125px|Thomas the Slav negotiates with the Arabs.
Thomas the Slav (c. 760 – 823 AD) was a 9th-century Byzantine
military commander, most notable for leading a wide-scale revolt
against Emperor Michael II the Amorian in 820–823. An army officer of
Slavic origin from the Pontus region, Thomas rose to prominence under
the protection of general Bardanes Tourkos. After Bardanes's failed
rebellion in 803, Thomas fell into obscurity until Leo V's rise to the
throne, when Thomas was raised to a senior military command. After the
murder of Leo and usurpation of the throne by Michael the Amorian,
Thomas revolted, claiming the throne for himself. Thomas quickly
secured support from most of the themes (provinces) and troops in Asia
Minor, and concluded an alliance with the Abbasid Caliphate. He sailed
with his army to besiege Constantinople. Michael II called for help
from the Bulgar ruler Omurtag, whose troops attacked Thomas's army.
Although repelled, the Bulgars inflicted heavy casualties on Thomas's
men, who broke and fled when Michael took to the field a few months
later. Thomas sought refuge in Arcadiopolis, where he was soon seized
by Michael's troops and executed. (more...)
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<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_the_Slav>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1829:
The first Welland Canal opened, allowing ships to travel between Lake
Erie and Lake Ontario and bypass the Niagara Falls.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welland_Canal>
1947:
As the United Nations voted to terminate the British Mandate of
Palestine, civil war broke out between the region's Jewish and Arab
communities.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1947%E2%80%931948_Civil_War_in_Mandatory_Pales…>
1962:
Burmese diplomat U Thant became United Nations Secretary-General,
following the death of Dag Hammarskjöld in September of that year.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U_Thant>
1982:
Michael Jackson's Thriller, the best-selling album of all time, was
released.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_%28album%29>
2005:
John Sentamu was enthroned as Archbishop of York, becoming the first
member of an ethnic minority to serve as an archbishop in the Church of
England.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sentamu>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
fire in the belly (n):
The emotional stamina and vigor, passion, or inner drive to achieve
something, to take action, etc
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fire_in_the_belly>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
When a great genius appears in the world the dunces are all in
confederacy against him.
--Jonathan Swift
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jonathan_Swift>
110px|Bix Beiderbecke
Bix Beiderbecke (1903–1931) was an American jazz cornetist, jazz
pianist, and composer. He was one of the most influential jazz soloists
of the 1920s. He helped to invent the jazz ballad style and hinted at
what, in the 1950s, would become cool jazz. Beiderbecke taught himself
to play cornet largely by ear, leading him to adopt a non-standard
fingering that some critics have connected to his original sound. He
first recorded with a Midwestern jazz ensemble The Wolverines in 1924,
after which he played briefly for the Jean Goldkette Orchestra before
joining Frankie Trumbauer for an extended gig at the Arcadia Ballroom
in St. Louis, Missouri. Beiderbecke and Trumbauer both joined Goldkette
in 1926. The band toured widely and famously played a set opposite
Fletcher Henderson at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City in October
1926. The following year, Trumbauer and Beiderbecke left Detroit to
join the best-known and most prestigious dance orchestra in the
country: the New York-based Paul Whiteman Orchestra. Beiderbecke's most
influential recordings date from his time with Goldkette and Whiteman,
although they were generally recorded under his own name or
Trumbauer's. Beiderbecke left the Whiteman band in 1930 and the
following summer died in his Queens apartment at the age of
twenty-eight. (more...)
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_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1781:
The crew of the overcrowded British slave ship Zong killed 133 African
slaves by dumping them into the sea in order to claim insurance.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zong_Massacre>
1854:
The Eureka Flag was flown for the first time during the Eureka
Stockade rebellion in Australia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_Flag>
1864:
American Indian Wars: A 700-man Colorado Territory militia attacked a
village of Cheyenne and Arapaho, killing 133 Cheyenne and Arapaho men,
women, and children.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_Creek_massacre>
1963:
Five minutes after takeoff from Montreal, Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight
831 crashed, killing all 118 people aboard.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Canada_Air_Lines_Flight_831>
2007:
Philippine soldiers led by Senator Antonio Trillanes, on trial for the
2003 Oakwood mutiny, staged a mutiny and temporarily seized a
conference room in The Peninsula Manila hotel.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila_Peninsula_rebellion>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Varsovian (adj):
Of, from or pertaining to Warsaw
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Varsovian>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe
itself (for God did not need to create). It has no survival value;
rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.
