Texas A&M University is a coeducational public research university
located in College Station, Texas. It is the flagship institution of
the Texas A&M University System. The seventh largest university in the
United States, A&M enrolls over 48,000 students in ten academic
colleges. Texas A&M's designation as a land, sea, and space grant
institution reflects a broad range of research with ongoing projects
funded by agencies such as the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science
Foundation, and the Office of Naval Research. The school ranks in the
top 20 American research institutes in terms of funding and has made
notable contributions to fields including animal cloning. The first
public institution of higher education in the state, the school opened
on October 4, 1876, as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of
Texas. The school's students, alumni and sports teams are known as
"Aggies". The main campus is one of the largest in America, spanning
5,200 acres (21 km2). It includes the George Bush Presidential Library.
Many students also observe the traditions of Texas A&M University,
which govern daily life as well as special occasions, including sports
events. Aggie sports teams compete in the Big XII Conference.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_A%26M_University>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1399:
Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, deposed Richard II to become
Henry IV of England, merging the Duchy of Lancaster with the crown.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_IV_of_England>
1744:
War of the Austrian Succession: The armies of France and Spain yielded
a phyrric victory over the Kingdom of Sardinia at the Battle of Madonna
dell'Olmo near Cuneo, Italy.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Madonna_dell%27Olmo>
1791:
The Magic Flute, one of the last operas composed by Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart, premiered at Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, Austria.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_Flute>
1939:
World War II: General Władysław Sikorski became Prime Minister of the
Polish government-in-exile.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C5%82adys%C5%82aw_Sikorski>
2005:
The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published controversial editorial
cartoons depicting Muhammad, sparking protests across the Muslim world
by many who viewed them as Islamophobic and blasphemous.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyllands-Posten_Muhammad_cartoons_controversy>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
yeoman (n):
1. An official providing honorable service in a royal or high noble
household.
2. A third in order of the feudal servant fighting class, below knight
and squire but above a page.
3. A subordinate, deputy, aide, or assistant.
4. (British) A former
class of small freeholders who farm their own land
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yeoman>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
If in thirst you drink water from a cup, you see God in it. Those who
are not in love with God will see only their own faces in it.
--Rumi
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rumi>
Vauxhall Bridge is a Grade II* listed steel and granite deck arch
bridge in central London. It crosses the River Thames in a north-west
south-east direction between Vauxhall on the south bank and Westminster
on the north bank. Opened in 1906, it replaced an earlier bridge,
originally known as Regent Bridge but later renamed Vauxhall Bridge,
built between 1809 and 1816 as part of a scheme for redeveloping the
south bank of the Thames. The original bridge was itself built on the
site of a former ferry. The building of both bridges was problematic,
with both the first and second bridges requiring multiple redesigns
from multiple architects. The original bridge, the first iron bridge
over the Thames, was built by a private company and operated as a toll
bridge before being taken into public ownership in 1879. The second
bridge, which took eight years to build, was the first in London to
carry trams and later one of the first two roads in London to have a
bus lane. In 1963 it was proposed to replace the bridge with a modern
development containing seven floors of shops, office space, hotel rooms
and leisure facilities supported above the river, but the plans were
abandoned due to costs. With the exception of alterations to the road
layout and the balustrade, the design and appearance of the current
bridge has remained almost unchanged since 1907. The bridge today is an
important part of London's road system and carries the A202 road across
the Thames.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vauxhall_Bridge>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1829:
The Metropolitan Police of Greater London, sometimes also referred to
as "Scotland Yard" after the location of its original headquarters, was
founded.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Police_Service>
1885:
One of the first practical electric tramways in the world, the
Blackpool tramway in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, opened.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tram>
1938:
At a conference in Munich, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, British
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, and French Prime Minister Édouard
Daladier reached a settlement, signing it at about 1:30 am the next
day, stipulating that Czechoslovakia must cede the Sudetenland to
Germany.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_Agreement>
1941:
The Holocaust: German Nazis aided by their collaborators began the Babi
Yar massacre in Kiev, Ukraine, killing over 30,000 Jewish civilians in
two days and thousands more in the months that followed.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babi_Yar>
1954:
Twelve countries signed a convention establishing the European
Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), currently the world's largest
particle physics laboratory.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERN>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
swagger (v):
1. To walk with a swaying motion; hence, to walk and act in a pompous,
consequential manner.
2. To boast or brag noisily; to be ostentatiously proud or
vainglorious
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/swagger>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is sad not to be loved, but it is much sadder not to be able to
love.
--Miguel de Unamuno
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Unamuno>
Imagination was an American fantasy and science fiction magazine
launched in October 1950 by Raymond Palmer's Clark Publishing Company.
The magazine was sold almost immediately to Greenleaf Publishing
Company, owned by William Hamling, who published and edited it from the
third issue, February 1951, for the rest of the magazine's life.
Hamling launched a sister magazine, Imaginative Tales, in 1954; both
ceased publication at the end of 1958 in the aftermath of major changes
in US magazine distribution due to the liquidation of American News
Company. The magazine was more successful than most of the numerous
science fiction titles launched in the late 1940s and early 1950s,
lasting a total of 63 issues. Despite this success, the magazine had a
reputation for low-quality space opera and adventure fiction, and
modern historians refer to it in dismissive terms. Hamling consciously
adopted an editorial policy oriented toward entertainment, asserting in
an early issue that "science fiction was never meant to be an
educational tour de force". Few of the stories from Imagination have
received recognition, but it did publish Robert Sheckley's first
professional sale, "Final Examination", in the May 1952 issue, and also
printed fiction by Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein and John Wyndham.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagination_%28magazine%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1066:
William the Conqueror and his fleet of around 600 ships landed at
Pevensey, Sussex, beginning the Norman conquest of England.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_conquest_of_England>
1542:
Portuguese explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, the first European to
travel along the coast of California, landed on what is now the City of
San Diego.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Rodr%C3%ADguez_Cabrillo>
1928:
Scottish biologist and pharmacologist Alexander Fleming noticed a
bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what
became known as penicillin.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/penicillin>
1978:
Pope John Paul I died only 33 days after his papal election due to an
apparent myocardial infarction, an event that has spawned a variety of
murder conspiracy theories.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_Paul_I>
1995:
Over 30 mercenaries led by Bob Denard landed on the Comoros in an
attempted coup, his fourth one on the African island nation since 1975.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Denard>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
flange (n):
1. An external or internal rib or rim, used either to add strength or
to hold something in place.
2. The projecting edge of a rigid or semi-rigid component
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/flange>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I don't think there's anything exceptional or noble in being
philanthropic. It's the other attitude that confuses me.
--Paul Newman
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Newman>
The Yukon Quest is a sled dog race run every February between
Fairbanks, Alaska, and Whitehorse, Yukon. Because of the harsh winter
conditions, difficult trail, and limited support competitors are
allowed, it is considered the "most difficult sled dog race in the
world", or even the "toughest race in the world". In the competition,
first run in 1984, a dog team leader (called a musher) and a team of 6
to 14 dogs race for 10 to 20 days. The course follows the route of the
historic 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, mail delivery, and transportation
routes between Fairbanks, Dawson City, and Whitehorse. Mushers pack up
to 250 pounds (113 kg) of equipment and provisions for themselves and
their dogs to survive between checkpoints. They are permitted to leave
dogs at checkpoints and dog drops, but not to replace them. Sleds may
not be replaced (without penalty) and mushers cannot accept help from
non-racers except at Dawson City, the halfway mark. The route runs on
frozen rivers, over four mountain ranges, and through isolated northern
villages. Racers cover 1,016 miles (1,635 km) or more, temperatures
commonly drop as low as −60 °F (−51 °C), and winds can reach 50 miles
per hour (80 km/h) at higher elevations. Sonny Lindner won the
inaugural race in 1984 from a field of 26 teams. The fastest run took
place in 2009, when Sebastian Schnuelle finished after 9 days,
23 hours, and 20 minutes.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukon_Quest>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1825:
Locomotion No. 1 hauled the first train on opening day of the Stockton
and Darlington Railway, one of the first railways to use steam
locomotives and carry passengers.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockton_and_Darlington_Railway>
1905:
The physics journal Annalen der Physik published Albert Einstein's
fourth Annus Mirabilis paper "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon
Its Energy Content?", introducing the equation E=mc².
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass%E2%80%93energy_equivalence>
1908:
The first production of the Ford Model T automobile was built at the
Piquette Plant in Detroit.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Model_T>
1937:
The Bali Tiger, a small subspecies of tiger found solely on the small
Indonesian island of Bali, was officially declared extinct.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bali_Tiger>
1940:
World War II: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and the Empire of Japan
signed the Tripartite Pact in Berlin, officially forming a military
alliance known as the Axis powers.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripartite_Pact>
1988:
Led by pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, the political party
National League for Democracy was founded in Burma.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aung_San_Suu_Kyi>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
rain on someone's parade (v):
To disappoint or discourage someone
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rain_on_someone%27s_parade>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or
give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the
grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation. The
right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power
of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave.
--Samuel Adams
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_Adams>
The Boy Scouts of America membership controversies center on the Boy
Scouts of America's policies that prohibit atheists, agnostics, and
"known or avowed" homosexuals from membership in its Scouting program;
both youths and adults have had their memberships revoked as a result.
The BSA contends that these policies are essential in its mission to
instill in young people the values of the Scout Oath and Law. These
policies are controversial and are considered by some to be unfair. The
organization's legal right to have these policies has been upheld
repeatedly by both state and federal courts. The Supreme Court of the
United States has affirmed that as a private organization, the BSA can
set its own membership standards. In recent years, the policy disputes
have led to litigation over the terms under which the BSA can access
governmental resources including public lands.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_Scouts_of_America_membership_controversies>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1580:
The Golden Hind sailed into Plymouth, England, as explorer Francis
Drake completed his circumnavigation of the globe.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Hind>
1789:
For his presidential administration, George Washington appointed Thomas
Jefferson as the first U.S. Secretary of State, John Jay as the first
U.S. Chief Justice, Samuel Osgood as the first U.S. Postmaster General,
and Edmund Randolph as the first U.S. Attorney General.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_George_Washington>
1907:
Newfoundland and New Zealand became dominions within the British
Empire.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_of_Newfoundland>
1934:
The ocean liner RMS Queen Mary was launched in Clydebank, Scotland.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Queen_Mary>
1957:
West Side Story, a musical written by Arthur Laurents, Leonard
Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim and based loosely on Shakespeare's Romeo
and Juliet, made its debut on Broadway.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Side_Story>
1969:
Abbey Road, the final album recorded by The Beatles before publicly
announcing their breakup, was released.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
guillemet (n):
Either of the punctuation marks “<big>«</big>” or “<big>»</big>”, used
in several languages to indicate passages of speech as the equivalent
of the English quotation marks
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/guillemet>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
All is always now. Words strain,
Crack and sometimes break, under the burden,
Under the tension,
slip, slide, perish,
Will not stay still.
--T. S. Eliot
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot>
The World Ends with You is an action role-playing game developed by
Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts team and Jupiter for the Nintendo DS
handheld console. Set in the modern-day Shibuya shopping district of
Tokyo, The World Ends with You features a distinctive art style
inspired by Shibuya and its youth culture. Development was inspired by
elements of Jupiter's previous game, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.
It was released in Japan in July 2007, and in PAL regions and North
America in April 2008. In the game, Neku Sakuraba and his allies are
forced to participate in a game that will determine their fate. The
battle system uses many of the unique features of the Nintendo DS,
including combat that takes place on both screens, and attacks
performed by certain motions on the touchscreen or by shouting into the
microphone. Elements of Japanese youth culture, such as fashion, food,
and cell phones, are key aspects of the missions. The World Ends with
You received positive reviews, which praised the graphics, soundtrack,
and integration of gameplay into the Shibuya setting. The few common
complaints were related to the steep learning curve of the battle
system as well as the imprecise touch-screen controls. In the week of
its release, the game was the second best-selling DS title in Japan,
and the top selling DS title in the US.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Ends_with_You>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1066:
Harold Godwinson of England defeated Harald Hardråde of Norway in
Yorkshire at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, marking the end of Viking
invasion of England.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stamford_Bridge>
1396:
Ottoman wars in Europe: Ottoman forces under Bayezid I defeated a
Christian alliance led by Sigismund of Hungary in the Battle of
Nicopolis near present-day Nikopol, Bulgaria.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Nicopolis>
1513:
Conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa , upon a peak in present-day Darién,
Panama, became the first European known to have seen the Pacific Ocean
from the New World, naming it Mar del Sur, or South Sea, a few days
later.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasco_N%C3%BA%C3%B1ez_de_Balboa>
1944:
World War II: British troops began their withdrawal from the Battle of
Arnhem in the Netherlands, ending the Allies' Operation Market Garden
in defeat.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Arnhem>
1983:
In one of the largest prison escapes in British history, 38 Provisional
Irish Republican Army prisoners hijacked a prison meals lorry and
smashed their way out of HM Prison Maze in County Antrim, Northern
Ireland.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maze_Prison_escape>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
ecky thump (interj):
(Northern England) Exclamation of surprise or pleasure
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ecky_thump>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of
the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.
--William Faulkner
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Faulkner>
The Italian War of 1542–1546 was a conflict late in the Italian Wars,
pitting Francis I of France and Suleiman I of the Ottoman Empire
against the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Henry VIII of England. The
course of the war saw extensive fighting in Italy, France, and the Low
Countries, as well as attempted invasions of Spain and England; but,
although the conflict was ruinously expensive for the major
participants, its outcome was inconclusive. The war arose from the
failure of the Truce of Nice, which ended the Italian War of 1536–38,
to resolve the long-standing conflict between Charles and
Francis—particularly their conflicting claims to the Duchy of Milan.
Having found a suitable pretext, Francis once again declared war
against his perpetual enemy in 1542. Fighting began at once throughout
the Low Countries; the following year saw the Franco-Ottoman alliance's
attack on Nice, as well as a series of maneuvers in northern Italy
which culminated in the bloody Battle of Ceresole. Charles and Henry
then proceeded to invade France, but the long sieges of
Boulogne-sur-Mer and Saint-Dizier prevented a decisive offensive
against the French. Charles came to terms with Francis by the Treaty of
Crépy in late 1544, but the death of Francis's younger son, the Duke of
Orléans—whose proposed marriage to a relative of the Emperor was the
cornerstone of the treaty—made it moot less than a year afterwards.
Henry, left alone but unwilling to return Boulogne to the French,
continued to fight until 1546, when the Treaty of Ardres finally
restored peace between France and England.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_War_of_1542%E2%80%931546>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
622:
Muhammad and his followers completed their Hijra from Mecca to Medina
to escape religious persecution.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijra_%28Islam%29>
1180:
The Byzantine Empire is weakened by the death of Emperor Manuel I
Komnenos.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_I_Komnenos>
1789:
The First United States Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789,
establishing the U.S. federal judiciary and setting the number of
Supreme Court Justices.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judiciary_Act_of_1789>
1841:
The Sultan of Brunei granted Sarawak to British adventurer James
Brooke.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Sarawak>
1877:
The Imperial Japanese Army commanded by Kawamura Sumiyoshi defeated
Saigō Takamori and the Satsuma clan samurai at the Battle of Shiroyama
in Kagoshima, the decisive engagement of the Satsuma Rebellion.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Shiroyama>
1903:
Alfred Deakin became the second Prime Minister of Australia, succeeding
Edmund Barton who left office to become a founding justice of the High
Court of Australia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Deakin>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
loricate (adj):
(microbiology) Possessing an enclosing shell or test
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/loricate>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
At any rate, let us love for a while, for a year or so, you and me.
That's a form of divine drunkenness that we can all try. There are only
diamonds in the whole world, diamonds and perhaps the shabby gift of
disillusion.
--F. Scott Fitzgerald
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/F._Scott_Fitzgerald>
The Ross Sea party was a component of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial
Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1914–17. Its task was to lay a series of
supply depots across the Great Ice Barrier from the Ross Sea to the
Beardmore Glacier, along the polar route established by earlier
Antarctic expeditions. The expedition's main party, under Shackleton,
was to land on the opposite, Weddell Sea coast of Antarctica, and to
march across the continent via the South Pole to the Ross Sea. As the
main party would be unable to carry sufficient fuel and supplies for
the whole distance, their survival depended on the Ross Sea party's
depots, which would cover the final quarter of their journey.
