The Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant is a theme restaurant at Disney's
Hollywood Studios, a theme park at Walt Disney World in Bay Lake,
Florida. The restaurant is modeled after a 1950s drive-in theater. Walt
Disney Imagineering designed the booths to resemble convertibles of the
period. While eating, guests watch a large projection screen displaying
film clips from such films as Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster, Plan
9 from Outer Space, and Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. In 1991, the Sci-Fi
Dine-In opened along with nineteen other new Walt Disney World
attractions marking the complex's twentieth anniversary. By the
following year, it had become the park's most popular restaurant. Thai
movie theater operator EGV Entertainment opened the EGV Drive-in Cafe in
Bangkok in 2003, explicitly emulating the Sci-Fi Dine-In. USA
Today 's list of the best restaurants in American amusement
parks ranks the Sci-Fi Dine-In fifteenth, but many reviewers rate it
more highly for its atmosphere than for its cuisine.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sci-Fi_Dine-In_Theater_Restaurant>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
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>
1854:
Florence Nightingale and a staff of 38 nurses were sent to
Turkey to help treat wounded British soldiers fighting in the Crimean
War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Nightingale>
1867:
The first of the Medicine Lodge Treaties was signed between the
United States and several Native American tribes in the Great Plains,
requiring them to relocate to areas in present-day western Oklahoma.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine_Lodge_Treaty>
1959:
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by American
architect Frank Lloyd Wright, opened in New York City.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_R._Guggenheim_Museum>
1981:
Andreas Papandreou began the first of his two terms as Prime
Minister of Greece, ending an almost 50-year-long system of power
dominated by conservative forces.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Papandreou>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
hoverboard:
(chiefly science fiction) A levitating board that can be ridden in the
manner of a surfboard or skateboard.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hoverboard>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Veracity does not consist in saying, but in the intention of
communicating truth.
--Samuel Taylor Coleridge
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_Taylor_Coleridge>
Luo Yixiu (1889–1910) was the first wife of the future Chinese
communist revolutionary and political leader Mao Zedong, to whom she was
married from 1908 until her death. She came from a family of
impoverished Han Chinese landowners near Shaoshan, Hunan, in south
central China. Most of what is known about their marriage comes from Mao
and appears in the 1936 book Red Star Over China by the reporter Edgar
Snow. The marriage was arranged by their fathers when Luo was eighteen
and Mao was just fourteen. He later said that he was unhappy with the
marriage, never consummating it and refusing to live with his wife. He
moved out of the village to continue his studies elsewhere, eventually
becoming a founding member of the Communist Party of China. Luo,
socially disgraced, lived with Mao's parents for two years until she
died of dysentery. Various biographers have suggested that this marriage
affected Mao's later views, leading him to become a critic of arranged
marriage and a vocal feminist. He would marry three more times, to Yang
Kaihui, He Zizhen and Jiang Qing.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luo_Yixiu>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1740:
Under 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>
1818:
The United Kingdom and the United States signed the Treaty of
1818, which settled the Canada–United States border on the 49th
parallel between the Pacific Ocean and Lake of the Woods.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_1818>
1944:
World War II: Fulfilling a promise he made two years previous,
General Douglas MacArthur landed on Leyte to begin the recapture of the
entire Philippine Archipelago.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leyte>
1961:
The Soviet Union performed the first armed test of a submarine-
launched ballistic missile, launching an R-13 from a Golf class
submarine.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine-launched_ballistic_missile>
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:
atrabilious:
1. (medicine, obsolete) Having an excess of black bile.
2. Characterized by melancholy.
3. Ill-natured; malevolent.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/atrabilious>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Those who have deprived themselves of this Resurrection by reason
of their mutual hatreds or by regarding themselves to be in the right
and others in the wrong, were chastised on the Day of Resurrection by
reason of such hatreds evinced during their night. Thus they deprived
themselves of beholding the countenance of God, and this for no other
reason than mutual denunciations.
--The Báb
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/B%C3%A1b>
Banksia verticillata or Albany banksia is a species of shrub of the
genus Banksia in the Proteaceae family. It is native to the southwest of
Western Australia and can reach up to 3 m (10 ft) in height, or even
5 m (16 ft) in sheltered areas; it is shorter in more exposed areas.
This species has elliptic green leaves and large, bright golden yellow
flower spikes that appear in summer and autumn. The New Holland
honeyeater (Phylidonyris novaehollandiae) is the most prominent
pollinator although several other species of honeyeater, as well as
bees, visit the flower spikes. Listed as a vulnerable species by the
Australian Government, it occurs in two disjunct populations on granite
outcrops along the south coast of Western Australia, with the main
population near Albany and a smaller population near Walpole. It is
threatened by root rot (specifically Phytophthora cinnamomi) and aerial
canker (Zythiostroma). B. verticillata is killed by bushfire, following
which new plants regenerate from seed. Populations take over a decade to
produce seed, and fire intervals of more than twenty years are needed to
allow the canopy seed bank to accumulate.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksia_verticillata>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
202 BC:
Publius Cornelius Scipio, a consul of the Roman Republic,
decisively defeated Hannibal and the Carthaginians at Zama, ending the
Second Punic War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Zama>
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>
1943:
Allied aircraft sank the cargo ship Sinfra, killing over 2,000
people, mostly Italian POWs.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Sinfra>
2005:
Hurricane Wilma became the most intense Atlantic hurricane on
record with a minimum atmospheric pressure of 882 mbar.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Wilma>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
cacoethes:
1. Compulsion; mania.
2. (medicine, obsolete) A bad quality or disposition in a disease; a
malignant tumour or ulcer.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cacoethes>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I could never divide myself from any man upon the difference of an
opinion, or be angry with his judgement for not agreeing with me in
that, from which perhaps within a few days I should dissent myself.
--Thomas Browne
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Browne>
Deathrow is a sports video game developed by Southend Interactive and
published by Ubisoft Entertainment. It was released as an Xbox gaming
system exclusive in November 2002 in Europe and North America. Built on
an in-house 3D game engine, it was Southend's first full release.
Supporting up to eight players, the game is based on the fictional
extreme sport Blitz, a futuristic full-contact hybrid of hockey and
basketball played with a flying disc. Teams can win on points or by
knocking opposing players unconscious. The single-player campaign is set
in the 23rd century, when Blitz is a popular televised sport and the
teams battle to scale the ranks and win the championship. The game's
largely favorable reviews praised its fast-paced action and surround
sound, but faulted its high difficulty curve, generic soundtrack, and
lack of an online multiplayer mode. The game won the TeamXbox 2002
Breakthrough Game of the Year and the IGN 2002 Best Game Nobody Played
awards. IGN later reported that a sequel would be unlikely due to the
original's low revenue. Southend dissolved in 2013.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deathrow_(video_game)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1081:
Byzantine–Norman wars: The Normans under Robert Guiscard,
Duke of Apulia and Calabria, defeated the Byzantines outside the city of
Dyrrhachium, the Byzantine capital of Illyria.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dyrrhachium_(1081)>
1356:
The most significant earthquake to have occurred in Central
Europe in recorded history destroyed Basel, Switzerland, and caused much
destruction in a vast region extending into France and Germany.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1356_Basel_earthquake>
1748:
The War of the Austrian Succession ended with the signing of
the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Aix-la-Chapelle_(1748)>
1945:
Argentine military officer and politician Juan Perón married
popular actress Eva Duarte, better known as Evita (pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Per%C3%B3n>
2007:
A suicide attack on a motorcade carrying former Prime Minister
of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto in Karachi caused at least 139 deaths and 450
injuries.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Karachi_bombing>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
haecceity:
(philosophy) The essence of a particular thing; those qualities that
define it and make it unique.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/haecceity>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Of all tools used in the shadow of the moon, men are most apt to
get out of order.
--Moby-Dick
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moby-Dick>
Roy Kilner (1890–1928) was an English professional cricketer who
played nine Test matches for England between 1924 and 1926. He played
for Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1911 and 1927, scoring 1,000
runs in a season ten times and taking 100 wickets in a season five
times. He first played for Yorkshire as a batsman before being wounded
in the First World War. Returning in 1919 to a team short of bowlers, he
developed into a proficient left-arm spinner. His aggressive batting and
warm personality made him a popular player with both cricketers and
spectators. First chosen for England in 1924, he was the second most
successful bowler on the Ashes tour of 1924–25. He was selected during
the 1926 Ashes series but dropped for the final Test. Kilner went on
several coaching trips to India during English winters, and on one of
these, in 1927–28, he contracted an illness; on his return to England,
he died aged 37. His funeral was attended by over 100,000 people.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Kilner>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1558:
Poczta Polska, the Polish postal service, was founded by order
of King Sigismund II Augustus.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postage_stamps_and_postal_history_of_Poland>
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>
1931:
American gangster Al Capone was convicted on five counts of
income tax evasion.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capone>
1940:
The body of Willi Münzenberg, a French communist who was the
leading propagandist for the Communist Party of Germany, was found near
Saint-Marcellin.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willi_M%C3%BCnzenberg>
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:
volute:
1. (architecture) The spiral curve on an Ionic capital.
2. (zoology) The spirls or whorls on a gastropod's shell.
3. (zoology) Any marine gastropod of the family Volutidae.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/volute>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
You cannot make children learn music or anything else without to
some degree converting them into will-less adults. You fashion them into
accepters of the status quo – a good thing for a society that needs
obedient sitters at dreary desks, standers in shops, mechanical catchers
of the 8:30 suburban train – a society, in short, that is carried on
the shabby shoulders of the scared little man – the scared-to-death
conformist.
--A. S. Neill
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A._S._Neill>
On 16 October 1834 a massive fire largely destroyed the Palace of
Westminster, the medieval royal palace used as the home of the British
parliament. The conflagration was caused by the burning of small wooden
tally sticks that had been used as part of the accounting procedures of
the Exchequer until 1826, which were being disposed of carelessly in the
two furnaces under the House of Lords. The blaze caused a chimney fire,
initially under the floor of the Lords' chamber, then up through the
walls before spreading rapidly throughout the complex. The fire lasted
for most of the night and developed into the biggest conflagration to
occur in London between the Great Fire of 1666 and the Blitz of the
Second World War; massive crowds were attracted to the spectacle. By the
following morning a large part of the palace had been destroyed,
although the actions of the London Fire Engine Establishment ensured
that Westminster Hall and a few other parts of the old Houses of
Parliament survived. In 1836 a design competition for a new palace was
won by Charles Barry who, in collaboration with Augustus Pugin,
incorporated the surviving buildings into the new complex.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Parliament>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1590:
Italian composer Carlo Gesualdo caught his wife having an
extramarital affair with Duke Fabrizio Carafa of Andria and killed them
both on the spot.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Gesualdo>
1793:
War of the First Coalition: Despite leading French forces to
victory in the Battle of Wattignies, Jean-Baptiste Jourdan was later
forcibly discharged from the army due to interference from Lazare
Carnot.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Wattignies>
1945:
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations was
founded in Quebec City, Canada, to lead international efforts to defeat
hunger.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_and_Agriculture_Organization_of_the_Unit…>
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>
1995:
Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam convened the Million Man
March in Washington, D.C., in an effort to unite in self-help and self-
defense against economic and social ills plaguing the African American
community.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Man_March>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
aureate:
1. Golden in color or shine.
2. Of language: characterized by the use of (excessively) ornamental or
grandiose terms, often of Latin or French origin.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aureate>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of
nothing.
--The Picture of Dorian Gray
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray>
"Lisa the Vegetarian" is the fifth episode of the seventh season of the
animated series The Simpsons, originally aired on the Fox network in the
United States on October 15, 1995. In the episode, Lisa Simpson stops
eating meat after a trip to a petting zoo. Initially ridiculed by her
family and friends for her decision, she commits to vegetarianism after
advice from Apu and from Paul and Linda McCartney. The McCartneys guest-
starred as themselves, appearing on condition that Lisa would remain a
vegetarian for the rest of the series. The episode contains references
to Paul's musical career, and his song "Maybe I'm Amazed" plays over the
closing credits. Directed by Mark Kirkland, "Lisa the Vegetarian" is the
first full episode of The Simpsons written by David X. Cohen. It was
watched by 14.6 million viewers and received positive reviews from
television critics. For its themes on animal issues, it won an
Environmental Media Award and a Genesis Award.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_the_Vegetarian>
_______________________________
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>
1945:
Pierre Laval, twice head of government of Vichy France, was
executed for high treason.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Laval>
1965:
Vietnam War protests: The Catholic Worker Movement staged an
anti-war rally in Manhattan, including the burning of draft cards, the
first such act to result in arrest under a new amendment to the
Selective Service Act.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft-card_burning>
2005:
A march by members of the National Socialist Movement, a neo-
Nazi group, in Toledo, Ohio, US, sparked a riot among protestors.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Toledo_riot>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
belly-timber:
(archaic, now only humorous or regional) Food, provender.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/belly-timber>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I wonder why some people tend to see science as something which
takes man away from God. As I look at it, the path of science can always
wind through the heart. For me, science has always been the path to
spiritual enrichment and self-realisation.
--A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A._P._J._Abdul_Kalam>
Mary Margaret O'Reilly (1865–1949) was the Assistant Director of the
United States Bureau of the Mint. One of the highest-ranking female
civil servants of her time, the "sweetheart of the Treasury" often
served as the Mint's acting director in the absence of the director from
1916 until 1924, when she was formally made assistant director. O'Reilly
lived her early life in Massachusetts. She left school around age 14 to
help support her widowed mother and her siblings, and worked in
Worcester for twenty years as a clerk. In 1904, O'Reilly succeeded in
gaining a position at the Mint Bureau. Her rapid rise in the hierarchy
was unusual for a woman at that time, and with many of the directors
under whom she served having little knowledge of or interest in the
bureau's operations, the task of running the Mint often fell to her.
Beginning in 1933, O'Reilly served under her first female director,
Nellie Tayloe Ross, and soon forged a strong bond with her. O'Reilly was
so indispensable to the bureau's operations that President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt postponed her retirement, scheduled for 1935, to 1938.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Margaret_O%27Reilly>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1805:
War of the Third Coalition: French forces under Marshal Michel
Ney defeated Austrian forces in Elchingen, present-day Germany.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Elchingen>
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>
1912:
Former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt was shot in an
assassination attempt, but delivered a speech before receiving treatment
from preeminent surgeon John Benjamin Murphy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Benjamin_Murphy>
1940:
Second World War: During the Blitz, a 1,400 kg (3,100 lb)
semi-armour piercing fragmentation bomb fell on the road above Balham
station, which was being used as an air-raid shelter, killing at least
64 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balham_station>
1981:
Hosni Mubarak was elected President of Egypt, one week after
Anwar Sadat was assassinated.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosni_Mubarak>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
dude-bro:
(slang) A hypermasculine man, especially one who is misogynist and/or
homophobic.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dude-bro>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life
differently, but life itself would come to be different. Life would
undergo a change of appearance because we ourselves had undergone a
change of attitude.
--Katherine Mansfield
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Katherine_Mansfield>
The Hastings Line is a secondary railway line in Kent and East Sussex,
England, linking Hastings with the main town of Tunbridge Wells, and
from there into London via Tonbridge and Sevenoaks. Although the line
primarily carries passengers, a gypsum mine served by the railway is a
source of freight traffic. Passenger trains on the line are operated by
Southeastern. The railway was built by the South Eastern Railway in the
early 1850s across the difficult terrain of the High Weald. Supervision
was lax, and contractors skimped on the lining of the tunnels, causing
deficiencies that showed up after the railway had opened. Rectifications
included a restricted loading gauge along the line, requiring the use of
specially made rolling stock. Served by steam locomotives from the time
of opening until the late 1950s, passenger services were then taken over
by a fleet of diesel-electric multiple units built to the line’s
loading gauge. Freight was handled by diesel locomotives, also built to
fit the loading gauge. The diesel-electric units were in service until
1986, when the line was electrified and the most severely affected
tunnels were singled.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastings_Line>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
54:
Claudius, the first Roman emperor to be born outside Italy, died
mysteriously, most likely by poison administered by his wife Agrippina.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudius>
1307:
Agents of King Philip IV of France launched a dawn raid,
simultaneously arresting many members of the Knights Templar, and
subsequently torturing them into "admitting" heresy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar>
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>
1911:
Prince Arthur, a son of Queen Victoria, became the first
Governor General of Canada of royal descent as well as the first Prince
of Great Britain and Ireland to hold that position.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Arthur,_Duke_of_Connaught_and_Strathea…>
1958:
The first book featuring the English children's literature
character Paddington Bear (statue pictured), created by Michael Bond and
Peggy Fortnum, was published.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddington_Bear>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
cenote:
A deep natural well or sinkhole, especially in Central America, formed
by the collapse of surface limestone that exposes ground water
underneath, and sometimes used by the ancient Mayans for sacrificial
offerings.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cenote>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The nature and intention of government … are social. Based on
the idea of natural rights, government secures those rights to the
individual by strictly negative intervention, making justice costless
and easy of access; and beyond that it does not go. The State, on the
other hand, both in its genesis and by its primary intention, is purely
anti-social. It is not based on the idea of natural rights, but on the
idea that the individual has no rights except those that the State may
provisionally grant him. It has always made justice costly and difficult
of access, and has invariably held itself above justice and common
morality whenever it could advantage itself by so doing.
--Albert Jay Nock
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Jay_Nock>
Charles Domery (c. 1778 – after 1800) was a Polish soldier who had
an unusually large appetite. Serving in the Prussian Army during the War
of the First Coalition, he deserted to the French Revolutionary Army in
return for better rations. He was voraciously hungry; while stationed
near Paris, he was recorded as having eaten 174 cats in a year, and
would eat 4 to 5 pounds (1.8 to 2.3 kg) of grass each day if he could
not find other food. During service on the French frigate Hoche, he
attempted to eat the severed leg of a crew member hit by cannon fire,
before it was wrestled from him. In 1799 Hoche was captured by British
forces, and Domery and the crew were interned in Liverpool. Despite
receiving ten times the rations of other inmates, he remained ravenous,
eating the prison cat, at least 20 rats, and many prison candles.
Domery's case was brought to the attention of the Sick and Hurt
Commissioners, who tested his eating capacity by feeding him four
bottles of porter and a total of 16 pounds (7.3 kg) of raw cow's udder,
raw beef and tallow candles, all of which he ate and drank in a single
day without defecating, urinating, or vomiting.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Domery>
_______________________________
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 to cede Samogitia to the Knights.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Salynas>
1847:
Werner von Siemens, a German inventor, founded Siemens &
Halske, which later became Siemens AG, the largest engineering company
in Europe.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens_AG>
1915:
A German firing squad executed British nurse Edith Cavell for
helping Allied soldiers to escape occupied Belgium.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Cavell>
1960:
Japan Socialist Party leader Inejiro Asanuma was assassinated
on live television by a man using a samurai sword.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inejiro_Asanuma>
2000:
Two suicide bombers attacked the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole
while it was at anchor in Aden, Yemen, killing 17 of its crew members
and injuring 39 others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Cole_bombing>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
umami:
1. One of the five basic tastes, the savory taste of foods such as seaweed,
cured fish, aged cheeses and meats.
2. The taste of flavor enhancers added to food to accentuate savoriness,
notably monosodium glutamate.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/umami>
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