Fairfax Harrison (1869–1938) was an American lawyer, businessman, and
writer. The son of the secretary to the Confederate President Jefferson
Davis, Harrison studied law at Yale University and Columbia University
before becoming a lawyer for the Southern Railway Company in 1896. By
1906 he was Southern's vice-president of finance, and in 1907 helped
secure funding to keep the company solvent. In 1913 he was elected
president of Southern, where he instituted a number of reforms in
company operations. By 1916, under Harrison's leadership, the Southern
had expanded to an 8,000-mile (13,000 km) network across 13 states,
its greatest extent until the 1950s. Following America's entry into
World War I the federal government took control of the railroads in
December 1917, running them through the United States Railroad
Administration, on which Harrison served. Harrison struggled to keep the
railroad afloat during the Great Depression, but by 1936 Southern was
once again showing a profit. Harrison retired in 1937, intending to
focus on his hobby of writing about historical subjects including the
roots of the American Thoroughbred horse, but he died three months later
in February 1938.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairfax_Harrison>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1535:
The appearance of sun dogs over Stockholm, Sweden, inspired the
painting Vädersolstavlan, the oldest colour depiction of the city.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A4dersolstavlan>
1657:
Anglo-Spanish War: An English fleet under Admiral Robert Blake
attacked a Spanish treasure fleet at Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the
Spanish Canary Islands.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Santa_Cruz_de_Tenerife_(1657)>
1939:
Billie Holiday recorded her version of "Strange Fruit", which
gained fame as an emblem of the Civil Rights Movement.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Fruit>
1968:
British Member of Parliament Enoch Powell made his
controversial "Rivers of Blood" speech in opposition to immigration and
anti-discrimination legislation, resulting in his removal from the
Shadow Cabinet.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivers_of_Blood_speech>
1978:
Soviet fighters shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 902 after it
violated Soviet airspace.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_902>
2010:
An explosion on Deepwater Horizon, an offshore oil rig in the
Gulf of Mexico, caused the largest accidental marine oil spill in the
history of the petroleum industry.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon_explosion>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
capias:
(law) An arrest warrant; a writ commanding officers to take a specified
person or persons into custody.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/capias>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
When the last eagle flies over the last crumbling mountain And
the last lion roars at the last dusty fountain In the shadow of the
forest though she may be old and worn They will stare unbelieving at the
last unicorn. for The Last Unicorn by
--Peter S. Beagle
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Peter_S._Beagle>
God of War: Chains of Olympus is a 2008 third-person action-adventure
video game for the PlayStation Portable (PSP). Loosely based on Greek
mythology, it is the fourth installment in the God of War series and a
prequel to the original God of War. The player controls Kratos, a
Spartan warrior who serves the Olympian Gods. Kratos is instructed to
find the Sun God Helios, as the Dream God Morpheus has caused many of
the gods to slumber in Helios' absence. Morpheus, the Queen of the
Underworld Persephone and the Titan Atlas plan to destroy Mount Olympus.
The gameplay is very similar to that of its predecessors, with a focus
on combo-based combat. The game features quick time events that require
the player to complete game controller actions in a timed sequence to
defeat stronger enemies and bosses. The player can use magical attacks,
and the game also features puzzles and platforming elements. Debuting at
No. 5 on the North American charts, Chains of Olympus achieved the
highest composite score for a PSP title from Metacritic and
GameRankings. Considered one of the best games on the platform, it has
won several awards and had sold 3.2 million copies worldwide by
June 2012.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_of_War:_Chains_of_Olympus>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1713:
With no living male heirs, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI
issued the Pragmatic Sanction to ensure one of his daughters would
inherit the Habsburg lands.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_VI,_Holy_Roman_Emperor>
1775:
The American Revolutionary War began with the Battles of
Lexington and Concord in the British colony of Massachusetts.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Lexington_and_Concord>
1809:
War of the Fifth Coalition: The French won a hard-fought
victory over Austria in Lower Bavaria when their opponents withdrew from
the field of battle that evening.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Teugen-Hausen>
1943:
The Holocaust: Nazi troops entered the Warsaw Ghetto to round
up the remaining Jews, sparking the first mass uprising (burning
buildings pictured) in Poland against the German occupation.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto_Uprising>
1989:
A gun turret on board the United States Navy battleship Iowa
exploded, killing 47 sailors.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Iowa_turret_explosion>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
debauch:
1. (transitive) To morally corrupt (someone); to seduce.
2. (transitive) To debase (something); to lower the value of (something).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/debauch>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Of greatest significance to me has been the insight that I
attained as a fundamental understanding from all of my LSD experiments:
what one commonly takes as "the reality," including the reality of one's
own individual person, by no means signifies something fixed, but rather
something that is ambiguous — that there is not only one, but that
there are many realities, each comprising also a different consciousness
of the ego.
--Albert Hofmann
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Hofmann>
Inocybe saliceticola is a fungal species found in moist habitats in
Nordic countries. The species produces brown mushrooms with caps of
varying shapes up to 40 millimetres (1.6 in) across, and tall, thin
stems up to 62 millimetres (2.4 in) long, at the base of which is a
large and well-defined "bulb". The stem varies in colour, with whitish,
pale yellow-brown, pale red-brown, pale brown and grey-brown all
observed. The species produces unusually shaped, irregular spores, each
with a few thick protrusions. This feature helps differentiate it from
other species that would otherwise be similar in appearance and habit.
It grows in mycorrhizal association with willow, and it is for this that
the species is named. However, particular species favoured by the fungus
are unclear and may include beech and alder taxa. The mushrooms grow
from the ground, often among mosses or detritus. The species was first
described in 2009, and within the genus Inocybe, it is a part of the
section Marginatae. The holotype (pictured) was collected from the shore
of a lake near Nurmes, Finland. The species has also been recorded in
Sweden and, at least in some areas, it is relatively common.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inocybe_saliceticola>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1506:
Construction of the current St. Peter's Basilica (interior
pictured) in Vatican City, to replace the old basilica built in the 4th
century, began.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Peter%27s_Basilica>
1689:
Provincial militia and citizens gathered in Boston, and
arrested officials of the Dominion of New England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1689_Boston_revolt>
1923:
The New York Yankees of Major League Baseball began playing
their games in the newly constructed Yankee Stadium.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yankee_Stadium_(1923)>
1938:
Superman, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, made his
debut in Action Comics #1, the first true superhero comic book.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman>
1947:
In one of the largest non-nuclear single explosive detonations
in history, the Royal Navy set off 4,000 tonnes of surplus ammunition in
an unsuccessful attempt to destroy the island of Heligoland, Germany.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heligoland>
1949:
Ireland officially left the British Commonwealth and became a
republic.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ireland>
1996:
Israeli forces shelled Qana, Lebanon, during Operation Grapes
of Wrath, killing over 100 civilians and injuring over 110 others at a
UN compound.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_shelling_of_Qana>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
oubliette:
A dungeon only accessible by a trapdoor at the top.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oubliette>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The moral nature of man is more sacred in my eyes than his
intellectual nature. I know they cannot be divorced — that without
intelligence we should be Brutes — but it is the tendency of our
gaping, wondering dispositions to give pre-eminence to those faculties
which most astonish us. Strength of character seldom, if ever,
astonishes; goodness, lovingness, and quiet self-sacrifice, are worth
all the talents in the world.
--George Henry Lewes
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Henry_Lewes>
Thistle is a ghost town in Utah County, Utah, about 65 miles (105 km)
southeast of Salt Lake City in the United States. During the era of
steam locomotives, the town's primary industry was servicing trains for
the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. The fortunes of the town
were closely linked with those of the railroad until the changeover to
diesel locomotives, when the town started to decline. Just downstream
from Thistle, a slump had been in slow motion for years, with no serious
thought of investigation. The landslide situation deteriorated rapidly
in April 1983, with the town evacuated on April 17. The landslide
dammed the Spanish Fork River and almost completely destroyed the town;
only a few structures were left partially standing (schoolhouse
pictured). It also severed key transportation arteries and left parts of
eastern Utah isolated for months until replacements could be built.
Federal and state government agencies have claimed that it was the most
costly landslide in U.S. history, and it resulted in the first
presidential declared disaster area in the state of Utah. The remains of
Thistle are visible from U.S. Route 6 or from the California Zephyr
passenger train.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thistle,_Utah>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1797:
Citizens of Verona, Italy, began an unsuccessful eight-day
rebellion against the French occupying forces.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veronese_Easter>
1912:
Soldiers of the Russian Empire's army fired upon striking gold
miners in northeast Siberia near the Lena River, killing at least 150
people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lena_massacre>
1951:
The Peak District was designated the first national park in the
United Kingdom.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_District>
1961:
Armed Cuban exiles backed by the CIA invaded Cuba, landing in
the Bay of Pigs, with the aim of overthrowing the Cuban government under
Fidel Castro.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion>
1975:
The Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot captured Phnom Penh, ending the
Cambodian Civil War, and established Democratic Kampuchea.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian_Civil_War>
1982:
A new patriated Constitution of Canada, including the Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms (pictured), a bill of rights intended to
protect certain political and civil rights of people in Canada, was
signed into law by Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_Act,_1982>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
kasha:
A porridge made from boiled buckwheat groats, or sometimes from other
cereal groats.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kasha>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
If rules make you nervous and depressed, and not desirous of
participating in the Wiki, then ignore them and go about your business.
--Lee Daniel Crocker
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lee_Daniel_Crocker>
Be Here Now is the third studio album by English rock band Oasis
(vocalist Liam Gallagher pictured), released in August 1997. The album
was highly anticipated by music critics and fans after the band's
worldwide success with Definitely Maybe (1994) and (What's the Story)
Morning Glory? (1995). Be Here Now became the United Kingdom's fastest
selling album to date, selling over 350,000 units on the first day of
release. Oasis' management company Ignition sought to control access to
the album before its release to prevent overexposure, but its tactics
resulted in the alienation of members of the media. Although initial
reviews were positive, retrospectively the album is viewed by much of
the music press and by most members of the band as over-indulgent and
bloated. In 2007, Q magazine, having given it five stars on its release,
said that it is often thought of as "a disastrous, overblown folly—the
moment when Oasis, their judgement clouded by drugs and blanket
adulation, ran aground on their own sky-high self-belief." The album's
producer Owen Morris said of the recording sessions: "The only reason
anyone was there was the money." (Full article...).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be_Here_Now_(album)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1520:
Citizens of Toledo, Castile, who were opposed to the rule of
the foreign-born Charles V, rose up in revolt when the royal government
attempted to unseat radical city councilors.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolt_of_the_Comuneros>
1853:
The first passenger line of what would become Indian Railways,
the state-owned railway company of India, opened between Bombay (now
Mumbai) and Thane.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Railways>
1881:
Famed lawman Bat Masterson of the American Old West engaged in
his last gun battle before later becoming a journalist.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_Masterson>
1917:
Vladimir Lenin returned to Petrograd from Switzerland, and
joined the Bolshevik movement in Russia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin>
1947:
American financier and presidential adviser Bernard Baruch
first described the post–World War II tensions between the Soviet
Union and the United States as a "cold war".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War>
2001:
India and Bangladesh began a five-day conflict over their
disputed border, which ended in a stalemate.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_Indian%E2%80%93Bangladeshi_border_confli…>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
heir apparent:
(usually monarchy) Someone who will definitely inherit, assuming he
survives the one from whom he is inheriting.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/heir_apparent>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The finest words in the world are only vain sounds, if you
cannot comprehend them.
--Anatole France
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anatole_France>
The Sumatran rhinoceros is the smallest of the five extant rhinoceroses.
