"Manos" The Hands of Fate is a 1966 American horror film written,
directed and produced by El Paso fertilizer salesman Harold P. Warren.
Warren also starred in the film, alongside El Paso theater actors Tom
Neyman and John Reynolds. The film is best known for having been
featured in a 1993 episode of the television comedy series Mystery
Science Theater 3000, a show based on the premise of mocking B-movies,
which gave the film cult status. The plot of the film revolves
primarily around a vacationing family taking a road trip to a hotel.
After a long drive in the Texas desert, the family is trapped at a
lodge maintained by a polygamous pagan cult and they attempt to escape
as the cult's members decide what to do with them. Produced as a
result of a bet, Manos was an independent production by a crew that
had little or no background or experience in filmmaking and with a
very limited budget at their disposal. Upon its theatrical debut, the
film was critically slammed, and remained in obscurity until its
Mystery Science Theater appearance. It has since gained infamy as one
of the worst films ever made.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22Manos%22_The_Hands_of_Fate
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1649:
English Civil War: King Charles I was beheaded for high treason in
front of the Banqueting House in London.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I_of_England)
1826:
The Menai Suspension Bridge connecting the island of Anglesey and
the mainland of Wales, one of the world's first modern suspension
bridges, opened.
(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 shot Mahatma Gandhi, political and spiritual leader
of India and the Indian independence movement, to death with a Beretta
pistol at Birla House in Delhi.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi)
1968:
Vietnam War: Forces of the Viet Cong and the Vietnam People's Army
launched the Tết Offensive on Tết (Vietnamese New Year's Day) to
strike military and civilian command and control centers throughout
South Vietnam.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tet_Offensive)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
dichotomous: Dividing or branching into two equal pieces.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dichotomous)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
We do not see faith, hope, and charity as unattainable ideals, but we
use them as stout supports of a nation fighting the fight for freedom
in a modern civilization. Faith — in the soundness of democracy in the
midst of dictatorships. Hope — renewed because we know so well the
progress we have made. Charity — in the true spirit of that grand old
word. For charity literally translated from the original means love,
the love that understands, that does not merely share the wealth of
the giver, but in true sympathy and wisdom helps men to help
themselves. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt)
Archimedes was an ancient Greek mathematician, physicist, astronomer
and engineer. Although little is known of his life, he is regarded as
one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity. Among his
advances in physics are the foundations of hydrostatics and the
explanation of the principle of the lever. His early use of calculus
included the first known summation of an infinite series with a method
that is still used today. He is also credited with designing
innovative machines, including weapons and the screw pump that bears
his name. He is best known for allegedly exclaiming "Eureka!" after
discovering what is known today as Archimedes' principle. Archimedes
died during the Siege of Syracuse, when he was killed by a Roman
soldier despite orders that he should not be harmed. The relatively
few copies of his treatises that survived through the Middle Ages were
an influential source of ideas for scientists during the Renaissance.
The historians of Ancient Rome showed a strong interest in Archimedes
and wrote accounts of his life and works, while the discovery of
previously unknown works by Archimedes in the Archimedes Palimpsest
has provided new insights into how he obtained mathematical results.
Carl Friedrich Gauss is said to have remarked that Archimedes was one
of the three epoch-making mathematicians, with the others being Sir
Isaac Newton and Ferdinand Eisenstein.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
904:
Sergius III came out of retirement to take over the papacy from the
deposed antipope Christopher.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Sergius_III)
1850:
U.S. Senator Henry Clay introduced the Compromise of 1850, a series
of laws designed to balance the interests between the slaveholding
Southern United States and the free states of the north.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compromise_of_1850)
1856:
The Victoria Cross was created, originally to recognise acts of
valour by British and Commonwealth military personnel during the
Crimean War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Cross)
1886:
German engine designer and engineer Karl Benz filed a patent for the
Motorwagen (replica pictured), the first purpose-built,
gasoline-driven automobile.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Benz)
2002:
In his State of the Union Address, U.S. President George W. Bush
described governments that he accused of sponsoring terrorism and
seeking weapons of mass destruction as an "axis of evil", specifically
naming Iran, Iraq and North Korea.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/axis_of_evil)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
jeremiad: A long speech or prose work that bitterly laments the state
of society and its morals, and often contains a prophecy of its coming
downfall.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jeremiad)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
The fear of freedom is strong in us. We call it chaos or anarchy, and
the words are threatening. We live in a true chaos of contradicting
authorities, an age of conformism without community, of proximity
without communication. We could only fear chaos if we imagined that it
was unknown to us, but in fact we know it very well. -- Germaine Greer
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Germaine_Greer)
Hamlet is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, probably written between
1599 and 1601. Set in Denmark, the play tells how Prince Hamlet exacts
revenge on his uncle for murdering the previous king, Hamlet's father.
Hamlet's uncle has since stolen the throne and taken Hamlet's mother,
the dead king's widow, as his wife. The play vividly charts the course
of real and feigned madness—from overwhelming grief to seething
rage—and explores themes of treachery, incest, and moral corruption.
Despite much literary detective work, the exact year of writing
remains in dispute. Three different early versions of the play
survived, which are known as the First Quarto, the Second Quarto, and
the First Folio. Each has lines, and even scenes, that are missing
from the others. Shakespeare probably based Hamlet on an Indo-European
legend—preserved by a 13th-century chronicler, and retold by a
16th-century scholar—and a lost Elizabethan play known today as the
Ur-Hamlet. The play's dramatic structure and Shakespeare's depth of
characterisation mean that Hamlet can be analysed and interpreted—and
argued about—from many perspectives. Hamlet is by far Shakespeare's
longest play, and among the most powerful and influential tragedies in
the English language. The title role was almost certainly created for
Richard Burbage, the leading tragedian of Shakespeare's time; in the
four hundred years since, it has been played by the greatest actors,
and sometimes actresses, of each successive age.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1343:
Pope Clement VI issued the papal bull Unigenitus to justify the
power of the pope and the use of indulgences.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Clement_VI)
1888:
Two weeks after a group of over thirty explorers and scientists met
in Washington, D.C. to organize "a society for the increase and
diffusion of geographical knowledge," the National Geographic Society,
publisher of the National Geographic Magazine, was incorporated.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Geographic_Society)
1945:
The Soviet Red Army liberated over 7,500 prisoners left behind by
Nazi personnel in the Auschwitz concentration camp (entrance pictured)
in Oświęcim, Poland.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp)
1967:
The Apollo 1 spacecraft was destroyed by fire at the Kennedy Space
Center in Florida, killing astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White and
Roger Chaffee.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_1)
1973:
The Paris Peace Accords were signed in Paris, temporarily ending the
Vietnam War with a ceasefire. North Vietnam would later violate the
treaty one year later when it attacked South Vietnam on December 13
1974.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Peace_Accords)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
autological: (grammar) Of a adjective, describing itself.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/autological)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"In that direction," the Cat said, waving its right paw round, "lives
a Hatter: and in that direction," waving the other paw, "lives a March
Hare. Visit either you like: they're both mad." "But I don't want to
go among mad people," Alice remarked. "Oh, you can't help that," said
the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad." "How do you know
I'm mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't
have come here." -- Lewis Carroll in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lewis_Carroll)
Stede Bonnet was an early 18th-century Barbadian pirate, sometimes
called "the gentleman pirate". Because of marital problems, Bonnet
turned to piracy in the summer of 1717. He bought a sailing vessel,
named it Revenge, and traveled with his paid crew along the American
eastern seaboard, capturing other vessels and burning down Barbadian
ships. After arriving in Nassau, Bonnet met the infamous pirate
Blackbeard. Incapable of leading his crew, Bonnet temporarily ceded
his ship's command to Blackbeard. Before separating in December 1717,
Blackbeard and Bonnet plundered and captured merchant ships along the
East Coast. After Bonnet failed to capture the Protestant Caesar, his
crew abandoned him to join Blackbeard on the Queen Anne's Revenge.
