Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Hot_Minute>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1787:
German-born British astronomer and composer William Herschel discovered
the Uranian moons Oberon and Titania. They were later named by his son
John after the King and the Queen of the Faeries from William
Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream, respectively.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberon_%28moon%29>
1922:
Insulin was first administered to a human patient with diabetes at the
Toronto General Hospital in Toronto, Canada.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin>
1923:
Troops from France and Belgium invaded the Ruhr Area to force the
German Weimar Republic to pay its reparation payments in the aftermath
of World War I.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_the_Ruhr>
1964:
In a landmark report, U.S. Surgeon General Luther Leonidas Terry issued
the warning that smoking may be hazardous for one's health, concluding
that it has a causative role in lung cancer, chronic bronchitis,
emphysema, and other illnesses.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_Leonidas_Terry>
1986:
The Gateway Bridge in Brisbane, Australia, at the time the longest
prestressed concrete free-cantilever bridge in the world, opened.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_Bridge%2C_Brisbane>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Sapphic (adj):
1. Relating to the Greek poet Sappho or her poetry.
2. Relating to lesbianism; lesbian
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Sapphic>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your
belief will help create the fact.
--William James
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_James>
The M249 light machine gun is an American version of the FN Minimi, a
light machine gun manufactured by the Belgian company FN Herstal. The
M249 is manufactured in the United States and is widely used by the
U.S. Armed Forces. The gun was introduced in 1984 after being judged
the most effective of a number of candidate weapons to address the lack
of automatic firepower in small units. The gun provides the heavy
volume of fire of a machine gun with accuracy and portability
approaching that of a rifle to infantry squads. The M249 is
gas-operated and air-cooled. It has a quick-change barrel, allowing the
gunner to rapidly replace an overheated or jammed barrel. A folding
bipod is attached near the front of the gun, though a M192 LGM tripod
is also available. It can be fed from both linked ammunition and STANAG
magazines, like those used in the M16 and M4. This allows the SAW
gunner to use rifleman's magazines as an emergency source of ammunition
in the event that he runs out of linked rounds. M249s have seen action
in every major conflict involving the United States since the 1991 Gulf
War. Soldiers are generally satisfied with the weapon's performance,
though there have been many reports of clogging with dirt and sand. Due
to the weight and age of the weapon, the U.S. Marine Corps is
considering designs for an infantry automatic rifle, which is planned
to complement and partially replace the M249 in their service.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M249_light_machine_gun>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1475:
Moldavian–Ottoman Wars: Moldavian forces under Stephen the Great
defeated an Ottoman attack led by Hadân Suleiman Pasha, the Beylerbeyi
of Rumelia, near Vaslui in present-day Romania.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vaslui>
1776:
Common Sense by Thomas Paine, a document denouncing British rule in the
Thirteen Colonies, was published.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Sense_%28pamphlet%29>
1810:
Childless after 14 years of marriage, Napoleon divorced his first wife
Joséphine so he could remarry in the hope of having an heir.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9phine_de_Beauharnais>
1863:
Service began on the Metropolitan Railway between Paddington and
Farringdon Street, today the oldest segment of the London Underground.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_and_Metropolitan_District_Railways>
1929:
The Adventures of Tintin, a series of comic books created by Belgian
artist Hergé that has been sold in over 50 languages and more than
200 million copies to date, first appeared in a children's supplement
to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Tintin>
1946:
The first session of the United Nations General Assembly convened at
the Westminster Central Hall in London with representatives from 51
member states.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_General_Assembly>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
meidan (n):
An expanse of open space in or by a city or town
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/meidan>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.
--John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dalberg-Acton%2C_1st_Baron_Acton>
Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1743–1825) was a prominent eighteenth-century
English poet, essayist, and children's author. A "woman of letters" who
published in multiple genres, Barbauld had a successful writing career
at a time when female professional writers were rare. She was a noted
teacher at the celebrated Palgrave Academy and an innovative children's
writer; her famous primers provided a model for pedagogy for more than
a century. Her essays demonstrated that it was possible for a woman to
be publicly engaged in politics, and other women authors emulated her.
