The Superb Fairywren is a common and familiar passerine bird of the
Maluridae family. Sedentary and territorial, it is found across
south-eastern Australia. The species exhibits a high degree of sexual
dimorphism; the male in breeding plumage has a striking bright blue
forehead, ear coverts, mantle, and tail, with a black mask and black or
dark blue throat. Non-breeding males, females and juveniles are
predominantly grey-brown in colour; this gave the early impression that
males were polygamous as all dull-coloured birds were taken for
females. Two subspecies are recognised: the larger and darker Tasmanian
form cyaneus and the smaller and paler mainland form cyanochlamys. Like
other fairywrens, the Superb Fairywren is notable for several peculiar
behavioural characteristics; the birds are socially monogamous and
sexually promiscuous, meaning that although they form pairs between one
male and one female, each partner will mate with other individuals and
even assist in raising the young from such pairings. Male wrens pluck
yellow petals and display them to females as part of a courtship
display.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superb_Fairywren>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
241 BC:
The Roman Republic defeated Carthage in a naval battle off the coast of
the Aegadian Islands near the western coast of the island of Sicily,
ending the First Punic War.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Aegates_Islands>
1831:
King Louis-Philippe of France created the French Foreign Legion as a
unit of foreign volunteers because foreigners were forbidden to serve
in the French Army after the 1830 July Revolution.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Foreign_Legion>
1876:
Alexander Graham Bell made his first successful bi-directional
telephone call, saying, "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you."
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_of_the_telephone>
1906:
More than a thousand coal miners were killed in the Courrières mine
disaster in Northern France, Europe's worst mining accident.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courri%C3%A8res_mine_disaster>
1959:
An anti-Chinese uprising erupted in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, as
about 300,000 Tibetans surrounded the Potala Palace to prevent the 14th
Dalai Lama from leaving or being removed by the Chinese People's
Liberation Army.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1959_Tibetan_uprising>
1977:
Astronomers using NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory, an observatory
aboard a highly modified jet aircraft, discovered a faint planetary
ring system around Uranus.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rings_of_Uranus>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
opportunely (adv):
1. In a manner suitable for some particular purpose.
2. In a manner convenient or advantageous at some particular time
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/opportunely>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
In men whom men condemn as ill
I find so much of goodness still,
In men whom men pronounce divine
I find so much of sin and blot,
I do not dare to draw a line
Between the two, where God has not.
--Joaquin Miller
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joaquin_Miller>
Flower is a PlayStation 3 video game. It was developed by
thatgamecompany, designed by Jenova Chen (pictured), and announced at
the 2007 Tokyo Game Show. Flower was released on February 12, 2009, via
the PlayStation Network. The game was intended as a spiritual successor
to flOw, a previous title by Chen and thatgamecompany. In it, the
player controls the wind, blowing a flower petal through the air using
the movement of the game controller. Flying close to flowers results in
the player's petal being followed by other flower petals. Approaching
flowers may also have side-effects on the game world, such as bringing
vibrant color to previously dead fields or activating stationary
windmills. The game features no text or dialogue, forming a narrative
arc primarily through visual representation and emotional cues. Flower
was primarily intended to provoke positive emotions in the player,
rather than to be a challenging and "fun" game. The team viewed their
efforts as creating a work of art, removing gameplay elements and
mechanics that were not provoking the desired response in the players.
Flower was a critical success, to the surprise of the developers.
Reviewers praised the game's music, visuals, and gameplay, calling it a
unique and compelling emotional experience. It was named the best
independent game of 2009 at the Spike Video Game Awards and by Playboy,
and won the "Casual Game of the Year" award by the Academy of
Interactive Arts and Sciences.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_%28video_game%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1276:
Augsburg in the Holy Roman Empire became a Free Imperial City.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augsburg>
1841:
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that captive Africans who seized control
of La Amistad, the trans-Atlantic slave-trading ship carrying them, had
been taken into slavery illegally.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amistad_%281841%29>
1842:
Nabucco, an opera by Italian Romantic composer Giuseppe Verdi ,
premiered at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabucco>
1862:
American Civil War: In the world's first major battle between two
powered ironclad warships, the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia fought
to a draw near the mouth of Hampton Roads in Virginia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hampton_Roads>
1945:
World War II: A bomb raid on Tokyo by American B-29 heavy bombers
started a firestorm, killing over 100,000 people.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo_in_World_War_II>
1956:
Soviet military troops suppressed mass demonstrations in Tbilisi,
Georgia, who where protesting Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's
de-Stalinization policy.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1956_Georgian_demonstrations>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
filigree (n):
1. A delicate and intricate ornamentation made from gold or silver
twisted wire.
