires of freedom and civil liberties burn low in other lands
they must be made brighter in our own. If in other lands the press and
books and literature of all kinds are censored, we must redouble our
efforts here to keep them free. If in other lands the eternal truths
of the past are threatened by intolerance we must provide a safe place
for their perpetuation. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt)
The history of saffron cultivation and usage reaches back more than
3,000 years and spans many cultures, continents, and civilisations.
Saffron, a spice derived from the dried stigmas of the saffron crocus,
has remained among the world's most costly substances throughout
history. With its bitter taste, hay-like fragrance, and slight
metallic notes, saffron has been used as a seasoning, fragrance, dye,
and medicine. Saffron is native to Southwest Asia, but was first
cultivated in Greece. The wild precursor of domesticated saffron
crocus is Crocus cartwrightianus. Human cultivators bred C.
cartwrightianus specimens by selecting for plants with abnormally long
stigmas. Thus, sometime in late Bronze Age Crete, a mutant form of C.
cartwrightianus, C. sativus, emerged. Saffron was first documented in
a 7th-century BC Assyrian botanical reference compiled under
Ashurbanipal. Since then, documentation of saffron's use over a span
of 4,000 years in the treatment of some ninety illnesses has been
uncovered. Saffron slowly spread throughout much of Eurasia, later
reaching parts of North Africa, North America, and Oceania.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_saffron
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1565:
The Deccan sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire in the Battle
of Talikota, ended the last Hindu kingdom in India.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Talikota)
1700:
The magnitude 9 Cascadia Earthquake took place off the Pacific coast
of the American Northwest, as evidenced by Japanese records of
tsunamis.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1700_Cascadia_earthquake)
1788:
The British First Fleet, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, landed at
Sydney Cove just outside present-day Sydney, establishing the first
permanent European settlement in Australia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Fleet)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Phillip)
1950:
President Rajendra Prasad succeeded Rajaji the last Governor General
as the head of state of India and the Commander-in-Chief of the Indian
armed forces.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajendra_Prasad)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Rajagopalachari)
1983:
The hugely popular spreadsheet program Lotus 1-2-3 was first released.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_1-2-3)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
The only gold is love,A coin that we have minted from the lightOf
others who have cared for us on EarthAnd who have deposited in us the
powerThat nerves our nerves to seize the burning stars. -- Philip
José Farmer
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_Jos%C3%A9_Farmer)
Hasekura Tsunenaga was a Japanese samurai and retainer of Date
Masamune, the daimyo of Sendai. He led an embassy to Mexico and then
Europe between 1613 and 1620 (called the Keichō Embassy), after which
he returned to Japan. He was the first-ever Japanese official
ambassador to the Americas and arguably Europe, and became the key
protagonist in the first recorded instance of Franco-Japanese
relations. Although Hasekura's embassy created a strong impression in
Europe, it happened at a time when Japan was moving towards the
suppression of Christianity, so that European monarchs such as the
King of Spain ultimately denied the trading agreements Hasekura had
been seeking. Hasekura returned to Japan in 1620 and died of illness a
year later, his embassy seemingly ending with few results in an
increasingly isolationist Japan.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasekura_Tsunenaga
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1327:
Teenaged Edward III was crowned King of England, but the country was
ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_III_of_England)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Mortimer%2C_1st_Earl_of_March)
1554:
Jesuit priests José de Anchieta and Manoel da Nóbrega established a
mission at São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga, which grew to become
São Paulo, Brazil.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/São_Paulo)
1924:
The first Winter Olympic Games opened at the foot of Mont Blanc in
Chamonix, France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Olympic_Games)
1971:
General Idi Amin seized power from President of Uganda Milton Obote,
beginning eight years of military rule.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Obote)
2004:
Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity landed on Mars and rolled into
Eagle crater, a small crater on the Meridiani Planum.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_rover)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
I do not believe they are right who say that the defects of famous men
should be ignored. I think it is better that we should know them.
Then, though we are conscious of having faults as glaring as theirs,
we can believe that that is no hindrance to our achieving also
something of their virtues. -- W. Somerset Maugham
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/W._Somerset_Maugham)
Indian Standard Time is the time observed throughout India, with a
time offset of UTC+5:30. India does not observe daylight saving time
(DST) or other seasonal adjustments, although DST was used briefly
during the Sino–Indian War of 1962, and the Indo–Pakistani Wars of
1965 and of 1971. In military and aviation time, IST is designated E*
= Echo*. Indian Standard Time is calculated on the basis of 82.5 °E
longitude which is just west of the town of Mirzapur, near Allahabad
in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The longitude difference between
Mirzapur and the United Kingdom's Royal Observatory at Greenwich
translates to an exact time difference of 5 hours and 30 minutes.
Local time is calculated from a clock tower at the Allahabad
Observatory though the official time-keeping devices are entrusted to
the National Physical Laboratory, located in New Delhi.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Standard_Time
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1879:
Zulu forces of King Cetshwayo routed British forces at the Battle of
Isandlwana.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Isandlwana)
1901:
After holding the title Prince of Wales for six decades, King Edward
VII became the second oldest man to ascend to the throne in British
history.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VII_of_the_United_Kingdom)
1905:
Russian Revolution: Peaceful demonstrators led by Father Gapon were
massacred outside the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg on Bloody
Sunday.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_(1905))
1973:
The U.S. Supreme Court delivered its landmark legal decision in Roe v.
Wade, striking down laws restricting abortion during the first six to
seven months of pregnancy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roe_v._Wade)
1980:
Andrei Sakharov, a key architect of the Soviet hydrogen bomb and
winner of the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize, was arrested in Moscow following
his public protests against the Soviet war in Afghanistan and exiled
to Gorky.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Sakharov)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a
citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from
other lands, but a continent that joins to them. -- Francis Bacon
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Francis_Bacon)
The music of the Lesser Antilles encompasses the musics of Martinique,
Guadeloupe, Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba and the Netherlands
Antilles, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Anguilla, Antigua and
Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, Virgin Islands, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts
and Nevis and Montserrat. The Lesser Antilles' musical cultures are
largely based on the music of African slaves brought by European
traders and colonizers. The African musical elements are a hybrid of
instruments and styles from numerous West African tribes, while the
European slaveholders added their own musics into the mix, as did
immigrants from India. In many ways, the Lesser Antilles can be
musically divided based on which nation colonized them. The ex-British
colonies include Trinidad and Tobago, whose calypso style is an
especially potent part of the music of the other former British
colonies, which also share traditions like the Big Drum dance. The
French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe share the popular zouk
style, and have also had extensive musical contact with the music of
Haiti, itself once a French colony though not part of the Lesser
Antilles. The Dutch colonies share the combined rhythm popular style.
The islands also share a passion for kaseko, a genre of Surinamese
music; Suriname and its neighbors Guyana and French Guiana share folk
and popular styles that are connected enough to the Antilles and other
Caribbean islands that both countries are studied in the broader
context of Antillean or Caribbean music.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_the_Lesser_Antilles
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
304:
Thirteen-year-old Saint Agnes, the patron saint of young girls, was
executed for refusing a marriage proposal.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Agnes)
1525:
The first Anabaptists in Switzerland re-baptized each other.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anabaptist)
1793:
French Revolution: After being found guilty of treason by the National
Convention, King Louis XVI was guillotined in front of a cheering
crowd.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XVI_of_France)
1968:
Vietnam War: The People's Army of Vietnam attacked Khe Sanh Combat
Base, a U.S. Marines outpost, starting the Battle of Khe Sanh.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Khe_Sanh)
1976:
The Concorde supersonic transports began commercial flights to London,
Paris, Bahrain, and Rio de Janeiro.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
A revelation, that may be supposed to be really of the institution of
God, must also be supposed to be perfectly consistent or uniform, and
to be able to stand the test of truth... Reason therefore must be the
standard by which we determine the respective claims of revelation;
for otherwise we may as well subscribe to the divinity of the one as
of the other, or to the whole of them, or to none at all. -- Ethan
Allen
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ethan_Allen)
Bacteria are unicellular microorganisms. They are typically a few
micrometres long and have many different shapes including spheres,
rods and spirals. The study of bacteria is bacteriology, a branch of
microbiology. Bacteria are ubiquitous, living in every possible
habitat on the planet including soil, underwater, deep in the earth's
crust and even such environments as acidic hot springs and radioactive
waste. In all, there are around five nonillion (5 × 10<sup>30</sup>)
bacteria in the world. There are 10 times more bacterial cells than
human cells in the human body, with large numbers of bacteria on the
skin and in the digestive tract. Although the vast majority of these
bacteria are harmless or beneficial, a few pathogenic bacteria cause
infectious diseases, including cholera, syphilis, anthrax, leprosy and
bubonic plague. The most common bacterial disease is tuberculosis,
which kills about 2 million people a year, mostly in sub-Saharan
Africa. Bacteria are prokaryotes and, unlike animals and other
eukaryotes, bacterial cells do not contain a nucleus or other
membrane-bound organelles. Although the term bacteria has
traditionally been generally applied to all prokaryotes, the
scientific nomenclature changed after the discovery that prokaryotic
life consists of two very different groups of organisms that evolved
independently from an ancient common ancestor.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteria
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1265:
Summoned by Simon de Montfort, the first English parliament held its
first meeting in the Palace of Westminster.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Westminster)
1320:
After reuniting Poland, Władysław the Short was crowned king in
Kraków.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piast_Poland)
1885:
LaMarcus Adna Thompson patented the roller coaster.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/roller_coaster)
1892:
The first official basketball game was played at the YMCA in
Springfield, Massachusetts.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/basketball)
1942:
Nazis at the Wannsee conference in Berlin decided the "final solution
to the Jewish question", leading eventually to the Holocaust.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wannsee_conference)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
What is an artist? A provincial who finds himself somewhere between a
physical reality and a metaphysical one.... It’s this in-between that
I’m calling a province, this frontier country between the tangible
world and the intangible one — which is really the realm of the
artist. -- Federico Fellini
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Federico_Fellini)
El Greco was a prominent painter, sculptor and architect of the
Spanish Renaissance. El Greco was born in Crete, which was at that
time part of the Republic of Venice, and at 26 travelled to Venice to
study. In 1570 he moved to Rome, where he opened a workshop and
executed a series of works. During his stay in Italy, El Greco
enriched his style with elements of Mannerism and of the Venetian
Renaissance. In 1577 he emigrated to Toledo, Spain, where he lived and
worked until his death. In Toledo El Greco received several major
commissions and produced his best known paintings. El Greco's dramatic
and expressionistic style was met with puzzlement by his
contemporaries but found appreciation in the 20th century. El Greco is
regarded as a precursor of both Expressionism and Cubism, while his
personality and works were a source of inspiration for poets and
writers such as Rainer Maria Rilke and Nikos Kazantzakis. El Greco has
been characterized by modern scholars as an artist so individual that
he belongs to no conventional school. He is best known for tortuously
elongated figures and often fantastic or phantasmagorical
pigmentation, marrying Byzantine traditions with those of Western
civilization.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Greco
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1839:
The Royal Marines landed at Aden to stop pirates from attacking
British shipping to and from India. Aden remained under British
control until 1967.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aden)
1917:
World War I: The Zimmermann Telegram was dispatched.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimmermann_Telegram)
1935:
Coopers Inc. sold the world's first briefs, a new style of men's
undergarment.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Briefs)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undergarment)
1977:
Iva Toguri, allegedly a Tokyo Rose, was granted a full pardon.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iva_Toguri_D'Aquino)
1983:
Apple Computer introduced the Apple Lisa, their first commercial
personal computer with a graphical user interface and a computer
mouse. It had 1 MB of RAM, and was priced at US $9,995.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Lisa)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
Whether it's the best of times or the worst of times, it's the only
time we've got. -- Art Buchwald
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Art_Buchwald)
Restoration literature is the literature written in English during the
period commonly referred to as the English Restoration, corresponding
with the last years of the direct Stuart reign in England, Scotland,
Wales, and Ireland. In general, the term is used to denote roughly
homogeneous styles of literature that centre on a celebration of or
reaction to the restored court of Charles II. It is a literature that
includes extremes, for it encloses both Paradise Lost and the Earl of
Rochester's Sodom, the high-spirited sexual comedy of The Country Wife
and the moral wisdom of Pilgrim's Progress. It saw Locke's Treatises
on Government, the founding of the Royal Society, the experiments and
holy meditations of Robert Boyle, the hysterical attacks on theatres
from Jeremy Collier, and the pioneering of literary criticism from
John Dryden and John Dennis. It saw news become a commodity, the essay
develop into a periodical artform, the beginnings of textual
criticism, and the emergence of the stock market.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoration_literature
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1778:
Captain James Cook discovered the Sandwich Islands, now known as
Hawaii.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Hawaii)
1871:
King Wilhelm I of Prussia was proclaimed the first Kaiser of the
German Empire, a newly unified nation state.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_I_of_Germany)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Empire)
1958:
Willie O'Ree of the Boston Bruins played his first game in the
National Hockey League, breaking the color barrier in professional ice
hockey.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_O'Ree)
1977:
The mysterious Legionnaires' disease was found to be caused by a novel
bacterium now known as Legionella.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legionellosis)
2003:
The Canberra Firestorm: Bushfires burning out of control began blazing
through residential areas of Canberra, Australia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canberra_bushfires_of_2003)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
It's important to abolish the unconscious dogmatism that makes people
think their way of looking at reality is the only sane way of viewing
the world. My goal is to try to get people into a state of
generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone, but
agnosticism about everything. -- Robert Anton Wilson
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Anton_Wilson)
Sheffield Wednesday F.C. is one of the oldest football clubs in
England; this season they play in the Football League. Based in
Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, Sheffield Wednesday's chief
rivals are Sheffield United F.C. with whom they play in the Steel City
Derby. As of 2006, The Owls have won four league titles, three FA Cups
and one League Cup, but their League Cup triumph (secured in 1991) is
their only major trophy since World War II. They did reach both
domestic cup finals in 1993, but lost 2-1 to Arsenal each time.
Sheffield Wednesday currently play in the Football League
Championship. Home games are played at Hillsborough stadium in
Sheffield, which had staged numerous FA Cup semi-finals prior to the
1989 Hillsborough disaster which claimed the lives of 96 Liverpool
fans.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheffield_Wednesday_F.C.
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1893:
The Citizens' Committee of Public Safety led by Lorrin A. Thurston
overthrew the government of Queen Liliʻuokalani of the Kingdom of
Hawaii.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liliuokalani)
1929:
Popeye the Sailor, a cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, first
appeared in newspaper comic strips.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popeye)
1946:
The United Nations Security Council held its first meeting at Church
House in London.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council)
1977:
Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore was executed by a firing squad in
Utah, ending a four-year moratorium on the death penalty in the United
States.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_the_United_States)
1995:
The Great Hanshin Earthquake struck near Kobe, Japan, killing over
6,000 people and causing over ten trillion yen in damage.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Hanshin_earthquake)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little
Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -- Benjamin
Franklin
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin)