The Battle of the Nile was fought between the British and French navies
at Aboukir Bay on the Egyptian coast from 1 to 3 August 1798. It ended
in victory for the British under Horatio Nelson (pictured). It was the
climax of a Mediterranean naval campaign during the previous three
months, as a large French convoy sailed to Alexandria carrying an
expeditionary force under Napoleon Bonaparte, pursued by Nelson and his
fleet. After the French army had landed in Egypt, the French fleet
anchored in what its commander believed was a formidable defensive
position. When the British fleet arrived, Nelson ordered an immediate
attack on both sides of the French position simultaneously. Trapped in a
crossfire, the leading French warships were battered into surrender. The
centre initially repelled the attack but was defeated after renewed
assault from British reinforcements. The battle reversed the strategic
situation in the Mediterranean and encouraged other European countries
to turn against France. Bonaparte's army was trapped and was later
defeated at the Siege of Acre. Nelson was made Baron Nelson and
proclaimed a hero across Europe, and his captains were also highly
praised.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Nile>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1096:
The Seljuk forces of Kilij Arslan destroyed the army of the
People's Crusade as it marched toward Nicaea.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Crusade>
1600:
Tokugawa Ieyasu defeated the leaders of rival Japanese clans at
the Battle of Sekigahara in what is now Sekigahara, Gifu, clearing the
path for him to form the Tokugawa shogunate.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sekigahara>
1858:
French composer Jacques Offenbach's operetta Orpheus in the
Underworld, featuring music most associated with the can-can (audio
featured), was first performed at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens in
Paris.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpheus_in_the_Underworld>
1921:
George Melford's wildly successful silent film The Sheik, which
would propel its leading actor Rudolph Valentino to stardom, premiered.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolph_Valentino>
1983:
At the seventeenth General Conference on Weights and Measures,
the length of a metre was redefined as the distance light travels in
vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metre>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
gleek:
1. (archaic) To jest, ridicule, or mock; to make sport of.
2. (informal) To discharge a thin stream of liquid through the teeth or
from under the tongue.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gleek>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is good to have an end to journey towards, but it is the
journey that matters in the end.
--Ursula K. Le Guin
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin>
Sega Enterprises Ltd. v. Accolade, Inc. was a decision in 1992 by the
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that applied
American intellectual property law to the reverse engineering of
computer software. Issues in the case included the scope of copyright,
permissible uses for trademarks, and the scope of the fair use doctrine
for computer code. It arose after video game publisher Accolade
published several games for the Sega Genesis (pictured), disassembling
it to publish games without being licensed by Sega. The U.S. District
Court for the Northern District of California ruled in favor of Sega,
preventing Accolade from publishing any more games for the Genesis and
requiring them to recall all of their Genesis games on sale. Accolade
appealed on the grounds that their reverse engineering of the Genesis
was protected under fair use. The Ninth Circuit reversed the district
court's order and ruled that Accolade's use of reverse engineering to
publish Genesis titles was protected under fair use, and that its
alleged violation of Sega trademarks was the fault of Sega. The case is
frequently cited in matters involving reverse engineering and fair use
under copyright law.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_v._Accolade>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1572:
Eighty Years' War: Soldiers of the Spanish Tercios waded across
the river Scheldt at its mouth, walking overnight in water to chest
height, to relieve the siege of Goes in the Spanish Netherlands.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relief_of_Goes>
1740:
Per the terms of the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, Maria Theresa
assumed the throne of the Habsburg Monarchy in Austria.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Theresa>
1941:
World War II: German soldiers began a massacre of thousands of
civilians in Kragujevac in Nazi-occupied Serbia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kragujevac_massacre>
1973:
Elizabeth II, in her capacity as Queen of Australia, formally
opened the Sydney Opera House on Bennelong Point in Sydney Harbour.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Opera_House>
1982:
During a UEFA Cup match between FC Spartak Moscow and HFC
Haarlem, a large number of attendees tried to leave the Grand Sports
Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium at the same time, resulting in a
stampede that caused 66 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luzhniki_disaster>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
unciform:
Of the shape of a hook; hook-shaped.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/unciform>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
A society which is mobile, which is full of channels for the
distribution of a change occurring anywhere, must see to it that its
members are educated to personal initiative and adaptability. Otherwise,
they will be overwhelmed by the changes in which they are caught and
whose significance or connections they do not perceive.
--John Dewey
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dewey>
Bart King (1873–1965) was an American cricketer, active in the late
19th and early 20th centuries. King was part of the Philadelphia team
that played from the end of the 19th century until the outbreak of World
War I. This period of cricket in the United States was dominated by
"gentlemen cricketers"—men of independent wealth who did not need to
work. King, an amateur from a middle-class family, was able to devote
time to cricket thanks to a job set up by his teammates. A skilled
batsman who proved his worth as a bowler, King set numerous records in
North America during his career and led the first-class bowling averages
in England in 1908. He successfully competed against the best cricketers
from England and Australia. King was the dominant bowler on his team
when it toured England in 1897, 1903, and 1908. He dismissed batsmen
with his unique delivery, which he called the "angler," and helped
develop the art of swing bowling. Sir Pelham Warner described Bart King
as one of the finest bowlers of all time, and Donald Bradman called him
"America's greatest cricketing son." (Full article...).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_King>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1469:
Ferdinand II of Aragon married Isabella I of Castile (both
pictured), a marriage that paved the way to the unification of Aragon
and Castile into a single country, Spain.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_I_of_Castile>
1781:
American Revolutionary War: British forces led by Lord
Cornwallis officially surrendered to Franco-American forces under George
Washington, ending the Siege of Yorktown.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Yorktown>
1904:
The Polytechnic University of the Philippines, the country's
largest university in terms of enrollment, opened as the Manila Business
School.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytechnic_University_of_the_Philippines>
1943:
Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, was
first isolated by researchers at Rutgers University.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streptomycin>
1986:
President of Mozambique Samora Machel and 43 others were killed
when his presidential aircraft crashed in the Lebombo Mountains just
inside the border of South Africa.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samora_Machel>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
insensate:
1. Having no sensation or consciousness; unconscious; inanimate.
2. Senseless; foolish; irrational.
3. Unfeeling, heartless, cruel, insensitive.
4. (medicine, physiology) Not responsive to sensory stimuli.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/insensate>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I intend no Monopoly but a Community in Learning: I study not for
my own sake only, but for theirs that study not for themselves.
--Thomas Browne
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Browne>
The Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (GNP&BR;) was a
railway company that constructed the deep-level underground railway that
is now the core central section of London's Piccadilly line. The
GNP&BR;, formed in 1902 through a merger of two older companies, was a
subsidiary of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London
(UERL). A number of different routes were planned, but most were
rejected by Parliament. When it opened in 1906, the GNP&BR;'s line
served 22 stations (Russell Square pictured) and ran for 14.17
kilometres (8.80 mi) between its western terminus at Hammersmith and
its northern terminus at Finsbury Park. A short branch connected Holborn
to the Strand. Most of the route was in a pair of tunnels, with 1.1
kilometres (0.68 mi) at the western end above ground. Within a year of
opening it became apparent to the management and investors that the
estimated passenger numbers for the GNP&BR; and the other UERL lines
were over-optimistic. Despite improved integration and cooperation with
the other tube railways, the GNP&BR; struggled financially, and in 1933
it and the rest of the UERL were taken into public ownership.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Northern,_Piccadilly_and_Brompton_Railw…>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
320:
Pappus of Alexandria, one of the last great Greek mathematicians
of antiquity, observed an eclipse that allowed historians to calculate
the approximate dates of his life.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pappus_of_Alexandria>
1009:
Under orders from Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a Christian church now within the walled
Old City of Jerusalem, was destroyed.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Holy_Sepulchre>
1851:
Moby-Dick, a novel by American writer Herman Melville, was
first published as The Whale.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby-Dick>
1967:
The Soviet space probe Venera 4 performed direct analysis of
the environment of Venus and became the first spacecraft to land on
another planet, although it stopped working before that.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera_4>
2004:
SPDC Chairman Senior General Than Shwe announced that Burmese
Prime Minister Khin Nyunt was "permitted to retire on health grounds",
but then had him arrested.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khin_Nyunt>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
stipulate:
(botany; not comparable) Having stipules; that is, having outgrowths
borne on either side of the base of the leafstalk.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stipulate>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Where lies the final harbor, whence we unmoor no more? In what
rapt ether sails the world, of which the weariest will never weary?
Where is the foundling’s father hidden? Our souls are like those
orphans whose unwedded mothers die in bearing them: the secret of our
paternity lies in their grave, and we must there to learn it.
--Moby-Dick
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moby-Dick>
Herrerasaurus was one of the earliest dinosaurs. Its name means
"Herrera's lizard", after Victorino Herrera, a goatherd who discovered
the first specimen. All known fossils of Herrerasaurus have been
discovered in northwestern Argentina in rocks dated to 231.4 million
years ago. It was a lightly built bipedal carnivore with a long tail and
a relatively small head. Its length is estimated at 3–6 meters
(10–20 ft) and it may have weighed around 210–350 kilograms
(463–772 lb). The type species, Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis, was
described by Osvaldo Reig in 1963 and is the only species assigned to
the genus. Where Herrerasaurus and its close relatives lie on the early
dinosaur evolutionary tree is unclear. For many years, it was known from
very fragmentary remains. However, with the discovery of an almost
complete skeleton and skull in 1988, Herrerasaurus has been classified
as either an early theropod or an early saurischian, with many
researchers treating it at least tentatively as the most primitive
member of Theropoda. It is a member of the Herrerasauridae, a family of
similar genera that were among the earliest of the dinosaurian
evolutionary radiation.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herrerasaurus>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1604:
German astronomer Johannes Kepler observed an exceptionally
bright star, now known as Kepler's Supernova (remnant nebula pictured),
which had suddenly appeared in the constellation Ophiuchus.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler%27s_Supernova>
1943:
The Holocaust: Three days after a successful revolt by inmates,
Sobibor extermination camp in eastern Poland was closed.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobibor_extermination_camp>
1956:
Queen Elizabeth II opened the world's first commercial nuclear
power plant at Calder Hall in Cumbria, England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sellafield>
1992:
Having gone to the wrong house for a Halloween party, Japanese
exchange student Yoshihiro Hattori was shot and killed by the homeowner
in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, US.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshihiro_Hattori>
2010:
Mary MacKillop was canonised to become the only Australian to
be recognised by the Roman Catholic Church as a saint.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_MacKillop>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
sine qua non:
An essential or indispensable element, condition, or ingredient.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sine_qua_non>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The job is to ask questions — it always was — and to ask them
as inexorably as I can. And to face the absence of precise answers with
a certain humility.
--Arthur Miller
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_Miller>
Lê Quang Tung (1923–63) was the commander of the Army of the Republic
of Vietnam Special Forces under the command of Ngô Đình Nhu, brother
of South Vietnam's president, Ngô Đình Diệm. During the 1950s, Tung
was a high-ranking official in Nhu's Cần Lao, a secret political
apparatus which maintained the Ngô family's grip on power. Appointed as
commander of the special forces in 1960, his leadership was noted more
for repressing dissidents than fighting the Viet Cong insurgents. His
most well-known attack was the raid on Xá Lợi pagoda in August 1963
in which hundreds died or disappeared. Tung's main military programme
was a scheme in which army personnel attempted to infiltrate North
Vietnam for intelligence gathering and sabotage. The program was
ineffective, with the vast majority of infiltrators being killed or
captured. Tung was also reported to be planning an assassination attempt
on Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., the U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam.
Following the pagoda raids, America terminated funding to Tung's men
because they were used as a political tool rather than against the
communists. Along with Diệm and Nhu, Tung was assassinated during the
November 1963 coup.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Quang_Tung>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1793:
Marie Antoinette (pictured), queen consort of Louis XVI, was
guillotined at the Place de la Révolution in Paris at the height of the
French Revolution.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette>
1869:
Girton College, one of the 31 constituent colleges of the
University of Cambridge and England's first residential college for
women, was founded.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girton_College,_Cambridge>
1951:
The first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, was
assassinated in Rawalpindi.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liaquat_Ali_Khan>
1968:
To protest racism in the United States, African American
athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos performed the Black Power salute
during a medal ceremony at the Mexico City Summer Olympics.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Olympics_Black_Power_salute>
1975:
Five journalists for Australian television networks based in
the town of Balibo were killed by Indonesian special force soldiers
prior to their invasion of East Timor.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balibo_Five>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
sparge:
1. To sprinkle or spray
2. To introduce bubbles into a liquid.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sparge>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
None of us can help the things life has done to us. They're done
before you realize it, and once they're done they make you do other
things until at last everything comes between you and what you'd like to
be, and you've lost your true self forever.