Shackleton set sail from London in his ship Endurance, bound for the
Weddell Sea, in August 1914. Meanwhile, the Ross Sea party personnel
gathered in Australia, prior to departure for the Ross Sea in the
second expedition ship, SY Aurora. After their arrival the
inexperienced party struggled to master the art of Antarctic travel, in
the process losing most of their sledge dogs. A greater misfortune
occurred when, at the onset of the southern winter, Aurora was torn
from its moorings during a severe storm and was unable to return,
leaving the shore party stranded.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Sea_party>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1459:
Yorkist forces led by Richard Neville defeated Lancastrian troops at
the Battle of Blore Heath in Staffordshire, England, the first major
battle of the Wars of the Roses.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blore_Heath>
1803:
Maratha troops were beaten by British forces at the Battle of Assaye,
one of the decisive battles of the Second Anglo-Maratha War.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Assaye>
1846:
Using mathematical predictions by French mathematician Urbain Le
Verrier, German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle became the first
person to observe Neptune and recognise it as a hitherto unknown planet
.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_of_Neptune>
1868:
Ramón Emeterio Betances led the Grito de Lares, a revolt against
Spanish rule in Puerto Rico.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram%C3%B3n_Emeterio_Betances>
1952:
In one of the first political uses of television to appeal directly to
the populace, Republican vice presidential candidate Richard Nixon
delivered the "Checkers speech", denying he received illegal campaign
contributions.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkers_speech>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
thalweg (n):
(geology, geography) The line that connects the lowest points in a
valley or river channel, and thus the line of fastest flow along a
river’s course
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/thalweg>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as
to be out of danger?
--Thomas Huxley
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Huxley>
Cyclone Orson was the fourth most intense cyclone in the Australian
region on record. Forming out of a tropical low on April 17, 1989,
Orson gradually intensified as it tracked towards the west. After
attaining Category 5 intensity on April 20, the storm began to track
southward and accelerated. The following day, the cyclone reached its
peak intensity with winds of 250 km/h (155 mph, 10-minute sustained)
and a barometric pressure of 904 hPa (mbar). Orson maintained this
intensity for nearly two days before making landfall near Dampier. The
cyclone rapidly weakened after landfall as it accelerated to the
southeast. After moving into the Great Australian Bight on April 24,
the storm dissipated. Despite Orson's extreme intensity, damage was
relatively minimal as it impacted a sparsely populated region of
Western Australia. Five people were killed offshore and damages
amounted to A$20 million (US$16.8 million). The most severe impacts
took place in Pannawonica, where 70 homes were damaged. Due to the
severity of the storm, the name Orson was retired in 1990 and later
replaced by Olga.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Orson>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1792:
The epoch of the French Republican Calendar occurred, marking the first
full day of the newly proclaimed French First Republic.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Republican_Calendar>
1827:
According to his own record of his early life, Latter Day Saint
movement founder Joseph Smith, Jr. obtained the golden plates, a set of
engraved plates that he said was his source material for the Book of
Mormon.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/golden_plates>
1862:
Slavery in the United States: President Abraham Lincoln issued the
Emancipation Proclamation, declaring the freedom of all slaves in
Confederate territory by January 1, 1863.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emancipation_Proclamation>
1869:
Das Rheingold, the first of four operas in Der Ring des Nibelungen by
German composer Richard Wagner, was first performed in Munich.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Rheingold>
1979:
The Vela Incident: An American Vela satellite detected an unidentified
flash of light, thought to be a nuclear weapons test.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vela_Incident>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
abrogate (v):
1. To annul by an authoritative act; to abolish by the authority of the
maker or his successor; to repeal.
2. To put an end to; to do away with
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/abrogate>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket: and do not
pull it out and strike it, merely to show that you have one.
--Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_Stanhope%2C_4th_Earl_of_Chesterfield>
"North by North Quahog" is the first episode of season four of Family
Guy, following the revival of the series three years after its
cancellation in 2002. Directed by Peter Shin and written by series
creator Seth MacFarlane, the episode was first broadcast on May 1,
2005, on FOX. In "North by North Quahog", the show's main characters
Peter and Lois Griffin go on a second honeymoon to spice up their
marriage, but are eventually chased by Mel Gibson after Peter steals
the sequel to The Passion of the Christ from Gibson's private hotel
room. Meanwhile, their anthropomorphic dog Brian and their infant son
Stewie take care of their teenage kids Chris and Meg. Family Guy had
been canceled in 2002 due to low ratings, but was revived by FOX after
reruns on Adult Swim became the network's most watched program, and
more than three million DVDs of the show were sold. Much of the plot
and many of the technical aspects of the episode, as well as the title,
are direct parodies of the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock movie North by
Northwest. The episode was watched by 12 million viewers and received a
Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Animated Program (for
Programming Less Than One Hour).
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_by_North_Quahog>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
454:
Roman Emperor Valentinian III killed Aetius in Ravenna.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavius_Aetius>
1792:
French Revolution: The National Convention voted to abolish the
monarchy, and proclaimed the First Republic.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Convention>
1898:
The Hundred Days' Reform in China was abruptly terminated when Empress
Dowager Cixi forced the reform-minded Guangxu Emperor into seclusion
and took over the government as regent.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Days%27_Reform>
1937:
J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, a predecessor to The Lord of the Rings,
was first published.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hobbit>
1939:
Romanian Prime Minister Armand Călinescu was assassinated in Bucharest
by pro-Nazi members of the Iron Guard.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armand_C%C4%83linescu>
1999:
A 7.6 Mw earthquake struck Jiji, Nantou County, Taiwan, killing 2,416
people, injuring over 11,000 others and causing about NT$300 billion in
damage.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/921_earthquake>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
uraeus (n):
A representation of the sacred asp, symbolising supreme power in
ancient Egypt
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/uraeus>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
''I'm guided by a signal in the heavens,
I'm guided by this birthmark on my skin
I'm guided by the beauty of
our weapons
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin.
--Leonard Cohen
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leonard_Cohen>
General aviation in the United Kingdom has been defined as a civil
aircraft operation other than a commercial air transport flight
operating to a schedule. Although the International Civil Aviation
Organization excludes any form of remunerated aviation from its
definition, some commercial operations are often included within the
scope of general aviation in the UK. The sector operates business jets,
rotorcraft, piston and jet-engined fixed-wing aircraft, gliders of all
descriptions, and lighter than air craft. Public transport operations
include business (or corporate) aviation and air taxi services, and
account for nearly half of the economic contribution made by the
sector. There are 28,000 Private Pilot Licence holders, and 10,000
certified glider pilots. Although GA operates from more than 1,800
aerodromes and landing sites, ranging in size from large regional
airports to farm strips, over 80 per cent of GA activity is conducted
at 134 of the larger aerodromes. GA is regulated by the Civil Aviation
Authority, although regulatory powers are being increasingly
transferred to the European Aviation Safety Agency. The main focus is
on standards of airworthiness and pilot licensing, and the objective is
to promote high standards of safety.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_aviation_in_the_United_Kingdom>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1378:
Papal Schism: Unhappy with Pope Urban VI , a group of cardinals started
a rival papacy with the election of Antipope Clement VII, throwing the
Roman Catholic Church into turmoil.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Schism>
1854:
The Crimean War began with a Franco-British victory over Russian forces
at the Battle of Alma near the River Alma in Crimea.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Alma>
1870:
The Bersaglieri entered Rome, ending the temporal power of the Pope and
completing the unification of Italy.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_Rome>
1946:
The first Cannes Film Festival opened in Cannes, France, with eleven
films eventually sharing the Palme d'Or award, then known as the Grand
Prize of the Festival, that year.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannes_Film_Festival>
1979:
Jean-Bédel Bokassa, ruler of the Central African Republic, was ousted
in a coup d'état backed by the French government.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-B%C3%A9del_Bokassa>
2001:
During a televised address to a joint session of the United States
Congress, U.S. President George W. Bush declared a "war on terror"
against Al-Qaeda and other global terrorist groups.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Terrorism>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
needle (v):
1. To pierce with a needle, especially for sewing or acupuncture.
2. (idiomatic) To tease in order to provoke; to poke fun at
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/needle>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
When you come right down to it, the secret of having it all is loving
it all.
--Joyce Brothers
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joyce_Brothers>
The Economy of the Han Dynasty of ancient China reflects a period of
fluctuation between periods of economic prosperity and decline. Major
features of the Han economy were population growth, increasing
urbanization, unprecedented growth of industry and trade and government
experimentation with nationalization. In this era, the levels of
minting and circulation of coin currency grew significantly, forming
the foundation of a stable monetary system. The Silk Road facilitated
the establishment of trade and tributary exchanges with foreign
countries across Eurasia, many of which were previously unknown to the
people of ancient China. The imperial capitals of both Western-Han
(Chang'an), and of Eastern-Han (Luoyang), were among the largest cities
in the world at the time, in both population and area. Here, government
workshops manufactured furnishings for the palaces of the emperor and
produced goods for the common people. The government oversaw the
construction of roads and bridges, which facilitated official
government business and encouraged commercial growth. Under Han rule,
industrialists, wholesalers and merchants—from minor shopkeepers to
wealthy businessmen—could engage in a wide range of enterprises and
trade in the domestic, public, and even military spheres.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_Han_Dynasty>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1356:
Hundred Years' War: English forces led by Edward the Black Prince
decisively won the Battle of Poitiers and captured King Jean II of
France.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Poitiers_%281356%29>
1796:
George Washington's Farewell Address was published in many American
newspapers, warning citizens, among others, about the dangers of
political factionalism and to avoid permanent alliances with other
foreign powers.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington%27s_Farewell_Address>
1893:
New Zealand became the first country to introduce universal suffrage,
following the women's suffrage movement led by Kate Sheppard.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_suffrage_in_New_Zealand>
1944:
Finland and the Soviet Union signed the Moscow Armistice to end the
Continuation War.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuation_War>
1985:
An 8.1 ML earthquake struck Mexico City, killing at least nine thousand
people and leaving up to 100,000 homeless.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_Mexico_City_earthquake>
1995:
The Manifesto of "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski was published in The
Washington Post and The New York Times, almost three months after it
was submitted.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Kaczynski>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
crocodile tears (n):
(idiomatic) A display of tears that is forced or false
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/crocodile_tears>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Basically I'm an optimist. Intellectually I can see man's balance is
about fifty-fifty, and his chances of blowing himself up are about one
to one. I can't see this any way but intellectually. I'm just
emotionally unable to believe that he will do this. This means that I
am by nature an optimist and by intellectual conviction a pessimist, I
suppose.
--William Golding
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Golding>
Samuel Johnson's early life was marked by great intelligence and an
eagerness for learning. Born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, the sickly
infant who grew up to become "arguably the most distinguished man of
letters in English history", soon began to exhibit the tics that would
colour how others viewed him in his later years. His early life was
dominated by his family's financial strain and his abortive efforts to
establish himself as a school teacher. Johnson spent a year studying at
Pembroke College, Oxford, but was unable to continue his education
there because of his lack of financial support. He tried to find
employment as a teacher, but found it impossible to secure a long-term
position. In 1735 he married Elizabeth "Tetty" Porter, a widow 20 years
his senior. The responsibilities of marriage made Johnson determined to
succeed as an educator, and encouraged him to establish his own school.
The venture was unsuccessful however, and so he decided to leave his
wife behind in Lichfield and move to London, where he spent the rest of
his life, and where his literary career began. Working initially as a
minor Grub Street hack writer, he started to write essays for The
Gentleman's Magazine, and authored the Life of Mr Richard Savage—his
first successful literary biography—the powerful poem London, an
18th-century version of Juvenal's Third Satire, and the unsuccessful
tragic drama Irene, not produced until 1749.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Johnson%27s_early_life>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
96:
Following the assassination of Roman Emperor Domitian, the Roman Senate
appointed Nerva , the first of the Five Good Emperors, to succeed him.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerva>
324:
Constantine the Great decisively defeated Licinius in the Battle of
Chrysopolis, establishing Constantine's sole control over the Roman
Empire, and ultimately leading to the conversion of the whole empire to
Christianity.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chrysopolis>
1809:
The second theatre of the Royal Opera House in London opened after a
fire destroyed the original theatre one year earlier.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Opera_House>
1931:
The Mukden Incident: A section of the Japanese-built South Manchuria
Railway was destroyed, providing an excuse for the Japanese to blame
the act on Chinese dissidents, and thus giving a pretext for the
Japanese occupation of Manchuria.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukden_Incident>
1998:
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a
non-profit organization that manages the assignment of domain names and
IP addresses in the Internet, was established.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICANN>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
proselytize (v):
1. To encourage or induce people to join a religious movement,
political party or other cause or organization.
2. To convert (someone) to one’s own faith or beliefs
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/proselytize>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is
but an insect, and the other is a horse still.
--Samuel Johnson
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_Johnson>
Harbhajan Singh (born 1980) is an Indian cricketer. A specialist
bowler, he has the second-highest number of Test wickets by an off
spinner behind Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan. Harbhajan made his
Test and One Day International debuts in early 1998. His career was
initially beset by investigations into the legality of his bowling
action and disciplinary incidents that raised the ire of cricket
authorities. However in 2001, with leading leg spinner Anil Kumble
injured, Harbhajan's career was resuscitated after Indian captain
Sourav Ganguly called for his inclusion in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy
team. In that series victory over Australia, Harbhajan established
himself as the team's leading spinner by taking 32 wickets, becoming
the first Indian bowler to take a hat trick in Test cricket. Throughout
2006 and into early 2007, Harbhajan's accumulation of wickets fell and
his bowling average increased, and he was increasingly criticised for
bowling defensively with less loop. In early 2008, he was given a ban
by the International Cricket Council for racially vilifying Andrew
Symonds. The ban was revoked upon appeal, but in April, Harbhajan was
banned from the 2008 Indian Premier League and suspended from the ODI
team by the Board of Control for Cricket in India for slapping
Sreesanth after a match.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harbhajan_Singh>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1176:
Byzantine–Seljuk wars: The Seljuk Turks prevented the Byzantines from
taking the interior of Anatolia at the Battle of Myriokephalon in
Phrygia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Myriokephalon>
1787:
The text of the United States Constitution was finalized at the
Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution>
1859:
Disgruntled with the legal and political structures of the United
States, Joshua Norton distributed letters to various newspapers in San
Francisco, proclaiming himself Emperor Norton.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Norton>
1939:
World War II: The Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, sixteen
days after Nazi Germany's attack on that country from the west.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_invasion_of_Poland_%281939%29>
1978:
President Anwar Al Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of
Israel (pictured with U.S. President Jimmy Carter) signed the Camp
David Accords after twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_David_Accords>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
idiosyncrasy (n):
1. A behavior or way of thinking that is characteristic of a person.
2. A language or behaviour that is particular to an individual or
group.
3. A peculiarity that serves to distinguish or identify
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/idiosyncrasy>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The real crazies who are looking for a messiah... after an hour or so
they realise I'm not it and go off and look somewhere else.
--Ken Kesey
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ken_Kesey>
Stanford Memorial Church is located at the center of the Stanford
University campus in Stanford, California. It was built during the
American Renaissance by Jane Stanford as a memorial to her husband
Leland. Designed by architect Charles A. Coolidge, a protegé of Henry
Hobson Richardson, the church has been called "the University's
architectural crown jewel". The building is Romanesque in form and
Byzantine in its details, inspired by churches in the region of Venice
and, especially, Ravenna. Its stained glass windows and extensive
mosaics are based on religious paintings the Stanfords admired in
Europe. The church has four pipe organs, which allow musicians to
produce many styles of organ music. Stanford Memorial Church has
withstood two major earthquakes, in 1906 and 1989, and was extensively
renovated after each. Stanford Memorial Church was the earliest and has
been "among the most prominent" non-denominational churches on the West
Coast of the United States. Since its dedication in 1903, the church's
goal has been to serve the spiritual needs of the university in a
non-sectarian way.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_Memorial_Church>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1701:
Prince James Francis Edward Stuart , more commonly referred to as the
"Old Pretender", became the Jacobite claimant of the thrones of England
and Scotland.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Francis_Edward_Stuart>
1776:
American Revolutionary War: Infuriated by British troops sounding their
bugle horns like it was a fox hunt, the Americans held their ground en
route to a victory at the Battle of Harlem Heights in present-day New
York City.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Harlem_Heights>
1963:
Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo (present-day Sabah), and Sarawak merged
to form Malaysia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia>
1982:
A Lebanese militia under the direct command of Elie Hobeika carried out
a massacre in the Palestinian refugee camp of Sabra and Shatila,
killing at least 700 civilians.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabra_and_Shatila_massacre>
1987:
The Montreal Protocol, an international treaty designed to protect the
ozone layer by phasing out the production of a number of substances
believed to be responsible for ozone depletion, opened for signature.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Protocol>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
ductile (adj):
1. Capable of being pulled or stretched into thin wire by mechanical
force without breaking.
2. Molded easily into a new form.
3. (rare) Led easily; prone to
follow
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ductile>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is the modest, not the presumptuous, inquirer who makes a real and
safe progress in the discovery of divine truths.
--Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_St_John%2C_1st_Viscount_Bolingbroke>
A quark is an elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of
matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the
best-known of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic
nuclei. Due to a phenomenon known as color confinement, quarks are
never found in isolation; they can only be found within hadrons. For
this reason, much of what is known about quarks has been drawn from
observations of the hadrons themselves. There are six different types
of quarks, known as flavors: up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom.
Up and down quarks are generally stable and the most common in the
universe, whereas charm, strange, top, and bottom quarks can only be
produced in high energy collisions (such as those involving cosmic rays
and in particle accelerators). Quarks are the only elementary particles
in the Standard Model of particle physics to experience all four
fundamental interactions.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1830:
During the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway , one of the
world's first intercity passenger railways in which all the trains were
timetabled and operated for most of the distance solely by steam
locomotives, British Member of Parliament William Huskisson was struck
and killed by the locomotive engine Rocket.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool_and_Manchester_Railway>
1831:
The John Bull, currently the oldest operable steam locomotive in the
world, ran for the first time in New Jersey on the Camden and Amboy
Railroad.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bull_%28locomotive%29>
1835:
During the second voyage of HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin reached the
Galápagos Islands, where he further developed his theories of
evolution.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gal%C3%A1pagos_Islands>
1935:
Nazi Germany enacted the Nuremberg Laws, which deprived German Jews of
citizenship, and adopted a new national flag emblazoned with a
swastika.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Laws>
2008:
The financial crisis of 2007–2009: The global financial-services firm
Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy while holding over US$600 billion
in assets, the largest such filing in U.S. history.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankruptcy_of_Lehman_Brothers>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
wherewithal (n):
The ability and the financial means required to accomplish some task
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wherewithal>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
If we had no faults we should not take so much pleasure in noting those
of others.
--François de La Rochefoucauld
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_de_La_Rochefoucauld>
Linezolid is a synthetic antibiotic used for the treatment of serious
infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria that are resistant to
several other antibiotics. A member of the oxazolidinone class of
drugs, linezolid is active against most Gram-positive bacteria that
cause disease, including streptococci, vancomycin-resistant
enterococci, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The main
indications of linezolid are infections of the skin and soft tissues
and pneumonia (particularly hospital-acquired pneumonia), although
off-label use for a variety of other infections is becoming popular.
Discovered in the late 1980s and first approved for use in 2000,
linezolid was the first commercially available oxazolidinone
antibiotic. As of 2009, it is the only marketed oxazolidinone, although
others are in development. As a protein synthesis inhibitor, it stops
the growth of bacteria by disrupting their production of proteins.
Resistance to linezolid has remained very low since it was first
detected in 1999, although it may be increasing. When administered for
short periods, linezolid is a relatively safe drug; it can be used in
patients of all ages and in people with liver disease or poor kidney
function.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linezolid>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
786:
Harun al-Rashid became the Abbasid caliph upon the death of his brother
al-Hadi.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harun_al-Rashid>
1752:
In adopting the Gregorian calendar under the terms of the Calendar (New
Style) Act 1750, the British Empire skipped eleven days (September 2
was followed directly by September 14).
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar>
1812:
The French invasion of Russia: Following the Battle of Borodino seven
days earlier, Napoleon and his Grande Armée captured Moscow, only to
find the city deserted and burning .
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_of_Moscow_%281812%29>
1901:
Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States, the youngest
person at the time to do so at age 42, eight days after William
McKinley was fatally wounded at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo,
New York.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Roosevelt>
1960:
At a conference held in Baghdad, the governments of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait,
Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela founded OPEC to help unify and coordinate
their petroleum policies.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPEC>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
grudging (adj):
Unwilling or with reluctance
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/grudging>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Patriotism is proud of a country’s virtues and eager to correct its
deficiencies; it also acknowledges the legitimate patriotism of other
countries, with their own specific virtues. The pride of nationalism,
however, trumpets its country’s virtues and denies its deficiencies,
while it is contemptuous toward the virtues of other countries. It
wants to be, and proclaims itself to be, "the greatest," but greatness
is not required of a country; only goodness is.
--Sydney J. Harris
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sydney_J._Harris>
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, located in the Haymarket,
in the City of Westminster. The present building was designed by
Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert
Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the
theatre. In the early decades of the 20th century, Tree produced
spectacular productions of Shakespeare and other classical works, and
the theatre hosted premières by major playwrights such as George
Bernard Shaw, J. M. Synge, Noel Coward and J. B. Priestley. Since World
War I, the wide flat stage has made the theatre suitable for
large-scale musical productions, and the theatre has specialised in
hosting musicals. The theatre has been home to record-setting musical
theatre runs, notably the World War I sensation Chu Chin Chow and the
current production, Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera,
which has played continuously at Her Majesty's since 1986. The
theatre's capacity is 1,216 seats, and the building was Grade II*
listed by English Heritage in January 1970. Really Useful Group
Theatres has owned the theatre since 2000.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Her_Majesty%27s_Theatre>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1759:
Although General James Wolfe was fatally wounded at the Battle of the
Plains of Abraham near Quebec City, New France , his British forces
defeated the French in a decisive battle in the French and Indian War.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Plains_of_Abraham>
1814:
War of 1812: Fort McHenry was attacked by British forces during the
Battle of Baltimore, later inspiring Francis Scott Key to write "The
Star-Spangled Banner," which later became the national anthem of the
United States.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Baltimore>
1848:
American railroad worker Phineas Gage survived an accident in which a
large iron rod was driven completely through his head and destroyed
areas of his brain's frontal lobes.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage>
1987:
A radioactive item was scavenged from an abandoned hospital in Goiânia,
Brazil, resulting in four deaths and serious contamination in 249
others.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident>
1993:
After rounds of secret negotiations in Norway, PLO leader Yasser Arafat
and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin formally signed the Oslo Peace
Accords.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_Accords>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
corkscrew (v):
To wind or twist in the path of a corkscrew; to move with much
horizontal and vertical shifting
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/corkscrew>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you
because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely
places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.
--Roald Dahl
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl>
The Battle of Edson's Ridge was a land battle of the Pacific campaign
of World War II between Imperial Japanese Army and Allied (mainly
United States Marine Corps) ground forces. The battle took place
September 12–14, 1942 on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, and was
the second of three separate major Japanese ground offensives during
the Guadalcanal campaign. In the battle, U.S. Marines, under the
overall command of U.S. Major General Alexander Vandegrift, repulsed an
attack by the Japanese 35th Infantry Brigade, under the command of
Japanese Major General Kiyotake Kawaguchi. The Marines were defending
the Lunga perimeter that guarded Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, which
was captured from the Japanese by the Allies in landings on Guadalcanal
on August 7, 1942. Kawaguchi's unit was sent to Guadalcanal in response
to the Allied landings with the mission of recapturing the airfield and
driving the Allied forces from the island. The main Japanese assault
occurred around Lunga ridge south of Henderson Field that was manned by
troops from several U.S. Marine Corps units, primarily troops from the
1st Raider and 1st Parachute Battalions under U.S. Marine Corps
Lieutenant Colonel Merritt A. Edson. Although the Marine defenses were
almost overrun, Kawaguchi's attack was ultimately defeated with heavy
losses for the Japanese attackers.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Edson%27s_Ridge>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1609:
While sailing aboard the Halve Maen, English explorer Henry Hudson
began his exploration of the Hudson River, laying the foundation for
Dutch colonization of present-day New York.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Hudson>
1683:
Great Turkish War: Polish troops led by John III Sobieski joined
forces with a Habsburg army to defeat the Ottoman Empire at the Battle
of Vienna.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vienna>
1848:
Switzerland became a federal state with the adoption of a new
constitution.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland>
1940:
Four teenagers discovered the Lascaux caves near Montignac, in the
Dordogne département of France, containing cave paintings that are
estimated to be 16,000 years old.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lascaux>
1974:
Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, considered to be the religious
symbol for God incarnate among the Rastafari movement, was deposed in a
coup d'état by the Derg, a military junta.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haile_Selassie_I_of_Ethiopia>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
tight as a tick (adj):
1. Drunk, inebriated.
2. Fully inflated; swollen near to bursting.
3. Unwilling to spend
money
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tight_as_a_tick>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
If man had more of a sense of humor, things might have turned out
differently.
--Stanisław Lem
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Lem>
The Diocletianic Persecution was the last and most severe persecution
of Christians in the Roman empire. In 303, Emperor Diocletian and his
colleagues Maximian, Galerius, and Constantius issued a series of
edicts rescinding Christians' legal rights and demanding they comply
with traditional religious practices. Later edicts targeted the clergy
and demanded universal sacrifice, ordering all inhabitants to sacrifice
to the gods. The persecution varied in intensity across the
empire—weakest in Gaul and Britain, where only the first edict was
applied, and strongest in the Eastern provinces. His son, Constantine,
on taking the imperial office in 306, restored Christians to full legal
equality and returned property confiscated during the persecution. The
persecution failed to check the rise of the church. By 324, Constantine
was sole ruler of the empire, and Christianity had become his favored
religion. Although the persecution resulted in the deaths of—according
to one modern estimate—3,000 Christians, and the torture, imprisonment,
or dislocation of many more, most Christians avoided punishment. The
persecution did, however, cause many churches to split between those
who had complied with imperial authority (the traditores), and those
who had remained "pure". Modern historians have tended to downplay the
scale and depth of the Diocletianic persecution.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocletianic_Persecution>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1297:
First War of Scottish Independence: The Scots defeated English troops
at the Battle of Stirling Bridge on the River Forth near Stirling.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stirling_Bridge>
1709:
An allied British-Dutch-Austrian force defeated the French at the
Battle of Malplaquet, one of the bloodiest battles of the War of the
Spanish Succession.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Malplaquet>
1789:
U.S. Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, co-writer of the Federalist
Papers, became the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Hamilton>
1857:
At Mountain Meadows, Utah Territory, USA, a local brigade of the Mormon
militia led a massacre of about 120 California-bound pioneers from
Arkansas.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Meadows_massacre>
2001:
September 11 attacks: Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger
airliners, intentionally crashing two of them into the World Trade
Center in New York City and one plane into the Pentagon near
Washington, D.C. The fourth aircraft crashed in Pennsylvania after its
passengers mounted an assault against their hijackers.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
realm (n):
1. A sphere of real or imaginary influence.
2. The domain of a certain abstraction.
3. (formal or law) A
territory or state, as ruled by a specific power
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/realm>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Although September 11 was horrible, it didn't threaten the survival of
the human race, like nuclear weapons do. ... I don't think the human
race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space.
There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet.
But I'm an optimist. We will reach out to the stars.
--Stephen Hawking
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking>
Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe (1822–1847) was the wife of Edgar Allan Poe.
The couple were first cousins and married when Virginia Clemm was 13
and Poe was 27. Some biographers have suggested that the couple's
relationship was more like that between brother and sister than like
husband and wife and that they never consummated their marriage.
Beginning in January 1842, she struggled with tuberculosis for several
years. She died of the disease in January 1847 at the age of 24 in the
family's cottage outside New York City. Along with other family
members, Virginia Clemm and Edgar Allan Poe lived together off and on
for several years before their marriage. The couple often moved to
accommodate Poe's employment, living intermittently in Baltimore,
Philadelphia, and New York. A few years after their wedding, Poe was
involved in a substantial scandal involving Frances Sargent Osgood and
Elizabeth F. Ellet. Rumors about alleged amorous improprieties on her
husband's part affected Virginia Poe so much that on her deathbed she
claimed that Ellet had murdered her. After her death, her body was
eventually placed under the same memorial marker as her husband in
Westminster Hall and Burying Ground in Baltimore, Maryland. Only one
image of Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe has been authenticated: a watercolor
portrait painted after her death. The disease and eventual death of his
wife had a substantial impact on Edgar Allan Poe, who became despondent
and turned to drink to cope. Her struggle with illness and death are
believed to have impacted his poetry and prose, where dying young women
appear as a frequent motif, as in "Annabel Lee".
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Eliza_Clemm_Poe>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1798:
At the Battle of St. George's Caye, a small force of British settlers
called Baymen defeated an invading force from Mexico who were
attempting to claim what is now Belize for Spain.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_St._George%27s_Caye>
1897:
A peaceful labor demonstration made up of mostly Polish and Slovak
anthracite coal miners in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, USA, was fired
upon by a sheriff's posse comitatus in the Lattimer Massacre.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lattimer_massacre>
1898:
In an act of "propaganda of the deed", Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni
fatally stabbed Empress Elisabeth of Austria in Geneva, Switzerland.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisabeth_of_Bavaria>
1977:
Hamida Djandoubi became the last person to be guillotined in France,
the official method of execution in that country. France would later
abolish the death penalty in 1981.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/guillotine>
1990:
Pope John Paul II consecrated the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in
Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire, one of the largest churches in the world.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_Our_Lady_of_Peace_of_Yamoussoukro>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
alabaster (n):
1. A fine-grained white or lightly-tinted variety of gypsum, used
ornamentally.
2. (historical) A variety of calcite, translucent and sometimes banded
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/alabaster>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the
public and have no self.
--Cyril Connolly
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cyril_Connolly>
Cædwalla (659–689) was the King of Wessex from about 685 until 688,
when he abdicated. His name is derived from the British Cadwallon. He
was exiled as a youth, and during this time attacked the South Saxons,
in what is now Sussex, killing their king, Æthelwealh, but he was
unable to hold the territory and was driven out by Æthelwealh's
ealdormen. In either 685 or 686 he became king of Wessex. He may have
been involved in suppressing rival dynasties at this time, as an early
source records that Wessex was ruled by underkings until Cædwalla.
After his accession Cædwalla returned to Sussex and won the territory
again, and also conquered the Isle of Wight, extinguishing the ruling
dynasty there. He gained control of Surrey and the kingdom of Kent, and
in 686 he installed his brother, Mul, as king of Kent. Mul was burned
in a Kentish revolt a year later, and Cædwalla returned, possibly
ruling Kent directly for a period. Cædwalla was wounded during the
conquest of the Isle of Wight, and perhaps for this reason he abdicated
in 688 to travel to Rome for baptism. He reached Rome in April of 689,
and was baptised on the Saturday before Easter, dying ten days later on
20 April 689. He was succeeded by Ine.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A6dwalla_of_Wessex>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
9:
Germanic Wars: An alliance of Germanic tribes led by Arminius engaged
Roman forces led by Publius Quinctilius Varus at the Battle of the
Teutoburg Forest, defeating three of the legions within the next few
days.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Teutoburg_Forest>
1513:
War of the League of Cambrai: King James IV of Scotland was killed at
the Battle of Flodden Field in Northumberland while leading an invasion
of England.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_IV_of_Scotland>
1850:
As part of the Compromise of 1850, California was admitted into the
United States as a free state instead of a slave state where slavery
was legal.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California>
1944:
With the help of the advancing forces of the Soviet Red Army, the
Bulgarian government of Konstantin Muraviev was overthrown and replaced
with a government of the Fatherland Front.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat_of_1944>
2004:
A car bomb exploded outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta,
Indonesia, killing at least nine people and injuring over 150 others.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Jakarta_embassy_bombing>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
scupper (v):
(UK) Thwart, destroy
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/scupper>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only
reality in the world, all else is folly. It is the one thing we are
interested in here.
--Leo Tolstoy
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy>
Crush is a platformer-puzzle video game developed by Kuju
Entertainment's Zoë Mode studio and published by Sega in 2007 for the
PlayStation Portable. The game's protagonist is Danny, a teenager
suffering from insomnia, who uses an experimental device to explore his
mind and discover the cause for his sleeplessness. Each level of the
game, representing events from Danny's life and inspired by artists
such as Tim Burton and M.C. Escher, requires the player to control
Danny as he collects his "lost marbles" and other thoughts. Crush's
primary gameplay feature involves manipulating each game level between
3D and 2D views, allowing the player to reach platforms and locations
inaccessible from within a different view. This element was noted by
critics to be similar to one in Super Paper Mario, also released in
2007, though the Zoë Mode team had envisioned the concept five years
prior. Crush received positive reviews upon release, with critics
praising Crush's incorporation of this dimension-shifting component
alongside other aspects of the game presentation. Though Crush won
several gaming awards, including PSP game of the month, it failed to
meet the developer's sales expectations.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crush_%28video_game%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1331:
Stefan Uroš IV Dušan of the House of Nemanjić was crowned King of
Serbia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Uro%C5%A1_IV_Du%C5%A1an_of_Serbia>
1504:
David, a marble sculpture by Michelangelo portraying the biblical King
David in the nude, was unveiled in Florence, Italy.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_%28Michelangelo%29>
1541:
Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars: The combined forces of the Grand Duchy of
Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland defeated the larger army of the
Grand Duchy of Moscow in Orsha, present-day Belarus.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Orsha>
1966:
The American science fiction show Star Trek premiered on the NBC
television network, launching a media franchise that has since created
a cult phenomenon and has influenced the design of many current
technologies.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek%3A_The_Original_Series>
1974:
Watergate scandal: U.S. President Gerald Ford gave recently-resigned
U.S. President Richard Nixon a full and unconditional, but
controversial, pardon for any crimes he committed while in office.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Ford>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Hobson-Jobson (n):
A word or phrase borrowed by one language from another and modified in
pronunciation to fit the set of sounds the borrowing language typically
uses
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Hobson-Jobson>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Soldiers are citizens of death's grey land,
Drawing no dividend from time's to-morrows.
In the great hour of
destiny they stand,
Each with his feuds, and jealousies, and sorrows.
--Siegfried Sassoon
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Siegfried_Sassoon>
Amchitka is a volcanic, tectonically unstable island in the Rat Islands
group of the Aleutian Islands in southwest Alaska. It is about
68 kilometres (42 mi) long, and varies from 3 to 6 km (2–3.75 mi) in
width. It has a maritime climate, with many storms, and mostly overcast
skies. The island was populated for more than 2,500 years by the Aleut
people, but has had no permanent population since 1832. It was included
in the Alaska Purchase of 1867, and has since been part of the United
States. During World War II, it was used as an airfield by US forces in
the Battle of the Aleutian Islands. Amchitka was selected by the United
States Atomic Energy Commission to be the site for underground
detonations of nuclear weapons. Three such tests were carried out: Long
Shot, an 80 kiloton blast in 1965; Milrow, a 1 megaton blast in 1969;
and Cannikin in 1971 – at "under 5 megatons", the largest underground
test ever conducted by the United States. The tests were highly
controversial, with environmental groups fearing that the Cannikin
explosion, in particular, would cause severe earthquakes and tsunamis.
Amchitka is no longer used for nuclear testing, although it is
monitored for the leakage of radioactive materials.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amchitka>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1191:
Third Crusade: Forces under Richard I of England defeated Ayyubid
troops under Saladin in Arsuf, present-day Israel.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Arsuf>
1812:
Napoleonic Wars: The French Grande Armée forced the Russians to
withdraw at the Battle of Borodino.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Borodino>
1901:
With Peking occupied by foreign troops from the Eight-Nation Alliance,
Qing China was forced to sign the Boxer Protocol, an unequal treaty
ending the Boxer Rebellion.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_Protocol>
1940:
World War II: The German Luftwaffe changed their strategy in the Battle
of Britain and began bombing London and other British cities and towns
for over 50 consecutive nights.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blitz>
1979:
The cable television network ESPN made its debut, broadcasting and
producing sports-related programming 24 hours a day.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESPN>
1986:
Desmond Tutu became the first black person to lead the Anglican Church
in South Africa.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Tutu>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
catawampus (adj):
1. Out of alignment, crooked, cater-corner.
2. Fierce, destructive
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/catawampus>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The more bombers, the less room for doves of peace.
--Nikita Khrushchev
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nikita_Khrushchev>
Norman Birkett, 1st Baron Birkett (1883–1962) was a British barrister,
politician and judge noted for his skill as a speaker. Born in
Ulverston, Lancashire, he initially trained to be a Methodist preacher,
and attended Emmanuel College, Cambridge to study theology and history
with that in mind. He became President of the Cambridge Union, and
after switching to law graduated in 1910. He was called to the Bar in
1913 and developed a reputation as a barrister able to defend people
with almost watertight criminal cases against them, such as in the
second of the Brighton trunk murders and the Blazing Car murder. He sat
as a Member of Parliament for the constituency of Nottingham East for
two Parliaments in the 1920s, and was described as "the Lord Chancellor
that never was". In 1941, he became a judge of the High Court, and
later served as the alternate British judge in the Nuremberg Trials.
Unhappy with his time in the High Court, he accepted a position in the
Court of Appeal in 1950, but after finding he enjoyed it even less,
retired in 1956 when he had served long enough to draw a pension.
Following his retirement he was made a hereditary peer, and spoke
regularly in the House of Lords. After speaking there in 1962 he
collapsed at home, and following a failed operation died aged 78.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Birkett%2C_1st_Baron_Birkett>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
394:
Forces of the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius I defeated Eugenius,
the usurper of the Western Roman Empire, at the Battle of the Frigidus
near modern-day Vipava, Slovenia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodosius_I>
1955:
An overwhelming Turkish mob attacked ethnic Greeks in Istanbul, killing
over 13 people, wounding over thirty others, and damaging over 5,000
Greek-owned homes and businesses.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istanbul_Pogrom>
1963:
The Krulak Mendenhall mission, led by U.S. Marine Corps Major General
Victor Krulak and U.S. Foreign Service Officer Joseph Mendenhall, was
launched by the Kennedy administration to assess the progress of the
Vietnam War.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krulak_Mendenhall_mission>
1970:
Members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijacked
four jet aircraft en route from Europe to New York City, landing two of
them at Dawson's Field in Zerqa, Jordan, and one plane in Beirut,
Lebanon. The fourth hijacking was successfully foiled.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawson%27s_Field_hijackings>
2000:
The Millennium Summit, a meeting of world leaders to discuss the role
of the United Nations in the turn of the 21st century, opened.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Summit>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
pastiche (n):
1. A work of drama, literature, music, or architecture that imitates
the work of a previous artist, often satirically.
2. A musical medley, typically quoting other works.
3. An incongruous
mixture; a hodgepodge
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pastiche>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
When a shepherd goes to kill a wolf, and takes his dog to see the
sport, he should take care to avoid mistakes. The dog has certain
relationships to the wolf the shepherd may have forgotten.
--Robert M. Pirsig
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_M._Pirsig>
Archie Jackson (1909–1933) was an Australian cricketer who played eight
Test matches as a specialist batsman between 1929 and 1931. His Test
and first-class cricket career coincided with the early playing years
of Don Bradman, to whom he was often compared. A teenage prodigy, he
played first grade cricket at only 15 years of age and was selected for
New South Wales at 17. In 1929, aged 19, Jackson made his Test début
against England, scoring 164 in the first innings to become the
youngest player to score a Test century. Renowned for his elegant
batting style, he played in a manner similar to the great Australian
batsmen Victor Trumper, and Alan Kippax, Jackson's friend and mentor.
Jackson's career was dogged by poor health; early in the 1931–32
season, Jackson coughed blood and collapsed before the start of play in
a Sheffield Shield match against Queensland. Subsequently admitted to a
sanatorium in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, Jackson was diagnosed
with tuberculosis. In an attempt to improve his health and to be closer
to his girlfriend, Jackson moved to Brisbane. Ignoring medical advice,
Jackson returned to cricket with a local team; however, his health
continued to deteriorate and he died at the age of just 23.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archie_Jackson>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1774:
In response to the British Parliament enacting the Intolerable Acts,
representatives from twelve of Britain's North American colonies
convened the First Continental Congress at Carpenters' Hall in
Philadelphia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Continental_Congress>
1905:
Under the mediation of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt , the
Russo-Japanese War officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of
Portsmouth at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard near Portsmouth, New
Hampshire, USA.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Portsmouth>
1914:
World War I: The First Battle of the Marne began with French forces
engaging the advancing German army at the Marne River near Paris.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_the_Marne>
1945:
Cold War: Soviet cipher clerk Igor Gouzenko defected to Canada with
over 100 documents on Soviet espionage activities and sleeper agents.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Gouzenko>
1972:
A Palestinian terrorist group called "Black September" took hostage
eleven Israeli athletes and coaches at the Olympic Summer Games in
Munich, West Germany; all of the hostages were killed less than 24
hours later.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_massacre>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
myriad (adj):
Great in number; innumerable
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/myriad>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
A planet is the cradle of mind, but one cannot live in a cradle
forever.
--Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Konstantin_Eduardovich_Tsiolkovsky>
Khan Noonien Singh is a villain in the fictional Star Trek universe.
