The Paramount Television Network was a venture in the late 1940s by
American film corporation Paramount Pictures to organize a television
network. The company had built television stations KTLA in Los Angeles
and WBKB in Chicago, and had invested $400,000 in the DuMont Television
Network, which operated stations in New York City, Washington, D.C., and
Pittsburgh. The Paramount Television Network aired several programs,
including the Emmy award-winning children's series Time for Beany, and
distributed them to an ad-hoc network of stations. It signed affiliation
agreements with more than 50 television stations in 1950; despite this,
most of Paramount's series were not widely viewed outside the West
Coast. The Federal Communications Commission prevented the studio from
acquiring additional television stations. Escalating disputes between
Paramount and DuMont concerning breaches of contract, company control,
and network competition erupted regularly between 1940 and 1956, and led
to the dismantling of the DuMont Network. Paramount continued to produce
series for other networks, and re-entered the broadcast network field in
1995 with the United Paramount Network.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramount_Television_Network>
_______________________________
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>
1828:
French explorer René Caillié became the first confirmed non-
Muslim to enter Timbuktu, for which he later received a 10,000-franc
prize from the Société de géographie.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Cailli%C3%A9>
1939:
Adolf Hitler's 50th birthday was celebrated as a national
holiday in Nazi Germany.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler%27s_50th_birthday>
1999:
Students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold embarked on a massacre,
killing 13 people and wounding over 20 others before committing suicide
at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre>
2008:
Fernando Lugo became the first non-Colorado Party candidate to
be elected President of Paraguay in 61 years.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraguayan_general_election,_2008>
_____________________________
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:
We never know through what Divine mysteries of compensation the
great Father of the universe may be carrying out His sublime plan; but
those three words, "God is love" ought to contain, to every doubting
soul, the solution of all things.
--Dinah Craik
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dinah_Craik>
Banksia grossa is a species of shrub in the plant family Proteaceae
endemic to Southwest Australia. It is one of fourteen species of banksia
of the series Abietinae, all of which bear predominantly round or oval
inflorescences. Collected in 1965, it was described in 1981 by Alex
George. Its thick leaves and large seeds distinguish it from other
members of the Abietinae, and are the basis of its species name. Found
in sand or sand over laterite among heath between Eneabba and
Badgingarra in Western Australia, it grows as a many-stemmed shrub to
1 m (3 ft) high with narrow leaves and oval brownish flower spikes up
to 10 cm (4 in) high, composed of hundreds of individual flowers.
Flowering occurs throughout the cooler months of March to September. Old
flower spikes develop woody follicles which bear the seeds. The plant
takes 5 to 7 years to reach maturity and begin flowering. After
bushfire, Banksia grossa regenerates from its woody lignotuber;
bushfires also stimulate the release of seeds, which germinate after
disturbance. Visitors to (and likely pollinators of) inflorescences
include insects and a nocturnal mammal, the white-tailed dunnart.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksia_grossa>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
65:
The freedman Milichus betrayed Gaius Calpurnius Piso's plot to
kill the Emperor Nero and all the conspirators were arrested.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pisonian_conspiracy>
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>
1960:
Students in South Korea held a nationwide pro-democracy protest
against President Syngman Rhee, eventually forcing him to resign.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Revolution>
1984:
Scottish-born composer Peter Dodds McCormick's "Advance
Australia Fair", a patriotic song that was first performed in 1878,
officially replaced "God Save the Queen" as Australia's national anthem.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_Australia_Fair>
1993:
The 51-day siege of the Mount Carmel Center, the home of the
Branch Davidian religious sect outside Waco, Texas, ended when a fire
broke out, killing over 70 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege>
_____________________________
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:
 There is a beauty in discovery. There is mathematics in
music, a kinship of science and poetry in the description of nature, and
exquisite form in a molecule. Attempts to place different disciplines in
different camps are revealed as artificial in the face of the unity of
knowledge. All literate men are sustained by the philosopher, the
historian, the political analyst, the economist, the scientist, the
poet, the artisan and the musician.
--Glenn T. Seaborg
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Glenn_T._Seaborg>
Beorhtwulf (died 852) was King of the Mercians from 839 or 840 to 852.
His ancestry is unknown, though he may have been connected to Beornwulf,
who ruled Mercia in the 820s. Beorhtwulf restarted a Mercian coinage
early in his reign, initially with strong similarities to the coins of
Æthelwulf of Wessex, and later with independent designs. The Vikings
attacked soon after Beorhtwulf's accession: the province of Lindsey was
raided in 841, and London, a key centre of Mercian commerce, was
attacked the following year. Another Viking assault on London in 851
"put Beorhtwulf to flight", according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; the
Vikings were subsequently defeated by Æthelwulf. Berkshire appears to
have passed from Mercian to West Saxon control during Beorhtwulf's
reign. The Welsh are recorded to have rebelled against Beorhtwulf's
successor, Burgred, shortly after Beorhtwulf's death, suggesting that
Beorhtwulf had been their overlord. Charters from his reign show a
strained relationship with the church, as he seized land and
subsequently returned it. Beorhtwulf and his wife, Sæthryth, may have
had two sons, Beorhtfrith and Beorhtric. Beorhtwulf's death is not
recorded.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beorhtwulf_of_Mercia>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
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>
1847:
Mexican–American War: Winfield Scott's United States troops
out-flanked and drove Santa Anna's larger Mexican army from a strong
defensive position in the Battle of Cerro Gordo.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cerro_Gordo>
1906:
A major earthquake and resulting fires devastated San Francisco
(damage pictured), killing at least 3,000 people and leaving more than
half of the city's population homeless.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1906_San_Francisco_earthquake>
1958:
Controversial American poet Ezra Pound was released from St.
Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C., where he had been incarcerated
for twelve years.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra_Pound>
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:
No deeply-rooted tendency was ever extirpated by adverse
argument. Not having originally been founded on argument, it cannot be
destroyed by logic.
--George Henry Lewes
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Henry_Lewes>
"Spinning Around" is the lead single from Light Years (2000), Kylie
Minogue's seventh studio album. The disco-influenced dance-pop song
addresses the theme of reinvention, with Minogue (pictured performing
the song) claiming that she has changed as a person and learned from the
past. Released in June 2000, it received favourable reviews from music
critics, who regarded it as one of the album's highlights and praised
Minogue for returning to her signature musical style. The song was a
commercial success and became Minogue's "comeback" single following the
critical and commercial disappointment of her sixth studio album
Impossible Princess (1997). It entered the Australian Singles Chart at
number one, becoming the singer's first chart-topper since "Confide in
Me" (1994). The song also debuted at number one in the United Kingdom,
and was her first UK number-one single since 1990. The accompanying
music video features Minogue dancing and enjoying herself in a disco. It
became popular for the gold hotpants she sported in most of the scenes
and led to a media "fetish" regarding her bottom. "Spinning Around" has
been performed by Minogue during most of her concert tours.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinning_Around>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1907:
Brazil became the third country in the world to start
construction on a dreadnought battleship (pictured), sparking a vastly
expensive South American naval arms race.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_American_dreadnought_race>
1942:
World War II: Captured French General Henri Giraud escaped from
German captivity in the Königstein Castle.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Giraud>
1969:
Sirhan Sirhan was convicted of the assassination of United
States Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirhan_Sirhan>
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>
1984:
British police officer Yvonne Fletcher was shot and killed
while on duty during a protest outside the Libyan embassy in London's St
James's Square, resulting in an eleven-day police siege of the building
and a breakdown of diplomatic relations between the two nations.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Yvonne_Fletcher>
_____________________________
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:
We designate by the term "State" institutions that embody
absolutism in its extreme form and institutions that temper it with more
or less liberality. We apply the word alike to institutions that do
nothing but aggress and to institutions that, besides aggressing, to
some extent protect and defend. But which is the State's essential
function, aggression or defence, few seem to know or care.
--Benjamin Tucker
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Tucker>
Horrible Histories is a children's sketch-comedy adaptation of Terry
Deary's long-running book series, produced by Lion Television with
Citrus Television, that ran for five 13-episode series on Britain's CBBC
from 2009 to 2013. Like the books, it was intended to foster children's
interest in British and other Western world history through factual
anecdotes retold with a focus on "gross-out"-style humour and comic
violence – "history with the nasty bits left in". The producers of
the TV series recruited writers and performers with roots in the adult
British comedy community. These in turn took a deliberately non-
condescending approach, relying instead on such influences as Blackadder
and the Monty Python films. A focus on historical accuracy was combined
with a comedy style relying heavily on parodies of current UK pop-
culture to make those facts more accessible, leading to takeoffs of
Masterchef, The Apprentice and Wife Swap among others. The result won
numerous domestic and international awards, including two British Comedy
Awards and four consecutive Children's BAFTAs (cast at 2011 ceremony
pictured), and eventually garnered respect as a classic from viewers of
all ages.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horrible_Histories_(2009_TV_series)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1847:
New Zealand Wars: A minor Māori chief was accidentally shot by
a junior British Army officer in the Petre settlement of New Zealand's
North Island, triggering the Wanganui Campaign.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanganui_Campaign>
1862:
Slavery in Washington, D.C., ended when the District of
Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act became law.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_Compensated_Emancipation…>
1917:
Vladimir Lenin returned to Petrograd from Switzerland, and
joined the Bolshevik movement in Russia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin>
1941:
World War II: After the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia ten days
earlier, Ante Pavelić declared a new government in Croatia to be led by
the fascist Ustaše.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usta%C5%A1e>
1963:
Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail
in response to an open letter written by white clergymen four days
earlier.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail>
_____________________________
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:
An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even
how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do
know and what you don't.
--Anatole France
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anatole_France>
Bharattherium is a mammal that lived in India during the Maastrichtian
(latest Cretaceous). The genus has a single species, Bharattherium
bonapartei. It is part of the gondwanathere family Sudamericidae, which
is also found in Madagascar and South America during the latest
Cretaceous. The first fossil of Bharattherium was discovered in 1989 and
published in 1997, but the animal was not named until 2007, when two
teams independently gave it different names. The specific name
bonapartei honors Argentinean paleontologist José Bonaparte, who was
the first to describe a gondwanathere fossil. Bharattherium is known
from a total of eight isolated fossil teeth, including one incisor and
seven molariforms (molar-like teeth). Bharattherium molariforms are
high, curved teeth, with a height of 5.97 to 8.40 mm. The tooth enamel
has traits that have been interpreted as protecting against cracks in
the teeth. The hypsodont (high-crowned) teeth of sudamericids like
Bharattherium is reminiscent of later grazing mammals, and the discovery
of grass in Indian fossil sites contemporaneous with those yielding
Bharattherium suggest that sudamericids were indeed grazers.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharattherium>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
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>
1802:
English poet William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy
encountered a "long belt" of daffodils, inspiring him to pen his most
famous work, "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Wandered_Lonely_as_a_Cloud>
1958:
On Walter O'Malley's initiative, the Los Angeles Dodgers and
San Francisco Giants played in the first Major League Baseball game on
the US West Coast.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_O%27Malley>
1989:
A human crush during an FA Cup semi-final match between
Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield,
England (memorial pictured), caused 96 deaths, the most of any stadium-
related disaster in British history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsborough_disaster>
1995:
At a GATT ministerial meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco,
representatives of 124 countries and the European Communities signed an
agreement to establish the World Trade Organization.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Organization>
_____________________________
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:
 A thought has no size in the physical sense but is vast as
compared to the physical acts and objects into which it is later
precipitated. The power of a thought is enormous and superior to all the
successive physical acts, objects, and events that body forth its
energy. A thought often endures for a time much greater than the whole
life of the man who thought it.
--Harold W. Percival
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harold_W._Percival>
Franklin Peale (1795–1870) was an employee and officer of the
Philadelphia Mint from 1833 to 1854. He was the son of painter Charles
Willson Peale, and was born in the museum of curiosities that his father
ran in Philadelphia. For the most part, Franklin Peale's education was
informal, though he took some classes at the University of Pennsylvania.
He became adept in machine making. In 1820, he became an assistant to
his father at the museum, and managed it after Charles Peale's death in
1827. In 1833, Peale was hired by the Mint of the United States
("Mint"), and was sent for two years to Europe to study and report back
on coining techniques. He returned with plans for improvement, and
designed the first steam-powered coinage press in the United States,
installed in 1836. Peale was made Melter and Refiner of the Philadelphia
Mint that year, and Chief Coiner three years later upon the retirement
of the incumbent, Adam Eckfeldt, who continued in his work without pay.
Eckfeldt's labor allowed Peale to run a medal business using Mint
property. This sideline eventually caused Peale's downfall: conflicts
with Engraver James B. Longacre and Melter and Refiner Richard Sears
McCulloh led to Peale being accused of misconduct, and he was dismissed
by President Franklin Pierce in 1854. In retirement, Peale continued his
involvement in and leadership of many civic organizations; he died in
1870.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Peale>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
966:
After his marriage to the Christian Dobrawa of Bohemia, the
pagan ruler of the Polans, Mieszko I, converted to Christianity, an
event considered to be the founding of the Polish state.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Poland_during_the_Piast_dynasty>
1471:
Wars of the Roses: The Yorkists under Edward IV defeated the
Lancastrians near the town of Barnet, killing Richard Neville, Earl of
Warwick.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Barnet>
1944:
The freighter SS Fort Stikine carrying a mixed cargo of cotton
bales, gold, and ammunition exploded in the harbour in Bombay, India,
sinking surrounding ships and killing about 800 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombay_Explosion_(1944)>
1967:
After leading a military coup three months earlier, Gnassingbé
Eyadéma installed himself as President of Togo, a post which he held
until 2005.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnassingb%C3%A9_Eyad%C3%A9ma>
1994:
In a friendly fire incident during Operation Provide Comfort in
northern Iraq, two US Air Force aircraft mistakenly shot down two US
Army helicopters, killing 26 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Black_Hawk_shootdown_incident>
_____________________________
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:
Everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that
it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a
dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious
useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in
its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a
tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith.
--James Branch Cabell
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Branch_Cabell>
Pavle Đurišić (1909–1945) was a Montenegrin Serb officer of the
Royal Yugoslav Army who became a Chetnik commander during World War II.
He was one of the commanders of the popular uprising against the
Italians in Montenegro in July 1941, then collaborated with the Italians
against the Yugoslav Partisans. In 1943, troops under his command
carried out several massacres against the Muslim population of Bosnia,
Herzegovina and the Sandžak and participated in an anti-Partisan
offensive alongside Italian troops. He was captured by the Germans in
May 1943, escaped and was recaptured. He was released after the Italian
surrender and began collaborating with the Germans and the Serbian
puppet government, creating the Montenegrin Volunteer Corps with German
assistance. In late 1944, he was decorated with the Iron Cross 2nd Class
by the German commander in Montenegro. He was killed by elements of the
Armed Forces of the Independent State of Croatia near Banja Luka after
he was captured in an apparent trap. Đurišić was a very able Yugoslav
Chetnik leader, and his fighting skills were respected by his allies and
opponents alike.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavle_%C4%90uri%C5%A1i%C4%87>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1111:
Henry V, the last ruler of the Salian dynasty, was crowned Holy
Roman Emperor.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_V,_Holy_Roman_Emperor>
1813:
A "miserable" new parish church for Reculver was consecrated,
replacing a 1,144-year-old church which had been mostly demolished in
1809, despite being an exemplar of Anglo-Saxon church architecture and
sculpture.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reculver>
1945:
World War II: Soviet and Bulgarian forces captured Vienna in
German-occupied Austria.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Offensive>
1958:
In the midst of the Cold War, American pianist Van Cliburn won
the inaugural International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Cliburn>
1984:
Indian forces launched Operation Meghdoot, a preemptive attack
on the disputed Siachen Glacier region of Kashmir, triggering a military
conflict with Pakistan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siachen_conflict>
_____________________________
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:
Over the mountains, And over the waves, Over the fountains, And
under the graves; Over the floods that are deepest, Which do Neptune
obey; Over the rocks that are steepest, Love will find out the way.
--Thomas Percy
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Percy>
Triangulum and Triangulum Australe are two small constellations, both
named for the triangular pattern of their three brightest stars. The
constellations are in the northern and the far southern celestial
hemispheres respectively. Triangulum was known to the ancient
Babylonians and Greeks, and was one of the 48 constellations listed by
the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy. It contains several galaxies, the
brightest and nearest of which is the Triangulum Galaxy (pictured)—a
member of the Local Group. It also contains 3C 48, the first quasar
ever observed. At magnitude 3.00, the white giant star Beta Trianguli is
the brightest star in Triangulum. Three stars in the constellation have
been found to have planets. Triangulum Australe was first depicted as
Triangulus Antarcticus by Petrus Plancius in 1589 and was given its
current name by Johann Bayer in 1603. Its brightest star is Alpha
Trianguli Australis, the 42nd-brightest star in the night sky. At
magnitude 1.91, it is an orange giant that is 5500 times more luminous
than, and 130 times as wide as, our Sun. One star system in Triangulum
Australe has a confirmed planet.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangulum_Australe>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
240:
Shapur I was crowned shahanshah ("king of kings") of the
Sasanian Empire, the last Iranian empire before the rise of Islam.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapur_I>
1776:
The fourth North Carolina Provincial Congress passed the
Halifax Resolves, the first official action in the American colonies
calling for independence from Britain during the American Revolution.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Resolves>
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>
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>
1994:
Husband-and-wife law partners Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel
posted the first massive commercial Usenet spam.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_Canter_and_Martha_Siegel>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
ungulate:
Having hooves.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ungulate>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I have very strongly this feeling... that our everyday life is at
one and the same time banal, overfamiliar, platitudinous and yet
mysterious and extraordinary.
--Bryan Magee
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bryan_Magee>
Frank Berryman (1894–1981) was an Australian Army general during the
Second World War. After serving during the First World War on the
Western Front with the field artillery, he spent nearly twenty years as
a major. He joined the Second Australian Imperial Force in April 1940
and became chief of staff of the 6th Division, later becoming Commander,
Royal Artillery, 7th Division. He commanded "Berry Force" in the
Syria–Lebanon campaign before returning to Australia in 1942, where he
became chief of staff of the First Army and then Deputy Chief of the
General Staff. As chief of staff of New Guinea Force, he was involved
with the planning and execution of the Salamaua–Lae campaign and the
Huon Peninsula campaign, and in November 1943, he became commander of II
Corps, which he led in the Battle of Sio. He was the Australian Army
representative at the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay. After the war, he
directed the Army's response to the 1949 Australian coal strike, became
the Director General of the 1954 Royal Tour of Elizabeth II, and was
Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Agricultural Society of New South
Wales.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Berryman>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1814:
The Treaty of Fontainebleau was signed, ending the War of the
Sixth Coalition, and forcing Napoleon to abdicate as ruler of France and
sending him into exile on Elba.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Fontainebleau_(1814)>
1888:
The Concertgebouw concert hall in Amsterdam was inaugurated.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concertgebouw>
1955:
Air India's Kashmir Princess was destroyed in mid-air by a bomb
in an assassination attempt on Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, who had not
been on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmir_Princess>
1968:
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of
1968, prohibiting racial discrimination in the sale, rental, and
financing of housing.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1968>
2011:
A bomb exploded at the central Oktyabrskaya station of the
Minsk Metro in Belarus, killing 15 people and injuring over 200 more.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Minsk_Metro_bombing>
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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:
Many people need desperately to receive this message: "I feel and
think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about,
although most people don't care about them. You are not alone."
--Timequake
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Timequake>