British anti-invasion preparations of World War II entailed a large
scale programme of military and civilian mobilisation in response to
the threat of invasion by German armed forces in 1940 and 1941. The
army needed to recover from the defeat of the British Expeditionary
Force in France and one and a half million men were enrolled as
part-time soldiers in the Home Guard. The rapid construction of field
fortifications transformed much of Britain, especially southern
England, into a prepared battlefield. Short of heavy weapons and
equipment, the British had to make the best use of whatever was
available. The German invasion plan, known to English speakers as
Operation Sealion, was never taken beyond the preliminary assembly of
forces stage. Today, very little remains of Britain's anti-invasion
preparations. Only reinforced concrete structures such as pillboxes
are common and even these have, until very recently, been
unappreciated as historical monuments.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_anti-invasion_preparations_of_World_Wa…
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1301:
The Árpád dynasty, who ruled in Hungary since the late 9th century,
ended with the death of King Andrew III.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81rp%C3%A1d_dynasty)
1724:
Philip V, the first Bourbon ruler of Spain, abdicated the throne to
his eldest son Louis.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_V_of_Spain)
1761:
The Afghans led by Ahmad Shah Abdali defeated the French-supplied
and trained Maratha troops at the Third Battle of Panipat in Panipat,
present-day Haryana, India.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Panipat_%281761%29)
1814:
Sweden and Denmark–Norway signed the Treaty of Kiel, whereby
Frederick VI of Denmark, a loser in the Napoleonic Wars, ceded Norway
to Sweden in return for the Swedish holdings in Pomerania.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Kiel)
1939:
Norway claimed Queen Maud Land in Antarctica as a dependent
territory.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Maud_Land)
1952:
Today, the world's first morning/breakfast television show, debuted
on the American television network NBC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Today_%28NBC_program%29)
2004:
The national flag of Georgia, the so-called Five Cross Flag, was
restored to official use after a hiatus of some 500 years.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Georgia_%28country%29)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
teratoid: (genetics, medicine) Monster-like, exhibiting abnormal
development.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/teratoid)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
At no time are we ever in such complete possession of a journey, down
to its last nook and cranny, as when we are busy with preparations for
it. After that, there remains only the journey itself, which is
nothing but the process through which we lose our ownership of it. --
Yukio Mishima
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Yukio_Mishima)
The Boshin War was a civil war in Japan, fought from 1868 to 1869
between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and those seeking to
return political power to the imperial court. The war found its
origins in dissatisfaction among many nobles and young samurai with
the Shogunate's handling of foreigners following the opening of Japan
the prior decade. An alliance of southern samurai and court officials
secured the cooperation of the young Emperor Meiji, who declared the
abolition of the two-hundred-year-old Shogunate. Military movements by
imperial forces and partisan violence in Edo led Tokugawa Yoshinobu,
the sitting shogun, to launch a military campaign to seize the
emperor's court at Kyoto. The military tide rapidly turned in favor of
the smaller but relatively modernized imperial faction, and after a
series of battles culminating in the surrender of Edo, Yoshinobu
personally surrendered. The Tokugawa remnant retreated to northern
Honshū and later to Hokkaidō, where they founded the Ezo republic.
Defeat at the Battle of Hakodate broke this last holdout and left the
imperial rule supreme throughout the whole of Japan, completing the
military phase of the Meiji Restoration. Around 120,000 men were
mobilized during the conflict, and of these about 3,500 were killed.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boshin_War
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1787:
German-born British astronomer and composer William Herschel
discovered the Uranian moons Oberon and Titania. They were later named
by his son John after the King and the Queen of the Faeries from
William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream, respectively.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberon_%28moon%29)
1922:
Insulin was first administered to a human patient with diabetes at
the Toronto General Hospital in Toronto, Canada.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin)
1923:
Troops from France and Belgium invaded the Ruhr Area to force the
German Weimar Republic to pay its reparation payments in the aftermath
of World War I.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_the_Ruhr)
1964:
In a landmark report, U.S. Surgeon General Luther Leonidas Terry
issued the warning that smoking may be hazardous for one's health,
concluding that it has a causative role in lung cancer, chronic
bronchitis, emphysema, and other illnesses.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_Leonidas_Terry)
1986:
The Gateway Bridge in Brisbane, Australia, at the time the longest
prestressed concrete free cantilever bridge in the world, opened.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_Bridge%2C_Brisbane)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
malodorous: Having a bad odor.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/malodorous)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
I do indeed disbelieve that we or any other mortal men can attain on a
given day to absolutely incorrigible and unimprovable truth about such
matters of fact as those with which religions deal. But I reject this
dogmatic ideal not out of a perverse delight in intellectual
instability. I am no lover of disorder and doubt as such. Rather do I
fear to lose truth by this pretension to possess it already wholly. --
William James
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_James)
During the Swedish emigration to the United States in the 19th and
early 20th centuries, about 1.3 million Swedes left Sweden for the
United States of America. While the virgin land of the U.S. frontier
was a magnet for the rural poor all over Europe, some factors
encouraged Swedish emigration in particular. The religious repression
practiced by the Swedish Lutheran State Church was widely resented, as
was the social conservatism and class snobbery of the Swedish
monarchy. Population growth and crop failures made conditions in the
Swedish countryside increasingly bleak. By contrast, reports from
early Swedish emigrants painted the American Midwest as an earthly
paradise, and praised American religious and political freedom and
undreamed-of opportunities to better one's condition. Swedish
migration to the United States peaked in the decades after the
American Civil War (1861–65). Most immigrants became classic pioneers,
clearing and cultivating the prairie, while others remained in the
cities, particularly Chicago. Many established Swedish Americans
visited the old country in the later 19th century, their narratives
illustrating the difference in customs and manners.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_emigration_to_the_United_States
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1839:
The French Academy of Sciences announced the Daguerreotype
photographic process, named after its inventor, French artist and
chemist Louis Daguerre.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daguerreotype)
1861:
The civilian ship Star of the West was fired upon as it attempted to
send supplies and reinforcements to Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor
before the American Civil War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_the_West)
1878:
Umberto I became King of Italy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umberto_I_of_Italy)
1916:
World War I: The last British troops evacuated from Gallipoli, as
the Ottoman Empire prevailed over of a joint British and French
operation to capture Istanbul at the Battle of Gallipoli.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gallipoli)
1923:
The autogyro, a type of rotorcraft invented by civil engineer and
pilot Juan de la Cierva, made its first successful flight at Cuatro
Vientos Airfield in Madrid, Spain.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/autogyro)
1972:
RMS Queen Elizabeth, an ocean liner which sailed the Atlantic Ocean
for the Cunard White Star Line, was destroyed by fire in Victoria
Harbour, Hong Kong.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Queen_Elizabeth)
2005:
Mahmoud Abbas was elected President of the Palestinian National
Authority to replace Yasser Arafat, who died in 2004.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_presidential_election%2C_2005)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
asinine: Failing to exercise intelligence or judgment.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/asinine)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of
others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion. --
Simone de Beauvoir
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Simone_de_Beauvoir)
The Chicxulub Crater is an ancient impact crater buried underneath the
Yucatán Peninsula, with its center located near the town of Chicxulub,
Yucatán, Mexico. The crater is over 180 kilometers (110 mi) in
diameter, making the feature one of the largest confirmed impact
structures in the world; the asteroid or comet whose impact formed the
crater was at least 10 km (6 mi) in diameter. The crater was named for
the nearby town, as well as for the literal Maya translation of the
name: "tail of the devil." The crater was discovered by Glen Penfield,
a geophysicist who had been working in the Yucatán while looking for
oil during the late 1970s. The presence of tektites, shocked quartz
and gravity anomalies, as well as the age of the rocks and isotope
analysis, show that this impact structure dates from the late
Cretaceous Period, roughly 65 million years ago. The impact associated
with the crater is implicated in causing the extinction of the
dinosaurs as suggested by the K–T boundary, although some critics
disagree that the impact was the sole reason and also debate whether
there was a single impact or whether the Chicxulub impactor was one of
several that may have struck the Earth at around the same time. Recent
evidence suggests that the impactor was a piece of a much larger
asteroid which broke up in a collision more than 160 million years
ago.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_Crater
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1815:
War of 1812: American forces led by General Andrew Jackson defeated
the British army at the Battle of New Orleans near New Orleans, two
weeks after the United States and Great Britain signed the Treaty of
Ghent to end the war.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_New_Orleans)
1889:
Statistician Herman Hollerith received a patent for his electric
tabulating machine.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Hollerith)
1956:
Operation Auca: Five Evangelical Christian missionaries from the
United States were killed by the Huaorani in the rainforest of Ecuador
shortly after making contact with them.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Auca)
1989:
Kegworth air disaster: British Midland Flight 092 crashed onto the
embankment of the M1 motorway near Kegworth, Leicestershire, UK,
killing 47 people and injuring 79 others.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kegworth_air_disaster)
2004:
RMS Queen Mary 2, at the time the longest, widest and tallest
passenger ship ever built, was christened by her namesake's
granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Queen_Mary_2)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
hinder: To keep back; to delay or impede.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hinder)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
If you cannot make knowledge your servant, make it your
friend. -- Baltasar Gracián
