Airborne Interception radar, Mark IV, was the first successful air-to-
air radar system, used in Britain's Bristol Beaufighter heavy fighters
by early 1941 in the Second World War. Early development of the Mk. IV
was prompted by a 1936 memo from the inventor Henry Tizard to Robert
Watt, director of the radar research efforts, who agreed to allow
physicist Taffy Bowen to form a team to study the problem of air
interception. The team had a test bed system in flights later that year,
but progress was delayed for four years by emergency relocations, three
abandoned production designs, and Bowen's increasingly adversarial
relationship with Watt's replacement, Albert Percival Rowe. The Mk. IV
had many limitations, including displays that were difficult to
interpret, a maximum range that decreased with the aircraft's altitude,
and a minimum range that was barely close enough to allow the pilot to
see the target. Nevertheless, the Mk. IV played a role in the Royal Air
Force's increasingly effective response to The Blitz, the
Luftwaffe 's night bombing campaign. The Mk. VIII largely
relegated the Mk. IV to second-line duties by 1943.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_Mk._IV_radar>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1201:
John Komnenos the Fat briefly seized the throne of the
Byzantine Empire from Alexios III Angelos, but he was soon caught and
executed.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Komnenos_the_Fat>
1703:
English writer Daniel Defoe was placed in a pillory for
seditious libel after publishing a pamphlet politically satirising the
High Church Tories.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Defoe>
1777:
The Second Continental Congress passed a resolution allowing
French nobleman Marquis de Lafayette to enter the American revolutionary
forces as a Major General.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_du_Motier,_Marquis_de_Lafayette>
1975:
The Troubles: In a botched paramilitary attack, three members
of the popular Miami Showband and two Ulster Volunteer Force gunmen were
killed in County Down, Northern Ireland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Showband_killings>
1991:
The Soviet Union and the United States signed the bilateral
START I treaty (signing pictured), the largest and most complex arms
control treaty in history, which eventually removed 80% of all strategic
nuclear weapons then in existence.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/START_I>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
coppice:
A grove of small growth; a thicket of brushwood; a wood cut at certain
times for fuel or other purposes, typically managed to promote growth
and ensure a reliable supply of timber.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/coppice>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all the
power we need inside ourselves already. We have the power to imagine
better.
--J. K. Rowling
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._K._Rowling>
Cley Marshes is a nature reserve on the North Sea coast of England just
outside the village of Cley next the Sea, Norfolk. A reserve since 1926,
it is the oldest of the reserves belonging to the Norfolk Wildlife
Trust. Cley Marshes protects an area of reed beds, freshwater marsh,
pools and wet meadows, and has been designated as a Site of Special
Scientific Interest due to the large flocks of birds it attracts. The
reserve is important for some scarce breeding species, such as pied
avocets on the islands, and western marsh harriers, Eurasian bitterns
and bearded reedlings in the reeds, and is a major migration stopoff and
wintering site. There are also several nationally or locally scarce
invertebrates and plants specialised for this coastal habitat. The
reserve has an environmentally friendly visitor centre and five bird
hides, and attracts large numbers of visitors, contributing
significantly to the economy of Cley village. Despite centuries of
embanking to reclaim land and protect the village, the marshes have been
flooded many times; the southward march of the coastal shingle bank and
encroachment by the sea make it inevitable that the reserve will
eventually be lost.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cley_Marshes>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1656:
Led by King Charles X Gustav, the armies of Sweden and
Brandenburg defeated the forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
near Warsaw.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Warsaw_(1656)>
1865:
Off the coast of Crescent City, California, US, the steamship
Brother Jonathan, carrying a large shipment of gold coins that would not
be retrieved until 1996, struck an uncharted rock and sank, killing 225
people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother_Jonathan_(steamer)>
1912:
Japan's Emperor Meiji died and was succeeded by his son
Yoshihito, who is now known as the Emperor Taishō.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Taish%C5%8D>
1975:
American labor union leader Jimmy Hoffa mysteriously
disappeared after last being seen outside a restaurant near Detroit.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Hoffa>
2006:
Lebanon War: The Israeli Air Force attacked a three-story
building near the South Lebanese village of Qana, killing at least 28
civilians, including 16 children.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qana_airstrike>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
chiropterologist:
Someone who studies bats (the flying mammal).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chiropterologist>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
You were playing in the snow You were banging on the doors You
climbed up on the roof Roof of the world … We found your footprints in
the snow We brushed them all away… You're the wild man.
--Kate Bush
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kate_Bush>
Eusèbe Jaojoby (born 29 July 1955) is a composer and singer of salegy,
a musical style of northwestern Madagascar. As one of the originators of
salegy and its variants malessa and baoenjy, he is credited with
transforming the genre from an obscure regional musical tradition into
one of national and international popularity. In 1972 Jaojoby started
performing with bands that were experimentally blending American soul
and funk with northwestern Malagasy musical traditions. He produced four
singles with The Players before the band broke up in 1979. He rose to
national prominence with his 1988 hit "Samy Mandeha Samy Mitady",
recorded his first full-length album in 1992, and went on to release
eight more full-length albums and tour extensively along with his wife
and adult children. He was Madagascar's Artist of the Year in 1998 and
1999 and the UN Population Fund's Goodwill Ambassador in 1999.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eus%C3%A8be_Jaojoby>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1148:
The Siege of Damascus ended in a decisive crusader defeat,
leading to the disintegration of the Second Crusade.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Damascus_(1148)>
1836:
The Arc de Triomphe in Paris, commemorating those who fought
and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars,
was formally inaugurated.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_de_Triomphe>
1950:
Korean War: U.S. Army 7th Cavalry Regiment troops concluded
four days of shootings of civilians, sparked by fears that columns of
refugees might contain North Korean spies.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Gun_Ri_Massacre>
1981:
A worldwide television audience of over 700 million people
watched the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer at St Paul's
Cathedral in London.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedding_of_Charles,_Prince_of_Wales,_and_Lady…>
2010:
An overloaded passenger ferry capsized on the Kasai River in
Bandundu Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, resulting in at
least 80 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasai_River_disaster>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
shipwrecky:
1. Characteristic of a shipwreck.
2. (figuratively) Weak, feeble; shaky.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shipwrecky>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Is it not a pity, Guivric, that this Kalki will not
come in our day, and that we shall never behold his complete glory? I
cry a lament for that Kalki who will someday bring back to their
appointed places high faith and very ardent loves and hatreds; and who
will see to it that human passions are in never so poor a way to find
expressions in adequate speech and action. Ohé, I cry a loud lament for
Kalki! The little silver effigies which his postulants fashion and adore
are well enough: but Kalki is a horse of another color.
--James Branch Cabell
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Branch_Cabell>
Operation Camargue (1953) was one of the largest operations by the
French Far East Expeditionary Corps and the Vietnamese National Army in
the First Indochina War. French armored platoons, airborne units and
troops, delivered by landing craft to the coast of modern-day central
Vietnam, attempted to sweep forces of the communist Viet Minh from the
critical Route One. On 28 July the first wave reached an inland canal
without major incident, but French armored forces began to suffer a
series of ambushes as they passed through small villages. Reinforced by
paratroopers, the French and their Vietnamese allies tried to tighten a
net around the defending Viet Minh guerillas, but most escaped, along
with their arms caches. The French concluded that ensnaring operations
were impossible in the dense jungle, which slowed down troops so that
enemy forces could anticipate their movements, and they withdrew from
the operation by late summer. Viet Minh Regiment 95 re-infiltrated Route
One and resumed ambushes of French convoys, retrieving weapons caches
missed by the French forces. The regiment continued to operate in the
area as late as 1962, fighting the South Vietnamese Army.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Camargue>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1821:
Peruvian War of Independence: Argentine general José de San
Martín declared the independence of Peru from Spain.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_de_San_Mart%C3%ADn>
1866:
At the age of 18, Vinnie Ream became the first and youngest
female artist to receive a commission from the United States government
for a statue—that of Abraham Lincoln in the U.S. Capitol rotunda.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinnie_Ream>
1935:
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber aircraft, which
dropped more bombs than any other U.S. aircraft in World War II, made
its first flight.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-17_Flying_Fortress>
1995:
Two followers of Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh) were convicted
for the attempted assassination of the United States Attorney for the
District of Oregon.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_Rajneeshee_assassination_plot>
2005:
The Provisional Irish Republican Army announced an end to its
armed campaign to overthrow British rule in Northern Ireland to create a
United Ireland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Irish_Republican_Army>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
doula:
A support person, usually female, who may not have medical or midwifery
training, who provides emotional assistance to a mother or pregnant
couple before, during or after childbirth.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/doula>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I want to say this one thing, it's been almost an obsession with
me, all I keep thinking of is this line from a musical comedy... and the
song he loved most came at the very end of this record, the last side of
Camelot, sad Camelot... "Don't let it be forgot, that once there was a
spot, for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot."
--Jacqueline Kennedy
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jacqueline_Kennedy_Onassis>
.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Myotis_escalerai_Cabrera.png>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1694:
A Royal Charter was granted to the Bank of England as the
English Government's banker.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_England>
1794:
The National Convention ordered the arrest and execution of
Reign of Terror leader Maximilien Robespierre after he encouraged the
execution of more than 17,000 "enemies of the French Revolution".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermidorian_Reaction>
1921:
University of Toronto researchers led by Frederick Banting
proved that the hormone insulin regulates blood sugar.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin>
1940:
Bugs Bunny debuted in the animated cartoon A Wild Hare.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugs_Bunny>
1990:
Members of Jamaat al Muslimeen attempted to overthrow the
government of Trinidad and Tobago by taking hostages at the Red House
including Prime Minister A. N. R. Robinson, before surrendering six days
later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaat_al_Muslimeen_coup_attempt>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
portend:
1. (transitive) To serve as a warning or omen.
2. (transitive) To signify; to denote.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/portend>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I Did, till we loved? Were
we not weaned till then? But sucked on country pleasures, childishly? Or
snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den? ’Twas so; but this, all
pleasures fancies be. If ever any beauty I did see, Which I desired, and
got, ’twas but a dream of thee. And now good-morrow to our waking
souls, Which watch not one another out of fear; For love, all love of
other sights controls, And makes one little room an everywhere.
--John Donne
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Donne>
The 2013 Atlantic hurricane season was the first since 1968 with no
hurricanes of Category 2 or higher. The first storm of the season,
Tropical Storm Andrea, developed on June 5, and the last, unnamed,
dissipated on December 7. Humberto and Ingrid were the only two
hurricanes, the lowest seasonal total since 1982. Andrea killed four
people after making landfall in Florida and moving up the U.S. East
Coast. In early July, Tropical Storm Chantal moved through the Leeward
Islands, causing one fatality, but minimal damage overall. Tropical
storms Dorian and Erin and Hurricane Humberto brought only squally
weather to the Cape Verde Islands. Mexico, where Hurricane Ingrid,
Tropical Depression Eight, and tropical storms Barry and Fernand all
made landfall, was the hardest hit; Ingrid alone caused at least
23 deaths and $1.5 billion worth of damage. In early October, Tropical
Storm Karen brought showers and gusty winds to the central U.S. Gulf
Coast. All major forecasting agencies had predicted an above-average
season, but an unexpected weakening of the Gulf Stream and other
thermohaline currents prolonged the spring weather pattern over the
Atlantic Ocean, suppressing tropical storm formation.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Atlantic_hurricane_season>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
811:
Bulgarian forces led by Khan Krum defeated the Byzantines at the
Battle of Pliska, annihilating almost the whole army and killing
Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros I.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Pliska>
1759:
French and Indian War: Rather than defend Fort Carillon near
present-day Ticonderoga, New York, from an approaching 11,000-man
British force, French Brigadier General François-Charles de Bourlamaque
withdrew his troops and attempted to blow the fort up.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ticonderoga_(1759)>
1882:
Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal, loosely based on Wolfram von
Eschenbach's epic poem Parzival about Arthurian knight Percival and his
quest for the Holy Grail, officially premiered at the Festspielhaus in
Bayreuth, Bavaria (present-day Germany).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsifal>
1945:
The Labour Party won the United Kingdom general election of
July 5 by a landslide, replacing Winston Churchill as Prime Minister
with Clement Attlee.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_1945>
1990:
U.S. President George H. W. Bush signed into law the Americans
with Disabilities Act, a wide-ranging civil rights law that prohibits,
under certain circumstances, discrimination based on disability.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_with_Disabilities_Act_of_1990>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
lethargy:
A condition of extreme drowsiness or apathy.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lethargy>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
This whole creation is essentially subjective, and the dream is
the theater where the dreamer is at once scene, actor, prompter, stage
manager, author, audience, and critic.
--Carl Jung
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Jung>
Elliott Fitch Shepard (1833–1893) was a New York lawyer, the owner of
the Mail and Express newspaper, and a founder of three banks as well as
the New York State Bar Association. He was born in Jamestown, New York,
one of three sons of the president of a banknote-engraving company.
During the American Civil War, Shepard earned the rank of colonel and
was a Union Army recruiter. After attending the City University of New
York, he practiced law for about 25 years. One of his residences,
Woodlea, and the church he founded nearby, Scarborough Presbyterian, are
contributing properties in the historic district of Scarborough-on-
Hudson in the village of Briarcliff Manor. Woodlea, one of the largest
privately owned houses in the United States at the time, is now part of
Sleepy Hollow Country Club. Shepard was married to Margaret Louisa
Vanderbilt, granddaughter of philanthropist, business magnate, and
family patriarch Cornelius Vanderbilt. Deeply religious, Shepard became
the controlling stockholder of the Fifth Avenue Stage Company so he
could force it to close on Sundays.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_Fitch_Shepard>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1139:
Prince Afonso Henriques led Portuguese troops to victory over
the Almoravid Moors at the Battle of Ourique.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ourique>
1609:
During a hurricane, the crew of the English sailing ship Sea
Venture grounded her on the reefs of Bermuda, which is widely believed
to have inspired Shakepeare's The Tempest.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Venture>
1898:
Spanish–American War: After over two months of sea-based
bombardment, the United States invaded Puerto Rico.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rican_Campaign>
1957:
More than a year after obtaining independence from France,
Tunisia abolished its monarchy, the Husainid Dynasty, and became a
republic.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisia>
2007:
Pratibha Patil was sworn in as the first female President of
India.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratibha_Patil>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
eviscerate:
1. (transitive) To disembowel, to remove the viscera.
2. (transitive) To destroy or make ineffectual or meaningless.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/eviscerate>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The autonomous individual, striving to realize himself and prove
his worth, has created all that is great in literature, art, music,
science and technology. The autonomous individual, also, when he can
neither realize himself nor justify his existence by his own efforts, is
a breeding call of frustration, and the seed of the convulsions which
shake our world to its foundations.
--Eric Hoffer
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eric_Hoffer>
Business M-28 is a 4.8-mile (7.7 km) state trunkline highway in the
U.S. state of Michigan serving as a business route for U.S. Highway 41
and M-28. It runs through the downtown districts of the historic iron-
mining communities Ishpeming and Negaunee. The trunkline was originally
a section of these roads until a northerly bypass was built in 1937.
M-35 also ran through downtown Negaunee along a section of the highway
until the 1960s. A rerouting in 1999 moved the trunkline designation
along Lakeshore Drive in Ishpeming, and a streetscape project rebuilt
the road in Negaunee in 2005. In Negaunee, the highway passes Jackson
Park, where iron ore was first discovered in what became the Marquette
Iron Range. The nearby Jackson Mine was added to the National Register
of Historic Places in 1971. Between 1850 and 1900, half the nation's
supply of iron ore came from this region.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-28_Business_(Ishpeming%E2%80%93Negaunee,_Mi…>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1411:
Forces of Donald of Islay, Lord of the Isles, and Alexander
Stewart, Earl of Mar, fought at the Battle of Harlaw near Inverurie,
Scotland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Harlaw>
1783:
The Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti and the Russian Empire signed the
Treaty of Georgievsk, establishing Georgia as a protectorate of Russia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Georgievsk>
1915:
The passenger ship SS Eastland rolled over while tied to a dock
in the Chicago River, killing 844 passengers and crew, the largest loss
of life disaster from a single shipwreck on the Great Lakes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Eastland>
1959:
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and U.S. Vice President
Richard Nixon held an impromptu debate at the opening of the American
National Exhibition at Sokolniki Park in Moscow.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_Debate>
2009:
The MV Arctic Sea, reportedly carrying timber, was allegedly
boarded by hijackers off the coast of Sweden, but much speculation
remains as to the actual cargo and events.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Arctic_Sea>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
sagacity:
The quality of being sage, wise, or able to make good decisions; wisdom.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sagacity>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to
do, and the more genuine may be one's appreciation of fundamental things
like home, and love, and understanding companionship.
--Amelia Earhart
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Amelia_Earhart>
The Capcom Five is a set of five video games released between 2003 and
2005 by Capcom for the Nintendo GameCube, all overseen by Resident Evil
creator Shinji Mikami. Nintendo and Capcom had enjoyed a close
relationship during the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo
eras, and the announcement of the five new games was initially seen as
an important show of third-party developer support for the GameCube.
P.N.03, a futuristic third-person shooter, Viewtiful Joe, a side-
scrolling action-platformer, Dead Phoenix, a shoot 'em up, and Resident
Evil 4, a survival horror third-person shooter, were developed by
Capcom's Production Studio 4; Killer7, an action-adventure game with
first-person shooter elements, was developed by Grasshopper Manufacture.
Viewtiful Joe and Killer7 sold modestly, the former in spite of critical
acclaim and the latter owing to polarized reviews, but Killer7 gained a
significant cult following, effectively launching the career of creator
Suda51. Resident Evil 4 was the runaway success of the five, though its
GameCube sales were undercut by the announcement of a Sony PlayStation 2
version, in an early sign of Nintendo's failure to attract and hold
third-party support during the GameCube era.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capcom_Five>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1829:
William Austin Burt was awarded a patent for the typographer,
the first practical typewriting machine.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typographer_(typewriter)>
1914:
Austria-Hungary presented Serbia with an ultimatum to allow
them to investigate the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, that
Serbia would ultimately reject, leading to World War I.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_Crisis>
1940:
US Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles issued a declaration
that the US would not recognize the Soviet Union's annexation of the
Baltic states.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welles_Declaration>
1995:
Hale–Bopp, one of the most widely observed comets of the
twentieth century, was discovered by two independent observers, Alan
Hale and Thomas Bopp, at a great distance from the Sun.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Hale%E2%80%93Bopp>
2012:
A solar storm of similar intensity to the Carrington Event,
which caused one of the largest geomagnetic storms ever recorded,
erupted from the Sun and missed the Earth by a small margin.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_2012>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
levity:
1. Lightness of manner or speech, frivolity.
2. The state or quality of being light, buoyancy.
3. (countable) A lighthearted or frivolous act.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/levity>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Everything written with vitality expresses that vitality: there
are no dull subjects, only dull minds. All men who read escape from
something else into what lies behind the printed page; the quality of
the dream may be argued, but its release has become a functional
necessity. All men must escape at times from the deadly rhythm of their
private thoughts. It is part of the process of life among thinking
beings.
--Raymond Chandler
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Raymond_Chandler>
The 68th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment served in the Union Army
during the American Civil War. The men were recruited mostly from
Manhattan, but some came from New Jersey, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.
Most were German immigrants, and many of the officers had served in the
armies of Austria, Prussia, and other German states. Organized in July
1861, three months after the outbreak of war, they were initially
assigned to the defense of Washington, D.C., with the Army of the
Potomac, and later fought at the Battle of Cross Keys in the Shenandoah
Valley. They found themselves in the thick of the fighting at Second
Bull Run, and were routed by Confederate forces at Chancellorsville. At
Gettysburg, they saw battle on two of the three days and took heavy
losses. The regiment was then transferred to the west and participated
in the Chattanooga campaign. They assisted in the Union victories at
Wauhatchie and Missionary Ridge, and marched to relieve the siege of
Knoxville. They spent the last year of the war on occupation duty in
Tennessee and Georgia, before being disbanded in November 1865.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/68th_New_York_Volunteer_Infantry_Regiment>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1793:
Two days after becoming the first recorded person to complete a
transcontinental crossing of North America north of Mexico, Scottish
explorer Alexander Mackenzie reached the westernmost point of his
journey and inscribed his name on a rock (pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Mackenzie_(explorer)>
1802:
Gia Long conquered Hanoi and unified modern-day Vietnam, which
had experienced centuries of feudal warfare.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gia_Long>
1944:
In opposition to the Polish government-in-exile, the Polish
Committee of National Liberation published its manifesto, calling for
radical reforms, a continuation of fighting in World War II against Nazi
Germany, nationalisation of industry, and a "decent border in the West".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Committee_of_National_Liberation>
1975:
Stanley Forman took the photo Fire Escape Collapse, which would
receive the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography and the title of
World Press Photo of the Year.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Escape_Collapse>
2005:
London metropolitan police killed Jean Charles de Menezes, a
Brazilian immigrant, after misidentifying him as being involved in the
previous day's failed bombing attempts on the city.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Jean_Charles_de_Menezes>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
roundelay:
(music) A poem or song having a line or phrase repeated at regular
intervals.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/roundelay>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
He brings man's freedom in his hands, Not as a coin that may be
spent or lost But as a living fire within the heart, Never quite
quenched — because he brings to all, The thought, the wish, the dream
of brotherhood, Never and never to be wholly lost, The water and the
bread of the oppressed, The stay and succor of the resolute, The harness
of the valiant and the brave, The new word that has changed the shaken
world. And, though he die, his word shall grow like wheat And every time
a child is born, In pain and love and freedom hardly won, Born and gone
forth to help and aid mankind, There will be women with a right to say
"Gloria, gloria in excelsis deo! A child is born!"
--Stephen Vincent Benét
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Vincent_Ben%C3%A9t>