2. A design resembling such intricate ornamentation
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/filigree>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
A philosopher is a lover of wisdom, not of knowledge, which for all its
great uses ultimately suffers from the crippling effect of
ephemerality. All knowledge is transient, linked to the world around it
and subject to change as the world changes, whereas wisdom, true wisdom
is eternal, immutable.
--Shashi Tharoor
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shashi_Tharoor>
Ceawlin was a King of Wessex. He may have been the son of Cynric of
Wessex and the grandson of Cerdic of Wessex, whom the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle represents as the leader of the first group of Saxons to come
to the land which later became Wessex. Ceawlin was active at a time
when the Anglo-Saxon invasion was being completed; by the time he died,
little of southern England remained in the control of the native
Britons. The chronology of Ceawlin's life is highly uncertain: his
reign is variously listed as lasting seven, seventeen, or thirty-two
years, and the historical accuracy and dating of many of the events in
the later Anglo-Saxon Chronicle have been called into
question.<ref>Stenton, p. 29, accepts the date given for Ceawlin's
accession in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 560, but Barbara Yorke in her
online DNB article on Ceawlin states that that his reign seems to have
been deliberately lengthened.</ref> The Chronicle records several
battles of Ceawlin's between the years 556 and 592, including the first
record of a battle between different groups of Anglo-Saxons, and
indicates that under Ceawlin Wessex acquired significant territory,
some of which was later to be lost to other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
Ceawlin is also named as one of the eight "bretwaldas": this was a
title given in the Chronicle to eight rulers who had overlordship over
southern Britain, although the actual extent of Ceawlin’s control is
not known. Ceawlin died in 593, having been deposed the year before,
possibly by his successor, Ceol. He is recorded in various sources as
having two sons, Cutha and Cuthwine, but the genealogies in which this
information is found are known to be unreliable.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceawlin_of_Wessex>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1702:
Princess Anne of Denmark and Norway became the Queen of England,
Scotland and Ireland, succeeding William III.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_of_Great_Britain>
1782:
American Revolutionary War: Almost 100 Native Americans in
Gnadenhutten, Ohio died at the hands of Pennsylvanian militiamen in a
mass murder known as the Gnadenhutten massacre.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnadenhutten_massacre>
1978:
BBC Radio 4 transmitted the first episode of English author and
dramatist Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a
science fiction radio series that was later adapted into novels, a
television series, and other media formats.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy_%28radi…>
1983:
The Cold War: During a speech to the National Association of
Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida, U.S. President Ronald Reagan
described the Soviet Union as an "evil empire".
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/evil_empire>
1985:
A failed assassination attempt on Islamic cleric Sayyed Mohammad
Hussein Fadlallah in Beirut killed more than 80 people and injured
almost 200 others.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_Beirut_car_bombing>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
superadd (v):
To add on top of a previous addition
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/superadd>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We no longer have a coherent conception of ourselves, and our universe,
and our relation to one another and our world. We no longer know, as
the Middle Ages did, where we come from, and where we are going, or
why. That is, we don't know what information is relevant, and what
information is irrelevant to our lives.
--Neil Postman
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Postman>
"We Are the World" is a song and charity single recorded by USA for
Africa in 1985. It was recently re-recorded and updated in 2010 by a
different set of artists as "We Are the World 25 for Haiti", to benefit
survivors (pictured) of this year's devastating earthquake in Haiti.
The song was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, and
originally co-produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian for the
album We Are the World. The recording sessions for both versions of the
song have brought together some of the biggest artists in the music
industry. The original anthem was released on March 7, 1985, as the
only single from We Are the World. The single was a worldwide
commercial success and was promoted in several ways. The promotion
aided the success of "We Are the World", which was eventually named the
biggest selling single of all time. The USA for Africa single has sold
over 20 million units and raised over US$63 million for humanitarian
aid in Africa and the US. "We Are the World" has demonstrated that
diverse musicians can productively work together, and has further
influenced the movement within pop music to create songs that address
humane concerns.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Are_the_World>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
161:
Following the death of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius
and Lucius Verus agreed to become co-Emperors in an unprecedented
arrangement in the Roman Empire.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius>
1887:
The North Carolina General Assembly established North Carolina State
University, today the largest university in North Carolina, as a land
grant institution.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina_State_University>
1945:
World War II: In Operation Lumberjack, Allied forces seized the
Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine in Remagen, enabling them to establish
and expand a lodgement on German soil that changed the entire nature of
the conflict on the Western Front.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludendorff_Bridge>
1950:
The Soviet Union issued a statement denying that German nuclear
physicist Klaus Fuchs had served as a Soviet spy.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Fuchs>
1965:
African-American Civil Rights Movement: Civil rights demonstrators
marching from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, were brutally attacked by
police on Bloody Sunday .
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selma_to_Montgomery_marches>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
putative (adj):
Commonly believed or deemed to be the case; accepted by supposition
rather than as a result of proof
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/putative>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he
ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he
ought to do.
--Thomas Aquinas
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Aquinas>
The Battle of the Alamo, a part of the Texas Revolution, ended on March
6, 1836, when Mexican troops under General Antonio López de Santa Anna
regained the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar (modern-day San
Antonio, Texas). Several months previously, rebellious Texians had
driven all Mexican troops out of Mexican Texas. Up to 260 Texians were
garrisoned in the Alamo at various times. On February 23, 1836, Santa
Anna and 1,500 Mexican troops laid siege to the Alamo as the first step
in a campaign to re-take Texas. In the final battle, all but two of the
Texian defenders were killed, and 400–600 Mexican troops were killed or
wounded. The battle has been the subject of numerous myths, spread by
movie and television adaptations, including John Wayne's 1960 film The
Alamo.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Alamo>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1834:
York, Upper Canada, was incorporated as Toronto.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto>
1853:
Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata premiered at Venice's La Fenice, but the
performance was so bad that it caused the Italian composer to revise
portions of the opera.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_traviata>
1869:
Dmitri Mendeleev presented the first Periodic Table of Elements to the
Russian Chemical Society.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Mendeleev>
1945:
Petru Groza of the Ploughmen's Front, a party closely associated with
the Communists, became Prime Minister of Romania.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petru_Groza>
1964:
In a radio broadcast, Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad announced
that American boxer Cassius Clay would change his name to Muhammad Ali
, symbolizing his new identity as a member of the religious, social and
political organization.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali>
1988:
In Operation Flavius, the British Special Air Service killed
Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers Daniel McCann, Seán Savage
and Mairéad Farrell while they were conspiring to bomb a parade of
British military bands in Gibraltar.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Flavius>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
vulnerary (adj):
1. Useful or used for healing wounds; healing, curative.
2. (archaic, rare) Causing wounds, wounding
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vulnerary>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Who watches the Watchmen?
--Juvenal
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Juvenal>
The Kinzua Bridge was a railroad trestle that had spanned Kinzua Creek
in McKean County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The bridge was
301 feet (92 m) tall and 2,052 feet (625 m) long prior to its collapse.
The bridge was originally built from iron in 1882 and was billed as the
"Eighth Wonder of the World", holding the record as the tallest
railroad bridge in the world for two years. In 1900 the bridge was
dismantled and simultaneously rebuilt out of steel to allow it to
accommodate heavier trains. It stayed in commercial service until 1959
and was sold to the state government of Pennsylvania in 1963, becoming
the centerpiece of a state park. Restoration of the bridge began in
2002, but before it was finished, a tornado struck the bridge in 2003
causing a large portion of the bridge to collapse. Contributing to the
collapse was the failure, caused by corrosion, of the anchor bolts
holding the bridge towers to their foundations. Before its collapse,
the Kinzua Bridge was ranked as the fourth tallest railway bridge in
the United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic
Places in 1977 and as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in
1982. The Kinzua Bridge is in Kinzua Bridge State Park off U.S. Route 6
near the borough of Mount Jewett, Pennsylvania.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinzua_Bridge>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1770:
British soldiers fired into a threatening crowd in Boston,
Massachusetts, killing five civilians.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Massacre>
1850:
The Britannia Bridge , a tubular bridge of wrought iron rectangular
box-section spans crossing the Menai Strait between the island of
Anglesey and the mainland of Wales, opened.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britannia_Bridge>
1940:
World War II: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and the Politburo signed an
order for the execution of about 22,000 Polish military officers,
policemen, intellectuals and civilian prisoners of war that were
captured during the Soviet invasion of Poland.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre>
1946:
The term "Iron Curtain", describing the symbolic, ideological, and
physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas during the
Cold War, was popularized by former British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill during a speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri,
US.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Curtain>
1960:
British marine biologist Alister Hardy introduced his aquatic ape
hypothesis, theorizing that swimming and diving for food exerted a
strong evolutionary effect that was partly responsible for the
divergence between the common ancestors of humans and other great apes.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/aquatic_ape_hypothesis>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
moonraker (n):
(nautical) A small, light sail high on a mast
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/moonraker>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers
or of races, but the happiness of the common man.
--William Beveridge
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Beveridge>
The Suffolk Punch is an English breed of draught horse. The breed takes
the first part of its name from the county of Suffolk in East Anglia,
and the name "Punch" from its solid appearance and strength. It is a
heavy draught horse which is always chestnut in colour, although the
colour is traditionally spelled "chesnut" by the breed registries.
Suffolk Punches are known as good doers, and tend to have energetic
gaits. The breed was developed in the early 16th century, and remains
similar in phenotype to its founding stock. The Suffolk Punch was
developed for farm work, and gained popularity during the early 20th
century. However, as agriculture became increasingly mechanised, the
breed fell out of favour, particularly from the middle part of the
century, and almost disappeared completely. Although the breed's status
is listed as critical by the UK Rare Breeds Survival Trust and the
American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, there has been a resurgence in
interest, and population numbers are increasing. As well as being used
for farm work, the breed pulled artillery and non-motorised commercial
vans and buses. It was also exported to other countries to upgrade
local equine stock.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffolk_Punch>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1461:
Wars of the Roses in England: Lancastrian King Henry VI was deposed by
his Yorkist cousin, who then became King Edward IV.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_IV_of_England>
1681:
King Charles II of England granted Quaker William Penn a charter for
the Pennsylvania Colony.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province_of_Pennsylvania>
1769:
French astronomer Charles Messier first noted the Orion Nebula , a
bright nebula visible to the naked eye in the night sky situated south
of Orion's Belt, later cataloguing it as Messier 42 in his list of
Messier objects.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Nebula>
1982:
Bertha Wilson became the first female Puisne Justice of the Supreme
Court of Canada.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertha_Wilson>
2009:
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for President
of Sudan Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against
humanity regarding his actions during the War in Darfur.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_al-Bashir>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
infallible (adj):
Without fault or weakness; incapable of error or fallacy
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/infallible>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
When I listen to love, I am listening to my true nature. When I express
love, I am expressing my true nature. All of us love. All of us do it
more and more perfectly. The past has brought us both ashes and
diamonds. In the present we find the flowers of what we've planted and
the seeds of what we are becoming. I plant the seeds of love in my
heart. I plant the seeds of love in the hearts of others.
--Julia Cameron
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Julia_Cameron>
The Sholes and Glidden typewriter was the first commercially successful
typewriter. Principally designed by Christopher Latham Sholes, it was
developed with the assistance of fellow printer Samuel W. Soule and
amateur mechanic Carlos S. Glidden. After several short-lived attempts
to manufacture the device, the machine was acquired by E. Remington and
Sons in early 1873. An arms manufacturer seeking to diversify,
Remington further refined the typewriter before finally placing it on
the market on July 1, 1874. During its development, the typewriter
evolved from a crude curiosity into a practical device, the basic form
of which became the industry standard. The machine incorporated
elements which became fundamental to typewriter design, including a
cylindrical platen and a four-rowed QWERTY keyboard. Several design
deficiencies remained, however. The Sholes and Glidden could print only
upper-case letters—an issue remedied in its successor, the Remington
No. 2—and was a "blind writer", meaning the typist could not see what
was being written as it was entered. Initially, the typewriter received
an unenthusiastic reception from the public. Lack of an established
market, high cost, and the need for trained operators slowed its
adoption. Additionally, recipients of typewritten messages found the
mechanical, all upper-case writing to be impersonal and even insulting.
The new communication technologies and expanding businesses of the late
19th century, however, had created a need for expedient, legible
correspondence, and so the Sholes and Glidden and its contemporaries
soon became ubiquitous office fixtures.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sholes_and_Glidden_typewriter>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1284:
The Statute of Rhuddlan incorporated the Principality of Wales into
England.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_Rhuddlan>
1431:
Gabriel Condulmer became Pope Eugene IV , succeeding Martin V.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Eugene_IV>
1585:
The Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, Italy, a theatre designed by the
Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, was inaugurated.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teatro_Olimpico>
1865:
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation opened its doors,
originally to help Hong Kong merchants finance the growing trade
between China and Europe.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hongkong_and_Shanghai_Banking_Corporation>
1991:
Motorist Rodney King was beaten by Los Angeles policemen, causing
public outrage that increased tensions between the African American
community and the police department over the issues of police brutality
and social inequalities in the area.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_King>
1997:
The Sky Tower in Auckland, the tallest free-standing structure in the
Southern Hemisphere at 328 metres (1,080 ft), opened.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Tower>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
augment (v):
1. To increase; to make larger or supplement.
2. (reflexive) To grow, increase, or become greater.
3. (music) To
increase an interval by a half step (chromatic semitone)
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/augment>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
If there be such a thing as truth, it must infallibly be struck out by
the collision of mind with mind.
--William Godwin
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Godwin>
Callisto is a moon of the planet Jupiter, discovered in 1610 by Galileo
Galilei. It is the third-largest moon in the Solar System and the
second largest in the Jovian system, after Ganymede. It does not form
part of the orbital resonance that affects three inner Galilean
satellites—Io, Europa and Ganymede—and thus does not experience
appreciable tidal heating. Callisto rotates synchronously with its
orbital period, so the same face is always turned toward Jupiter.
Callisto is composed of approximately equal amounts of rock and ices,
with a mean density of about 1.83 g/cm3. Compounds detected spectrally
on the surface include water ice, carbon dioxide, silicates, and
organic compounds. Investigation by the Galileo spacecraft revealed
that Callisto may have a small silicate core and possibly a subsurface
ocean of liquid water at depths greater than 100 km. Prominent surface
features include multi-ring structures, variously shaped impact
craters, and chains of craters and associated scarps, ridges and
deposits. Callisto is surrounded by an extremely thin atmosphere
composed of carbon dioxide and probably molecular oxygen, as well as by
a rather intense ionosphere.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callisto_%28moon%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1791:
French inventor Claude Chappe and his brothers first demonstrated the
semaphore line, a signaling system of conveying information by means of
visual signals, using towers with pivoting shutters, also known as
blades or paddles.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/semaphore_line>
1836:
Texas Revolution: At a convention in Washington-on-the-Brazos, the
Mexican state of Texas adopted a declaration of independence from
Mexico, establishing the Republic of Texas.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Texas>
1877:
The U.S. Electoral Commission awarded twenty disputed electoral votes
to Rutherford B. Hayes, thus assuring his victory in the 1876 U.S.
presidential election.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election%2C_1876>
1970:
Rhodesia formally broke its links with the British crown and declared
itself a republic.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodesia>
1978:
Aboard the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 28, Czech Vladimír Remek became the
first person not from the Soviet Union or the United States to go into
space.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_28>
2009:
President of Guinea-Bissau João Bernardo Vieira was assassinated in an
attack by a group of soldiers on his private residence in Bissau.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo%C3%A3o_Bernardo_Vieira>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
gourmand (n):
1. A person given to excess in the consumption of food and drink; a
greedy or ravenous eater.
2. A person who appreciates good food
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gourmand>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
In times like these, it's helpful to remember that there have always
been times like these.
--Paul Harvey
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Harvey>
The Mendip Hills are a range of limestone hills situated to the south
of Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. Running east to west between
Weston-super-Mare and Frome, the Hills overlook the Somerset Levels to
the south and the Avon valley to the north. The hills give their name
to the local government district of Mendip, which covers most of the
area. The hills are largely carboniferous limestone, which is quarried
at several sites. The higher, western, part of the Hills, has been
designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) which gives it
the same level of protection as a national park. The AONB is
200 km2 (80 sq mi). The Mendip Hills AONB Service and Somerset County
Council's outdoor education centre is at the Charterhouse Centre near
Blagdon. Mendip is home to a wide range of outdoor sports and leisure
activities, many based on the particular geology of the area. It is
recognised as a national centre for caving and cave diving. In addition
to climbing and abseiling, the area is popular with hillwalkers and
those interested in natural history.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendip_Hills>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1562:
Troops of Francis, Duke of Guise, massacred Huguenots in Wassy, France,
starting the French Wars of Religion.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Wars_of_Religion>
1565:
The Portuguese founded Rio de Janeiro.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_de_Janeiro>
1872:
Yellowstone National Park, located primarily in the U.S. state of
Wyoming, one of the first national parks in the world, was established.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_National_Park>
1919:
Korea under Japanese rule: The Samil Movement began with numerous
peaceful protests in Korea, but was brutally suppressed by the Japanese
police and army.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_1st_Movement>
1954:
The 15-megaton hydrogen bomb Castle Bravo was detonated on Bikini
Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in one of the worst cases of
radioactive contamination ever caused by nuclear testing.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo>
1956:
The NATO phonetic alphabet, today the most widely used spelling
alphabet, was first implemented by the International Civil Aviation
Organization.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
breviary (n):
A book containing prayers, hymns, and so on for everyday use at the
canonical hours
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/breviary>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
>From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step.
--Napoleon I of France
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Napoleon_I_of_France>