Even more importantly, her poetry was foundational to the development
of Romanticism in England. Barbauld was also a literary critic, and her
anthology of eighteenth-century British novels helped establish the
canon as we know it today. Barbauld's literary career ended abruptly in
1812 with the publication of her poem Eighteen Hundred and Eleven,
which criticized Britain's participation in the Napoleonic Wars. The
vicious reviews shocked Barbauld and she published nothing else within
her lifetime. Her reputation was further damaged when many of the
Romantic poets she had inspired in the heyday of the French Revolution
turned against her in their later, more conservative, years. Barbauld
was remembered only as a pedantic children's writer during the
nineteenth century, and largely forgotten during the twentieth century,
but the rise of feminist literary criticism in the 1980s renewed
interest in her works and restored her place in literary history.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Laetitia_Barbauld>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1768:
Philip Astley staged the first modern circus in London.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/circus>
1839:
The French Academy of Sciences announced the Daguerreotype photographic
process, named after its inventor, French artist and chemist Louis
Daguerre.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daguerreotype>
1861:
The civilian ship Star of the West was fired upon as it attempted to
send supplies and reinforcements to Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor
before the American Civil War.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_the_West>
1916:
World War I: The last British troops evacuated from Gallipoli, as the
Ottoman Empire prevailed over of a joint British and French operation
to capture Istanbul at the Battle of Gallipoli.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallipoli_Campaign>
1923:
The autogyro , a type of rotorcraft invented by civil engineer and
pilot Juan de la Cierva, made its first successful flight at Cuatro
Vientos Airfield in Madrid, Spain.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/autogyro>
2005:
Mahmoud Abbas was elected President of the Palestinian National
Authority to replace Yasser Arafat, who died in 2004.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_presidential_election%2C_2005>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
in the swim (adj):
(idiomatic) Actively participating in the flow of events; very involved
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/in_the_swim>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love
for truth — and truth rewarded me.
--Simone de Beauvoir
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Simone_de_Beauvoir>
ToeJam & Earl is an action video game developed by Johnson Voorsanger
Productions and published by Sega for the Mega Drive video game
console. Released in 1991, it centers on the titular ToeJam and
Earl—alien rappers who have crash-landed on Earth. As they attempt to
escape the planet players assume the role of either character and
collect pieces of their wrecked spacecraft. ToeJam & Earl's design was
heavily influenced by the computer role-playing game Rogue, and took
from it such features as the random generation of levels and items. It
references and parodies 1990s urban culture and is set to a funk
soundtrack. The game was positively received by critics, who praised
its originality, soundtrack, humor and two-player cooperative mode. It
attained sleeper hit status despite low initial sales, and its
protagonists were used as mascots by Sega. ToeJam & Earl was followed
by two sequels: ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron and ToeJam & Earl
III: Mission to Earth, released for the Mega Drive and Xbox,
respectively. The sequels' commercial and critical success was mixed;
research has suggested that series fans favor the original ToeJam &
Earl. The game again received positive reviews in 2006 when re-released
for the Wii's Virtual Console, but certain critics believed that it had
become dated.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ToeJam_%26_Earl>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1790:
George Washington delivered the first ever State of the Union address
in New York City, then the provisional capital of the United States.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_the_Union_address>
1815:
American forces led by General Andrew Jackson defeated the British Army
at the Battle of New Orleans near New Orleans, two weeks after the
United States and United Kingdom signed the Treaty of Ghent to end the
War of 1812.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_New_Orleans>
1956:
Five Evangelical Christian missionaries from the United States were
killed by the Huaorani in the rainforest of Ecuador shortly after
making contact with them.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Auca>
1979:
The oil tanker Betelgeuse exploded at the offshore jetty of the Whiddy
Island Oil Terminal off Bantry Bay, Ireland, killing about 50 people.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betelgeuse_incident>
2004:
RMS Queen Mary 2, at the time the longest, widest and tallest passenger
ship ever built, was christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen
Elizabeth II.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Queen_Mary_2>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
asseveration (n):
An earnest affirmation or declaration of support
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/asseveration>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.
--Gerry Spence
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gerry_Spence>
Elwood Haynes (1857–1925) was an American inventor, metallurgist,
automotive pioneer, entrepreneur and industrialist. He invented the
metal alloys stellite and martensitic stainless steel and designed one
of the earliest automobiles in the United States. His design is
recognized as the first that was acceptable for mass production and,
with the Apperson brothers, he formed the first company in the United
States to profitably produce automobiles. Because of his many advances
in the automotive industry, he is sometimes called the Father of the
Automobile. His frequent travels drew his interest to the idea of a
mechanical device that could transport without need of a horse, and he
began to formulate plans for a motorized vehicle in the early 1890s; he
successfully road tested his first car, the Pioneer, on July 4, 1894.
He formed a partnership with Elmer and Edgar Apperson in 1896 to start
Haynes-Apperson for the commercial production of automobiles, and he
renamed it Haynes Automobile Company in 1905, following the loss of his
partners. He formed Haynes Stellite Company to produce one of the new
alloys he invented and received lucrative contracts during World War I,
making Haynes a millionaire in 1916. After his death from complications
arising from influenza, his Kokomo mansion was converted into the
Elwood Haynes Museum and is open to the public where many of his
original inventions and automobiles are on display.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elwood_Haynes>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1598:
Boris Godunov became the first non-Rurikid Tsar of Russia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Godunov>
1610:
Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei first observed three of Jupiter's
moons through his telescope: Io, Europa, and Callisto.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Io_%28moon%29>
1797:
The first official Italian tricolour was adopted by the government of
the Cispadane Republic.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Italy>
1924:
The International Hockey Federation, the global governing body for
field hockey, was founded in Paris in response to the sport's omission
from the 1924 Summer Olympics.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Hockey_Federation>
1975:
The National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women was established
to promote empowerment and gender equality for the women in the
Philippines.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_Philippines>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
smudge (v):
1. To obscure by blurring; to smear.
2. To soil or smear with dirt.
3. To use dense smoke to protect from
insects
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/smudge>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
There are years that ask questions and years that answer.
--Zora Neale Hurston
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Zora_Neale_Hurston>
The badnjak is a log brought into the house and placed on the fire on
the evening of Christmas Eve, a central tradition in Serbian Christmas
celebrations. The tree from which the badnjak is cut, preferably a
young and straight oak, is ceremonially felled early on the morning of
the Eve. The felling, preparation, bringing in, and laying on the fire,
are surrounded by elaborate rituals, with many regional variations. The
burning of the log is accompanied by prayers that the coming year
brings food, happiness, love, luck, and riches. It commemorates the
fire that—according to folk tradition—the shepherds of Bethlehem built
in the cave where Jesus Christ was born, to warm him and his mother
throughout the night. Scholars regard the ceremony as inherited from
the old Slavic religion. As most Serbs today live in towns and cities,
the badnjak is often represented by a cluster of oak twigs with which
the home is decorated on Christmas Eve. Since the early 1990s, the
Serbian Orthodox Church has, together with local communities, organized
public celebrations on the Eve in which the badnjak plays a central
role.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badnjak>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1066:
Harold Godwinson was crowned King of England, widely regarded as the
last Anglo-Saxon king before the Norman conquest.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Godwinson>
1449:
Constantine XI Palaiologos was crowned Byzantine Emperor, the last one
before the Fall of Constantinople.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_XI_Palaiologos>
1907:
Italian educator Maria Montessori opened her first school and day care
center for working class children in Rome.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Montessori>
1953:
The first Asian Socialist Conference, an organization of socialist
political parties in Asia, opened in Rangoon, Burma, with 177
delegates, observers and fraternal guests.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Socialist_Conference>
1994:
Two-time American Olympic figure skating medalist Nancy Kerrigan was
clubbed on the right leg by an assailant hired by Jeff Gillooly, the
ex-husband of her rival skater Tonya Harding.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonya_Harding%23The_Kerrigan_attack>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
exigent (adj):
1. Urgent; needing immediate action.
2. Demanding; needing great effort
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/exigent>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what
will be.
