Millipedes are a class (Diplopoda) of arthropods, characterised by two
pairs of jointed legs on most body segments. Most species have long
cylindrical or flattened bodies with more than 20 segments, while pill
millipedes are shorter and can roll into a ball. There are around 12,000
named species, making Diplopoda the largest class of myriapods. Despite
their name (from the Latin for "thousand feet"), no known species has
1,000 legs; the most recorded is 750. Most species are detritivores,
eating decaying leaves and other dead plant matter. Millipedes are
generally harmless to humans, although some can become household or
garden pests. Most defend themselves with a variety of chemicals
secreted from pores along the body, while the tiny bristle millipedes
are covered with tufts of detachable bristles. First appearing in the
Silurian period, millipedes are some of the oldest known land animals.
While the largest modern species can reach lengths of 38 cm (15 in),
some prehistoric millipedes grew to over 2 m (6 ft 7 in).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millipede>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1202:
The first major action of the Fourth Crusade and the first
attack against a Catholic city by Catholic crusaders, the Siege of Zara,
began in Zadar, Croatia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Zara>
1766:
William Franklin, the last Royal Governor of New Jersey, signed
the charter establishing Queen's College, now known as Rutgers
University.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutgers_University>
1940:
A magnitude 7.7 ML earthquake struck the Vrancea region of
Romania, the country's strongest earthquake in the 20th century.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1940_Vrancea_earthquake>
1958:
Merchant Harry Winston donated the Hope Diamond, the "most
famous diamond in the world", to the Smithsonian Institution.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope_Diamond>
2006:
Prominent Sri Lankan Tamil politician and human rights lawyer
Nadarajah Raviraj was assassinated in Colombo.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadarajah_Raviraj>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
stemware:
Drinking glasses that have a stem, such as wine glasses or champagne
flutes.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stemware>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
All your questions can be answered, if that is what you want. But
once you learn your answers, you can never unlearn them.
--American Gods
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/American_Gods>
William Howard Taft (1857–1930) was the 27th President of the United
States (1909–1913) and the 10th Chief Justice of the United States
(1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft initially
served as a state and federal judge, and as governor of the Philippines
beginning in 1900. In 1904 Theodore Roosevelt made him Secretary of War.
Taft declined repeated offers to become a Supreme Court justice. He was
Roosevelt's hand-picked successor in 1908, and easily defeated William
Jennings Bryan for the presidency. In the White House, he focused on the
Far East more than Europe, and repeatedly intervened in Latin America.
Taft was allied with the conservative wing of the Republican Party,
while Roosevelt became more liberal after 1909. Roosevelt unsuccessfully
challenged Taft for renomination in 1912, then bolted the party and ran
as a third-party candidate. The split in the Republican vote left Taft
with little chance of re-election, and he lost to Woodrow Wilson,
winning only Utah and Vermont. In 1921 Taft was appointed Chief Justice,
and served until a month before his death. He posted a conservative
record, and reformed the court's administration.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Howard_Taft>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1799:
The coup of 18 Brumaire led by Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès and
Napoleon deposed the French government, replacing the Directory with the
Consulate.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coup_of_18_Brumaire>
1822:
USS Alligator engaged three piratical schooners off the coast
of Cuba in one of the West Indies anti-piracy operations of the United
States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_9_November_1822>
1938:
Kristallnacht began as SA stormtroopers and civilians destroyed
and ransacked Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues in Germany and
Austria, resulting in at least 90 deaths and the deportation of over
25,000 others to concentration camps.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht>
1998:
With the passing of the Human Rights Act, the European
Convention on Human Rights was incorporated into United Kingdom law.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Act_1998>
2005:
The European Space Agency launched the Venus Express mission,
the first long-term observation of the Venusian atmosphere.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_Express>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
puissance:
1. Power, might or potency.
2. (equestrianism) Often Puissance: The high-jump component of the sport of
show jumping.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/puissance>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We wish to pursue the truth no matter where it leads — but to
find the truth we need imagination and skepticism both. We will not be
afraid to speculate — but we will be careful to distinguish
speculation from fact. The Cosmos is full beyond measure of elegant
truths, of exquisite interrelationships, of the awesome machinery of
nature. The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. On
this shore we've learned most of what we know. Recently we've waded a
little way out, maybe ankle deep, and the water seems inviting. Some
part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return.
And we can. Because the cosmos is also within us. We're made of star-
stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.
--Carl Sagan
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan>
HMS Collingwood was a St Vincent-class dreadnought battleship built for
the British Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. Launched
on 7 November 1908 and commissioned in April 1910, the ship was equipped
with armour 10 inches (254 mm) thick, and ten 12-inch guns. She served
in the Home Fleet and Grand Fleet, at times as the flagship of Rear-
Admiral Ernest Gaunt. Prince Albert (later King George VI) spent several
years aboard the ship before and during World War I. At the Battle of
Jutland in 1916, the largest naval battle of the war, Collingwood was in
the middle of the battleline; she did some damage to the German
battlecruiser SMS Derfflinger, and shelled the light cruiser
SMS Wiesbaden. Apart from that battle and the inconclusive Action of 19
August, her service during the war generally consisted of routine
patrols and training in the North Sea. The ship was deemed obsolete
after the war, reduced to reserve, and used as a training ship before
being sold for scrap in 1922.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Collingwood_(1908)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1278:
Trần Thánh Tông, the second emperor of Vietnam's Trần
dynasty, took up the post of Retired Emperor, but continued to co-rule
with his son Trần Khâm for eleven more years.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tr%E1%BA%A7n_Th%C3%A1nh_T%C3%B4ng>
1644:
The Shunzhi Emperor, the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, was
enthroned in Beijing after the collapse of the Ming dynasty as the first
Qing emperor to rule over China.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shunzhi_Emperor>
1895:
German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen produced and detected
electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range known today as X-ray
(first radiograph pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray>
1966:
Former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke became the
first African American elected to the United States Senate since
Reconstruction.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Brooke>
1987:
A Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb exploded during a
Remembrance Sunday ceremony in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, killing at
least eleven people and injuring sixty-three others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_Day_bombing>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
vote:
1. A formalized choice on matters of administration or other democratic
activities.
2. An act or instance of participating in such a choice, e.g., by
submitting a ballot.
3. (obsolete) An ardent wish or desire; a vow; a prayer.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vote>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Mercy is a sweet gracious working in love, mingled with plenteous
pity: for mercy worketh in keeping us, and mercy worketh turning to us
all things to good. Mercy, by love, suffereth us to fail in measure and
in as much as we fail, in so much we fall; and in as much as we fall, in
so much we die: for it needs must be that we die in so much as we fail
of the sight and feeling of God that is our life. Our failing is
dreadful, our falling is shameful, and our dying is sorrowful: but in
all this the sweet eye of pity and love is lifted never off us, nor the
working of mercy ceaseth. For I beheld the property of mercy, and I
beheld the property of grace: which have two manners of working in one
love.
--Julian of Norwich
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Julian_of_Norwich>
"From The Doctor to my son Thomas" is a viral video recorded by the
Scottish actor Peter Capaldi (pictured) and sent to Thomas Goodall, an
autistic nine-year-old who was grieving over the death of his
grandmother. Thomas's father Ross posted the video to YouTube on 6
November 2014 so that his whole family could see it, but the video had
wide appeal, and was viewed more than 200,000 times over the next 48
hours. Less than a week later it had over 900,000 views. In the video
Capaldi portrays his character, the Twelfth Doctor, from the BBC
science-fiction series Doctor Who. His message had a positive effect on
Thomas; the father said the boy smiled for the first time since learning
of his grandmother's death, and gained the courage to go to her funeral.
The video was praised as a deeply affecting piece in The Guardian, The
Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Hollywood Life, and various Spanish
and Dutch publications, and by CNN and MTV News. It also had a positive
impact on many viewers who suffered from autism and other mental health
problems.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_The_Doctor_to_my_son_Thomas>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1665:
The London Gazette, the oldest surviving English-language
newspaper, was first published as the Oxford Gazette.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_London_Gazette>
1885:
Construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the first
transcontinental railroad across Canada, concluded with the driving of
the "last spike" in Craigellachie, British Columbia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Spike_(Canadian_Pacific_Railway)>
1916:
In the Congressional election, Jeannette Rankin became the
first woman elected to the United States House of Representatives.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeannette_Rankin>
1941:
World War II: German aircraft sank the Soviet hospital ship
Armenia while she was evacuating civilians and wounded soldiers from
Crimea, killing an estimated 5,000 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_hospital_ship_Armenia>
1991:
Professional basketball player Magic Johnson announced his
retirement from the game because of his infection with HIV.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Johnson>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
vitriolic:
1. (chemistry) Of or pertaining to vitriol; derived from or resembling
vitriol; vitriolous.
2. (figuratively) Bitterly scathing, caustic.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vitriolic>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Humanity needs practical men, who get the most out of their work,
and, without forgetting the general good, safeguard their own interests.
But humanity also needs dreamers, for whom the disinterested development
of an enterprise is so captivating that it becomes impossible for them
to devote their care to their own material profit.
--Marie Curie
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marie_Curie>
Emma Stone (born November 6, 1988) is an American actress. She has won
two Screen Actors Guild Awards and has been nominated for an Academy
Award, two British Academy Film Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards.
Born and raised in Scottsdale, Arizona, Stone was drawn to acting as a
child, and her first role onstage was in 2000. As a teenager, she
relocated to Los Angeles with her mother, and made her film debut in
Superbad (2007). The 2010 teen comedy Easy A, Stone's first starring
role, earned her nominations for the BAFTA Rising Star Award and for a
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. This breakthrough role was followed
by the commercially successful film Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011), and a
supporting part in the critically acclaimed drama The Help (2011). The
actress received wider recognition for playing Gwen Stacy in the 2012
superhero film The Amazing Spider-Man, and its sequel in 2014. She was
nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the role
of a recovering drug addict in the black comedy Birdman (2014). Stone
won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for playing an aspiring actress in
the musical La La Land (2016).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Stone>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1856:
Scenes of Clerical Life, the first work by English author
George Eliot, was submitted for publication.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scenes_of_Clerical_Life>
1869:
In the first official American football game, Rutgers College
defeated the College of New Jersey, 6–4, in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_American_football>
1944:
The Hanford Atomic Facility in the US state of Washington
produced its first plutonium, and it would go on to create more for
almost the entire American nuclear arsenal.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanford_Site>
1963:
Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ was appointed to head the South Vietnamese
government by the military junta of General Dương Văn Minh, five days
after the latter deposed and assassinated President Ngô Đình Diệm.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguy%E1%BB%85n_Ng%E1%BB%8Dc_Th%C6%A1>
2004:
A man committing suicide parked his car on the railway tracks
in Ufton Nervet, Berkshire, England, causing a derailment that killed
seven people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ufton_Nervet_rail_crash>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
ballot:
1. Originally, a small ball placed in a container to cast a vote; now, by
extension, a piece of paper or card used for this purpose, or some other
means used to signify a vote.
2. The process of voting, especially in secret; a round of voting.
3. The total of all the votes cast in an election.
4. (chiefly US) A list of candidates running for office; a ticket.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ballot>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Why was it everything was always so goddam complicated? Even the
simplest things was so goddam complicated when you come to doing them.
--James Jones
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Jones>
Robert Catesby (1572?–1605) was the leader of the failed Gunpowder
Plot of 1605, commemorated in Great Britain every 5 November as Guy
Fawkes Night. His family were prominent recusant Catholics. He took part
in the Essex Rebellion of 1601 but was captured and assessed a large
fine, after which he sold his estate at Chastleton. The Protestant James
I became King of England in 1603; after he exiled priests and reimposed
fines on recusants, Catesby planned to kill him by blowing up the House
of Lords with gunpowder as a prelude to a revolt. Early in 1604 Catesby
began to recruit English Catholics to his cause, including Thomas
Wintour, John Wright, Thomas Percy, and Guy Fawkes. A letter sent
anonymously to William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle, alerted the
authorities, and on the eve of the planned explosion, during a search of
Parliament, Fawkes was found guarding the barrels of gunpowder, and
arrested. Catesby and the remaining plotters made a stand against a
200-strong company of armed men at Holbeche House in Staffordshire,
where he was shot and killed. As a warning to others, his body was
exhumed and his head exhibited outside Parliament.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Catesby>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1138:
Lý Anh Tông was enthroned as emperor of Đại Việt at the
age of two, starting a 37-year reign.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%BD_Anh_T%C3%B4ng>
1898:
Filipinos on Negros Island revolted against Spanish rule and
established the short-lived Republic of Negros.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negros_Revolution>
1916:
An armed confrontation in Everett, Washington, US, between
local authorities and members of the Industrial Workers of the World
resulted in seven deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everett_massacre>
1983:
Five workers on the Byford Dolphin semi-submersible oil rig
were killed in an explosive decompression while drilling in the Frigg
gas field in the North Sea.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byford_Dolphin>
2009:
Major Nidal Malik Hasan of the United States Army went on a
shooting rampage at Fort Hood, the worst shooting ever to take place on
an American military base.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Fort_Hood_shooting>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
squeezebox:
(music, informal) Synonym of accordion.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/squeezebox>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Love one another. My final lesson of history is the same as that
of Jesus. You may think that's a lot of lollipop but just try it. Love
is the most practical thing in the world. If you take an attitude of
love toward everybody you meet, you'll eventually get along.
--Will Durant
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Will_Durant>
Agharta is a live double album by American jazz musician Miles Davis
(pictured) and his septet. Titled after the legendary subterranean city,
it was recorded at a concert in Japan's Osaka Festival Hall in February
1975. Saxophonist Sonny Fortune, bassist Michael Henderson, and
guitarist Pete Cosey improvised against a dense backdrop of riffs,
electronic effects, cross-beats, and funk grooves from the rhythm
section. Davis had already alienated many in the jazz community while
attracting younger rock audiences with his radical electric fusion
music. This dark, angry, and somber performance was seen as a reflection
of his emotional and spiritual state—he was in physical pain from
health issues and a substance abuse problem, and had been touring
constantly with his band since 1973. The album was released in Japan in
August 1975 by CBS/Sony, and in North America in 1976 by Columbia
Records. A highly divisive record, it further challenged Davis' jazz
audience and critics. It was reevaluated positively after a generation
of younger musicians was influenced by the group's abrasive music and
Cosey's effects-laden free improvisations, and is seen as the
culmination of Davis' electric period.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agharta_(album)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1847:
Scottish physician James Young Simpson discovered the
anaesthetic qualities of chloroform.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloroform>
1889:
Menelik II, who would later introduce several technological and
administrative advances under his reign, was crowned Emperor of
Ethiopia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menelik_II>
1966:
The Arno River flooded Florence, Italy, to a maximum depth of
6.7 m (22 ft), leaving thousands homeless and destroying millions of
masterpieces of art and rare books.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_flood_of_the_Arno>
1991:
Former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos was granted a
presidential pardon by Corazon Aquino and allowed to return from exile.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imelda_Marcos>
2008:
Barack Obama became the first African American to be elected
President of the United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
chad:
1. (uncountable) Small pieces of paper punched out from the edges of
continuous stationery, or from ballot papers, paper tape, punched cards,
etc.
2. (countable) One of these pieces of paper.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chad>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Many things there are that mankind must not know — not until the
human race stands ready to accept that which is, but can never be seen!
in lines for
--Doctor Strange
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Doctor_Strange>
William McKinley's campaign for US president was successful, defeating
William Jennings Bryan, who was both the Democratic and Populist
nominee, on November 3, 1896. McKinley, a former Governor of Ohio,
refused to deal with eastern bosses such as Thomas Platt and Matthew
Quay, who supported favorite son candidates to run against him for the
Republican nomination. The large, efficient McKinley organization, run
by his friend and political manager Mark Hanna, swept him to a first
ballot victory at the 1896 Republican National Convention, with New
Jersey's Garret Hobart as his running mate. McKinley intended to run
mainly as a protectionist, but free silver became the issue of the day.
After Bryan captured the Democratic nomination as a foe of the gold
standard, Hanna raised and spent millions to convince voters that free
silver would be harmful. McKinley stayed at home in Canton, Ohio,
running a front porch campaign that reached millions through press
coverage of his speeches, while Bryan toured the nation by rail.
McKinley forged an electoral coalition of the well-to-do, urban
dwellers, and prosperous farmers that kept the Republicans in power most
of the time until 1932.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McKinley_presidential_campaign,_1896>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1534:
The English Parliament passed the first Act of Supremacy,
making King Henry VIII head of the Anglican Church, supplanting the pope
and the Roman Catholic Church.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acts_of_Supremacy>
1848:
A new constitution drafted by Johan Rudolph Thorbecke was
proclaimed, severely limiting the powers of the Monarchy of the
Netherlands.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Rudolph_Thorbecke>
1898:
After several months of military stalemate between French and
British forces in Fashoda (now in South Sudan), the French withdrew,
ending the Fashoda Incident.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fashoda_Incident>
1956:
In the midst of the Suez Crisis, during an invasion of the Gaza
Strip, Israeli soldiers shot dead hundreds of Palestinian refugees and
local inhabitants in Khan Yunis.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Yunis_massacre>
1996:
Abdullah Çatlı, a drug trafficker, a contract killer, and a
leader of the ultra-nationalist Nationalist Movement Party, was killed
in a car crash near Susurluk, Balıkesir Province, Turkey, sparking the
Susurluk scandal which exposed the depth of the state's complicity in
organized crime.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_%C3%87atl%C4%B1>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
stasiology:
(rare, political science) The study of political parties.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stasiology>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
If "freedom" means, first of all, the responsibility of every
individual for the rational determination of his own personal,
professional and social existence, then there is no greater fear than
that of the establishment of general freedom. Without a thoroughgoing
solution of this problem there never will be a peace lasting longer than
one or two generations. To solve this problem on a social scale, it will
take more thinking, more honesty and decency, more conscientiousness,
more economic, social and educational changes in social mass living than
all the efforts made in previous and future wars and post-war
reconstruction programs taken together.
--Wilhelm Reich
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Reich>
Mayflies are an order (Ephemeroptera) of over 3,000 species of flying
insects, related to dragonflies and damselflies. They are relatively
primitive, with ancestral traits that were probably present in the first
flying insects, such as long tails, and wings that do not fold flat over
the abdomen. Their immature stages (nymphs) live in fresh water. Unique
among insect orders, they have a fully winged adult stage that moults
into a sexually mature adult. Often, all the mayflies in a population
mature at the same time, emerging in the spring, summer or autumn in
enormous numbers; some hatchings attract tourists. Mayflies are a
favourite food of many fish, and fishing flies are often modelled to
resemble them. The brief lives of mayfly adults—less than five minutes
for the female Dolania americana, after the final moult—have been
noted by naturalists and encyclopaedists since Aristotle and Pliny the
Elder. The English poet George Crabbe compared a daily newspaper's
lifespan to that of a mayfly in the satirical poem "The Newspaper"
(1785).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayfly>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
619:
Emperor Gaozu allowed the assassination of a khagan of the
Western Turkic Khaganate by Eastern Turkic rivals, one of the earliest
events in the Tang campaigns against the Western Turks.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_campaigns_against_the_Western_Turks>
1795:
French Revolution: Under the terms of a new constitution that
was ratified during the aftermath of the Reign of Terror and the
subsequent Thermidorian Reaction, the Directory succeeded the National
Convention as the executive government of France.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Directory>
1936:
The BBC Television Service launched as the world's first
regular, public all-electronic "high-definition" television service.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_One>
1960:
In the trial R v Penguin Books Ltd publisher Penguin Books was
acquitted of obscenity for the publication of Lady Chatterley's Lover by
D. H. Lawrence.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_v_Penguin_Books_Ltd>
2004:
Dutch film director Theo van Gogh, whose film Submission was
critical of the treatment of women in Islam, was assassinated by
Mohammed Bouyeri.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theo_van_Gogh_(film_director)>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
paper candidate:
An election candidate with little chance of winning, who is added to the
ballot for publicity and to increase the number standing.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/paper_candidate>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Like integrity, love of life was not a subject to be studied, it
was a contagion to be caught. And you had to catch it from someone who
had it.
--Lois McMaster Bujold
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lois_McMaster_Bujold>
James Rowland (1 November 1922 – 27 May 1999) was a senior commander
in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), serving as Chief of the Air
Staff (CAS) from 1975 to 1979. He later held office as Governor of New
South Wales from 1981 to 1989, and was Chancellor of the University of
Sydney from 1990 to 1991. After joining the RAAF in 1942, he was posted
to Britain as a Pathfinder bomber pilot in the air war over Europe,
earning the Distinguished Flying Cross. He was forced to bail out over
Germany following a collision with another Allied aircraft in 1945, and
was imprisoned. After repatriation and demobilisation, Rowland finished
an aeronautical engineering degree and rejoined the RAAF. He became a
test pilot, serving with and later commanding the Aircraft Research and
Development Unit in the 1950s, and also a senior engineering officer,
being closely involved in the delivery to Australia of the Dassault
Mirage III supersonic fighter in the 1960s. He served as Air Member for
Technical Services from 1972 until 1975, when he was elevated to air
marshal and CAS, the first engineer to hold the position. He was
knighted in 1977 and appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in
1987.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Rowland_(RAAF_officer)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1141:
The Anarchy: Matilda's brief reign as the first female ruler of
England ended when Stephen of Blois regained the throne.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen,_King_of_England>
1611:
The first recorded performance of William Shakespeare's play
The Tempest was held at the Palace of Whitehall in London, exactly seven
years after the first certainly known performance of his tragedy Othello
was held in the same building.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Othello>
1876:
The Colony of New Zealand dissolved its nine provinces and
replaced them with 63 counties.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provinces_of_New_Zealand>
1941:
American photographer Ansel Adams shot Moonrise, Hernandez, New
Mexico, one of his most famous photographs.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonrise,_Hernandez,_New_Mexico>
1956:
The Indian states Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka were
formally created under the States Reorganisation Act.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karnataka>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
rood screen:
(architecture, Christianity) A carved screen that separated the chancel
and nave in a medieval church; it originally carried a large crucifix.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rood_screen>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The collective name for the ripe fruits of religion in a character
is Saintliness. The saintly character is the character for which
spiritual emotions are the habitual centre of the personal energy; and
there is a certain composite photograph of universal saintliness, the
same in all religions, of which the features can easily be traced.
--William James
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_James>