Members of the species once inhabited rainforests, swamps, and cloud
forests in India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia,
Indonesia, and China. They are now critically endangered, with only six
substantial populations in the wild: four on Sumatra, one on Borneo, and
one in the Malay Peninsula. Their numbers are difficult to determine
because they are solitary animals that are widely scattered across their
range, but they are estimated to number fewer than 275, and possibly as
low as 200. The decline in numbers is attributed primarily to poaching
for their horns, which are highly valued in traditional Chinese
medicine. The Sumatran rhino is a mostly solitary animal except for
courtship and offspring-rearing. Like the African species, it has two
horns; the larger is the nasal horn, typically 15–25 centimetres
(5.9–9.8 in), while the other horn is typically a stub. A coat of
reddish-brown hair covers most of its body. It is the most vocal rhino
species and also communicates through marking soil with its feet,
twisting saplings into patterns, and leaving excrement.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumatran_rhinoceros>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
769:
The Lateran Council concluded proceedings intended to rectify
abuses in the papal electoral process that had led to the elevation of
the Antipopes Constantine II and Philip.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateran_Council_(769)>
1071:
Norman forces, under the command of Robert Guiscard, conquered
the city of Bari, the capital of the Catepanate of Italy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Bari>
1638:
A rebellion by Catholic Japanese peasants in Shimabara over
increased taxes was put down by the Tokugawa shogunate, resulting in
greater enforcement of the policy of national seclusion.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimabara_Rebellion>
1755:
A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson was
first published, becoming one of the most influential dictionaries in
the history of English.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Dictionary_of_the_English_Language>
1947:
Jackie Robinson, the first African American to break the
baseball color line, played his first game in Major League Baseball.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Robinson>
1989:
A human crush during an FA Cup semi-final match between
Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield,
England, caused 96 deaths, the most of any stadium-related disaster in
British history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsborough_disaster>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
eschatology:
1. (countable) System of doctrines concerning final matters, such as death.
2. (uncountable) The study of the end times — the end of the world,
notably in Christian theology the second coming of Christ, the
Apocalypse or the Last Judgment.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/eschatology>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The acquisition of any knowledge is always of use to the
intellect, because it may thus drive out useless things and retain the
good. For nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first known.
--Leonardo da Vinci
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci>
Thurman Tucker (1917–93) was an American center fielder in Major
League Baseball who played for nine seasons in the American League with
the Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Indians. In 701 career games,
Tucker recorded a batting average of .255 and accumulated 24 triples,
9 home runs, and 179 runs batted in. He was nicknamed "Joe E." Tucker
because of his resemblance to comedian Joe E. Brown. Born and raised in
Gordon, Texas, he was a three-sport athlete at high school, playing
baseball (where he was a second baseman), basketball, and track and
field. Tucker first played baseball professionally with the Siloam
Springs Travelers. After playing in minor league baseball, he was signed
by the Chicago White Sox before the 1941 season. His major league debut
came the following year and he spent two years as the White Sox's
starting center fielder until he enlisted in the armed forces during
World War II. Upon his return, Tucker played two more seasons for the
White Sox. Subsequently, he was traded to the Cleveland Indians, for
whom he played four years, and continued to play minor league baseball
throughout the 1950s. After his retirement, he became a major league
scout and insurance agent.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurman_Tucker>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1865:
Actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth fatally
shot U.S. President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington,
D.C.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Abraham_Lincoln>
1906:
The Azusa Street Revival, the primary catalyst for the spread
of Pentecostalism in the 20th century, opened in Los Angeles.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azusa_Street_Revival>
1931:
After King Alfonso XIII left Spain, the Second Spanish
Republic was proclaimed by a provisional government led by Niceto
Alcalá-Zamora (pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Spanish_Republic>
1978:
Thousands of Georgians demonstrated in Tbilisi against an
attempt by the Supreme Soviet of the Georgian SSR to change the
constitutional status of the Georgian language.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_Georgian_demonstrations>
1999:
A storm dropped an estimated 500,000 tonnes of hailstones in
Sydney and along the east coast of New South Wales, causing about A$2.3
billion in damages, the costliest natural disaster in Australian
insurance history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Sydney_hailstorm>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
hapax legomenon:
A word occurring only once in a given corpus.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hapax_legomenon>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Criticism, whatever may be its pretensions, never does more than
to define the impression which is made upon it at a certain moment by a
work wherein the writer himself noted the impression of the world which
he received at a certain hour.
--James Branch Cabell
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Branch_Cabell>
Johann von Klenau (1758–1819) was a field marshal in the Habsburg
army, and fought in Austria's wars with the Ottoman Empire, the French
Revolutionary Wars, and the Napoleonic Wars. In the early years of the
French Revolutionary Wars, he distinguished himself at the First Battle
of Wissembourg in 1793, and led a battle-winning charge at
Handschuhsheim in 1795. As commander of the Coalition's left flank in
the Adige campaign in northern Italy in 1799, he was instrumental in
isolating the French-held fortresses on the Po River by organizing and
supporting a peasant uprising. He led key elements of the army at the
victory at Aspern-Esslingen and its defeat at Wagram, where his troops
covered the retreat of the main force. He commanded the IV Corps at the
1813 Battle of Dresden and at the Battle of Nations at Leipzig,
preventing the French from outflanking the main Austrian force on the
first day of the engagement. He then organized and implemented the
successful Dresden blockade and negotiated the French capitulation
there. In the 1814–15 campaign, he commanded the Corps Klenau of the
Army of Italy. After the war in 1815, Klenau was appointed commanding
general in Moravia and Silesia.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_von_Klenau>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1598:
King Henry IV of France issued the Edict of Nantes, granting
freedom of religion to the Huguenots.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edict_of_Nantes>
1777:
American Revolutionary War: British and Hessian forces
conducted a surprise attack against a Continental Army outpost at Bound
Brook, New Jersey.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bound_Brook>
1829:
The Roman Catholic Relief Act was granted Royal Assent,
removing the most substantial restrictions on Catholics in the United
Kingdom.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_Relief_Act_1829>
1943:
The neoclassical Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., was
formally dedicated on the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Memorial>
1943:
World War II: German news announced the discovery of a mass
grave of Polish prisoners of war killed by Soviet forces, causing a
diplomatic rift between the Polish government-in-exile and the USSR.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
pink slime:
1. (paper manufacture) An undesirable pink-colored microbial mass occurring
in the slurry used in making paper.
2. (informal) A meat byproduct produced from otherwise unusable material
such as skin and connective tissue, spinal bones, and digestive tissue
by heating and then mixing with ammonia in a centrifuge to produce a
food additive.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pink_slime>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Let us do something while we have the chance! It is not every day
that we are needed. Not indeed that we personally are needed. Others
would meet the case equally well, if not better. To all mankind they
were addressed, those cries for help still ringing in our ears! But at
this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like
it or not. Let us make the most of it, before it is too late! Let us
represent worthily for once the foul brood to which a cruel fate
consigned us!
--Samuel Beckett
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_Beckett>
John Le Mesurier (1912–83) was an English actor perhaps best
remembered for his comedic role as Sergeant Arthur Wilson in the BBC
situation comedy Dad's Army between 1968 and 1977. He debuted on stage
in 1934, and became one of television's pioneering actors when he
appeared in The Marvellous History of St Bernard in 1938. From there, Le
Mesurier had a prolific film career and appeared in over 120 films
across a range of genres, normally in smaller supporting parts in
comedies; his roles often portrayed figures of authority such as army
officers, policemen and judges. He took a relaxed approach to acting and
described himself as a "jobbing actor", a term he used for the title of
his autobiography. On one of the few occasions he played the lead role
in his career, he received a British Academy of Film and Television Arts
"Best Television Actor" award for his performance in the Dennis Potter
television play Traitor. He later said that his parts he played were
those of "a decent chap all at sea in a chaotic world not of his own
making". After his death, critics reflected that for an actor who
normally took minor roles, the viewing public were "enormously fond of
him".
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Le_Mesurier>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1831:
The Broughton Suspension Bridge in Manchester, England,
collapsed, reportedly owing to a mechanical resonance induced by troops
marching over the bridge in step.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broughton_Suspension_Bridge>
1910:
The SMS Zrínyi, one of the last pre-dreadnoughts built by the
Austro-Hungarian Navy, was launched.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Zr%C3%ADnyi>
1961:
Aboard Vostok 3KA-3, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the
first man to enter outer space, completing one orbit in a time of 108
minutes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin>
1968:
Six thousand sheep were killed on ranches near Dugway Proving
Ground in Utah as a result of the U.S. Army spraying a nerve agent.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dugway_sheep_incident>
2007:
The canteen of the Council of Representatives of Iraq building
was attacked by a suicide bomber, killing one Member of Parliament and
wounding 23 other people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Iraqi_Parliament_bombing>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
ungulate:
Having hooves.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ungulate>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The basic drive behind real philosophy is curiosity about the
world, not interest in the writings of philosophers. Each of us emerges
from the preconsciousness of babyhood and simply finds himself here, in
it, in the world. That experience alone astonishes some people. What is
all this — what is the world? And what are we? From the beginning of
humanity some have been under a compulsion to ask these questions, and
have felt a craving for the answers. This is what is really meant by any
such phrase as "mankind's need for metaphysics."
--Bryan Magee
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bryan_Magee>
SMS Blücher was the last armored cruiser built by the Imperial German
Navy. She was designed to match what German intelligence incorrectly
believed to be the specifications of the British Invincible-
class battlecruisers. Blücher was larger than earlier armored cruisers
and carried more heavy guns, but was unable to match the size and
armament of the new battlecruisers. The ship was named for Gebhard von
Blücher, commander of Prussian forces at the Battle of Waterloo. After
being commissioned in 1909, Blücher served in the I Scouting Group for
most of her career, including World War I. She took part in the
bombardment of Yarmouth and the raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and
Whitby in 1914. At the Battle of Dogger Bank in 1915, she was slowed
significantly after being hit by British gunfire. Franz von Hipper, the
German commander, decided to abandon Blücher to the pursuing enemy
ships in order to save his more valuable battlecruisers. She was sunk
and British destroyers began recovering the survivors, although they
were forced to withdraw when a German zeppelin began bombing them,
mistaking Blücher for a British ship. Estimates of the number of
casualties range from 747 to around 1,000.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Bl%C3%BCcher>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1544:
Italian War of 1542–1546: French and Spanish forces fought a
massive pitched battle in the Piedmont region of Italy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ceresole>
1913 - The Nevill Ground's pavilion was destroyed in the only
suffragette arson attack on a cricket ground.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevill_Ground>
1945:
World War II: American forces liberated the Buchenwald
concentration camp (watchtower pictured) near Weimar, Germany.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buchenwald_concentration_camp>
1951:
U.S. President Harry S. Truman relieved General of the Army
Douglas MacArthur of his commands for making public statements about the
Korean War that contradicted the administration's policies.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_Truman%27s_relief_of_General_Dougla…>
1979:
Uganda–Tanzania War: The Uganda National Liberation Army and
Tanzanian forces captured Kampala, forcing Ugandan President Idi Amin to
flee.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uganda%E2%80%93Tanzania_War>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
covenstead:
1. (Wicca) A permanent circle or temple used to meet for rituals and to
store religious items, often a mundane location.
2. (Wicca) A Wiccan congregation.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/covenstead>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
A first grader should understand that his or her culture isn't a
rational invention; that there are thousands of other cultures and they
all work pretty well; that all cultures function on faith rather than
truth; that there are lots of alternatives to our own society. Cultural
relativity is defensible and attractive. It's also a source of hope. It
means we don't have to continue this way if we don't like it.
--Kurt Vonnegut
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut>