Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived
by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the
War of 1812, the town of Hamilton has become the centre of a densely
populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario
known as the Golden Horseshoe. On January 1, 2001 the new City of
Hamilton was formed through amalgamation of the former City with the
constituent towns of the Hamilton-Wentworth Regional Municipality.
Since 1981, the metropolitan area has been listed as the ninth largest
in Canada and the third largest in Ontario. Traditionally, the local
economy has been led by the steel and heavy manufacturing industries.
Within the last decade, there has been a shift towards the service
sector, particularly health and sciences. The Hamilton Health Sciences
corporation employs nearly 10,000 staff and serves approximately 2.2
million people in the region. Hamilton is home to the Royal Botanical
Gardens, the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, the Bruce Trail,
McMaster University and several colleges. The Canadian Football
League's Hamilton Tiger-Cats play at Ivor Wynne Stadium, close to the
Canadian Football Hall of Fame. Partly because of its diverse
locations, numerous TV and film productions have been filmed in
Hamilton regulated by the Hamilton Film Liaison Office.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton%2C_Ontario
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1704:
Joint French and Native American forces destroyed Deerfield,
Massachusetts during Queen Anne's War, killing over fifty colonists.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1704_Raid_on_Deerfield)
1720:
Unable to establish a joint sovereignty similar to England's William
and Mary, Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden abdicated in favour of her
husband, who became Frederick I.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulrika_Eleonora_of_Sweden)
1940:
At the 12th Academy Awards ceremony, Hattie McDaniel became the
first African American to be awarded an Oscar, winning Best Supporting
Actress for her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hattie_McDaniel)
1944:
The Admiralty Islands campaign during the Pacific War of World War
II began when American forces assaulted Los Negros Island, the third
largest of the Admiralty Islands off the coast of the Papua New Guinea
mainland.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiralty_Islands_campaign)
1960:
Playboy Enterprises founder Hugh Hefner opened his first Playboy
Club in Chicago, featuring the first service uniform registered with
the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playboy_Club)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
aforethought: Premeditated; planned ahead of time.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aforethought)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
God bless the King! (I mean our faith's defender!)
God bless! (No harm in blessing) the Pretender.
But who Pretender is, and who is King,
God bless us all! That's quite another thing!
-- John Byrom
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Byrom)
There was considerable Axis naval activity in Australian waters during
World War II. A total of 54 German and Japanese warships and
submarines entered Australian waters between 1940 and 1945 and
attacked ships, ports and other targets. Among the best-known attacks
are the sinking of HMAS Sydney by a German raider in November 1941,
the bombing of Darwin by Japanese naval aircraft in February 1942, and
the Japanese midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour in May 1942. In
addition, many Allied merchant ships were damaged or sunk off the
Australian coast by submarines and mines. The level of Axis naval
activity peaked in the first half of 1942 when Japanese submarines
conducted anti-shipping patrols off Australia's coast and Japanese
naval aviation attacked several towns in northern Australia. The
Japanese submarine offensive against Australia was renewed in the
first half of 1943 but was broken off as the Allies pushed the
Japanese onto the defensive. Few Axis naval vessels operated in
Australian waters in 1944 and 1945 and those that did had only a
limited impact. Due to the episodic nature of the Axis attacks and the
relatively small number of ships and submarines committed, Germany and
Japan were not successful in disrupting Australian shipping.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_naval_activity_in_Australian_waters
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1594:
The King of Navarre was crowned King Henry IV of France at the
Cathedral of Chartres near Paris, beginning the Bourbon dynasty.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_IV_of_France)
1801:
Washington, D.C., a new planned city and capital of the United
States, was placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Washington%2C_D.C.)
1933:
The Reichstag building in Berlin, the assembly location of the
German Parliament, was set on fire, a pivotal event in the
establishment of the Nazi regime in Germany.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_fire)
1940:
American biochemists Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discovered the
radioactive isotope Carbon-14, which today is used extensively as
basis of the radiocarbon dating method to date archaeological,
geological, and hydrogeological samples.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon-14)
1976:
The rebel movement Polisario Front proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab
Democratic Republic in Western Sahara.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahrawi_Arab_Democratic_Republic)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
muse: To become lost in thought, to ponder.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/muse)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
The heights by great men reached and keptWere not
attained by sudden flight,But they, while their companions slept,Were
toiling upward in the night. -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_Wadsworth_Longfellow)
Europa is the sixth-nearest and fourth-largest natural satellite of
the planet Jupiter. Europa was discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei
(and independently by Simon Marius), and named for a mythical
Phoenician noblewoman, Europa, who was courted by Zeus. It is the
smallest of the four Galilean moons - slightly smaller than Earth's
Moon and is the sixth-largest moon in the Solar System. Europa has a
tenuous atmosphere composed primarily of molecular oxygen. Its surface
is composed of ice and is one of the smoothest in the Solar System.
This young surface is striated by cracks and streaks, while craters
are relatively infrequent. The apparent youth and smoothness of the
surface have led to the hypothesis that a water ocean exists beneath
it, which could conceivably serve as an abode for extraterrestrial
life. Although by 2007 only flyby missions have visited the moon, the
intriguing character of Europa has led to several ambitious
exploration proposals. The Galileo mission provided the bulk of
current data on Europa, while the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter, canceled
in 2005, would have targeted Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Conjecture
on extraterrestrial life has ensured a high profile for the moon and
has led to steady lobbying for future missions.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_%28moon%29
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1266:
King Manfred of Sicily was killed at the Battle of Benevento,
fighting Angevin forces led by Charles of Anjou near Benevento, Italy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Benevento)
1815:
Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from Elba, a remote island off the coast
of Italy where he was exiled to after the signing of the Treaty of
Fontainebleau one year earlier.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_I_of_France)
1935:
In Daventry, England, Scottish engineer and inventor Robert
Watson-Watt first demonstrated the use of radar.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Watson-Watt)
1991:
Nexus, the world's first web browser and WYSIWYG HTML editor, was
introduced by British computer programmer Tim Berners-Lee, the
inventor of the World Wide Web.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WorldWideWeb)
1993:
A bomb-laden van exploded in the underground garage of the World
Trade Center in New York City, killing six and injuring more than one
thousand people.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Center_bombing)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
gelid: Very cold; icy or frosty.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gelid)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
A man is not idle, because he is absorbed in thought.
There is a visible labour and there is an invisible labour.
-- Victor Hugo in Les Misérables
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Victor_Hugo)
The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device. Though
not a movie projector—it was designed for films to be viewed
individually through the window of a cabinet housing its
components—the Kinetoscope introduced the basic approach that would
become the standard for all cinematic projection before the advent of
video: it creates the illusion of movement by conveying a strip of
perforated film bearing sequential images over a light source with a
high-speed shutter. First described in conceptual terms by U.S.
inventor Thomas Edison in 1888, it was largely developed by his
employee William Kennedy Laurie Dickson between 1889 and 1892. In
April 1894, the first commercial exhibition of motion pictures in
history was given in New York City, using ten Kinetoscopes.
Instrumental to the birth of American movie culture, the Kinetoscope
also had a major impact in Europe; its influence abroad was magnified
by Edison's decision not to seek international patents on the device,
facilitating numerous imitations of and improvements on the
technology.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetoscope
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1570:
Pope Pius V issued the papal bull Regnans in Excelsis to
excommunicate Queen Elizabeth I and her followers in the Church of
England.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regnans_in_Excelsis)
1836:
American inventor and industrialist Samuel Colt received a patent
for a "revolving gun", later known as a revolver.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/revolver)
1956:
In his speech On the Personality Cult and its Consequences to the
20th Party Congress, Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev denounced the
personality cult and dictatorship of his predecessor Joseph Stalin.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Personality_Cult_and_its_Consequences)
1986:
Corazon Aquino was inaugurated as the first female President of the
Philippines after Ferdinand Marcos fled the nation after twenty years
of rule because of the People Power Revolution.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corazon_Aquino)
1992:
Nagorno-Karabakh War: Armenian armed forces killed over 600 ethnic
Azerbaijani civilians from the town of Khojali in the Nagorno-Karabakh
region of Azerbaijan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khojaly_Massacre)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
plenipotentiary: A person invested with full power, especially as the
agent or ambassador of a sovereign.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/plenipotentiary)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
Every intelligent child is an amateur anthropologist. The
first thing such a child notices is that adults don't make sense. --
John Leonard
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Leonard)
Ban Ki-moon is a South Korean diplomat and the current
Secretary-General of the United Nations. Before becoming
Secretary-General, Ban was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry
of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations. He entered diplomatic
service the year he graduated college, accepting his first post in New
Delhi. In the foreign ministry he established a reputation for modesty
and competence. Ban was the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea
from January 2004 to November 2006. In February 2006 he began to
campaign for the office of Secretary-General. Ban was initially
considered to be a long shot for the office. As foreign minister of
Korea, however, he was able to travel to all of the countries that
were members of the United Nations Security Council, a manoeuvre that
turned him into the campaign's front runner. On October 13 2006, he
was elected to be the eighth Secretary-General by the United Nations
General Assembly. On January 1, 2007, he succeeded Kofi Annan, and
passed several major reforms regarding peacekeeping and UN employment
practices. Diplomatically, Ban has taken particularly strong views on
global warming, pressing the issue repeatedly with U.S. President
George W. Bush, and Darfur, where he helped persuade Sudanese
President Omar al-Bashir to allow peacekeeping troops to enter Sudan.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ban_Ki-moon
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
303:
Roman Emperor Diocletian's first "Edict against the Christians" was
published, beginning the Diocletianic Persecution, the last and most
severe episode of the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocletianic_Persecution)
1582:
Pope Gregory XIII issued the papal bull Inter gravissimas to
promulgate the Gregorian calendar, a modification of the Julian
calendar in use since 45 BC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Gregory_XIII)
1803:
In their ruling in Marbury v. Madison, the U.S. Supreme Court
established judicial review in the United States.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marbury_v._Madison)
1848:
Amid a revolt, French King Louis-Philippe abdicated and escaped to
England, leading to the creation of the French Second Republic.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis-Philippe_of_France)
1946:
Colonel Juan Perón, founder of the political movement that became
known as Peronism, was elected to his first term as President of
Argentina.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Per%C3%B3n)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
burgeon: To grow or expand.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/burgeon)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
When you're young, you look at television and think,
There's a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But
when you get a little older, you realize that's not true. The networks
are in business to give people exactly what they want. That's a far
more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the
bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in
business to give people what they want. It's the truth. -- Steve Jobs
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs)
Hurricane Isis was the deadliest tropical cyclone and only hurricane
to make landfall during the 1998 Pacific hurricane season. The ninth
tropical storm and sixth hurricane of the season, Isis developed on
September 1 from the interaction between a tropical wave and a large
surface circulation to the southwest of Mexico. It moved northward,
striking the extreme southeastern portion of the Baja California
Peninsula before attaining hurricane status in the Gulf of California.
Isis made landfall at Topolobampo in the state of Sinaloa on September
3, and quickly lost its low-level circulation. The remnants persisted
for several days before dissipating in the U.S. state of Idaho. In
Mexico, Isis destroyed over 700 houses and killed 14 people, primarily
due to its heavy rainfall which peaked at over 20 inches (500 mm) in
southern Baja California Sur. The rainfall caused widespread damage to
roads and railways, stranding thousands of people. Moisture from the
remnants of Isis extended into the southwestern United States,
resulting in light rainfall, dozens of traffic accidents, and power
outages to thousands of residents in San Diego County.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Isis_%281998%29
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1898:
The United States Navy battleship USS Maine exploded and sank in
Havana, Cuba, killing more than 260 people and precipitating the
Spanish-American War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Maine_%28ACR-1%29)
1942:
World War II: Japanese forces led by General Tomoyuki Yamashita
captured Singapore, the largest surrender of British-led military
personnel in British history.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Singapore)
1971:
The British pound sterling and the Irish pound were decimalised on
what is called Decimal Day.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_Day)
1989:
The Soviet Union officially announced that all of its troops had
withdrawn from Afghanistan after a nine-year conflict.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_war_in_Afghanistan)
2003:
In one of the largest anti-war rallies in history, millions around
the world in approximately 800 cities took part in protests against
the impending invasion of Iraq.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_15%2C_2003_anti-war_protest)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
erinaceous: Of, pertaining to, or resembling a hedgehog.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/erinaceous)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in
wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people
was the object. This our convention understood to be the most
oppressive of all kingly oppressions, and they resolved to so frame
the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing
this oppression upon us. -- Abraham Lincoln
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln)
Irish phonology varies from dialect to dialect; there is no standard
pronunciation of the language. Irish phonology has been studied as a
discipline since the late 19th century, with numerous researchers
publishing descriptive accounts of dialects from all regions where the
language is spoken. More recently, theoretical linguists have also
turned their attention to Irish phonology, producing a number of
books, articles, and doctoral theses on the topic. One of the most
important aspects of Irish phonology is the fact that almost all
consonants appear in pairs, with one member of each pair being "broad"
and the other "slender". Broad consonants are velarized, that is, the
back of the tongue is pulled back and slightly up in the direction of
the soft palate while the consonant is being articulated. Slender
consonants are palatalized, which means the tongue is pushed up toward
the hard palate during the articulation. The contrast between broad
and slender consonants is crucial in Irish, because the meaning of a
word can change if a broad consonant is substituted for a slender
consonant or vice versa. Irish shares a number of phonological
characteristics with its nearest linguistic relatives, Scottish Gaelic
and Manx, as well as with Hiberno-English, the language with which it
is most closely in contact.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_phonology
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1689:
Glorious Revolution: Instead of James Francis Edward Stuart, the
Prince of Wales, acceding to the throne, his half-sister Mary and her
husband William were proclaimed co-rulers of England.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_II_of_England)
1815:
The Cambridge Union Society, one of the oldest debating societies in
the world, was founded at the University of Cambridge in Cambridge,
England.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Union_Society)
1867:
Work began on the covering of the Senne, burying Brussels' polluted
main waterway to allow urban renewal in the centre of the city.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/covering_of_the_Senne)
1880:
American inventor Thomas Edison observed the Edison Effect, which
later formed the basis of vacuum tube diodes designed by English
electrical engineer John Ambrose Fleming.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermionic_emission)
1945:
World War II: The Allies began the strategic bombing of Dresden in
Dresden, Saxony, Germany, resulting in a lethal firestorm which killed
tens of thousands of civilians.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War_II)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
concupiscent: Amorous, lustful; feeling sexy.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/concupiscent)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
Love has no uttermost, as the stars have no number and the sea no
rest. -- Eleanor Farjeon
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eleanor_Farjeon)
Las Meninas (Spanish for The Maids of Honour) is a painting of 1656 by
Diego Velázquez, the leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age, in the
Museo del Prado in Madrid. The work's complex and enigmatic
composition raises questions about reality and illusion, and creates
an uncertain relationship between the viewer and the figures depicted.
Because of these complexities, Las Meninas has been one of the most
widely analysed works in Western painting. Las Meninas shows a large
room in the Madrid palace of King Philip IV of Spain, and presents
several figures, most identifiable from the Spanish court, captured,
according to some commentators, in a particular moment as if in a
snapshot. Some figures look out of the canvas towards the viewer,
while others interact among themselves. The young Infanta Margarita is
surrounded by her entourage of maids of honour, chaperone, bodyguard,
and two dwarfs. Las Meninas has long been recognised as one of the
most important paintings in Western art history. The Baroque painter
Luca Giordano said that it represents the "theology of painting",
while in the 19th century Sir Thomas Lawrence called the work "the
philosophy of art".
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Meninas
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1862:
Domnitor Alexander John Cuza merged his two principalities,
Wallachia and Moldavia, to form the United Principalities (now
Romania).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_John_Cuza)
1885:
King Leopold II of Belgium established the Congo Free State as his
personal possession in Africa through his organization Association
Internationale Africaine and his private army, the Force Publique.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_II_of_Belgium)
1924:
Hourly Greenwich Time Signals from the Royal Greenwich Observatory
were first broadcast by the BBC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Observatory%2C_Greenwich)
1958:
A hydrogen bomb now known as the Tybee Bomb disappeared off the
shores of Tybee Island, Georgia after it was jettisoned during a
practice exercise when the bomber carrying it collided in midair with
a fighter plane.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tybee_Bomb)
2004:
The Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front captured Gonaïves,
Haiti, starting the 2004 Haitian rebellion against the government of
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Haitian_rebellion)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
dyspeptic: Of, relating to, or having dyspepsia or indigestion.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dyspeptic)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
Let’s talk sense to the American people. Let’s tell them the truth,
that there are no gains without pains, that we are now on the eve of
great decisions, not easy decisions, like resistance when you're
attacked, but a long, patient, costly struggle which alone can assure
triumph over the great enemies of man — war, poverty, and tyranny —
and the assaults upon human dignity which are the most grievous
consequences of each. -- Adlai Stevenson
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Adlai_Stevenson)
Las Meninas (Spanish for The Maids of Honour) is a painting of 1656 by
Diego Velázquez, the leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age, in the
Museo del Prado in Madrid. The work's complex and enigmatic
composition raises questions about reality and illusion, and creates
an uncertain relationship between the viewer and the figures depicted.
Because of these complexities, Las Meninas has been one of the most
widely analysed works in Western painting. Las Meninas shows a large
room in the Madrid palace of King Philip IV of Spain, and presents
several figures, most identifiable from the Spanish court, captured,
according to some commentators, in a particular moment as if in a
snapshot. Some figures look out of the canvas towards the viewer,
while others interact among themselves. The young Infanta Margarita is
surrounded by her entourage of maids of honour, chaperone, bodyguard,
and two dwarfs. Las Meninas has long been recognised as one of the
most important paintings in Western art history. The Baroque painter
Luca Giordano said that it represents the "theology of painting",
while in the 19th century Sir Thomas Lawrence called the work "the
philosophy of art".
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Meninas
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1862:
Domnitor Alexander John Cuza merged his two principalities,
Wallachia and Moldavia, to form the United Principalities (now
Romania).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_John_Cuza)
1885:
King Leopold II of Belgium established the Congo Free State as his
personal possession in Africa through his organization Association
Internationale Africaine and his private army, the Force Publique.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_II_of_Belgium)
1924:
Hourly Greenwich Time Signals from the Royal Greenwich Observatory
were first broadcast by the BBC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Observatory%2C_Greenwich)
1958:
A hydrogen bomb now known as the Tybee Bomb disappeared off the
shores of Tybee Island, Georgia after it was jettisoned during a
practice exercise when the bomber carrying it collided in midair with
a fighter plane.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tybee_Bomb)
2004:
The Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front captured Gonaïves,
Haiti, starting the 2004 Haitian rebellion against the government of
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Haitian_rebellion)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
dyspeptic: Of, relating to, or having dyspepsia or indigestion.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dyspeptic)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
Let’s talk sense to the American people. Let’s tell them the truth,
that there are no gains without pains, that we are now on the eve of
great decisions, not easy decisions, like resistance when you're
attacked, but a long, patient, costly struggle which alone can assure
triumph over the great enemies of man — war, poverty, and tyranny —
and the assaults upon human dignity which are the most grievous
consequences of each. -- Adlai Stevenson
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Adlai_Stevenson)
Knut is a captive-born polar bear who was born at the Zoologischer
Garten Berlin on 5 December 2006. Rejected by his mother at birth, he
was subsequently raised by zoo keepers. He was the first polar bear
cub to survive past infancy at the Berlin Zoo in over thirty years. At
one time the subject of international controversy, he became a popular
tourist attraction and commercial success. After the German tabloid
magazine Bild ran a quote from an animal rights activist that
seemingly called for the death of the young cub, a worldwide public
outrage was caused as fans rallied in support of his being hand-raised
by humans. Children protested outside the zoo, and many emails and
letters expressing sympathy for the cub's life were sent from around
the world. Knut became the center of a mass media phenomenon dubbed
"Knutmania" that spanned the globe and quickly spawned numerous toys,
media specials, DVDs, and books. Because of this, the cub was largely
responsible for a significant increase in revenue at the Berlin Zoo in
2007. Zoo attendance figures for the year increased by an estimated 30
percent, making the zoo the most profitable it has been in its 163
year history.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knut_%28polar_bear%29
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1703:
Forty-six of the Forty-Seven Ronin committed seppuku (ritual
suicide) in Edo, present-day Tokyo, as recompense for avenging the
death of their master, Daimyo of Akō Asano Naganori.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forty-Seven_Ronin)
1859:
German scholar Constantin von Tischendorf rediscovered the Codex
Sinaiticus, a 4th century uncial manuscript of the Greek Bible, in
Saint Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai in Egypt.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Sinaiticus)
1899:
An American soldier shot a Filipino soldier in Manila after a
misunderstanding occurred between the two, igniting the
Philippine-American War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine-American_War)
1945:
World War II: Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph
Stalin met at the Yalta Conference in Yalta on the Crimean Peninsula.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yalta_Conference)
1957:
USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine, logged her
60,000th nautical mile, matching the endurance of the fictional
Nautilus described in Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues
Under the Sea.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Nautilus_%28SSN-571%29)
_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:
frog in one's throat: (idiomatic) Hoarseness or the need to cough.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/frog_in_one's_throat)
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Wikiquote of the day:
Mistakes are part of the game. It's how well you recover from them,
that's the mark of a great player. -- Alice Cooper
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alice_Cooper)