Eduard Streltsov (1937–1990) was a Soviet football forward who
represented Torpedo Moscow and the Soviet national team. He was widely
regarded as one of the Soviet Union's finest players, earning the
nickname "the Russian Pelé". Streltsov joined Torpedo in 1953, aged 16,
and made his international debut two years later; he then played a key
role in winning the gold medal for the USSR at the 1956 Melbourne
Olympics. Ranked among the top seven footballers in Europe during 1957,
he was accused of rape the following year. Evidence against Streltsov
was inconclusive, but government agents told him that he would be
retained in the USSR's 1958 World Cup team if he confessed. When he did
so, he was instead convicted and sentenced to twelve years in the Gulag.
He was released after five, and received a hero's welcome from fans when
he resumed his football career with Torpedo Moscow in 1965. In the first
season of Streltsov's comeback, Torpedo won the Soviet Championship. He
returned to the national team in 1966, and was twice named Soviet
Footballer of the Year before he retired in 1970. Since Streltsov's
death in 1990, Torpedo's home stadium has been renamed after him, and
two statues depicting his likeness have been erected in Moscow.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Streltsov>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
356 BC:
The Temple of Artemis (model pictured) in Ephesus, one of the
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was destroyed in an act of arson by
a man named Herostratus.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Artemis>
1774:
The Russo-Turkish War officially ended after the Russian Empire
and the Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, with the
latter ceding parts of the Yedisan region to the former.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Turkish_War_(1768%E2%80%931774)>
1861:
In the First Battle of Bull Run, the first major land battle in
the American Civil War, the Confederate Army under Joseph E. Johnston
and P. G. T. Beauregard routed Union Army troops under Irvin McDowell.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Bull_Run>
1925:
American high school biology teacher John T. Scopes was found
guilty of violating Tennessee's Butler Act by teaching evolution in
class.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopes_Trial>
2007:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final book in the
popular Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, was released to record
sales of 15 million copies in its first 24 hours, making it the fastest-
selling book in history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_and_the_Deathly_Hallows>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
mither:
1. (intransitive, Northern England) To make an unnecessary fuss, moan,
bother.
2. (transitive) To pester or irritate someone. Usually directed at
children.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mither>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it.
--Robin Williams
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Williams>
The nature fakers controversy was an early 20th-century American
literary debate highlighting the conflict between science and sentiment
in popular nature writing. Following a period of growing interest in the
natural world beginning in the late 19th century, a new literary
movement, in which the natural world was depicted in a compassionate
rather than realistic light, began to take shape. Works such as Ernest
Thompson Seton's Wild Animals I Have Known (1898) and William J. Long's
School of the Woods (1902) popularized this new genre and emphasized
sympathetic and individualistic animal characters. In March 1903,
naturalist and writer John Burroughs published an article entitled "Real
and Sham Natural History" in the Atlantic Monthly. Lambasting writers
for their seemingly fantastical representations of wildlife, he also
denounced the booming genre of realistic animal fiction as "yellow
journalism of the woods". Burroughs' targets responded in defense of
their work in various publications, as did their supporters, and the
resulting controversy raged in the public press for nearly six years.
Dubbed the "War of the Naturalists", the controversy effectively ended
when President Theodore Roosevelt publicly sided with Burroughs,
publishing his article "Nature Fakers" in the September 1907 issue of
Everybody's Magazine. Roosevelt popularized the negative colloquialism
by which the controversy would later be known to describe one who
purposefully fabricates details about the natural world.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_fakers_controversy>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1779:
Tekle Giyorgis I began the first of his five reigns as Emperor
of Ethiopia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tekle_Giyorgis_I_of_Ethiopia>
1807:
French brothers Claude and Nicéphore Niépce received a patent
for their Pyréolophore (diagram pictured), one of the world's first
internal combustion engines.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyr%C3%A9olophore>
1922:
The German protectorate of Togoland was divided into the League
of Nations mandates of French Togoland and British Togoland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Togoland>
1969:
The Apollo 11 lunar module landed on the Sea of Tranquillity,
where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the
moon six-and-a-half hours later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11>
1992:
Czechoslovak President Václav Havel resigned, saying that he
would not preside over the country's breakup.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A1clav_Havel>
2001:
Twenty-three-year-old Italian anti-globalist Carlo Giuliani was
shot dead by a police officer while protesting during the 27th G8 summit
in Genoa, Italy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Carlo_Giuliani>
2005:
The Civil Marriage Act received its Royal Assent, legalizing
same-sex marriage in Canada.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Marriage_Act>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
punctilious:
1. Strictly attentive to detail; meticulous or fastidious, particularly to
codes or conventions.