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Baltasar_Graci%C3%A1n)
Ælle is recorded in early sources as the first king of the South
Saxons, reigning in what is now Sussex, England from 477 to perhaps as
late as 514. The information about him is so limited that it cannot be
said with certainty that Ælle even existed. Ælle and three of his sons
are reported to have landed near what is now Selsey Bill—the exact
location is under the sea, and is probably what is now a sandbank
known as the Owers—and fought with the British. A victory in 491 at
what is now Pevensey is reported to have ended with the Saxons
slaughtering their opponents to the last man. Although the details of
these traditions cannot be verified, evidence from the place names of
Sussex does make it clear that it was an area with extensive and early
settlement by the Saxons, supporting the idea that this was one of
their early conquests. Ælle was the first king recorded by the eighth
century chronicler Bede to have held "imperium", or overlordship, over
other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. In the late ninth century Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle (around four hundred years after his time) Ælle is recorded
as being the first bretwalda, or "Britain-ruler", though there is no
evidence that this was a contemporary title. Ælle's death is not
recorded, and it is not known who succeeded him as king of the South
Saxons.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86lle_of_Sussex
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1558:
Francis, Duke of Guise retook Calais, England's last continental
possession, for France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calais)
1610:
Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei first observed three of Jupiter's
natural satellites through his telescope: Io, Europa, and Callisto
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Io_%28moon%29)
1785:
Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries became
the first to cross the English Channel by balloon.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Channel)
1924:
The International Hockey Federation, the global governing body for
field hockey, was founded in Paris in response to the sport's omission
from the 1924 Summer Olympics.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Hockey_Federation)
1979:
Phnom Penh, Cambodia fell to the People's Army of Vietnam,
effectively ending the Khmer Rouge regime under Pol Pot.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pol_Pot)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
perspicacious: Of acute discernment; having keen insight; mentally
perceptive.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/perspicacious)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
You cannot begin to preserve any species of animal unless you preserve
the habitat in which it dwells. Disturb or destroy that habitat and
you will exterminate the species as surely as if you had shot it. So
conservation means that you have to preserve forest and grassland,
river and lake, even the sea itself. This is not only vital for the
preservation of animal life generally, but for the future existence of
man himself — a point that seems to escape many people. -- Gerald
Durrell
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gerald_Durrell)
G. Ledyard Stebbins was an American botanist and geneticist who is
widely regarded as one of the leading evolutionary biologists and
botanists of the 20th century. His work with E. B. Babcock on the
genetic evolution of plant species, and his association with a group
of evolutionary biologists known as the Bay Area Biosystematists, led
him to develop a comprehensive synthesis of plant evolution
incorporating genetics. His most important publication was Variation
and Evolution in Plants, which combined genetics and Darwin's theory
of natural selection to describe plant speciation. It is regarded as
one of the main publications which formed the core of the modern
evolutionary synthesis and still provides the conceptual framework for
research in plant evolutionary biology; according to Ernst Mayr, "Few
later works dealing with the evolutionary systematics of plants have
not been very deeply affected by Stebbins' work." He also researched
and wrote widely on the role of hybridization and polyploidy in
speciation and plant evolution; his work in this area has had a
lasting influence on research in the field. From 1950, Stebbins was
instrumental in the establishment of the Department of Genetics at the
University of California, Davis, and was active in numerous
organizations involved in the promotion of evolution, and of science
in general.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._Ledyard_Stebbins
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1661:
Thomas Venner and the Fifth Monarchists unsuccessfully attempted to
seize control of London from the newly restored government of Charles
II.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Monarchists)
1781:
At the Battle of Jersey, British forces stopped France's last
attempt to militarily invade Jersey, the largest of the Channel
Islands in the English Channel.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Jersey)
1838:
Samuel Morse and his assistant Alfred Vail successfully tested the
electrical telegraph for the first time at Speedwell Ironworks in
Morristown, New Jersey, USA.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/electrical_telegraph)
1907:
Italian educator Maria Montessori opened her first school and day
care center for working class children in Rome.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Montessori)
1995:
A suspicious fire in a Manila flat led to the foiling of the Bojinka
Plot, a precursor to the September 11, 2001 attacks.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bojinka_Plot)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
incunabulum: A book, single sheet, or image that was printed in Europe
before the year 1501.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/incunabulum)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But
today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.
-- Khalil Gibran
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Khalil_Gibran)