--Khalil Gibran
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Khalil_Gibran>
Minas Geraes was a battleship built for the Brazilian Navy. Named in
honor of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, the ship was laid down in
April 1907 as the lead ship of her class, making Brazil the third
country to have a dreadnought under construction. Two months after her
commissioning on 5 January 1910, Minas Geraes was featured in an
edition of Scientific American, which hailed her as "the last word in
heavy battleship design and the [...] most powerfully armed warship
afloat". In November 1910, Minas Geraes was the focal point of the
Revolta de Chibata (English: Revolt of the Whip). When Brazil entered
the First World War in 1917, Britain's Royal Navy declined Brazil's
offer to send Minas Geraes to join the Grand Fleet because the ship was
outdated. In 1921, Minas Geraes was modernized in the United States. In
the 1930s, after having a role in two mutinies during the previous
decade, the battleship was modernized again, this time at the Rio de
Janeiro Naval Yard. She underwent further refitting from 1939 to 1943.
During the Second World War, Minas Geraes was anchored in Salvador as
the main defense of the port, as she was too old to play an active part
in the conflict. For the last nine years of her service life, Minas
Geraes remained largely inactive, and she was towed to Italy for
scrapping in March 1954.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_battleship_Minas_Geraes>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1477:
Burgundian Wars: Charles the Bold , the Duke of Burgundy, was killed at
the Battle of Nancy, eventually leading to the partition of Burgundy
between France and the House of Habsburg.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_the_Bold>
1527:
Felix Manz, co-founder of the original Swiss Brethren Anabaptist
congregation in Zürich, was executed by drowning, becoming one of the
first martyrs of the Radical Reformation.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Manz>
1968:
Alexander Dubček came to power in Czechoslovakia, beginning a period of
political liberalization known as the Prague Spring that still enabled
the Communist Party to maintain real power.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Spring>
1975:
The Tasman Bridge, crossing the Derwent River in Hobart, Tasmania,
Australia, was struck by the bulk carrier Lake Illawarra, killing seven
of the ship's crewmen and five motorists on the bridge.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasman_Bridge_disaster>
2005:
Eris, the largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System, was
discovered by a team led by Michael E. Brown using images originally
taken on October 21, 2003, at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego
County, California, U.S.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eris_%28dwarf_planet%29>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
mettle (n):
1. A quality of endurance and courage.
2. Good temperament and character
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mettle>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon.
In an instant age, perhaps we must relearn the ancient truth that
patience, too, has its victories.
--Konrad Adenauer
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Konrad_Adenauer>
The 2000 Sugar Bowl was the designated Bowl Championship Series (BCS)
National Championship Game for the 1999 college football season and was
played on January 4, 2000, at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans,
Louisiana. The Florida State Seminoles, led by head coach Bobby Bowden
(pictured) and representing the Atlantic Coast Conference, defeated the
Virginia Tech Hokies, then representing the Big East Conference, by a
score of 46–29. With the win, Florida State clinched the 1999 Division
I college football championship, the team's second national
championship. An estimated total of 79,280 people attended the game in
person, while approximately 18.4 million US viewers watched the game on
ABC television. The resulting 17.5 television rating was the
third-largest ever recorded for a BCS college football game. Florida
State wide receiver Peter Warrick was named the game's most valuable
player.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Sugar_Bowl>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1698:
Most of London's Palace of Whitehall, the main residence of the English
monarchs dating from 1530, was destroyed by fire .
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Whitehall>
1854:
Captain William McDonald aboard the Samarang discovered the McDonald
Islands, uninhabited, barren islands located in the Southern Ocean
about two-thirds of the way from Madagascar to Antarctica.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heard_Island_and_McDonald_Islands>
1884:
The Fabian Society, an intellectual movement whose purpose is to
advance the socialist cause by gradualist and reformist methods rather
than revolutionary means, was founded in London.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabian_Society>
1989:
In the Second Gulf of Sidra incident over the Gulf of Sidra in the
Mediterranean Sea, two American F-14A Tomcats shot down two Libyan
MiG-23 Flogger Es that appeared to be attempting to engage them.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Sidra_incident_%281989%29>
2004:
Spirit, the first of two rovers of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover
Mission, landed successfully on Mars at 04:35 Ground UTC.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_rover>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
selcouth (adj):
(obsolete) Strange, unusual, rare; marvellous, wondrous
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/selcouth>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine).
--R.E.M.
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/R.E.M.>
Jerry Voorhis (1901–1984) was a Democratic politician from California.
He served five terms in the United States House of Representatives,
representing the 12th Congressional district in Los Angeles County from
1937 to 1947. He was the first political opponent of Richard Nixon, who
defeated him for reelection in 1946 in a campaign cited as an example
of red-baiting in Nixon's political rise. Voorhis was born in Kansas,
and moved around much in his childhood. He graduated from Yale
University after being elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and secured a
master's degree from Claremont Graduate School in education. He served
in varying capacities as a young adult, becoming headmaster of
newly-founded Voorhis School for Boys in 1928, a post he retained into
his congressional career. In ten years in Congress, Voorhis compiled a
liberal voting record and was a loyal supporter of the New Deal. His
major legislative accomplishment was the Voorhis Act of 1940, requiring
registration of certain organizations controlled by foreign powers.
After four comfortable reelections, he faced Nixon in a bitter campaign
in which Voorhis's supposed endorsement by groups linked to the
Communist Party was a major issue.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Voorhis>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1521:
Pope Leo X issued the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem,
excommunicating Martin Luther from the Roman Catholic Church after
Luther refused to retract 41 of his 95 theses.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Leo_X>
1777:
American Revolutionary War: American forces under General George
Washington defeated British troops in Princeton, New Jersey.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Princeton>
1848:
Joseph Jenkins Roberts began his term as the first President of
Liberia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Jenkins_Roberts>
1888:
The 91-cm refracting telescope at the Lick Observatory near San Jose,
California, USA, at the time the largest telescope in the world, was
used for the first time.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lick_Observatory>
1958:
Ten former British colonies in the Caribbean joined to form a new
self-governing West Indies Federation.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Indies_Federation>
1990:
United States invasion of Panama: General Manuel Noriega, the deposed
"strongman of Panama", surrendered to American forces.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Noriega>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
judder (v):
To spasm; to shake violently
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/judder>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
This is an ancient hallow, and ere the kings failed or the Tree
withered in the court, a fruit must have been set here. For it is said
that, though the fruit of the Tree comes seldom to ripeness, yet the
life within may then lie sleeping through many long years, and none can
foretell the time in which it will awake.
--w:Gandalf
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/w%3AGandalf>
Asser was a Welsh monk from St. David's, Dyfed, who became Bishop of
Sherborne in the 890s. In about 885 he was asked by Alfred the Great to
leave St. David's and join the circle of learned men which Alfred was
recruiting for his court. After spending a year at Caerwent due to an
illness, he accepted. In 893 Asser wrote a biography of Alfred, called
the Life of King Alfred. The manuscript survived to modern times in
only one copy, which was part of the Cotton library. That copy was
destroyed in a fire in 1731, but transcriptions that had been made
earlier, allied with material from Asser's work that was included by
other early writers, have enabled the work to be reconstructed. The
biography is now the main source of information about Alfred's life,
and provides far more information about Alfred than is known about any
other early English ruler. Asser also assisted Alfred in his
translation of Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care, and possibly with
other works. Asser is sometimes cited as a source for the legend of
Alfred having founded the University of Oxford, which is now known to
be false. A short passage making this claim was interpolated by William
Camden into his 1603 edition of Asser's Life. Doubts have also been
raised periodically about whether the entire Life is a forgery, written
by a slightly later writer, but it is now almost universally accepted
as genuine.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asser>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
366:
The Alamanni, an alliance of west Germanic tribes, crossed the frozen
Rhine in large numbers to invade the Roman Empire.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamanni>
533:
Mercurius became Pope John II, the first pope to adopt a regnal name
upon elevation to the papacy.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_II>
1777:
American Revolutionary War: American forces under the command of George
Washington repulsed a British attack at the Battle of the Assunpink
Creek near Trenton, New Jersey.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Assunpink_Creek>
1833:
Two British naval vessels arrived at the Falkland Islands to re-assert
British sovereignty there.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Re-establishment_of_British_rule_on_the_Falkla…>
1942:
In the largest espionage case in American history, over 30 members of a
German spy ring led by former South African Boer soldier and adventurer
Fritz Joubert Duquesne were convicted following an investigation by
the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duquesne_Spy_Ring>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
contumelious (adj):
Rudely contemptuous; showing contumely; insolent or disdainful
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/contumelious>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the
dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any
longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the
world as it will be ...
--Isaac Asimov
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov>