Donkey Kong is an arcade game released by Nintendo in 1981. The game
is an early example of the platform genre as the gameplay focuses on
maneuvering the main character across a series of platforms while
dodging obstacles. The storyline is thin but well developed for its
time. In it, Mario (originally called Jumpman) must rescue a damsel in
distress from a giant ape named Donkey Kong. The hero and ape would go
on to be two of Nintendo's more popular characters. The game was the
latest of Nintendo's efforts to break into the North American market.
Nintendo's president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, assigned the project to a
first-time game designer named Shigeru Miyamoto. Drawing from a wide
range of inspirations, including Popeye and King Kong, Miyamoto
developed the scenario and designed the game alongside Nintendo's
chief engineer, Gunpei Yokoi. The two men broke new ground by using
graphics as a means of characterization, including cut scenes to
advance the game's plot, and integrating multiple stages into the
gameplay. Despite initial misgivings on the part of Nintendo's
American staff, Donkey Kong proved a tremendous success in both North
America and Japan. Nintendo licensed the game to Coleco, who developed
home console versions for numerous platforms.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_Kong_%28video_game%29
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1582:
Spain, Portugal, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and Italy
became the first countries to replace the Julian calendar with the
Gregorian calendar.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar)
1917:
Dutch exotic dancer Mata Hari was executed by a firing squad for
spying for Germany.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mata_Hari)
1987:
The Great Storm of 1987 hit France and England, killing at least 23
people.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Storm_of_1987)
1989:
Playing for the Los Angeles Kings against his old team, the Edmonton
Oilers, Canadian professional ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky broke
Gordie Howe's National Hockey League record of 1,850 career points.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Gretzky)
2003:
Chinese space program: Shenzhou 5, China's first manned space
mission was launched, carrying astronaut Yang Liwei.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenzhou_5)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
octothorpe: A name for the hash or pound sign (#), used mainly in
telephony and computing.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/octothorpe)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
Without art we would be nothing but foreground and live entirely in
the spell of that perspective which makes what is closest at hand and
most vulgar appear as if it were vast, and reality itself. --
Friedrich Nietzsche
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche)
A battleship is a large, heavily-armored warship with a main battery
consisting of the largest caliber of guns. They are larger,
better-armed and better-armored than cruisers. The word battleship was
coined around 1794 and is a shortened form of line of battle ship, the
dominant warship in the Age of Sail. In 1906, HMS Dreadnought heralded
a revolution in battleship design, and for many years modern
battleships were referred to as dreadnoughts. The global arms race in
battleship construction in the early 1900s was a significant factor in
the origins of World War I, which saw a clash of huge battlefleets at
the Battle of Jutland. The construction of battleships was limited by
the Naval Treaties of the 1920s and 1930s, but battleships both old
and new were deployed during World War II. Despite this record, some
historians and naval theorists question the value of the battleship.
Aside from Jutland, there were few great battleship clashes. And
despite their great firepower and protection, battleships remained
vulnerable to much smaller, cheaper ordnance and craft: initially the
torpedo and mine, and later aircraft and the guided missile. The
growing range of engagement led to the battleship's replacement as the
leading type of warship by the aircraft carrier during World War II,
being retained into the Cold War only by the United States Navy for
fire support purposes. These last battleships were removed from the
U.S. Naval Vessel Register in March 2006.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battleship
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1773:
The first recorded ministry of education, the Commission of National
Education, was formed in Poland.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komisja_Edukacji_Narodowej)
1806:
Battle of Jena-Auerstedt: French forces under Napoleon secure a
decisive victory over the Prussians, effectively eliminating Prussia
from the War of the Fourth Coalition after only nineteen days of
fighting.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Jena-Auerstedt)
1926:
The first book featuring English author A. A. Milne's fictional bear
Winnie-the-Pooh was first published.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnie-the-Pooh)
1947:
lying at an altitude of 45,000 ft (13.7 km) in an experimental Bell
X-1 rocket-powered aircraft, American test pilot Chuck Yeager became
the first person to break the sound barrier.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/sound_barrier)
1981:
Hosni Mubarak was elected President of Egypt, one week after Anwar
Sadat was assassinated.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosni_Mubarak)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
homograph: A word that is spelled the same as another, but has a
different meaning and usually a different etymology.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/homograph)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
There's an old African proverb that says "If you want to go quickly,
go alone. If you want to go far, go together." We have to go far —
quickly. And that means we have to quickly find a way to change the
world's consciousness about exactly what we're facing, and why we have
to work to solve it. -- Al Gore
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Al_Gore)
The Knights Templar were among the most famous of the Christian
military orders. The organization existed for approximately two
centuries in the Middle Ages. It was created in the aftermath of the
First Crusade of 1096, to ensure the safety of the large numbers of
European pilgrims who flowed toward Jerusalem after its conquest.
Officially endorsed by the church in 1129, the Order became a favored
charity across Europe. It grew rapidly in membership and power.
Templar knights, easily recognizable in their white mantle with a
distinct red cross, made some of the best equipped, trained, and
disciplined fighting units of the Crusades. Non-warrior members of the
Order managed a large economic infrastructure throughout Christendom,
innovating many financial techniques that were an early form of
banking, and building numerous fortifications across Europe and the
Holy Land. The Templars' success was tied closely to the success of
the Crusades. When the Holy Land was lost and the Templars suffered
crushing defeats, support for the Order's existence faded. Rumors
about the Templars' secret initiation ceremony created mistrust, and
King Philip IV of France, deeply in debt to the Order, began
pressuring Pope Clement V to take action. On Friday, October 13 1307,
King Philip had many of the Order's members, including the Grand
Master Jacques de Molay, arrested, tortured into "confessions", and
burned at the stake. In 1312, Pope Clement, under continuing pressure
from King Philip, forcibly disbanded the entire Order.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
54:
Claudius was fatally poisoned by his wife Agrippina the Younger,
making her 17-year-old son Nero the next Roman Emperor.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero)
1773:
French astronomer Charles Messier discovered the Whirlpool Galaxy,
an interacting, grand-design spiral galaxy located at a distance of
approximately 23 million light-years in the constellation Canes
Venatici.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whirlpool_Galaxy)
1843:
The Independent Order of B'nai B'rith, the oldest
continually-operating Jewish service organization in the world, was
founded in New York City.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%27nai_B%27rith)
1917:
An estimated 100,000 people in the Cova da Iria fields near Fátima,
Portugal witnessed "The Miracle of the Sun."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Miracle_of_the_Sun)
1943:
World War II: With a new government led by General Pietro Badoglio,
parts of Italy switched sides to the Allies and declared war on the
Axis Powers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietro_Badoglio)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
profligate: (archaic) To drive away; to overcome.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/profligate)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
I'm always astounded at the way we automatically look at what divides
and separates us. We never look at what people have in common. If you
see it, black and white people, both sides look to see the
differences, they don't look at what they have together. Men and
women, and old and young, and so on. And this is a disease of the
mind, the way I see it. -- Doris Lessing
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Doris_Lessing)
Intelligent design is the claim that "certain features of the universe
and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not
an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a modern form
of the traditional teleological argument for the existence of God,
modified to avoid specifying the nature or identity of the designer.
Its primary proponents, all of whom are associated with the Discovery
Institute, believe the designer to be God. Intelligent design's
advocates claim it is a scientific theory, and seek to fundamentally
redefine science to accept supernatural explanations. The unequivocal
consensus in the scientific community is that intelligent design is
not science. "Intelligent design" originated in response to a 1987
United States Supreme Court ruling involving separation of church and
state. The intelligent design movement culminated in the 2005 case
Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District in which U.S. District Judge
John E. Jones III ruled that intelligent design is not science, that
it "cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious,
antecedents", and concluded that the school district's promotion of it
therefore violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to
the U.S. Constitution.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1492:
Christopher Columbus made landfall in the Caribbean, believing he
had reached East Asia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus)
1915:
A German firing squad executed British nurse Edith Cavell for
helping Allied soldiers to escape occupied Belgium.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Cavell)
1928:
An iron lung medical ventilator, designed by Philip Drinker and
colleagues at Children's Hospital, Boston, was used for the first time
in the treatment of polio victims.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/iron_lung)
1984:
The Provisional Irish Republican Army failed in its attempt to
assassinate British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and most of her
cabinet in the Brighton hotel bombing.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton_hotel_bombing)
2002:
A series of bombs exploded in Bali, Indonesia, killing 202 people
and injuring a further 209.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Bali_bombings)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
jaded: Worn out, wearied, or lacking enthusiasm; exhausted.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jaded)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
Everything abstract is ultimately part of the concrete. Everything
inanimate finally serves the living. That is why every activity
dealing in abstraction stands in ultimate service to a living whole.
-- Edith Stein
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edith_Stein)
Orion was a great huntsman of Greek mythology who was placed among the
stars as the constellation of Orion. He is described as a great hunter
in the ancient Greek epic, the Odyssey, when Ulysses meets him in the
underworld. The bare bones of his story are told by the Hellenistic
and Roman collectors of myths, but there is no record of him
comparable to that of other Greek heroes, such as that of Jason in the
Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes or in Euripides' Medea. The
remaining fragments of legend have provided a fertile field for
speculation about the prehistory of Greek myth. Ancient sources tell
several different stories about Orion. There are two major versions of
his birth and several main versions of his death. The most important
recorded episodes are his birth somewhere in Boeotia, his visit to
Chios where he met Merope and was blinded by her father, Oenopion, the
recovery of his sight at Lemnos, his hunting with Artemis on Crete,
his death by the blow of Artemis or of the giant scorpion which became
Scorpio, and his elevation to the heavens.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_%28mythology%29
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1877:
After battling the U.S. Army for more than three months, retreating
over 1,000 miles across Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana, and
enduring a five-day siege, Chief Joseph and his Nez Perce band finally
surrendered.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Joseph)
1908:
Prince Ferdinand became the first Tsar of Bulgaria since the Ottoman
invasion in the 14th century.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_I_of_Bulgaria)
1930:
The British airship R101 crashed in France en route to India on its
maiden voyage, killing 48 passengers and crew.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R101)
1970:
Members of the Front de Libération du Québec kidnapped British
diplomat James Cross, sparking the October Crisis in Montreal, Canada.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_de_lib%C3%A9ration_du_Qu%C3%A9bec)
1986:
The British newspaper Sunday Times published former nuclear
technician Mordechai Vanunu<nowiki>'s</nowiki> story revealing details
of Israel's nuclear capability.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
ballast: Heavy material that is placed in the hold of a ship or in the
gondola of a balloon, to provide stability.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ballast)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
The philosopher forms his principles on an infinity of particular
observations. ... He does not confuse truth with plausibility; he
takes for truth what is true, for false what is false, for doubtful
what is doubtful, and probable what is probable. ... The philosophical
spirit is thus a spirit of observation and accuracy. -- Denis Diderot
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Denis_Diderot)
Kingdom Hearts is a series of action role-playing games developed and
published by Square Enix (formerly Square). It is the result of a
collaboration between Square and Disney Interactive Studios, and is
under the direction of Tetsuya Nomura, a longtime Square character
designer. Kingdom Hearts is a crossover of various Disney settings
based in a universe made specifically for the series. In addition, it
has an all-star voice cast which included many of the Disney
characters' original voice actors. Characters from Square Enix's Final
Fantasy series also make appearances and interact with the player and
Disney characters. The series centers around the main character Sora's
search for his friends and his encounters with Disney and Final
Fantasy characters on their worlds. The Kingdom Hearts series
currently consists of four games across different video game
platforms, though future titles are planned. Most of the games in the
series have been both critically acclaimed and commercially
successful, though each installment has seen different levels of
success. As of December 2006, the Kingdom Hearts series has shipped
over ten million copies worldwide, with 2.0 million copies in PAL
regions, 3.0 million copies in Japan, and 5.6 million copies in North
America. The video games have also been adapted into a manga series as
well as a novel series.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_Hearts_%28series%29
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1830:
Belgian Revolution: A provisional government in Brussels declared
the creation of the independent and neutral state of Belgium, in
revolt against the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_Revolution)
1910:
Manuel II, the last King of Portugal, fled to the United Kingdom
when a revolution erupted in Lisbon and his palace was shelled. The
Portuguese First Republic was proclaimed the next day.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_II_of_Portugal)
1957:
Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit
the Earth, was launched by an R-7 rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome
near Tyuratam, Kazakh SSR.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_1)
1985:
Software developer Richard Stallman founded the Free Software
Foundation to support the free software movement.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Software_Foundation)
1993:
Russian Constitutional Crisis: Tanks bombarded the White House in
Moscow while demonstrators against President Boris Yeltsin rallied
outside.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Russian_constitutional_crisis)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
ballast: Heavy material that is placed in the hold of a ship or in the
gondola of a balloon, to provide stability.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ballast)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
Personally I do not resort to force — not even the force of law — to
advance moral reforms. I prefer education, argument, persuasion, and
above all the influence of example — of fashion. -- Rutherford B.
Hayes
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rutherford_B._Hayes)
The 1981 Irish hunger strike was the culmination of a five-year
protest during the Troubles by Irish republican prisoners in Northern
Ireland. The protest began as the blanket protest in 1976, when the
British government withdrew Special Category Status for convicted
paramilitary prisoners. In 1978 the dispute escalated into the dirty
protest, where prisoners refused to wash and covered the walls of
their cells with excrement. 1980 saw seven prisoners participate in
the first hunger strike, which ended after 53 days. The second hunger
strike took place in 1981, and was a showdown between the prisoners
and the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. One hunger striker,
Bobby Sands, was elected as a Member of Parliament during the strike,
prompting media interest from around the world. By the end of the
strike, ten prisoners had starved themselves to death including Sands,
and 100,000 people attended his funeral. The strike radicalised
nationalist politics, and was the driving force that enabled Sinn Féin
to become a mainstream political party.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_Irish_hunger_strike
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1283:
Dafydd ap Gruffydd the Prince of Wales, the last native ruler of
Wales to resist English domination, was executed by drawing and
quartering.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dafydd_ap_Gruffydd)
1918:
World War I: Following his armed forces' defeat to the Allied
Powers, Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria abdicated in favor of his son
Boris III.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_I_of_Bulgaria)
1929:
King Alexander I renamed the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and changed its subdivisions from the 33
oblasts to nine new banovinas.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Yugoslavia)
1990:
German reunification (reunited country flag pictured): The five
re-established German states (Bundesländer) of East Germany formally
joined West Germany.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_reunification)
1993:
Soldiers from Malaysian, Pakistani and U.S. armed forces attempted
to capture Somalian warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid in the Battle of
Mogadishu.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mogadishu_%281993%29)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
ruddy: Reddish in color, especially of the face, sky, or fire.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ruddy)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
I'm an optimist. In order to be libertarian, you have to be an
optimist. You have to have a benign view of human nature, to believe
that human beings left to their own devices are basically good. But
I'm not so sure about human institutions, and I think the real point
of argument here is whether or not large corporations are human
institutions or some other entity we need to be thinking about
curtailing. Most libertarians are worried about government but not
worried about business. I think we need to be worrying about business
in exactly the same way we are worrying about government. -- John
Perry Barlow
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Perry_Barlow)
The Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra railway line is a commuter railway
line in the eastern and southern suburbs of Sydney, Australia that is
part of Sydney's CityRail rail network. Along with the South Coast
Line, an intercity line that uses the Illawarra Line tracks out of
Sydney, the line was constructed in the 1880s to Wollongong to take
advantage of agricultural and mining potentials in the Illawarra area.
In 1926, it became the first railway in New South Wales to run
electric train services. Today the railway consists of three connected
lines: the original Illawarra Line; a branch line from Sutherland to
Cronulla (the Cronulla Line), which opened on a former tramway
alignment in 1939; and an underground rail link between the Sydney CBD
and Bondi Junction, the Eastern Suburbs Line, which opened in 1979.
The railway currently operates as a relatively high-frequency
independent line, and has been noted by the New South Wales Government
as the most reliable line in Sydney.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Suburbs_%26_Illawarra_railway_line%2C_…
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1535:
French explorer Jacques Cartier sailed along the St. Lawrence River
and reached an Iroquois fort on the island now known as Montreal.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Montreal)
1835:
Mexican dragoons dispatched to disarm settlers at Gonzales, Texas
encountered stiff resistance from a Texian militia in the Battle of
Gonzales, the first armed engagement of the Texas Revolution.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gonzales)
1928:
Saint Josemaría Escrivá founded Opus Dei, a worldwide organization
of lay members of the Roman Catholic Church.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus_Dei)
1941:
World War II: Nazi German forces began Operation Typhoon, an all-out
offensive against Moscow, starting the three-month long Battle of
Moscow.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Moscow)
1992:
In response to a prison riot, military police stormed the Carandiru
Penitentiary in São Paulo, Brazil, killing at least 100 prisoners.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carandiru_massacre)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
frolic: To romp; to behave playfully and uninhibitedly.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/frolic)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
If there must be a god in the house, must be,Saying things in the room
and on the stair,Let him move as the sunlight moves on the floor,Or
moonlight, silently, as Plato's ghostOr Aristotle's skeleton. Let him
hang outHis stars on the wall. He must dwell quietly. -- Wallace
Stevens --
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wallace_Stevens)
The House with Chimaeras is a major Art Nouveau building in Kiev, the
capital of Ukraine. It was built in the period of 1901–1902 by noted
architect Vladislav Gorodetsky, who was regarded as the Gaudí of Kiev.
The building derives its popular name from its ornate decorations
depicting various scenes of exotic animals and hunting scenes, as
Gorodetsky was an avid hunter. It is situated on No. 10, Bankova
Street, across from the President of Ukraine's office in the historic
Pechersk neighborhood. Since 2005 it has been used as a presidential
residence for official and diplomatic ceremonies.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_with_Chimaeras
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1890:
At the urging of preservationist John Muir, the United States
Congress established Yosemite National Park in California.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosemite_National_Park)
1949:
Chinese Civil War: Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong
proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Republic_of_China)
1964:
Tōkaidō Shinkansen, the first Shinkansen line of high-speed railways
in Japan, opened. (0 Series Shinkansen train pictured)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinkansen)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
namesake: One who is named after another, or for whom another is
named.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/namesake)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
Creators, makers of the new, can never become obsolete, for in the
arts there is no correct answer. The story of discoverers could be
told in simple chronological order, since the latest science replaces
what went before. But the arts are another story — a story of infinite
addition. We must find order in the random flexings of the
imagination. -- Daniel J. Boorstin
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_J._Boorstin)