Bonnet stayed on Blackbeard's ship as a guest, and did not command a
crew again until summer 1718, when he was pardoned by North Carolina
governor Charles Eden and received clearance to go privateering
against Spanish shipping. By July 1718, he had returned to piracy. In
late August and September of that year, Colonel William Rhett led a
naval expedition against pirates on the Cape Fear River. Rhett and
Bonnet's men fought each other for hours, but the outnumbered pirates
ultimately surrendered. Rhett arrested the pirates and brought them to
Charleston in early October. Bonnet was brought to trial, and
sentenced to death. After his request for clemency was turned down,
Bonnet was hanged in Charleston on December 10, 1718.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stede_Bonnet
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1368:
Zhu Yuanzhang ascended to the throne of China as the Hongwu Emperor,
initiating Ming Dynasty rule over China that would last for three
centuries.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming_Dynasty)
1656:
Under the pseudonym Louis de Montalte, French mathematician,
physicist, and religious philosopher Blaise Pascal published the first
of his Lettres provinciales, attacking the Jesuits and their use of
casuistic reasoning.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lettres_provinciales)
1912:
Twelve nations signed the International Opium Convention, the first
international drug control treaty, to regulate the production and
distribution of opiates.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Opium_Convention)
1968:
USS Pueblo was seized by North Korean forces, who claimed that it
had violated their territorial waters while spying.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Pueblo_%28AGER-2%29)
2001:
Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident: Seven people attempted to
set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square on the eve of Chinese New
Year, an act that many people claim was staged by the Communist Party
of China to frame Falun Gong and escalate the persecution.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_self-immolation_incident)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
crwth: (historic, UK) An archaic stringed instrument associated
particularly with Wales.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/crwth)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
Almost all our misfortunes in life come from the wrong
notions we have about the things that happen to us. To know men
thoroughly, to judge events sanely is, therefore, a great step towards
happiness. -- Stendhal
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stendhal)
The geology of the Lassen volcanic area presents a record of
sedimentation and volcanic activity in the area in and around Lassen
Volcanic National Park in Northern California. The park is located in
the southernmost part of the Cascade Mountain Range in the Pacific
Northwest region of the United States. Oceanic tectonic plates have
plunged below the North American Plate in this part of North America
for hundreds of millions of years. Heat from these subducting plates
has fed scores of volcanoes in California, Oregon, Washington and
British Columbia over at least the past 30 million years and is also
responsible for activities in the Lassen volcanic area. Between 2 and
4 million years ago, volcanic-derived mud flows called lahars streamed
down several major mountains that included nearby but now extinct
Mount Yana and Mount Maidu to become the Tuscan Formation. Phreatic
eruptions, dacite and andesite lava flows along with cinder cone
formation have persisted into modern times. Most notable of these is
the 18th century formation of Cinder Cone and the 1914 to 1921
eruption of Lassen Peak. The only activity since then has been the
constant bubbling of mud pots and steaming of fumaroles from the
various geothermal areas in Lassen Volcanic National Park. However,
there exists a potential for renewed vigorous volcanic activity that
could threaten life and property in the area.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_the_Lassen_volcanic_area
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
565:
Justinian the Great deposed Eutychius, Patriarch of Constantinople,
after he refused the Byzantine Emperor's order to adopt the tenets of
the Aphthartodocetae, a sect of Monophysites.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarch_Eutychius_of_Constantinople)
1863:
The January Uprising, the longest Polish, Belarusian and Lithuanian
uprising against the Russian Empire, broke out, originally as a
spontaneous protest by young Poles against conscription into the
Russian Army.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_Uprising)
1879:
Anglo-Zulu War: In the greatest British military defeat at the hands
of native forces in history, Zulu forces of King Cetshwayo fought to a
pyrrhic victory at the Battle of Isandlwana in Isandlwana, South
Africa.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Isandlwana)
1901:
After holding the title Prince of Wales for six decades, King Edward
VII ascended to the British throne, replacing Queen Victoria whose
death ended her reign that lasted 63 years and seven months, longer
than any other British monarch.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VII_of_the_United_Kingdom)
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)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
genuflect: To bend the knee, as in servitude or worship; grove.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/genuflect)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
So, we'll go no more a roving So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving, And the moon be still as bright.
For the sword outwears its sheath, And the soul wears out the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe, And love itself have rest.
-- George Gordon, Lord Byron
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lord_Byron)
Bruno Maddox is a British literary novelist and journalist who is best
known for his critically lauded novel My Little Blue Dress (2001) and
for his satirical magazine essays. After graduating from Harvard
University in 1992, Maddox began his career reviewing books for The
New York Times Book Review and The Washington Post Book World. In
early 1996, he was appointed to an editorship at SPY magazine and
within a few months he was promoted to editor-in-chief, a position he
held until the magazine shut down in 1998. Maddox wrote My Little Blue
Dress between 1999 and 2001. Since its publication, he has focused on
writing satirical essays for magazines such as GEAR and Travel +
Leisure; he also contributes a monthly humor column to Discover
magazine called "Blinded by Science", drawing on his early exposure to
science and technology. Maddox is likewise a contributing editor to
the American edition of The Week magazine.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Maddox
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
304:
Saint Agnes was executed for refusing the prefect Sempronius' wish
for her to marry his son. She is today the patron saint of girls,
chastity, virgins, and others.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Agnes)
1525:
The Anabaptist Movement was born when founders Conrad Grebel, Felix
Manz, and George Blaurock re-baptized each other and other followers
in Zürich, Switzerland, believing that the Christian religious
practice of infant baptism is invalid because a child cannot commit to
a religious faith.
(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 at the Place de la Révolution in Paris.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XVI_of_France)
1919:
The First Dáil Éireann first convened at the Mansion House in
Dublin, adopting a Declaration of Independence calling for a new
sovereign state: the Irish Republic.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_D%C3%A1il)
1968:
Vietnam War: The Vietnam People's Army attacked Khe Sanh Combat
Base, a U.S. Marines outpost in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam,
starting the Battle of Khe Sanh.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Khe_Sanh)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
bastion: A projecting part of a rampart or other fortification.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bastion)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
If the general government should persist in the measures
now threatened, there must be war. It is painful enough to discover
with what unconcern they speak of war and threaten it. They do not
know its horrors. I have seen enough of it to make me look upon it as
the sum of all evils. -- Stonewall Jackson
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stonewall_Jackson)
Jack Sheppard was a notorious English robber, burglar and thief of
early 18th-century London. Born into a poor family, he was apprenticed
as a carpenter but took to theft and burglary in 1723, with little
more than a year of his training to complete. He was arrested and
imprisoned five times in 1724 but escaped four times, making him a
notorious public figure, and wildly popular with the poorer classes.
Ultimately, he was caught, convicted, and hanged at Tyburn, ending his
brief criminal career after less than two years. The inability of the
noted "Thief-Taker General" (and thief) Jonathan Wild to control
Sheppard, and injuries suffered by Wild at the hands of Sheppard's
colleague, Joseph "Blueskin" Blake, led to Wild's downfall. Sheppard
was as renowned for his attempts to escape justice as for his crimes.
He returned to the public consciousness in around 1840, when William
Harrison Ainsworth wrote a novel entitled Jack Sheppard, with
illustrations by George Cruikshank. The popularity of his tale, and
the fear that others would be drawn to emulate his behaviour, led the
authorities to refuse to license any plays in London with "Jack
Sheppard" in the title for forty years.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Sheppard
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1320:
After reuniting Poland, Władysław the Short (sarcophagus figure
pictured) was crowned king in Kraków.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Poland_%28966%E2%80%931385%29)
1885:
LaMarcus Adna Thompson, sometimes called the "Father of Gravity",
patented the roller coaster.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/roller_coaster)
1921:
The first Turkish Constitution was ratified by the Grand National
Assembly, making fundamental changes in Turkey by enshrining the
principle of national sovereignty.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Constitution_of_1921)
1942:
World War II: At the Wannsee Conference held in the Berlin suburb of
Wannsee, senior Nazi German officials decided the "Final Solution to
the Jewish Question", accelerating The Holocaust.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wannsee_Conference)
1990:
Black January: The Soviet Red Army violently cracked down on Azeri
pro-independence demonstrations in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_January)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
redolent: Fragrant or aromatic; having a sweet scent.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/redolent)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
I love child things because there's so much mystery when you're a
child. When you're a child, something as simple as a tree doesn't make
sense. You see it in the distance and it looks small, but as you go
closer, it seems to grow — you haven't got a handle on the rules when
you're a child. We think we understand the rules when we become adults
but what we really experienced is a narrowing of the imagination.
-- David Lynch
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Lynch)
The Tuck School of Business is the graduate business school of
Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Founded in
1900, Tuck is the oldest graduate school of business in the world, and
was the first institution to offer master's degrees in business
administration. It is one of six Ivy League business schools, and it
consistently ranks in the top ten of national business school
rankings. Tuck grants only one degree, the Master of Business
Administration, alongside shorter programs for executives and recent
college graduates, as well as opportunities for dual degrees with
other institutions. The school places a heavy emphasis on its
tight-knit and residential character, and has a student population
that hovers near 500 students and a full-time faculty of 46. Tuck
claims over 8,400 living alumni in a variety of fields, and currently
enjoys the highest rate of alumni donation of any business school in
the United States.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuck_School_of_Business
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1764:
English radical and politician John Wilkes was expelled from the
British Parliament and declared an outlaw for seditious libel.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wilkes)
1817:
An army of over 5,400 soldiers led by General José de San Martín
crossed the Andes from Argentina to liberate Chile and then Peru from
Spanish rule.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_de_San_Mart%C3%ADn)
1839:
The Royal Marines landed at Aden to occupy the territory and stop
attacks by pirates against the British East India Company's shipping
to India. The city in present-day Yemen remained under British control
until 1967.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aden)
1935:
In Chicago, Coopers Inc. sold the world's first briefs, a new style
of men's undergarment.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/undergarment)
1977:
Iva Toguri, allegedly a Tokyo Rose, a generic name given by Allied
forces during World War II to approximately twenty English-speaking
female broadcasters of Japanese propaganda, was granted a full pardon
by U.S. President Gerald Ford.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iva_Toguri_D%27Aquino)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
impecunious: Lacking money.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/impecunious)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
From childhood's hour I have not been As others were — I have not seen
As others saw — I could not bring My passions from a common spring —
From the same source I have not taken My sorrow — I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone — And all I lov'd — I lov'd alone.
-- Edgar Allan Poe
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edgar_Allan_Poe)
The SR Merchant Navy Class was a class of air-smoothed 4-6-2 Pacific
steam locomotive designed for the Southern Railway by Oliver Bulleid.
The Pacific design was chosen in preference to several others proposed
by Bulleid. The first members of the class were constructed during the
Second World War, and the last of the 30 locomotives in 1949.
Incorporating a number of new developments in British steam locomotive
technology, the design of the Packets was among the first to use
welding in the construction process; this enabled easier fabrication
of components during the austerity of the war and post-war economies.
The locomotives featured thermic syphons and Bulleid's controversial,
innovative chain-driven valve gear. The class members were named after
the Merchant Navy shipping lines involved in the Battle of the
Atlantic, and latterly those which used Southampton Docks, an astute
publicity masterstroke by the Southern Railway, which operated
Southampton Docks during the period. Due to problems with some of the
more novel features of Bulleid's design, all members of the class were
rebuilt by British Railways during the late 1950s, losing their
air-smoothed casings in the process. The Packets operated until the
end of Southern steam in July 1967. A third of the class have survived
and can be seen on heritage railways throughout Great Britain.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SR_Merchant_Navy_Class
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1535:
Conquistador Francisco Pizarro founded Ciudad de los Reyes,
present-day Lima, Peru, as the capital of the lands he conquered for
the Spanish Crown.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Lima)
1778:
English explorer James Cook became the first known European to reach
the Sandwich Islands, now known as the Hawaiian Islands.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Islands)
1871:
Unification of Germany: A number of independent German states
unified into the German Empire, with King Wilhelm I of Prussia being
proclaimed as its first Emperor.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Empire)
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 2003 Canberra bushfires: Bushfires burning out of control began
blazing through residential areas of Canberra, Australia, eventually
killing four people, and damaging or destroying more than 500 homes.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Canberra_bushfires)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
peripatetic: One who walks about; a pedestrian; an itinerant.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/peripatetic)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take
to succeed. -- Charles de Montesquieu
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_de_Montesquieu)
The Alaska Mental Health Enabling Act of 1956 was an Act of Congress
passed to improve mental health care in the United States territory of
Alaska. Introduced in the House of Representatives by Alaska
Congressional Delegate Bob Bartlett in January 1956, it became the
focus of a major political controversy. The legislation was opposed by
a variety of far-right, anti-Communist and fringe religious groups,
prompting what was said to have been the biggest political controversy
seen on Capitol Hill since the early 1940s. Prominent opponents
nicknamed it the "Siberia Bill" and asserted that it was part of an
international Jewish, Roman Catholic or psychiatric conspiracy
intended to establish United Nations-run concentration camps in the
United States. With the sponsorship of the conservative Republican
senator Barry Goldwater, a modified version of the Act was approved
unanimously by the United States Senate in July 1956 after only ten
minutes of debate.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Mental_Health_Enabling_Act
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
929:
Emir Abd-ar-Rahman III of Cordoba declared himself caliph, thereby
establishing the Caliphate of Córdoba.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliphate_of_C%C3%B3rdoba)
1909:
The Nimrod Expedition led by Anglo-Irish explorer Ernest Shackleton
reached the approximate location of the South Magnetic Pole.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Shackleton)
1969:
Student Jan Palach set himself on fire in Wenceslas Square in Prague
to protest the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia one year earlier. He
died three days later from the third-degree burns he suffered.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Palach)
2006:
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was sworn in as President of Liberia, becoming
Africa's first female elected head of state.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Johnson-Sirleaf)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
epenthesis: (linguistics) The insertion of a phoneme, letter, or
syllable into a word, usually to satisfy the phonological constraints
of a language or poetic context.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/epenthesis)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
I don't want to express alienation. It isn't what I feel.
I'm interested in various kinds of passionate engagement. All my work
says be serious, be passionate, wake up. -- Susan Sontag
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Susan_Sontag)