Maya Angelou's books of poetry are widely admired best-sellers, though
not as critically acclaimed as her seven autobiographies. Angelou
(1928–2014), a prominent African-American writer, used everyday
language, the Black vernacular, Black music and forms, and sometimes
shocking language to explore themes of love, loss, and struggle against
oppression and hardship. Her poetry is not easily categorized, and has
been compared with musical forms including the blues. She studied and
began writing poetry at a young age, in part to cope with trauma, as she
described in her first and best-known autobiography, I Know Why the
Caged Bird Sings. She became a poet after touring Europe in the cast of
Porgy and Bess and performing calypso music in nightclubs in the 1950s.
Her first volume of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I
Diiie (1971), was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. In 1993, she recited
one of her best-known poems, "On the Pulse of Morning", at President
Bill Clinton's inauguration (pictured). Her poetry has not received as
much critical attention as her prose; this has been attributed to her
popular success and to critics' preferences for poetry as a written form
rather than a verbal, performed one.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry_of_Maya_Angelou>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
202 BC:
Rebel leader Liu Bang was enthroned as Emperor Gaozu of Han
after overthrowing the Qin dynasty, the first imperial dynasty of China.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_dynasty>
1897:
Ranavalona III, the last sovereign ruler of the Kingdom of
Madagascar, was deposed by a French military force.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranavalona_III>
1928:
Indian physicist C. V. Raman and his colleagues discovered what
is now called the Raman effect, for which he later became the first
Asian to win the Nobel Prize in Physics.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._V._Raman>
1975:
In London an underground train failed to stop at Moorgate
terminus station and crashed into the end of the tunnel, killing 43
people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moorgate_tube_crash>
1985:
The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army launched a
mortar attack on a Royal Ulster Constabulary station in Corry Square,
Newry, Northern Ireland, killing nine.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_Newry_mortar_attack>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
compere:
(chiefly UK) A master of ceremonies in a television, variety or quiz
show. Also used more generally for any master of ceremonies.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/compere>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The miracle is this The more we share... The more We have
--Leonard Nimoy
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leonard_Nimoy>
Kenneth Horne (1907–1969) was an English comedian and businessman. His
burgeoning career with the Triplex Safety Glass company was interrupted
by wartime service with the Royal Air Force. While serving in a barrage
balloon unit and broadcasting as a quizmaster on the BBC radio show Ack-
Ack, Beer-Beer, he met the entertainer Richard Murdoch, with whom he
wrote and starred in the comedy series Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh
(1944–51). After demobilisation Horne returned to his flourishing
business career, keeping his broadcasting as a sideline. He later became
the chairman and managing director of toy manufacturers Chad Valley. In
1958 Horne suffered a stroke and gave up his business dealings to focus
on his entertainment work. He was the anchor figure in Beyond Our Ken
(1958–64). When the programme came to an end, he recorded four series
of the comedy Round the Horne (1965–68). Before a planned fifth
series, Horne died of a heart attack. A 2002 BBC radio survey to find
listeners' favourite British comedian placed Horne third, behind Tony
Hancock and Spike Milligan.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Horne>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
380:
Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire as a
result of the Edict of Thessalonica.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edict_of_Thessalonica>
1776:
American Revolutionary War: A Patriot victory in the Battle of
Moore's Creek Bridge resulted in the capture or arrest of 850 Loyalists
over the following days.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Moore%27s_Creek_Bridge>
1900:
FC Bayern Munich, Germany's most successful football club, was
founded by eleven players led by Franz John.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Bayern_Munich>
1933:
The Reichstag building in Berlin, the assembly location of the
German Parliament, was set on fire (pictured), a pivotal event in the
establishment of the Nazi regime in Germany.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_fire>
2002:
A violent riot in Gujarat, India, where at least 1,000 people
(mostly Muslims) were killed, was triggered by a train fire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godhra_train_burning>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
house of cards:
1. A structure made by laying cards perpendicularly on top of each other.
2. A structure or argument built on a shaky foundation.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/house_of_cards>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the
universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts,
emerges ahead of his accomplishments. This you may say of man — when
theories change and crash, when schools, philosophies, when narrow dark
alleys of thought, national, religious, economic, grow and disintegrate,
man reaches, stumbles forward, painfully, mistakenly sometimes. Having
stepped forward, he may slip back, but only half a step, never the full
step back.
--The Grapes of Wrath
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Grapes_of_Wrath>
Operation Hardboiled was a Second World War military deception.
Undertaken by the Allies in 1942, it was the first attempt at deception
by the London Controlling Section (LCS) and was designed to convince the
Axis powers that the Allies would soon invade German-occupied Norway.
The LCS had recently been established to plan deception across all
theatres, but had struggled for support from the unenthusiastic military
establishment. The LCS had little guidance in strategic deception, an
activity pioneered by Dudley Clarke the previous year, and was unaware
of the extensive double agent system controlled by MI5. Although Clarke
preferred the fast and inexpensive approach of spreading false rumours
through agents and wireless traffic, Hardboiled was conducted as a
diversionary operation (training pictured). Resistance to the operation
by the chosen units interfered with preparations. Hitler ordered the
reinforcement of Scandinavia in March and April 1942, before Hardboiled
was shelved in May; it is unclear to what extent the operation
contributed to his decision.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Hardboiled>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1233:
Mongol–Jin War: The Mongols captured Kaifeng, the capital of
the Jin dynasty, after besieging it for months.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_siege_of_Kaifeng>
1815:
Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from Elba, an island off the coast
of Italy where he had been exiled after the signing of the Treaty of
Fontainebleau one year earlier.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon>
1935:
With the aid of a radio station in Daventry, England, and two
receiving antennas, Scottish engineer and inventor Robert Watson-Watt
first demonstrated the use of radar.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Watson-Watt>
1952:
Vincent Massey was sworn in as the first Canadian-born Governor
General of Canada.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Massey>
1995:
Barings Bank, the oldest merchant bank in London, collapsed
after its head derivatives trader in Singapore, Nick Leeson, lost £827
million while making unauthorized speculative trades on futures
contracts.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Leeson>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
beaver away:
(idiomatic) To work hard at a task.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/beaver_away>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Jesus wept; Voltaire smiled. Of that divine tear and that human
smile is composed the sweetness of the present civilization.
--Victor Hugo
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Victor_Hugo>
"The Unnatural" is the 19th episode of the sixth season of the American
science fiction television series The X-Files, which first aired on
April 25, 1999, on the Fox network. The series centers on FBI special
agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson),
who work on cases linked to the paranormal. This episode was written and
directed by Duchovny (pictured), and received positive reviews from
critics and a viewership of 16.88 million people on its debut. In the
episode, Arthur Dales (M. Emmet Walsh), the brother of a previously
recurring retired FBI agent, tells Mulder the story of a black baseball
player who played for the Roswell Grays in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947
under the pseudonym "Josh Exley" (Jesse L. Martin). Exley is actually an
alien who is later tracked down by the Alien Bounty Hunter (Brian
Thompson) and executed for betraying his people. The episode was
inspired by the 1947 Roswell Incident. Many of the outdoor baseball
scenes were filmed at Jay Littleton Ballfield, an all-wood stadium in
Ontario, California. The episode has been critically examined for its
use of literary motifs, its fairy tale-like structure, and its themes of
racism and alienation.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unnatural_(The_X-Files)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1570:
Pope Pius V issued the papal bull Regnans in Excelsis to
excommunicate Queen Elizabeth I and her followers in the Church of
England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regnans_in_Excelsis>
1836:
American inventor and industrialist Samuel Colt received a
patent for a "revolving gun", later known as a revolver.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolver>
1948:
Fearful of civil war and Soviet intervention in recent unrest,
Czechoslovakian president Edvard Beneš ceded control over the
government to the Communist Party.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Czechoslovak_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat>
1992:
Nagorno-Karabakh War: Armenian armed forces killed 613 ethnic
Azerbaijani civilians from the town of Khojali in the Nagorno-Karabakh
region of Azerbaijan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khojaly_Massacre>
2011:
The Fianna Fáil-led government suffered the worst defeat of a
sitting Irish government since the formation of the Irish state in 1921.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_general_election,_2011>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
king's ransom:
(idiomatic) A very large sum of money.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/king%27s_ransom>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
From the Hindu perspective, each soul is divine. All religions
are branches of one big tree. It doesn't matter what you call Him just
as long as you call. Just as cinematic images appear to be real but are
only combinations of light and shade, so is the universal variety a
delusion. The planetary spheres, with their countless forms of life, are
naught but figures in a cosmic motion picture. One's values are
profoundly changed when he is finally convinced that creation is only a
vast motion picture and that not in, but beyond, lies his own ultimate
reality.
--George Harrison
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Harrison>
Oryzomys is a genus of semiaquatic rodents in the tribe Oryzomyini
living in southern North America and far northern South America. It
includes eight species, two of which are widespread: the marsh rice rat
(O. palustris, pictured) of the U.S. and O. couesi of Mexico and
Central America. Two or three species have gone extinct over the last
two centuries and at least one other is endangered. Species of Oryzomys
are medium-sized rats with long, coarse fur. The upperparts are gray to
reddish and the underparts white to buff. The animals have broad feet
with reduced or absent ungual tufts of hair around the claws and, in
some species, with webbing between the toes. The habitat includes lakes,
marshes, and rivers. Oryzomys species swim well, are active during the
night, and eat both plant and animal food. They build woven nests of
vegetation; after a gestation period of 21 to 28 days, about four young
are born. Species of Oryzomys are infected by numerous parasites and
carry at least three hantaviruses, one of which (Bayou virus) also
infects humans. The name Oryzomys was established in 1857 by Spencer
Fullerton Baird for the marsh rice rat and was soon applied to many
other rats.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oryzomys>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1809:
After standing only 15 years, London's Drury Lane theatre, the
third building of that name, burned down.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_Royal,_Drury_Lane>
1826:
The Treaty of Yandabo was signed, ending the First Anglo-
Burmese War, the longest and most expensive war in the history of the
British Raj.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Yandabo>
1875:
The steamship SS Gothenburg hit a section of the Great Barrier
Reef at low tide and sank northwest of Holbourne Island, Queensland,
Australia, with over 100 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Gothenburg>
1920:
At a meeting of the German Workers' Party, Adolf Hitler
outlined its 25-point programme and the party changed its name to the
National Socialist German Workers' Party.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Party>
1946:
Colonel Juan Perón (pictured), founder of the political
movement that became known as Peronism, was elected to his first term as
President of Argentina.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Per%C3%B3n>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
technopeasant:
(informal) One who is disadvantaged or exploited within a modern
technological society, especially through inability to use computer
technology.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/technopeasant>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life,
karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made
all the difference in my life.
--Steve Jobs
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs>
Afonso (1845–1847) was the Prince Imperial and heir apparent to the
throne of the Empire of Brazil. Born in Rio de Janeiro, he was the
eldest child of Emperor Dom Pedro II and Dona Teresa Cristina of the
Two Sicilies, and thus a member of the Brazilian branch of the House of
Braganza. With the birth of his child, the insecure and shy 19-year-old
Emperor Pedro II became more mature and outgoing. Afonso's arrival also
fostered a closer and happier relationship between his parents, who had
not married for love. Afonso died from epilepsy at the age of two,
devastating the emperor. After the loss of his other son, doubts grew in
Pedro II's mind that the imperial system could be viable. He still had
an heir in his daughter Isabel, but he was unconvinced that a female
would prove to be a suitable successor. He became careless about the
effects of his policies on the monarchy, provided his daughter Isabel
with no training for her role as potential empress, and failed to
cultivate her acceptance within the country's political class.
Pedro II's lack of interest in protecting the imperial system
ultimately led to its downfall.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afonso,_Prince_Imperial_of_Brazil>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1739:
The identity of English highwayman Dick Turpin, who had been
living under an alias in York, was uncovered by his former
schoolteacher, who recognised his handwriting, leading to Turpin's
arrest.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Turpin>
1885:
Sino-French War: France gained an important victory in the
Battle of Đồng Đăng in the Tonkin region of what is now Vietnam.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_%C4%90%E1%BB%93ng_%C4%90%C4%83ng>
1909:
The Silver Dart was flown off the ice of Bras d'Or Lake on Cape
Breton Island, making it the first controlled powered flight in Canada
and the British Empire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AEA_Silver_Dart>
1945:
American photographer Joe Rosenthal took the Pulitzer Prize-
winning photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima during the Battle of Iwo
Jima, an image that was later reproduced as the U.S. Marine Corps War
Memorial.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_the_Flag_on_Iwo_Jima>
2005:
The controversial French law on colonialism, requiring lycée
teachers to teach their students "the positive role" of French
colonialism, was passed, creating so much public uproar and opposition
that it was repealed less than one year later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_law_on_colonialism>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
salami tactics:
The piecemeal removal or scaling back of something (especially political
opposition); a gradual attack on an opposing position, group, etc.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/salami_tactics>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
At some time, here or hereafter, every account must be settled,
and every debt paid in full.
--John Heyl Vincent
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Heyl_Vincent>
Clarence 13X (1928–1969) was the American founder of the Five-Percent
Nation, a group that split from the Nation of Islam (NOI). After army
service during the Korean War, he served in the NOI as a security
officer, martial arts instructor, and student minister before founding
the new group in 1963. Believing that God could be found within every
black man, he took the name Allah. He and a few assistants retained some
NOI teachings but with novel interpretations, and rejected dress codes
or strict behavioral guidelines—he allowed the consumption of alcohol,
and at times, the use of illegal drugs. Clarence 13X was shot by an
unknown assailant in 1964 but survived the attack. After an incident
several months later in which he and several of his followers vandalized
stores and fought with police, he was arrested and placed in psychiatric
care; doctors said that he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia because
he referred to himself as Allah. He was released from custody after a
1966 ruling by the Supreme Court placed limits on confinement without
trial. Although he initially taught his followers to hate white people,
he eventually began to cooperate with white city leaders. He was fatally
shot in June 1969 by an unknown assailant. He has been held in high
regard by Five Percenters, who celebrate his birthday as a holiday.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_13X>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1316:
The forces of the infante Ferdinand of Majorca fought against
those loyal to Princess Matilda of Hainaut in the Battle of Picotin on
the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Picotin>
1876:
Swedish woman Karolina Olsson went to sleep and purportedly
fell into a state of hibernation for the next 32 years.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karolina_Olsson>
1909:
The sixteen United States Navy battleships of the Great White
Fleet, led by Connecticut (pictured), completed a circumnavigation of
the globe.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Connecticut_(BB-18)>
1995:
The photos taken by the Corona spy satellite program were
declassified under an executive order signed by U.S. President Bill
Clinton.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona_(satellite)>
2012:
A train failed to apply its brakes and crashed through a buffer
stop at Once Station in Buenos Aires, resulting in 51 deaths and more
than 700 injuries.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Buenos_Aires_rail_disaster>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
fugacious:
Fleeting, fading quickly, transient.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fugacious>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those
which are caused by difference of sentiments in religion appear to be
the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated.
--George Washington
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Washington>
Grus is a constellation in the southern sky. Its name is Latin for the
crane, a type of bird. It is one of twelve constellations conceived by
Petrus Plancius from the observations of Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and
Frederick de Houtman. Grus first appeared on a celestial globe published
in 1598 in Amsterdam by Plancius and Jodocus Hondius and was depicted in
Johann Bayer's star atlas Uranometria of 1603 (shown here). French
explorer and astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille gave Bayer
designations to its stars in 1756, some of which had previously been
considered part of the neighbouring constellation Piscis Austrinus. The
constellations Grus, Pavo, Phoenix and Tucana are collectively known as
the "Southern Birds". The constellation's brightest star, Alpha Gruis,
is also known as Alnair and appears as a 1.7-magnitude blue-white star.
Beta Gruis is a red giant variable star with a magnitude of 2.3 to 2.0.
Six star systems have been found to have planets: the red dwarf Gliese
832 is one of the closest stars to Earth that has a planetary system.
Another—WASP-95—has a planet that orbits every two days. Deep-sky
objects found in Grus include the planetary nebula IC 5148, also known
as the Spare Tyre Nebula, and a group of four interacting galaxies known
as the Grus Quartet.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grus_(constellation)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1437:
King James I of Scotland was murdered at Perth in a failed coup
by his uncle and former ally Walter Stewart, Earl of Atholl.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_I_of_Scotland>
1848:
Communist theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published
The Communist Manifesto, which became one of the world's most
influential political tracts.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Communist_Manifesto>
1921:
Rezā Khan seized Tehran to make himself the most powerful
person in Iran, which eventually led to the establishment of the Pahlavi
dynasty.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1921_Persian_coup_d%27etat>
1965:
Black nationalist Malcolm X was assassinated while giving a
speech in New York City's Audubon Ballroom.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X>
1971:
The Convention on Psychotropic Substances, a United Nations
treaty designed to control psychoactive drugs, was signed at a
conference of plenipotentiaries in Vienna.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_Psychotropic_Substances>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
jump the shark:
1. (idiomatic, of a television program or other narrative) To undergo a
storyline development which heralds a fundamental and generally
disappointing change in direction.
2. (more generally) To experience a decline in quality, appeal, popularity,
etc.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jump_the_shark>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
All writers have concealed more than they revealed. The artist
is the only one who knows that the world is a subjective creation, that
there is a choice to be made, a selection of elements. It is a
materialization, an incarnation of his inner world. Then he hopes to
attract others into it. He hopes to impose his particular vision and
share it with others. And when the second stage is not reached, the
brave artist continues nevertheless. The few moments of communion with
the world are worth the pain, for it is a world for others, an
inheritance for others, a gift to others, in the end. When you make a
world tolerable for yourself, you make a world tolerable for others.
--Anaïs Nin
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ana%C3%AFs_Nin>
USS Constitution is a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the
U.S. Navy. Named by President George Washington, she is the world's
oldest commissioned naval vessel afloat. Constitution was launched in
Boston in 1797 as one of the original six large, heavily armed frigates
authorized by the Naval Act of 1794. Her first duties with the newly
formed navy were to provide protection for American merchant shipping
during the Quasi-War with France and to help defeat the Barbary pirates
in the First Barbary War. During the War of 1812 against Great Britain,
Constitution captured numerous merchant ships and defeated five British
warships; the battle with HMS Guerriere earned her the nickname of "Old
Ironsides". The frigate continued to serve as flagship in the
Mediterranean and African squadrons. During the American Civil War, she
served as a training ship for the U.S. Naval Academy. She carried
American artwork and industrial displays to the Paris Exposition of
1878. Constitution was retired from active service in 1881 and
designated a museum ship in 1907, and continues to receive visitors year
round at the former Charlestown Navy Yard. The ship sailed under her own
power in 1997 on the occasion of her 200th birthday, and again on 19
August 2012 to commemorate her victory over Guerriere.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Constitution>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1685:
French colonists, led by Robert de La Salle, landed at
Matagorda Bay in present-day Texas, which later allowed the United
States to claim the region as part of the Louisiana Purchase.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_colonization_of_Texas>
1816:
Italian composer Gioachino Rossini's opera buffa The Barber of
Seville was hissed by the audience during its debut at the Teatro
Argentina in Rome.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Barber_of_Seville>
1943:
A fissure opened in a cornfield in the Mexican state of
Michoacán and turned into the cinder cone volcano Parícutin, growing
424 m (1,391 ft) in eight years.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Par%C3%ADcutin>
1965:
NASA's Ranger 8 spacecraft successfully transmitted 7,137
photographs (sample pictured) of the Moon in the final 23 minutes of its
mission before crashing into Mare Tranquillitatis.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranger_8>
2010:
Severe flooding and mudslides on the island of Madeira,
Portugal, killed 42 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Madeira_floods_and_mudslides>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
take a flyer:
(idiomatic) To make a choice with an uncertain outcome; to take a
chance.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/take_a_flyer>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Come As you are As you were As I want you to be As a trend As a
friend As an old enemy Take your time Hurry up The choice is yours don't
be late…
--Kurt Cobain
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Cobain>
The Walden–Wallkill Rail Trail is a 3.22-mile (5.18 km) rail trail in
the United States between the village of Walden in the town of
Montgomery and the hamlet of Wallkill in the town of Shawangunk.
Montgomery is in Orange County and Shawangunk is in Ulster County in
upstate New York. The trail, like the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail to the
north, is part of the former Wallkill Valley Railroad's rail corridor.
The land was purchased by the towns of Montgomery and Shawangunk in 1985
and converted to a public trail. The portion in Shawangunk was formally
opened in 1993 and named after former town supervisor Jesse McHugh.
Plans to pave the trail between Walden and Wallkill had been discussed
since 2001 until it was finally paved in 2008 and 2009. The trail
includes an unofficial, unimproved section to the north of Wallkill, and
is bounded by the routes NY 52 and NY 208.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden%E2%80%93Wallkill_Rail_Trail>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1600:
The Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina exploded in the most
violent eruption in the recorded history of South America.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huaynaputina>
1807:
Former U.S. Vice-President Aaron Burr was arrested for treason
after having raised a private army to allegedly create an independent
nation in Spanish Texas.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Burr>
1910:
The football stadium Old Trafford in Greater Manchester,
England, hosted its first match between Manchester United and Liverpool.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Trafford>
1965:
Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo of the Army of the Republic of
Vietnam, and a communist spy of the North Vietnamese Viet Minh, along
with Generals Lâm Văn Phát and Trần Thiện Khiêm attempted a coup
against the military junta of Nguyễn Khánh.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1965_South_Vietnamese_coup>
1986:
The first module of the Soviet space station Mir was launched,
establishing the first long-term research station in space.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
tor:
(South-West England) A hill.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tor>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It don't take a genius to spot a goat in a flock of sheep.
--Anonymous
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anonymous>