2. Precise or scrupulous; finicky or nitpicky.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/punctilious>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Love is the crowning grace of humanity, the holiest right of the soul,
the golden link which binds us to duty and truth, the redeeming
principle that chiefly reconciles the heart to life, and is prophetic of
eternal good.
--Petrarch
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Petrarch>
The Manchester Ship Canal is a river navigation 36 miles (58 km) long
in the North West of England. Starting at the Mersey Estuary near
Liverpool, it generally follows the original routes of the rivers Mersey
and Irwell through the historic counties of Cheshire and Lancashire.
Major landmarks along its route include the Barton Swing Aqueduct and
Trafford Park. By the late 19th century the Mersey and Irwell Navigation
had fallen into disrepair and was often unusable, and Manchester's
business community viewed Liverpool's dock and the railway companies'
charges as excessive. A ship canal was proposed as a way of giving
ocean-going vessels direct access to Manchester. Construction began in
1887; it took six years and cost about £15 million. When the ship
canal opened in January 1894 it was the largest river navigation canal
in the world. Although it enabled the newly created Port of Manchester
to become Britain's third busiest port—despite the city being about 40
miles (64 km) inland—the canal never achieved the commercial success
its sponsors had hoped for. Ships often returned to sea loaded with
ballast rather than goods for export, and gradually the balance of
traffic moved to the west, resulting in the closure of the terminal
docks at Salford. As of 2011, traffic had decreased from its peak in
1958 of 18 million long tons (20 million short tons) of freight each
year to about 7 million long tons (7.8 million short tons). The canal
is now privately owned by Peel Ports.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Ship_Canal>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1702:
Great Northern War: A numerically superior Polish–Saxon army
of Augustus II the Strong, operating from an advantageous defensive
position, was defeated by a Swedish army half its size in the Battle of
Klissow.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Klissow>
1843:
SS Great Britain (pictured), the first ocean-going ship that
had both an iron hull and a screw propeller, launched from Bristol, UK.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Great_Britain>
1848:
The two-day Women's Rights Convention, the first women's rights
and feminist convention held in the United States, opened in Seneca
Falls, New York.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_Falls_Convention>
1908:
Feyenoord Rotterdam, today one of the "big three" professional
football teams in the Netherlands, was founded as the club Wilhelmina in
a pub.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feyenoord>
1947:
Burmese nationalist Aung San and six members of his newly
formed cabinet were assassinated during a cabinet meeting.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aung_San>
1997:
The Provisional Irish Republican Army permanently resumed its
ceasefire to end its 25-year campaign against British rule in Northern
Ireland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Irish_Republican_Army_campaign_19…>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
reliquary:
A container to hold or display religious relics.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/reliquary>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We didn't start the fire — It was always burning Since the world's
been turning. We didn't start the fire — No we didn't light it But we
tried to fight it.
--Billy Joel
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Billy_Joel>
Ganoga Lake is a natural lake in Colley Township in southeast Sullivan
County in Pennsylvania, United States. The Ricketts family purchased the
lake in the early 1850s, and built a stone house on the lake shore by
1852 or 1855; this served as a hunting lodge and tavern. R. Bruce
Ricketts added the lake to his extensive holdings after the American
Civil War, and in 1873 built a large wooden addition north of the stone
house, which became the North Mountain House hotel. The hotel had one of
the first summer schools in the United States in 1876 and 1877. After
the death of R. Bruce Ricketts in 1918, his heirs sold much of his
80,000 acres (32,000 ha) to the state for Pennsylvania State Game Lands
and Ricketts Glen State Park. The state tried to purchase the lake in
1957, but was outbid by investors who turned the land around it into a
private housing development; as such it is "off limits" to the public.
Ganoga Lake is on the Allegheny Plateau, just north of the Allegheny
Front, in sedimentary rocks from the Pocono Formation. The Wisconsin
Glaciation some 20,000 years ago changed the drainage patterns of the
lake; this diverted its waters to Kitchen Creek and carved the 24 named
waterfalls in Ricketts Glen State Park in the process.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganoga_Lake>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1389:
France and England agreed to the Truce of Leulinghem,
establishing 13-year peace during the Hundred Years' War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truce_of_Leulinghem>
1870:
The First Vatican Council declared that the Pope is infallible
when he solemnly declares a dogmatic teaching on faith as being
contained in divine revelation.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_infallibility>
1942:
German engineers test flew the Messerschmitt Me 262 with jet
engines for the first time.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_262>
1984:
A gunman massacred 21 people and injured 15 others at a
McDonald's restaurant in the San Ysidro section of San Diego,
California.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Ysidro_McDonald%27s_massacre>
1994:
Eighty-five people died when a bomb exploded at a Jewish
community center in Buenos Aires, making it Argentina's deadliest
bombing ever.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_AMIA_bombing>
1995:
After a long period of dormancy, the Soufrière Hills volcano
began a still-ongoing eruption, devastating the island of Montserrat.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soufri%C3%A8re_Hills>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
disinter:
1. To take out of the grave or tomb; to unbury; to exhume; to dig up.
2. To bring out, as from a grave or hiding place; to bring from obscurity
into view.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/disinter>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to
pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we
reach the mountaintop of our desires.
--Nelson Mandela
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela>
The Courageous class comprised three battlecruisers built for the Royal
Navy during World War I. Nominally designed to support Admiral of the
Fleet Lord John Fisher's Baltic Project, which was intended to land
troops on the German Baltic Coast, ships of this class were fast but
very lightly armoured with only a few heavy guns. To maximize their
speed, the Courageous-class battlecruisers were the first capital ships
of the Royal Navy to use geared steam turbines and small-tube boilers.
The first two ships, Courageous and Glorious, were commissioned in 1917
and spent the war patrolling the North Sea. Their half-sister Furious
was designed with a pair of 18-inch (457 mm) guns, the largest guns
ever fitted on a ship of the Royal Navy, but was modified during
construction to take a flying-off deck and hangar in lieu of her forward
gun turret and barbette. All three ships were laid up after the end of
the war and were rebuilt as aircraft carriers during the 1920s.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courageous_class_battlecruiser>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1867:
In Boston, Massachusetts, the Harvard School of Dental Medicine
was established as the first dental school in the United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_School_of_Dental_Medicine>
1918:
The RMS Carpathia, which had rescued the survivors of the
RMS Titanic sinking, was itself sunk by a German U-boat.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Carpathia>
1945:
Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Harry S. Truman, leaders
of the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States
respectively, met in Potsdam to decide what should be done with post-
World War II Germany.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potsdam_Conference>
1968:
Led by Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr (pictured), the Arab Socialist
Ba'ath Party overthrew Iraqi President Abdul Rahman Arif.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Hassan_al-Bakr>
2009:
Two suicide bombers detonated themselves at two separate hotels
in Jakarta, Indonesia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Jakarta_bombings>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
disconsolate:
1. Cheerless, dreary.
2. Seemingly beyond consolation; inconsolable.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/disconsolate>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech.
--Martin Farquhar Tupper
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Farquhar_Tupper>
Uncle Tupelo was an alternative country music group from Belleville,
Illinois, active between 1987 and 1994. Jay Farrar (pictured), Jeff
Tweedy, and Mike Heidorn formed the band after the lead singer of their
previous band, The Primitives, left to attend college. The trio recorded
three albums for Rockville Records, before signing with Sire Records and
expanding to a five-piece. Shortly after the release of the band's major
label debut album Anodyne, Farrar announced his decision to leave the
band due to a soured relationship with his co-songwriter Tweedy. Uncle
Tupelo split on May 1, 1994, after completing a farewell tour. Following
the breakup, Farrar formed Son Volt with Heidorn, while the remaining
members continued as Wilco. Although Uncle Tupelo broke up before they
achieved commercial success, the band is renowned for its impact on the
alternative country music scene. The group's first album, No Depression,
became a byword for the genre and was widely influential. Uncle Tupelo's
sound was unlike popular country music of the time, drawing inspiration
from styles as diverse as the hardcore punk of The Minutemen and the
country instrumentation and harmony of the Carter Family and Hank
Williams. Farrar and Tweedy lyrics frequently referred to Middle America
and the working class of Belleville.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Tupelo>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1782:
Mozart's opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail made its
premiere, after which Emperor Joseph II anecdotally made the complaint
that it had "too many notes".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Entf%C3%BChrung_aus_dem_Serail>
1790:
U.S. President George Washington signed the Residence Act,
selecting a new permanent site along the Potomac River for the capital
of the United States, which later became Washington, D.C.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,_D.C.>
1945:
Manhattan Project: "Trinity", the first nuclear test explosion,
was carried out near Alamogordo, New Mexico.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_(nuclear_test)>
1951:
The Catcher in the Rye, an American coming-of-age novel by J.
D. Salinger, was first published.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Catcher_in_the_Rye>
1994:
Fragments of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 began hitting the planet
Jupiter (impact site pictured), with the first one causing a fireball
which reached a peak temperature of about 24,000 K.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Shoemaker%E2%80%93Levy_9>
2007:
A magnitude 6.6 MW earthquake struck Niigata Prefecture,
Japan, causing a leak of radioactive gases from the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa
Nuclear Power Plant.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Ch%C5%ABetsu_offshore_earthquake>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
quisling:
(pejorative) A traitor who collaborates with the enemy.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quisling>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The sooner we can separate salvageable skeptics from self-righteous
absolutists, the sooner we can move along.
--Sheri S. Tepper
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper>
RKO Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. It
was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business
was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum (KAO) theater chains and Joseph
P. Kennedy's Film Booking Offices of America (FBO) studio were brought
together under the control of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in
October 1928. RKO has long been celebrated for its cycle of musicals
starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the mid- to late 1930s.
Actors Katharine Hepburn and, later, Robert Mitchum had their first
major successes at the studio. Cary Grant was a mainstay for years. The
work of producer Val Lewton's low-budget horror unit and RKO's many
ventures into the field now known as film noir have been acclaimed by
film critics and historians. The studio produced two of the most famous
films in motion picture history: King Kong and Citizen Kane. Maverick
industrialist Howard Hughes took over RKO in 1948. After years of
decline under his control, the studio was acquired by the General Tire
and Rubber Company in 1955. The original RKO Pictures ceased production
in 1957 and was effectively dissolved two years later.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RKO_Pictures>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1799:
French soldiers uncovered the Rosetta Stone in Fort Julien,
near the Egyptian port city of Rashid.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_Stone>
1806:
The Pike expedition, led by Zebulon Pike to explore the
Louisiana Territory, began near St. Louis, Missouri.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pike_expedition>
1815:
Aboard HMS Bellerophon, Napoleon surrendered to Royal Navy
Captain Frederick Lewis Maitland to finally end the Napoleonic Wars.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Bellerophon_(1786)>
1870:
Manitoba and the Northwest Territories were established
following the transfer of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory
from the Hudson's Bay Company to Canada.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Territories>
1916:
William Boeing incorporated the Pacific Aero Products Company,
which was later renamed Boeing.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing>
2009:
Caspian Airlines Flight 7908 crashed in northwestern Iran,
killing all 168 people aboard.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspian_Airlines_Flight_7908>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
effluvium:
A gaseous or vaporous emission, especially a foul-smelling one.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/effluvium>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
There's a great need in our government right now for honesty. I speak my
mind. You might not always like what you hear, but you're gonna hear it
anyway. I call it like I see it; I tell the truth. And if I don't know
something, I'll say so. Then I'll try to find the answer.
--Jesse Ventura
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jesse_Ventura>
The Bal des Ardents was a masquerade ball held on 28 January 1393 at
which Charles VI of France performed in a dance with five members of the
French nobility. Four of the dancers were killed in a fire caused by a
torch brought in by a spectator, Charles' brother Louis, Duke of
Orléans—Charles and another of the dancers survived. The ball was one
of a number of events intended to entertain the young king, who the
previous summer had suffered the first in a series of lifelong attacks
of insanity. The event undermined confidence in Charles' capacity to
rule; Parisians considered it proof of courtly decadence and threatened
to rebel against the more powerful members of the nobility. The public's
outrage forced the king and his brother Orléans—whom at least one
contemporary chronicler accused of attempted regicide and sorcery—into
offering penance for the event. Charles' wife Queen Isabeau held the
ball to honor the remarriage of a lady-in-waiting; scholars believe it
may have been a traditional charivari, with the dancers disguised as
wild men. The myth of wild men, often associated with demonology, was
common in medieval Europe and documented in revels of Tudor England.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bal_des_Ardents>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1798:
The Sedition Act became United States law, making it a federal
crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about
the U.S. government.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_and_Sedition_Acts>
1933:
With the enactment of the Law for the Prevention of
Hereditarily Diseased Offspring, the Nazi Party began its eugenics
program.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_for_the_Prevention_of_Hereditarily_Diseas…>
1957:
Rawya Ateya took her seat in the National Assembly of Egypt to
become the first female parliamentarian in the Arab world.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rawya_Ateya>
1995:
The MP3 digital audio encoding format was named.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3>
2003:
In an effort to discredit U.S. Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, who
had written an article critical of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Washington
Post columnist Robert Novak revealed that Wilson's wife Valerie Plame
was a CIA "operative".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plame_affair>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
hapless:
Very unlucky; ill-fated.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hapless>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world
and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen
loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am
out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your
work.
--Woody Guthrie
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Woody_Guthrie>
Santa Maria de Ovila is a former Cistercian monastery built in Spain
beginning in 1181 on the Tagus River near Trillo, Guadalajara, about 90
miles (140 km) northeast of Madrid. During prosperous times over the
next four centuries, construction projects expanded and improved the
small monastery. Its fortunes declined significantly in the 1700s, and
in 1835 it was confiscated by the Spanish government and sold to private
owners who used its buildings to shelter farm animals. American
publisher William Randolph Hearst bought parts of the monastery in 1931
with the intention of using its stones in the construction of a grand
and fanciful castle at Wyntoon, California, but after some 10,000 stones
were removed and shipped, they were abandoned in San Francisco for
decades. These stones are now in various locations around California:
the old church portal has been reassembled at the University of San
Francisco, and the chapter house is being reassembled by Trappist monks
at the Abbey of New Clairvaux in Vina, California. In Spain, the new
government of the Second Republic declared the monastery a National
Monument in June 1931, but not in time to prevent the mass removal of
stones. Today, the remnant buildings and walls stand on private
farmland.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Maria_de_Ovila>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1814:
The Carabinieri, the national military police of Italy, was
founded by Victor Emmanuel I as the police force of the Kingdom of
Sardinia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carabinieri>
1830:
The Scottish Church College (pictured), the oldest continuously
running Christian liberal arts and sciences college in India, was
founded as the General Assembly's Institution.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Church_College>
1923:
The Hollywoodland Sign was officially dedicated as an
advertisement for a new housing development in the hills above
Hollywood, California.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Sign>
2003:
French DGSE personnel aborted an operation to rescue Colombian
politician Íngrid Betancourt from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, causing a political scandal when details were leaked to the
press six days later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op%C3%A9ration_14_juillet>
2011:
Three coordinated bombings across Mumbai, India, killed 26
victims and injured 130 more.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Mumbai_bombings>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
tardigrade:
Sluggish; moving slowly.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tardigrade>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Alea iacta est. The die is cast.
--Julius Caesar
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Julius_Caesar>
Andromeda is one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century
astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations.
Located north of the celestial equator, it is named for the princess in
the Greek legend, who was chained to a rock to be eaten by the sea
monster Cetus. Its brightest star, Alpha Andromedae, is a binary star,
as is bright Gamma Andromedae, a colorful binary and a popular target
for amateur astronomers. The constellation's most obvious deep-sky
object is the naked-eye Andromeda Galaxy (M31, also called the Great
Galaxy of Andromeda), the closest galaxy to the Milky Way and one of the
brightest Messier objects. In Chinese astronomy, the stars that make up
Andromeda were members of four different constellations that had
astrological and mythological significance; a constellation related to
Andromeda also exists in Hindu mythology. Andromeda is the location of
the radiant for the Andromedids, a weak meteor shower that occurs in
November.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_(constellation)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1561:
Saint Basil's Cathedral, located at the geographic center of
Moscow, was consecrated.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Basil%27s_Cathedral>
1920:
The Soviet–Lithuanian Peace Treaty was signed, with Soviet
Russia agreeing to recognize an independent Lithuania.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet%E2%80%93Lithuanian_Peace_Treaty>
1948:
Arab–Israeli War: Israeli Defense Force officer Yitzhak Rabin
signed the order to expel Palestinians from the towns of Lod and Ramla.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Palestinian_exodus_from_Lydda_and_Ramle>
1979:
Rowdy fans at Comiskey Park in Chicago stormed the field during
a promotional event in which a crate of disco records was blown up.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco_Demolition_Night>
2005:
Prince Albert II was enthroned as ruler of Monaco.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_II,_Prince_of_Monaco>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
inveterate:
1. Old; firmly established by long continuance; of long standing;
obstinately deep-rooted; as, an inveterate disease; an inveterate habit.
2. (of a person) Having habits fixed by long continuance; confirmed;
habitual; as, an inveterate idler or smoker.
3. Malignant; virulent; spiteful.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/inveterate>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Dear reader, traditional human power structures and their reign of
darkness are about to be rendered obsolete.
--Buckminster Fuller
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Buckminster_Fuller>