--Eugene O'Neill
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eugene_O%27Neill>
The Blue-faced Honeyeater is a passerine bird of the Honeyeater family
Meliphagidae and is common in northern and eastern Australia and
southern New Guinea. A large honeyeater at around 29.5 cm (11.6 in) in
length, it has distinctive plumage, with olive upperparts, white
underparts and a black head and throat with white nape and cheeks. Males
and females are similar in external appearance. Adults have a blue area
of bare skin on each side of the face readily distinguishing them from
juveniles, which have yellow or green patches of bare skin. Found in
open woodland, parks, and gardens, it appears to be sedentary in parts
of its range and locally nomadic in other parts; however, the species
has been little studied since it was first described by the
ornithologist John Latham in 1802. Its diet is mostly composed of
invertebrates, supplemented with nectar and fruit. Its propensity for
feeding on the flowers and fruit of bananas in north Queensland has
given it the common name of "Bananabird". Blue-faced Honeyeaters often
take over and renovate old babbler nests, in which the female lays and
incubates two or rarely three eggs. Three subspecies are recognised.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue-faced_Honeyeater>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1529:
The Siege of Vienna ended as the Austrians repelled the
invading Turks, turning the tide against almost a century of unchecked
conquest throughout eastern and central Europe by the Ottoman Empire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Vienna>
1764:
English historian Edward Gibbon observed friars singing Vespers
at Capitoline Hill in Rome, inspiring him to write The History of the
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Gibbon>
1970:
Thirty-five construction workers were killed when a section of
the West Gate Bridge in Melbourne collapsed due to structural failure.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Gate_Bridge>
1997:
On the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, the first supersonic land
speed record was set by Royal Air Force pilot Andy Green in the jet-
propelled car ThrustSSC when it achieved a speed of 1,228 km/h (763
mph).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThrustSSC>
2003:
Chinese space program: Shenzhou 5, China's first manned space
mission, was launched, carrying astronaut Yang Liwei.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenzhou_5>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
allomother:
A human or other animal that provides some maternal care for the young
born by another.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/allomother>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Facilis descensus Averni: noctes atque dies patet atri ianua
Ditis; sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras. hoc opus, hic
labor est. The gates of hell are open night and day; Smooth the descent,
and easy is the way: But to return, and view the cheerful skies, In this
the task and mighty labor lies. with translation by
--John Dryden
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dryden>
Brockway Mountain Drive is an 8.883-mile (14.296 km) scenic highway
just west of Copper Harbor in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the
United States. Drivers can access the road from state highway M-26 on
either end near Eagle Harbor to the west or Copper Harbor to the east in
the Keweenaw Peninsula. The drive runs along the ridge of Brockway
Mountain on the Keweenaw Fault and climbs to 1,320 feet (402 m) above
sea level, 720 feet (220 m) above the surface of Lake Superior. Several
viewpoints along the route allow for panoramas of Lake Superior
(pictured from the road), Copper Harbor, and undeveloped woodland. On a
clear day, Isle Royale (approximately 50 miles (80 km) away) can be
seen. Brockway Mountain was named for David D. Brockway, one of the
pioneer residents of the area. The road was constructed by the county
road commission with funding through Depression-era work programs in
1933. It was briefly used as a connection for the parallel state highway
after it opened. Since it opened, it has been recognized nationally and
locally in several media outlets for its picturesque qualities, usually
in profiles of Keweenaw County, the Upper Peninsula or other scenic
drives.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brockway_Mountain_Drive>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1863:
American Civil War: In the Battle of Bristoe Station, the
Union II Corps was able to surprise and repel the Confederate attack
on the Union rear guard, resulting in a Union victory.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bristoe_Station>
1888:
French inventor Louis Le Prince filmed Roundhay Garden Scene,
the earliest surviving motion picture, in Roundhay, Leeds, West
Yorkshire, England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Le_Prince>
1943:
World War II: During the second raid on Schweinfurt, the US
8th Air Force suffered so many losses that it lost air supremacy over
Germany for several months.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Raid_on_Schweinfurt>
1953:
Israeli military commander Ariel Sharon and his Unit 101
special forces attacked the village of Qibya on the West Bank,
destroying 45 buildings, killing 42 villagers, and wounding 15 others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qibya_massacre>
1973:
After student protests against the Thai military government
turned to violence, King Bhumibol Adulyadej announced that Prime
Minister Thanom Kittikachorn had resigned.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Thai_popular_uprising>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
iatrogenic:
(of a medical condition) Induced by the words or actions of the
physician.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/iatrogenic>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Almost anybody can learn to think or believe or know, but not a
single human being can be taught to feel … the moment you feel, you're
nobody-but-yourself. To be nobody-but-yourself-in a world which is doing
its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight
the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop
fighting.
--E. E. Cummings
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/E._E._Cummings>
Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars is a 1996 point-and-click
adventure game developed by Revolution Software. The player assumes the
role of George Stobbart, an American tourist in Paris, as he unravels a
conspiracy. The game takes place in both real and fictional locations in
Europe and the Middle East. Charles Cecil (pictured), writer and
director of the game, began researching the Knights Templar for the game
in 1992. It was built with Revolution's Virtual Theatre engine, which
was also used for the company's previous two games. The game is serious
in tone, but also features humor and graphics in the style of classic
animated films. The million-selling title was critically acclaimed and
won various awards. It is regarded as one of the best examples of
adventure gaming and many developers have cited it as an influence.
After its initial release on Windows, Mac OS, and PlayStation, it was
ported to the Game Boy Advance, Palm OS, and Windows Mobile. The game
spawned a number of sequels collectively known as the Broken Sword
series. From 2009 to 2012, a director's cut version was available for
various operating systems.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_Sword:_The_Shadow_of_the_Templars>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1307:
Agents of King Philip IV of France launched a dawn raid,
simultaneously arresting many members of the Knights Templar (seal
pictured), and subsequently torturing them into "admitting" heresy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar>
1843:
B'nai B'rith, the oldest continually operating Jewish service
organization in the world, was founded in New York City.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%27nai_B%27rith>
1885:
The Georgia Institute of Technology was established in Atlanta
as part of Reconstruction plans to build an industrial economy in the
post-Civil War Southern United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Institute_of_Technology>
1921:
The Soviet republics of Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and
Georgia signed the Treaty of Kars with the Grand National Assembly of
Turkey to establish the contemporary borders between Turkey and the
South Caucasus states.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Kars>
1943:
World War II: With a new government led by General Pietro
Badoglio, parts of Italy switched sides to the Allies and declared war
on the Axis Powers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietro_Badoglio>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
purple prose:
Extravagant or flowery writing, especially in a literary work.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/purple_prose>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
When you're weary Feeling small When tears are in your eyes I
will dry them all I'm on your side When times get rough And friends just
can't be found Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down.
--Paul Simon
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Simon>
John W. Johnston (1818–89) was an American lawyer and Democratic
politician from Abingdon, Virginia. He served in the Virginia State
Senate, and represented Virginia for 13 years in the U.S. Senate after
the American Civil War. He had been ineligible to serve in Congress
because of the Fourteenth Amendment, which forbade anyone from holding
public office who had sworn allegiance to the United States and then
sided with the Confederacy during the Civil War. However, his
restrictions were removed at the suggestion of the Freedmen's Bureau
when he aided a dying former slave after the War. He was the first
person who had sided with the Confederacy to serve in the U.S. Senate.
Issues in his senatorial career included the Arlington Memorial debate,
as he found the initial proposal to relocate the dead distasteful, yet
wanted to defend the memory of Robert E. Lee. He was also an outspoken
Funder during Virginia's heated debate as to how much of its pre-War
debt the state ought to have been obliged to pay back. The controversy
culminated in the formation of the Readjuster Party and the appointment
of William Mahone as its leader, ending Johnston's Senate career.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Johnston>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1398:
The Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas the Great and the Grand
Master of the Teutonic Knights Konrad von Jungingen signed the Treaty of
Salynas, the third attempt after the 1384 Treaty of Königsberg and the
1390 Treaty of Lyck to cede Samogitia to the Knights.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Salynas>
1492:
Believing he had reached the East Indies, Christopher Columbus
made landfall on an island in the Caribbean, sparking a series of events
that led to the European colonization of the Americas.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus>
1871:
The Criminal Tribes Act entered into force in British India,
giving law enforcement sweeping powers to arrest, control, and monitor
the movements of the members of 160 specific ethnic or social
communities that were defined as "habitually criminal".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_Tribes_Act>
1928:
An "iron lung" medical ventilator (example from the 1950s
pictured), designed by Philip Drinker and colleagues at Children's
Hospital, Boston, was used for the first time to treat poliomyelitis.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_pressure_ventilator>
1988:
Sri Lankan Civil War: Indian troops mounted a failed assault on
Jaffna University, which served as the Tamil Tigers' military
headquarters.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaffna_University_Helidrop>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
jawan:
(India) An (Indian) infantryman; a soldier.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jawan>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The motive, principle, and end of the religious life is to make
an absolute gift of self to God in a self-forgetting love, to end one's
own life in order to make room for God's life.
--Edith Stein
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edith_Stein>