Pipistrellus raceyi, also known as Racey's pipistrelle bat, is a bat
from Madagascar, in the genus Pipistrellus. Although unidentified
species of Pipistrellus had been previously reported from Madagascar
since the 1990s, P. raceyi was not formally named until 2006. The
specific name, raceyi, honors bat researcher Paul Racey. It is
apparently most closely related to the Asian species P. endoi,
P. paterculus, and P. abramus, and its ancestors probably reached
Madagascar from Asia, rather than from Africa (from where most of the
island's bat fauna originated). P. raceyi has been recorded at four
sites, two in the eastern and two in the western lowlands, all below
80 m (260 ft) altitude. In the east, it is found in open areas and has
been found roosting in a building; in the west it occurs in dry forest.
Because of uncertainties about its ecology, it is listed as "Data
Deficient" on the IUCN Red List. With a forearm length of 28.0 to
31.2 mm (1.10 to 1.23 in), Pipistrellus raceyi is small to medium-
sized for a species of Pipistrellus. It is long-furred and the body is
reddish above, with the head a trifle darker, and yellowish-brown below.
The wings are dark and the feet are small.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipistrellus_raceyi>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1592:
During the first Japanese invasion of Korea, Japanese forces
led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi captured Pyongyang, although they were
ultimately unable to hold it.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_invasions_of_Korea_(1592%E2%80%9398)>
1779:
Tekle Giyorgis I began the first of his six reigns as Emperor
of Ethiopia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tekle_Giyorgis_I>
1936:
The Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits was
signed in Montreux, Switzerland, allowing Turkey to fortify the
Dardanelles and the Bosphorus but guaranteeing free passage to ships of
all nations in peacetime.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreux_Convention_Regarding_the_Regime_of_t…>
1944:
Adolf Hitler survived an assassination attempt by German
Resistance member Claus von Stauffenberg (pictured), who hid a bomb
inside a briefcase during a conference at the Wolfsschanze military
headquarters in East Prussia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_July_plot>
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>
_____________________________
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:
To be able to say how much you love is to love but little.
--Petrarch
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Petrarch>
Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded is a reissue of Barbadian recording artist
Rihanna's third studio album Good Girl Gone Bad (2007). Released to mark
the first anniversary of the original album, the album features three
newly recorded songs and a DVD showing exclusive behind-the-scenes
footage of her Good Girl Gone Bad Tour (2007–09). For the new
material, she worked with past collaborators Ne-Yo, StarGate, and C.
"Tricky" Stewart, as well as Brian Kennedy, Mark Endert, Mike Elizondo,
Mark "Spike" Stent and Maroon 5. Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded received
generally positive reviews from music critics, who praised the sound and
production of the newly added material. Other critics felt that the
album was not worthy for re-release with only three new songs. The album
sold 63,000 copies in its first week and helped the original album peak
at number seven on the US Billboard 200. The reissue charted in New
Zealand, peaking at number four. The album was promoted with four
singles, including the US number-one hits "Take a Bow" and "Disturbia".
Rihanna also performed songs from the reissue on several television
programs and award ceremonies including FNMTV and the 2008 MTV Video
Music Awards.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Girl_Gone_Bad:_Reloaded>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
64:
The Great Fire of Rome started among the shops around the Circus
Maximus, eventually destroying three of fourteen Roman districts and
severely damaging seven others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_Rome>
1545:
The English warship Mary Rose foundered and sank just outside
Portsmouth during the Battle of the Solent.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Rose>
1903:
French cyclist Maurice Garin won the first Tour de France.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1903_Tour_de_France>
1916:
First World War: "The worst 24 hours in Australia's entire
history" occurred when Australian forces suffered heavy losses in their
unsuccessful assault on the Germans at the Battle of Fromelles in
France.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fromelles>
1989:
After suffering an uncontained failure of an engine which
destroyed all of its hydraulic systems, United Airlines Flight 232 broke
up during an emergency landing in Sioux City, Iowa, US, killing 111
people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232>
_____________________________
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:
You have to have a high conception, not of what you are doing,
but of what you may do one day: without that, there's no point in
working.
--Edgar Degas
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edgar_Degas>
Sair Tjerita Siti Akbari is an 1884 Malay-language syair (poem) by Lie
Kim Hok. Adapted from the Sjair Abdoel Moeloek, it tells of a woman who
passes as a man to free her husband from the Sultan of Hindustan, who
had captured him in an assault on their kingdom. Written over a period
of several years and influenced by European literature, the work differs
from earlier syairs in its use of suspense and emphasis on prose rather
than form. It also incorporates European realist views to expand upon
the genre while maintaining several of the hallmarks of traditional
syairs. Critical views have emphasised various aspects of its story,
finding in the work an increased empathy for women's thoughts and
feelings, a call for a unifying language in the Dutch East Indies, and a
polemic regarding the relation between tradition and modernity. A
commercial and critical success, Siti Akbari was twice reprinted; in
1940 it was adapted to film. When Sjair Abdoel Moeloek's influence
became clear in the 1920s, Lie was criticised as unoriginal. However,
Siti Akbari remains one of the better known syairs written by an ethnic
Chinese author, and Lie was later styled the "father of Chinese Malay
literature".
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sair_Tjerita_Siti_Akbari>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1290:
Edward I issued an edict expelling all Jews from England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edict_of_Expulsion>
1863:
American Civil War: Led by Union Army Colonel Robert Gould
Shaw, the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first
formal African American military unit, spearheaded an assault on Fort
Wagner near Charleston, South Carolina.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/54th_Regiment_Massachusetts_Volunteer_Infantry>
1969:
After a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts, United
States Senator Ted Kennedy drove his car off a wooden bridge into a
tidal channel, killing his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne, a former campaign
worker.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chappaquiddick_incident>
1976:
At the Olympic Games in Montreal, Nadia Comăneci became the
first person to score a perfect 10 in a modern Olympics gymnastics
event.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadia_Com%C4%83neci>
2005:
In a joint statement, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and
U.S. President George W. Bush announced the U.S.–India Civil Nuclear
Agreement, a bilateral treaty on civil nuclear cooperation between their
two respective countries.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.%E2%80%93India_Civil_Nuclear_Agreement>
_____________________________
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:
During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of
the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have
fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a
democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in
harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to
live for. But, my lord, if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am
prepared to die.
--Nelson Mandela
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela>
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia (1901–18) was the
youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the last sovereign of Imperial
Russia, and his wife Alexandra Fyodorovna. Anastasia had three older
sisters (Olga, Tatiana, and Maria), and a younger brother (Alexei
Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia). She was executed with her family in
an extrajudicial killing by members of Cheka, the Bolshevik secret
police, on 17 July 1918. Persistent rumors of her possible escape
circulated, fueled by the fact that the location of her burial was
unknown during Communist rule. Several women falsely claimed to have
been Anastasia, the most notorious of whom was Anna Anderson; DNA
testing after Anderson's death showed no link between her and the
Imperial family. Anastasia's possible survival has been conclusively
disproved. The mass grave near Ekaterinburg which held the remains of
the Tsar, his wife, and three daughters was revealed in 1991, but the
bodies of Alexei Nikolaevich and one of his sisters—either Anastasia
or Maria—were not discovered there. However, the charred bodies of the
two missing siblings were found in 2007 and identified using DNA
testing.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duchess_Anastasia_Nikolaevna_of_Russia>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1453:
The Battle of Castillon, the last conflict of the Hundred
Years' War, ended with the English losing all landholdings in France,
except Calais.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Castillon>
1771:
Dene men, acting as a guide to Samuel Hearne on his exploration
of the Coppermine River in present-day Nunavut, Canada, massacred a
group of about 20 Copper Inuit.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Falls_Massacre>
1918:
Russian Revolution: Bolsheviks executed Tsar Nicholas II and
his family at Yekaterinburg.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_the_Romanov_family>
1973:
Mohammed Zahir Shah, the last King of Afghanistan, was ousted
in a coup by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan while in Italy undergoing
eye surgery.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_Zahir_Shah>
1981:
A structural failure caused a walkway at the Hyatt Regency
hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, US, to collapse (damage pictured),
killing 114 people and injuring 216 others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyatt_Regency_walkway_collapse>
_____________________________
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:
Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too
small. Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.
--Isaac Watts
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Watts>
The Manhattan Project was a research and development project that
produced the first atomic bombs during World War II. It was led by the
United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From
1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General
Leslie Groves of the US Army Corps of Engineers. It began modestly in
1939, but grew to employ more than 130,000 people and cost nearly
US$2 billion (the equivalent of about $26 billion now). Although it
operated under a tight blanket of security, it was penetrated by Soviet
atomic spies. The first device ever detonated was an implosion-type
nuclear weapon in the Trinity test (pictured), conducted at New Mexico's
Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range on 16 July 1945. Project personnel
participated in the Alsos Mission in Europe, and in the bombing of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the war the Manhattan Project conducted
weapons testing in Operation Crossroads, developed new weapons,
established the network of national laboratories, supported medical
research into radiology, and laid the foundations for a nuclear navy. It
was replaced by the Atomic Energy Commission and the Armed Forces
Special Weapons Project in 1947.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1769:
Spanish friar Junípero Serra founded Mission San Diego de
Alcalá (pictured), the first Franciscan mission in the Alta California
region of New Spain.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_San_Diego_de_Alcal%C3%A1>
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.>
1931:
Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie signed the nation's first
constitution, the first time in history that an absolute ruler
voluntarily sought to share sovereignty with his subjects.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1931_Constitution_of_Ethiopia>
1965:
South Vietnamese Colonel Pham Ngoc Thao—an undetected
communist spy—was hunted down and killed after being sentenced to
death in absentia for a February 1965 coup attempt against Nguyen Khanh.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pham_Ngoc_Thao>
2008:
Sixteen infants in Gansu Province, China, were diagnosed with
kidney stones due to tainted milk powder; overall 300,000 infants were
affected.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal>
_____________________________
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:
To my mind, the expression of divinity is in variety, and the
more variable the creation, the more variable the creatures that
surround us, botanical and zoological, the more chance we have to learn
and to see into life itself, nature itself. ... we need variety. We came
from that, we were born from that, it's our world, the world in which we
became what we have become.
--Sheri S. Tepper
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper>
A Pisco Sour is a cocktail typical of South American cuisine. The
drink's name is a combination of the word pisco, which is its base
liquor, and the term sour, in reference to sour citrus juice and
sweetener components. Chile and Peru both claim the Pisco Sour as their
national drink, and each asserts exclusive ownership of both pisco and
the cocktail. The Peruvian Pisco Sour uses Peruvian pisco as the base
liquor and adds Key lime (or lemon) juice, syrup, ice, egg white, and
Angostura bitters. The Chilean version is similar, but uses Chilean
pisco, Pica lemon, and excludes the bitters and egg white. The cocktail
was invented by Victor Vaughn Morris, an American bartender working in
Peru in the early 1920s. In Chile, the invention of the drink is
attributed to Elliot Stubb, an English ship steward, at a bar in the
port city of Iquique in 1872, although the source for this attributed
the invention of the Whiskey Sour to Stubb, not the Pisco Sour. The two
kinds of pisco and the two variations in the style of preparing the
Pisco Sour are distinct in both production and taste, and the Pisco Sour
has become a significant and oft-debated topic of Latin American popular
culture.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pisco_Sour>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1240:
Swedish–Novgorodian Wars: A Novgorodian army led by Alexander
Nevsky defeated the Swedes on the Neva River near Ust-Izhora, present-
day Russia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Neva>
1799:
French soldiers uncovered the Rosetta Stone in Fort Julien,
near the Egyptian port city of Rashid.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_Stone>
1815:
Aboard HMS Bellerophon (pictured), Napoleon surrendered to
Royal Navy Captain Frederick Lewis Maitland to finally end the
Napoleonic Wars.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Bellerophon_(1786)>
1959:
Five hundred thousand American steelworkers went on strike,
closing nearly every steel mill in the country.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel_strike_of_1959>
1983:
Armenian extremist organization ASALA bombed the Turkish
Airlines check-in counter at Orly Airport as part of its campaign for
the recognition of and reparations for the Armenian Genocide.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orly_Airport_attack>
_____________________________
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:
This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned
toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single
catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in
front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and
make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing in from
Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the
angel can no longer close them. This storm irresistibly propels him into
the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before
him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress.
--Walter Benjamin
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walter_Benjamin>
Gospel of the Ebionites is the conventional name given to an apocryphal
gospel believed to have been used by a Jewish Christian sect known as
the Ebionites. All that is known of the gospel consists of seven brief
quotations found in a heresiology known as the Panarion, written by
Epiphanius of Salamis (pictured); he believed it to be a truncated and
modified version of the Gospel of Matthew. The quotations were used as
part of a polemic to point out inconsistencies in the beliefs and
practices of the Ebionites relative to Nicene orthodoxy. The text is a
gospel harmony of the Synoptic Gospels, composed in Greek with various
changes reflecting the writer's theology. It is believed to have been
composed some time during the middle of the 2nd century. Distinctive
features include the absence of the virgin birth and genealogy of Jesus,
an Adoptionist Christology in which Jesus is chosen to be God's Son at
the time of his Baptism, Jesus' appointed task of abolishing the Jewish
sacrifices, and an advocacy of vegetarianism. Although the gospel was
said to be used by "Ebionites" during the time of the early church, the
identity of the group or groups that used it remains a matter of
conjecture.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_the_Ebionites>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
756:
Emperor Xuanzong fled the Tang capital Chang'an as An Lushan's
forces advance toward the city during the An Lushan Rebellion.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Xuanzong_of_Tang>
1769:
Spanish soldier Gaspar de Portolá led the first European land
expedition to present-day California.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portol%C3%A1_expedition>
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…>
1965:
The NASA spacecraft Mariner 4 flew past Mars, collecting the
first close-up pictures of another planet.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_4>
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:
No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes
directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls.
--Ingmar Bergman
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ingmar_Bergman>
The recorded history of Gibraltar (pictured in 1782) spans over
2,900 years. First inhabited 50,000 years ago by the Neanderthals,
Gibraltar may have been one of their last refuges before their
extinction. To the Carthaginians and Romans it was one of the Pillars of
Hercules at the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea. Moors from North Africa
first settled and fortified it, calling it Jebel al-Tarik, later
corrupted into Gibraltar. Castile contested it and eventually conquered
it in 1462, after which it became part of Spain. An Anglo-Dutch force
seized it in 1704. It was ceded to Britain under the Treaty of Utrecht,
signed on 13 July 1713. Spain unsuccessfully besieged Gibraltar in 1704,
1727 and 1779–83; its status is still disputed. The territory became a
British Crown colony and an important trading post and base for the
Royal Navy during the Peninsular War. During the Second World War it was
a key British garrison, controlling access to the Mediterranean.
Gibraltar's fourteen sieges have led to it becoming "one of the most
densely fortified and fought over places in Europe". Today it is a self-
governing British Overseas Territory with an economy based largely on
financial services, shipping and tourism.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Gibraltar>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1793:
Charlotte Corday assassinated Jean-Paul Marat, a leader in both
the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror, in his bathtub.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Corday>
1863:
Three days of rioting began in New York City by opponents of
new laws passed by the United States Congress to draft men to fight in
the ongoing American Civil War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_draft_riots>
1962:
In an unprecedented action, British Prime Minister Harold
Macmillan dismissed seven members of his Cabinet.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Long_Knives_(1962)>
1977:
Ethiopia and Somalia went to war over the disputed Ogaden
region in eastern Ethiopia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethio-Somali_War>
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>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
tardigrade:
Sluggish; moving slowly.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tardigrade>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I believe that order is better than chaos, creation better than
destruction. I prefer gentleness to violence, forgiveness to vendetta. I
believe that in spite of the recent triumphs of science, men haven't
changed much in the last two thousand years; and in consequence we must
still try to learn from history. History is ourselves.
--Kenneth Clark
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kenneth_Clark>
The Sunbeam Tiger is a high-performance V8 version of the British Rootes
Group's Sunbeam Alpine roadster, designed in part by American car
designer and racing driver Carroll Shelby. Shelby had carried out a
similar V8 conversion on the AC Cobra, and hoped to win the contract to
produce the Tiger at his facility in America. Rootes decided instead to
contract the assembly work to Jensen at West Bromwich in England, and
pay Shelby a royalty on every car produced. Two major versions were
built: the Series I (1964–67) was fitted with the 260 cu in
(4.3 L) Ford V8; the Series II, of which only 633 were built, was
fitted with the larger Ford 289 cu in (4.7 L) engine. Two prototype
and extensively modified versions of the Series I competed in the 1964
24 Hours of Le Mans, fitted with the larger engine, but neither
completed the race. For two years the Tiger was the American Hot Rod
Association's national record holder over a quarter-mile drag strip.
Production ended in 1967 soon after the Rootes Group was taken over by
Chrysler, who did not have a suitable engine to replace the Ford V8.
Owing to the ease and affordability of modifying the Tiger, there are
few surviving cars in standard form.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunbeam_Tiger>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1493:
The Nuremberg Chronicle, one of the best-documented early
printed books, was first published.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Chronicle>
1543:
King Henry VIII of England married Catherine Parr, his sixth
and last wife, at Hampton Court Palace.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Parr>
1943:
World War II: German and Soviet forces engaged each other at
the Battle of Prokhorovka, one of the largest tank battles in military
history (Soviet T-34 tank pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Prokhorovka>
1963:
In Gorton, England, 16-year-old Pauline Reade disappeared, the
first victim of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley in the Moors murders.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moors_murders>
2007:
Two US Army AH-64 Apache helicopters conducted a series of air-
to-ground attacks in Baghdad; classified cockpit gunsight footage was
released to the Internet in 2010.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_12,_2007_Baghdad_airstrike>
_____________________________
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>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We must progress to the stage of doing all the right things for
all the right reasons instead of doing all the right things for all the
wrong reasons.
--Buckminster Fuller
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Buckminster_Fuller>
The effects of Hurricane Ivan in the Lesser Antilles and South America
in September 2004 included 44 deaths and over $1 billion in damage,
primarily in Grenada (damage pictured) where it was considered the worst
hurricane in nearly 50 years. Hurricane Ivan developed from a tropical
wave on September 2 and rapidly intensified to become a major
hurricane, passing through the southern Lesser Antilles on September 7
with winds of 125 mph (205 km/h). At the time, its tropical storm
force winds extended outward up to 160 miles (260 km) with hurricane
force winds outward to 70 miles (110 km). The northern portion of the
eye passed over Grenada, killing 39 people and causing the worst damage
in the region: the damage total of $1.1 billion represented 200% of its
GDP. The hurricane damaged more than 14,000 homes in Grenada; 30% of
the houses were destroyed, leaving about 18,000 people homeless. The
United States Agency for International Development, European Commission
Humanitarian Aid Office and others helped with reconstruction work.
Moderate damage and at least three fatalites were reported in northern
Venezuela, and one person died each in Trinidad and Barbados. The name
Ivan was later retired.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_Hurricane_Ivan_in_the_Lesser_Antil…>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1833:
Noongar warrior Yagan, wanted for leading attacks on white
colonists in Western Australia, was killed, becoming a symbol of the
unjust and sometimes brutal treatment of the indigenous peoples of
Australia by colonial settlers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yagan>
1921:
Former President of the United States William Howard Taft was
sworn in as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, making him the only
person to ever hold both positions.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Howard_Taft>
1943:
In a massive ethnic cleansing operation, units of the Ukrainian
Insurgent Army attacked various Polish villages in the Volhynia region
of present-day Ukraine, killing the Polish civilians and burning those
settlements to the ground.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacres_of_Poles_in_Volhynia_and_Eastern_Ga…>
1991:
Shortly after takeoff from King Abdulaziz International
Airport, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 caught fire in mid-
flight and crashed, killing all 261 occupants on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigeria_Airways_Flight_2120>
2011:
An explosion at the Evangelos Florakis Naval Base killed 12
people, including the head of the Cyprus Navy, making it the worst
peacetime military accident in Cypriot history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelos_Florakis_Naval_Base_explosion>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
gaggle:
1. A group of geese when they are on the ground or on the water.
2. Any group or gathering of related things; bunch.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gaggle>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy.
--E. B. White
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/E._B._White>