According to backstory given in the character's first appearance, the
Star Trek original series episode "Space Seed", Khan is a superhuman
tyrant who once controlled more than a quarter of the Earth during the
Eugenics Wars of the 1990s. After being revived in 2267 by the crew of
the Enterprise, Khan attempts to capture the starship, but is thwarted
by James T. Kirk and exiled on Ceti Alpha V to create a new
civilization with his people. The character returns in the 1982 film
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, set fifteen years after "Space Seed",
in which Khan escapes his imprisonment and sets out to seek revenge
upon Kirk. The character was portrayed by Ricardo Montalbán in both the
television episode and in the movie. Initially conceived as a brutal
man of Nordic ancestry, Khan first appears as a Sikh who is both
admired and opposed by the Enterprise crew. Harve Bennett, executive
producer for Star Trek II, chose Khan as the villain. To reflect the
time spent marooned on an inhospitable world, Khan was given a costume
which looked as though it was scavenged from different items and showed
off Montalbán's physique. The character has been positively received by
critics and fans; Khan was voted as one of the top ten greatest film
villains of all time by the Online Film Critics Society.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Noonien_Singh>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1260:
Wars of the Guelphs and Ghibellines: The Siena Ghibellines defeated the
Florence Guelphs at the Battle of Montaperti outside of Siena,
present-day Italy.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Montaperti>
1886:
After over 25 years of fighting against the United States Army and the
armed forces of Mexico, Geronimo of the Chiricahua Apache surrendered
at Skeleton Canyon in Arizona.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geronimo>
1957:
Defying the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education,
Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus deployed the Arkansas National Guard to
prevent African American students from attending Little Rock's Central
High School.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Rock_Nine>
1984:
The Progressive Conservative Party led by Brian Mulroney won the
largest majority government by total number of seats in Canadian
history during the federal election.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Mulroney>
1998:
Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded the company Google in Menlo Park,
California, USA, to promote the web search engine that they developed
as a research project while attending Stanford University.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
blet (v):
To undergo bletting, a fermentation process in certain fruit beyond
ripening
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/blet>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
An original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody
can imitate.
--François-René de Chateaubriand
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois-Ren%C3%A9_de_Chateaubriand>
The Cochineal, Dactylopius coccus, is a scale insect in the suborder
Sternorrhyncha, from which the crimson-colored dye, carmine, is
derived. D. coccus itself is native to tropical and subtropical South
America and Mexico. A primarily sessile parasite, this insect lives on
cacti from the genus Opuntia, feeding on plant moisture and nutrients.
The insect produces carminic acid that deters predation by other
insects. Carminic acid can be extracted from the insect's body and eggs
to make carmine dye (also known as cochineal). Carmine is primarily
used as a food colouring and for cosmetics. After synthetic pigments
and dyes such as alizarin were invented in the late 19th century,
natural-dye production gradually diminished. Health fears over
artificial food additives, however, have renewed the popularity of
cochineal dyes, and the increased demand has made cultivation of the
insect profitable again. Cochineal dyes have health risks. Unlike
hypothetical risks extrapolated from tests on other species (rats),
Cochineal-based dyes and derivatives cause allergic reactions in no
more than 1 in 10,000 consumers. The Center for Science in the Public
Interest has called on the FDA to remove insect-based dyes from the
approved list of dyes.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochineal>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
301:
San Marino, one of the smallest nations in the world and the world's
oldest republic still in existence, was founded by Saint Marinus.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Marino>
590:
Gregory I became pope, the first one to come from a monastic
background.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Gregory_I>
1260:
Egyptian Mamluks defeated the Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut in
Palestine.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ain_Jalut>
1783:
Great Britain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris,
formally ending the American Revolutionary War.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Paris_%281783%29>
1901:
The National Flag of Australia, a Blue Ensign defaced with the
Commonwealth Star and the Southern Cross, flew for the first time atop
the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Australia>
1976:
The NASA Viking 2 spacecraft landed at Utopia Planitia on Mars.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_2>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
wanton (adj):
1. Lewd, immoral; sexually open/free.
2. Capriciously violent; malicious without provocation; acting without
regard for the law or the well-being of others.
3. Abundant and luxuriant, without restraint.
4. Playful; overly happy
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wanton>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The old poets little knew what comfort they could be to a man.
--Sarah Orne Jewett
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sarah_Orne_Jewett>
The Rock Springs massacre occurred on September 2, 1885, in the
present-day United States (U.S.) city of Rock Springs, Wyoming, in
Sweetwater County. The riot, between Chinese immigrant miners and
white, mostly immigrant, miners, was the result of racial tensions and
an ongoing labor dispute over the Union Pacific Coal Department's
policy of paying Chinese miners lower wages than white miners. When the
rioting ended, at least 28 Chinese miners were dead and 15 were
wounded. Rioters burned 75 Chinese homes resulting in approximately
US$150,000 in property damage. Tension between whites and Chinese
immigrants in the late 19th century American West was particularly
high, especially in the decade preceding the violence. The massacre in
Rock Springs was the violent outburst of years of anti-"coolie"
sentiment in the United States. In the immediate aftermath of the riot,
federal troops were deployed in Rock Springs. They escorted the
surviving Chinese miners, most of whom had fled to Evanston, Wyoming,
back to Rock Springs a week after the riot. Reaction came swiftly from
the era's publications. In Rock Springs, the local newspaper endorsed
the outcome of the riot, while in other Wyoming newspapers, support for
the riot was limited to sympathy for the causes of the white miners.
The massacre in Rock Springs touched off a wave of anti-Chinese
violence, especially in the Puget Sound area of Washington Territory.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Springs_massacre>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
31 BC:
Final War of the Roman Republic: Troops supporting Octavian defeated
the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra in the naval Battle of Actium
on the Ionian Sea near Actium in Greece.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Actium>
1666:
A large fire began on London's Pudding Lane and burned the city for
three days , destroying St Paul's Cathedral and the homes of 70,000 of
the city's 80,000 inhabitants.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_London>
1901:
U.S. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt first uttered the famous phrase
"speak softly and carry a big stick" at the Minnesota State Fair,
describing his philosophy of negotiating peacefully while
simultaneously threatening to use military force.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Stick_ideology>
1990:
Transnistria unilaterally declared its independence from what was then
the Moldavian SSR of the Soviet Union, but no country or international
organization has yet ever recognized it to this day.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transnistria>
1998:
Swissair Flight 111, en route from New York City to Geneva, crashed
into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 229 on board.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swissair_Flight_111>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
front (v):
1. To lead or be the spokesperson of a group.
2. To provide money or financial assistance in advance.
3. To assume a
haughty manner, especially as a pretense
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/front>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The first casualty when war comes is truth.
--Hiram Johnson
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hiram_Johnson>
Polish culture during World War II was brutally suppressed by the
occupying powers of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, both of whom
were hostile to Poland's people and culture. Policies aimed at cultural
genocide resulted in the deaths of thousands of scholars and artists,
and the theft or destruction of innumerable cultural artifacts. British
historian Niall Ferguson writes that "the maltreatment of the Poles was
one of many ways in which the Nazi and Soviet regimes had grown to
resemble one another". The occupiers looted or destroyed much of
Poland's cultural heritage, while persecuting and killing members of
the Polish cultural elite. Most Polish schools were closed, and those
that remained open saw their curricula altered significantly.
Nevertheless, underground organizations and individuals—in particular
the Polish Underground State—saved much of Poland's most valuable
cultural heritage, and worked to salvage as many cultural institutions
and artifacts as possible. The Catholic Church and wealthy individuals
contributed to the survival of some artists and their works. Despite
severe retribution by the Nazis and Soviets, Polish underground
cultural activities, including publications, concerts, live theater,
education, and academic research, continued throughout the war.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_culture_during_World_War_II>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1763:
Age of Enlightenment: Catherine II of Russia endorsed educator Ivan
Betskoy's plans for the Moscow Orphanage , an ambitious, state-run,
experimental Russian Enlightenment project to educate orphans into
ideal citizens.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Orphanage>
1804:
German astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding discovered Juno, one of the
largest main belt asteroids, naming it after the Roman goddess.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_Juno>
1939:
Nazi Germany invaded Poland at Wieluń and Westerplatte, starting World
War II in Europe.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Poland_%281939%29>
1951:
Australia, New Zealand and the United States signed a mutual defence
pact known as the ANZUS Treaty in San Francisco, agreeing to cooperate
on defence matters in the Pacific Ocean area.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANZUS>
1969:
A bloodless coup d'état led by Muammar al-Gaddafi overthrew Idris I of
Libya.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muammar_al-Gaddafi>
1983:
Soviet jet interceptors shot down the civilian airliner Korean Air
Lines Flight 007 near Sakhalin Island in the North Pacific, killing all
246 passengers and 23 crew on board.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
co-mother-in-law (n):
The mother of one's son- or daughter-in-law; that is, the mother-in-law
of one's son or daughter
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/co-mother-in-law>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Deep in the minds of the apes was rooted the conviction that Tarzan was
a mighty fighter and a strange creature. Strange because he had had it
in his power to kill his enemy, but had allowed him to live — unharmed.
--Edgar Rice Burroughs
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edgar_Rice_Burroughs>