--C. S. Lewis
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/C._S._Lewis>
85px|Montague Druitt
Montague Druitt (1857–1888) was a suspect in the Jack the Ripper
murders that took place in London between August and November 1888. He
came from an upper-middle class English background, and studied at
Winchester College and the University of Oxford. After graduating, he
took a position at a boarding school and pursued a parallel career in
the law; he qualified as a barrister in 1885. His main interest outside
work was cricket, which he played with many leading players of the
time, including Lord Harris and Francis Lacey. In November 1888, he
lost his post at the school for reasons that remain unclear. One month
later his body was found drowned in the River Thames. His death, which
was found to be a suicide, roughly coincided with the end of the
murders that were attributed to Jack the Ripper. Private suggestions in
the 1890s that he could have committed the crimes became public
knowledge in the 1960s, and led to the publication of books that
proposed him as the murderer. The evidence against him was entirely
circumstantial, and many writers from the 1970s onwards have rejected
him as a likely suspect. (more...)
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<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montague_Druitt>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1443:
Rebelling against the Ottoman Empire, Skanderbeg and his forces
liberated Kruja in Middle Albania and raised the Albanian flag.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skanderbeg>
1895:
The first automobile race in the United States, the Chicago
Times-Herald race, was held in Chicago.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Times-Herald_race>
1905:
Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith first presented his Sinn Féin
Policy, declaring that the 1800 Act of Union of Great Britain and
Ireland was illegal.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinn_F%C3%A9in>
1912:
At the All-Albanian Congress, the Assembly of Vlorë declared the
independence of the Albanian Vilayet from the Ottoman Empire.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_Declaration_of_Independence>
1987:
South African Airways Flight 295 suffered a catastrophic in-flight fire
and crashed into the Indian Ocean east of Mauritius, killing all 159 on
board.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Airways_Flight_295>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
cowboy shot (n):
(film) A shot framed to include a region from the actor's head to
mid-thigh
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cowboy_shot>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I am going to my Father’s; and though with great difficulty I have got
hither, yet now I do not repent me of all the trouble I have been at to
arrive where I am. My sword I give to him that shall succeed me in my
pilgrimage, and my courage and skill to him that can get it. My marks
and scars I carry with me, to be a witness for me that I have fought
His battles who will now be my rewarder. When the day that he must go
hence was come, many accompanied him to the river-side, into which as
he went, he said, "Death, where is thy sting?" And as he went down
deeper, he said, "Grave, where is thy victory?"
So he passed over, and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other
side.
--John Bunyan
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Bunyan>
The 2nd Canadian Infantry Division was an infantry division of the
First Canadian Army, mobilized on 1 September 1939 during the Second
World War. Initially composed of volunteers within brigades established
along regional lines, a halt in recruitment in the early months of the
war caused a delay in the formation of brigade and divisional
headquarters. With questions concerning overseas deployment resolved,
the division's respective commands were formed in May and June 1940,
and was deployed to the United Kingdom between 1 August and 25 December
1940. Elements of the 2nd Division were selected as the main force for
Operation Jubilee, a large-scale amphibious raid on the port of Dieppe
in German-occupied France. Following a period of reconstruction and
retraining from 1942 to 1944, the division joined II Canadian Corps as
part of the Second British Army for the Allied Invasion of Normandy.
Joining the newly activated headquarters of the First Canadian Army in
the assault on northwestern Europe, the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division
played a significant role in the retaking of the Channel ports, the
Battle of the Scheldt, and the liberation of Holland. (more...)
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interference – Hod Stuart
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<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2nd_Canadian_Infantry_Division>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1815:
As specified by the Congress of Vienna, the Constitution of the Kingdom
of Poland was signed for the newly recreated Polish state that was
under Russian control.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_Kingdom_of_Poland>
1868:
American Indian Wars: George Armstrong Custer's 7th U.S. Cavalry
defeated Chief Black Kettle and the Cheyenne on the Washita River near
present-day Cheyenne, Oklahoma.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Washita_River>
1978:
The Kurdistan Workers' Party, which has been in conflict with Turkey
over the formation of an autonomous Kurdish state, was founded.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdistan_Workers%27_Party>
1999:
The Labour Party defeated the governing National Party in the New
Zealand general election, making the Labour Party's Helen Clark the
first female to win the office of Prime Minister at an election.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Clark>
2001:
The Hubble Space Telescope detected sodium in the atmosphere of the
extrasolar planet HD 209458b , the first planetary atmosphere outside
our solar system to be measured.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_209458_b>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
solipsism (n):
1. (philosophy) The theory that the self is all that exists or that can
be proven to exist.
2. Self-absorption, an unawareness of the views or needs of others
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/solipsism>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
When there is freedom from mechanical conditioning, there is
simplicity. The classical man is just a bundle of routine, ideas and
tradition. If you follow the classical pattern, you are understanding
the routine, the tradition, the shadow — you are not understanding
yourself.
--Bruce Lee
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bruce_Lee>
85px|Dicer enzyme
RNA interference (RNAi) is a system within living cells that takes
part in controlling which genes are active and how active they are. Two
types of small RNA molecules – microRNA (miRNA) and small interfering
RNA (siRNA) – are central to RNA interference. RNAs are the direct
products of genes, and these small RNAs can bind to other specific RNAs
(mRNA) and either increase or decrease their activity, for example by
preventing a messenger RNA from producing a protein. RNA interference
has an important role in defending cells against parasitic genes –
viruses and transposons as well as gene expression in general. The RNAi
pathway is found in many eukaryotes and is initiated by the enzyme
Dicer (pictured), which cleaves long double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)
molecules into short fragments of ~20 nucleotides that are called
siRNAs. Each siRNA is unwound into two single-stranded (ss) ssRNAs,
namely the passenger strand and the guide strand. The passenger strand
is degraded, and the guide strand is incorporated into the RNA-induced
silencing complex (RISC). The selective and robust effect of RNAi on
gene expression makes it a valuable research tool, both in cell culture
and in living organisms because synthetic dsRNA introduced into cells
can induce suppression of specific genes of interest. (more...)
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<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNA_interference>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1034:
After Malcolm II of Scotland died at Glamis, Duncan, the son of his
second daughter, instead of Macbeth, the son of his eldest daughter,
inherited the throne to become the King of Scots.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_II_of_Scotland>
1863:
American Civil War: Confederate forces were defeated at the Battle of
Missionary Ridge in Chattanooga, Tennessee, opening the door to the
Union's invasion of the Deep South.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Missionary_Ridge>
1917:
World War I: German troops invaded Portuguese East Africa in an attempt
to escape superior British forces to the north and resupply from
captured Portuguese materiel.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ngomano>
1952:
Agatha Christie's mystery play The Mousetrap, the play with the longest
initial run in history, opened at the Ambassadors Theatre in London.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mousetrap>
1975:
Upon Suriname's independence from the Netherlands, Johan Ferrier became
its first president.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Ferrier>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
importune (v):
1. To harass with persistent requests.
2. To approach to offer one's services as a prostitute
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/importune>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The battle to save life is still going on. … This battle to save life
will eventually be won. … Blind faith in established experience has
been shattered, outmoded regulations have been smashed.
--Ba Jin
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ba_Jin>
80px|Hod Stuart
Hod Stuart (1879–1907) was a Canadian professional ice hockey
cover-point (now known as a defenceman) who played nine seasons for
several teams in different leagues. He also played briefly for the
Ottawa Rough Riders football team. With his brother Bruce, Stuart
played in the first professional ice hockey league, the American-based
International Professional Hockey League (IPHL), where he was regarded
as one of the best players in the league. Frustrated with the violence
associated with the IPHL, he left the league late in 1906 and returned
to Canada, where in 1907 he helped the Montreal Wanderers win the
Stanley Cup, the championship trophy for hockey. Two months later, he
died in a diving accident. To raise money for his widow and children,
the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association hosted an all-star game,
the first of its kind to be played in any sport. In an era where
defencemen were expected to stay behind during the play, Stuart became
known for his ability to score goals while playing a defensive role,
and for his ability to remain calm during matches that often turned
violent. His efforts were acknowledged when the Hockey Hall of Fame was
created in 1945 and he became one of the first twelve players to be
inducted. (more...)
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<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hod_Stuart>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1542:
Anglo-Scottish Wars: England captured about 1,200 Scottish prisoners
with its victory in the Battle of Solway Moss.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Solway_Moss>
1859:
On the Origin of Species by British naturalist Charles Darwin was first
published, and sold out its initial print run on the first day.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Origin_of_Species>
1906:
A local newspaper accused members of two American football teams of
conspiring to deliberately lose games, the first known case of
professional gamblers attempting to fix a professional sport.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canton_Bulldogs%E2%80%93Massillon_Tigers_betti…>
1963:
Businessman Jack Ruby shot and fatally wounded Lee Harvey Oswald, the
alleged assassin of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, during a live
television broadcast, fueling conspiracy theories on the matter.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ruby>
1974:
A group of paleoanthropologists led by Donald Johanson discovered a
3.2-million-year-old skeleton of an Australopithecus afarensis in the
Afar Depression in Ethiopia, nicknaming it "Lucy" after The Beatles
song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_%28Australopithecus%29>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
trepanation (n):
The practice of drilling a hole in the skull as a physical, mental, or
spiritual treatment
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/trepanation>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The ultimate aim of government is not to rule, or restrain, by fear,
nor to exact obedience, but contrariwise, to free every man from fear,
that he may live in all possible security; in other words, to
strengthen his natural right to exist and work without injury to
himself or others.
No, the object of government is not to change men from rational
beings into beasts or puppets, but to enable them to develop their
minds and bodies in security, and to employ their reason unshackled;
neither showing hatred, anger, or deceit, nor watched with the eyes of
jealousy and injustice. In fact, the true aim of government is liberty.
--Baruch Spinoza
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Baruch_Spinoza>
90px|Nathaniel Parker Willis
Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806–1867) was an American author, poet and
editor who worked with several notable American writers including Edgar
Allan Poe and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He became the highest-paid
magazine writer of his day. For a time, he was the employer of former
slave and future writer Harriet Jacobs. Born in Portland, Maine, Willis
came from a family of publishers. He developed an interest in
literature while attending Yale College and began publishing poetry.
After graduation, he worked as an overseas correspondent for the New
York Mirror. He eventually moved to New York and began to build his
literary reputation. In 1846, he started his own publication, the Home
Journal, which was eventually renamed Town & Country. Shortly after,
Willis moved to a home on the Hudson River where he lived a
semi-retired life until his death in 1867. Willis embedded his own
personality into his writing and addressed his readers personally,
specifically in his travel writings, so that his reputation was built
in part because of his character. Critics, including his sister in her
novel Ruth Hall, occasionally described him as being effeminate and
Europeanized. Despite his intense popularity for a time, at his death
Willis was nearly forgotten. (more...)
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_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1867:
The Manchester Martyrs were hanged in Manchester, England, for killing
a police officer while assisting two Irish nationalists, who had played
important roles in the failed Fenian Rising, to escape from custody.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Martyrs>
1876:
William "Boss" Tweed, a major New York City politician who had been
arrested for embezzlement, was handed to US authorities after having
escaped from prison to Spain.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_M._Tweed>
1934:
An Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission in the Ogaden encountered a
garrison of Somalis in Italian service at Walwal, which led to the
Abyssinia Crisis.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abyssinia_Crisis>
1996:
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 was hijacked by three Ethiopians seeking
political asylum, then crashed into the Indian Ocean near Comoros after
running out of fuel, killing 125 of the 175 people on board.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Airlines_Flight_961>
2005:
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was declared the winner of the Liberian general
election, making her the first democratically elected female head of
state of an African country.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Johnson-Sirleaf>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
labyrinthine (adj):
1. Physically resembling a labyrinth; with the qualities of a maze.
2. Twisting, convoluted, baffling, confusing, perplexing
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/labyrinthine>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Revolutions of ages do not oft recover the loss of a rejected truth,
for the want of which whole nations fare the worse.
--John Milton
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Milton>
80px|Blackbeard, as pictured by Benjamin Cole
Edward Teach (c. 1680 – 1718), better known as Blackbeard, was a
notorious English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the
eastern coast of the American colonies. Most likely born in Bristol,
little is known about his early life. He may have served on privateer
ships during Queen Anne's War before he joined the crew of Benjamin
Hornigold, a pirate who operated from the Caribbean island of New
Providence, and with whom he engaged in numerous acts of piracy. Teach
renamed a captured merchant vessel as Queen Anne's Revenge and became a
renowned pirate, his cognomen derived from his thick black beard and
fearsome appearance; he was reported to have tied lit fuses under his
hat to frighten his enemies. A shrewd and calculating leader, he
avoided the use of force, relying instead on his fearsome image, and
commanding his vessels with the permission of their crews. There are no
known accounts of his ever having harmed or murdered those he held
captive. Following his death on 22 November 1718, his image was
romanticised, becoming the inspiration for a number of pirate-themed
works of fiction across a range of genres. (more...)
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<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbeard>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
498:
Following the death of Anastasius II, both Symmachus and Laurentius
were elected pope, causing a schism that would last until 506.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Symmachus>
1635:
Dutch colonial forces on Taiwan launched a three-month pacification
campaign against Taiwanese aborigines.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_pacification_campaign_on_Formosa>
1928:
Boléro, Maurice Ravel's most famous musical composition, made its debut
at the Paris Opéra.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bol%C3%A9ro>
1988:
The first B-2 stealth bomber of the United States Air Force was first
displayed in public at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_B-2_Spirit>
2005:
Angela Merkel assumed office as the first female Chancellor of
Germany.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Merkel>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
aperçu (n):
A clever insight
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aper%C3%A7u>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you are
not.
--André Gide
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Gide>
80px|Canoe River cairn, erected to the memory of the 17 soldiers who
died in the Canoe River train crash
The Canoe River train crash occurred on November 21, 1950, near
Valemount in eastern British Columbia, Canada, when a westbound troop
train and the eastbound Canadian National Railway (CNR) Continental
Limited collided head-on. Twenty-one people were killed: 17 Canadian
soldiers being deployed in the Korean War (memorial to them pictured)
and the two-man locomotive crew of each train. The post-crash
investigation found that the order given to the troop train differed
from the intended message. Crucial words were missing, causing the
troop train to proceed on its way rather than halt on a siding, causing
the collision. A telegraph operator, Alfred John "Jack" Atherton, was
charged with manslaughter; the prosecution alleged he was negligent in
passing an incomplete message. His family hired his Member of
Parliament, John Diefenbaker, as defence counsel. Diefenbaker joined
the British Columbia bar in order to take the case, and obtained
Atherton's acquittal. (more...)
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_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1386:
Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur captured and sacked the Georgian capital
of Tbilisi, forcing King Bagrat V to convert to Islam.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timur%27s_invasions_of_Georgia>
1894:
First Sino-Japanese War: The Japanese Second Army killed an estimated
20,000 Chinese servicemen and civilians in the city of Lüshunkou.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Arthur_massacre_%28China%29>
1910:
The crews of the Brazilian warships Minas Geraes, São Paulo, Bahia, and
Deodoro mutinied in what became known as the Revolt of the Lash .
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolt_of_the_Lash>
1977:
"God Defend New Zealand" became New Zealand's second national anthem,
on equal standing with "God Save the Queen", which had been the
traditional one since 1840.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Defend_New_Zealand>
1985:
United States Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard was arrested
for espionage after being caught giving Israel classified information
on Arab nations.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Pollard>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
inquiline (n):
1. An animal that lives in the nest, burrow, gall, or dwelling place of
an animal of another species.
2. An organism that lives within a reservoir of water collected in the
hollow of a plant stem or leaf
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/inquiline>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
"Man's inhumanity to man" is not the last word. The truth lies deeper.
It is economic slavery, the savage struggle for a crumb, that has
converted mankind into wolves and sheep.
--Alexander Berkman
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexander_Berkman>
M-6 is a 19.7-mile (31.7 km) freeway that serves portions of southern
Kent and eastern Ottawa counties south of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Initially opened to traffic on November 20, 2001, the roadway connects
Interstate 196 on the west with Interstate 96 on the east while running
through several townships on the south side of the Grand Rapids
metropolitan area. Each end is in a rural area while the central
section has suburban development along the highway. The freeway was
originally conceived in the 1960s, and it took 32 years to approve,
plan, finance, and build M-6 from the time that the state first
authorized funding in 1972 to the time the full highway opened to
traffic in 2004. Initial construction started in November 1997, with
the first phase opened in 2001 and the remainder in November 2004. The
project was built with two firsts: the first single-point urban
interchange in the state, and a new technique to apply the pavement
markings, embedding them into the concrete to reduce the chance of a
snowplow scraping them off.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-6_%28Michigan_highway%29>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
284:
Diocletian became Roman Emperor, eventually establishing reforms that
brought an end to the Crisis of the Third Century.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocletian>
1695:
Zumbi, the last of the leaders of Quilombo dos Palmares in early
Brazil, was executed.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zumbi>
1902:
While discussing how to promote the newspaper L'Auto during a lunch
meeting in Paris, sports journalist Henri Desgrange came up with the
idea of holding a cycling race that later became known as the Tour de
France.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_France>
1917:
Second World War: The Battle of Cambrai in France began with British
forces having initial success over Germany's Hindenburg Line.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cambrai_%281917%29>
1979:
A group of armed insurgents attacked and took over the Masjid al-Haram
in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, declaring that one of their leaders, Muhammad
bin abd Allah al-Qahtani, was the Mahdi, the prophesied redeemer of
Islam.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Mosque_Seizure>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
Christmas creep (n):
The inexorable tendency for the commercial aspects of Christmas to
appear earlier every year
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Christmas_creep>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
An extraordinary amount of arrogance is present in any claim of having
been the first in "inventing" something. It's an arrogance that some
enjoy, and others do not. Now I reach beyond arrogance when I proclaim
that fractals had been pictured forever but their true role remained
unrecognized and waited for me to be uncovered.
--Benoît Mandelbrot
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Beno%C3%AEt_Mandelbrot>