Lieutenant Kijé is music by Sergei Prokofiev originally written to
accompany the film of the same name, produced by the Belgoskino film
studios in Leningrad and released in 1934 (poster pictured). It was his
first attempt at film music, and his first commission from within the
Soviet Union; he had lived abroad since the 1917 October Revolution. In
the early days of sound cinema, among the distinguished composers ready
to write film music, Prokofiev was not an obvious choice for the
commission. Based in Paris for almost a decade, he had a reputation, at
odds with the cultural norms of the Soviet Union, for experimentation
and dissonance. Nevertheless, he was anxious to return to his homeland,
and saw the film commission as an opportunity to write music in a more
accessible style. After the film's successful release, he adapted the
music into what became a popular orchestral suite, his Op. 60. First
performed on 21 December 1934, it became part of the international
concert repertoire, and one of the composer's best-known and most
frequently recorded works. Elements of its score were used in several
later films, and in two popular songs of the Cold War era.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lieutenant_Kij%C3%A9_(Prokofiev)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1124:
Lamberto Scannabecchi was elected Pope and took the name
Honorius II.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Honorius_II>
1844:
The Rochdale Pioneers, usually considered the first successful
co-operative enterprise, opened their store in Rochdale, England, and
formed the basis for the modern co-operative movement.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_cooperative_movement>
1919:
After serving two years in prison for encouraging people to
resist military conscription, anarchist Emma Goldman was deported from
the United States to Russia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Goldman>
1923:
Nepal and the United Kingdom signed a treaty, the first to
define the international status of Nepal as an independent and a
sovereign nation.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepal%E2%80%93Britain_Treaty_of_1923>
1937:
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length cel-
animated feature in film history, premiered at the Carthay Circle
Theatre in Los Angeles.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_White_and_the_Seven_Dwarfs_(1937_film)>
1995:
In accordance with the Oslo II Accord, Israeli troops withdrew
from the city of Bethlehem in preparation for the transfer of its
control to the Palestinian National Authority.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethlehem>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
glitten:
A cross between a glove and a mitten, often in the form of a fingerless
glove with an attached mitten-like flap that can be used to cover the
fingers.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/glitten>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is infinitely better that the profane and loose be unmasked
than to be muffled up under the veil and hood of traditional hypocrisy,
which turns and dulls the very edge of all conscience either toward God
or man.
--Roger Williams
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Roger_Williams>
Strepsirrhini is a suborder of primates that includes lemurs from
Madagascar, bushbabies and pottos from Africa, and lorises from India
and southeast Asia. Also included are the extinct adapiform primates, a
diverse and widespread group that thrived during the Eocene in Europe,
North America, and Asia, but disappeared from most of the Northern
Hemisphere as the climate cooled. Characterized by their wet nose or
rhinarium, strepsirrhines have diversified to fill many ecological
niches. They have a smaller brain than comparably sized simians, large
olfactory lobes for smell, and a vomeronasal organ to detect pheromones.
Their eyes contain a reflective layer to improve their night vision.
Lemurs have a toothcomb, a specialized set of teeth in the lower front
part of the mouth, mostly used for combing fur during grooming.
Strepsirrhines are primarily tree-dwelling, feeding on fruit, leaves,
and insects. Many are endangered by habitat destruction, poaching for
bushmeat, and live capture for the exotic pet trade.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strepsirrhini>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1860:
South Carolina became the first of eleven slave states to
secede from the United States, leading to the eventual creation of the
Confederate States of America and later the American Civil War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederate_States_of_America>
1951:
Experimental Breeder Reactor I near Arco, Idaho, US, became the
world's first electricity-generating nuclear power plant when it
produced sufficient electricity to illuminate four 200-watt light bulbs.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_Breeder_Reactor_I>
1971:
Two groups of French doctors involved in humanitarian aid
merged to form Doctors Without Borders.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9decins_Sans_Fronti%C3%A8res>
1988:
The United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in
Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances governing international
cooperation against the illegal drug trade was signed in Vienna.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_Against_Illicit_Tra…>
1999:
Portugal transferred sovereignty of Macau, which it had
administered since the mid-16th century, to China.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macau>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
tettix:
A cicada, especially one in Greece.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tettix>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all
sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place, and I don't
care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you
there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard
as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you
can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep
moving forward. That's how winning is done! Now, if you know what you're
worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing
to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you
wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that
ain't you. You're better than that!
--Rocky Balboa
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rocky_Balboa_(film)>
Mulholland Drive is a 2001 American neo-noir mystery film written and
directed by David Lynch (pictured) and starring Justin Theroux, Naomi
Watts, Laura Harring, Ann Miller, and Robert Forster. It tells the story
of an aspiring actress named Betty, newly arrived in Los Angeles, who
befriends an amnesiac woman hiding in an apartment that belongs to
Betty's aunt. The film includes seemingly unrelated vignettes that
eventually interlock, along with darkly comic scenes and images,
presented in Lynch's signature surreal style. Much of the filming took
place in 1999 as a television pilot. After it was rejected by television
executives, Lynch gave the pilot an ending and completed the project as
a feature film. The cryptic ending, which he declined to explain, has
left the general meaning of the film's events open to interpretation.
Mulholland Drive was acclaimed by critics and earned award nominations
for Lynch at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival and 74th Academy Awards. The
film is now widely regarded as one of his finest works.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulholland_Drive_(film)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1828:
Nullification Crisis: Vice President of the United States John
C. Calhoun wrote the South Carolina Exposition and Protest to protest
the Tariff of 1828.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Carolina_Exposition_and_Protest>
1843:
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, a novella about the miser
Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation after being visited by three
Christmas ghosts, was first published.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol>
1941:
Second World War: Three Italian Royal Navy divers on manned
torpedoes detonated limpet mines on British Royal Navy ships, sinking
two battleships.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_on_Alexandria_(1941)>
1956:
Irish-born British physician John Bodkin Adams was arrested in
connection with the suspicious deaths of more than 160 of his patients,
although he was only convicted on minor charges.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bodkin_Adams>
1986:
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev released dissident Andrei
Sakharov after six years of internal exile in Gorky.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Sakharov>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
humbug:
(slang) Balderdash!, nonsense!, rubbish!
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/humbug>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die? It may
be, that in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to
live than millions like this poor man's child. Oh God! to hear the
Insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry
brothers in the dust.
--A Christmas Carol
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol>
John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan (b. 18 December 1934), known as Lord
Lucan, disappeared without trace in 1974. Born in Marylebone, he
attended Eton College and served with the Coldstream Guards, later
becoming a professional gambler. Lucan had expensive tastes; he raced
power boats and drove an Aston Martin. In 1963 he married Veronica
Duncan, with whom he had three children, but the marriage collapsed in
1972 and he moved out of the family home in Belgravia. He lost a bitter
custody battle, began to spy on his wife and children, and incurred
gambling losses. In November 1974 the children's nanny, Sandra Rivett,
was murdered in the basement of the Lucan family home. Lady Lucan was
also attacked and she identified Lucan as her assailant. As the police
investigated, Lucan drove to a friend's house in East Sussex; hours
later, he left and was never seen again. The car was found with a blood-
stained interior and a lead pipe similar to one found at the crime scene
in its boot. A warrant for his arrest was issued, but despite hundreds
of reported sightings, he has not been found and as of 2016 is legally
presumed dead.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bingham,_7th_Earl_of_Lucan>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1867:
In Angola, New York, U.S., the last coach of a Lake Shore
Railway train derailed, plunged 40 ft (12 m) down a gully, and caught
fire, resulting in 49 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angola_Horror>
1916:
The French defeated German forces around the city of Verdun-
sur-Meuse in northeast France, ending the longest and one of the
bloodiest battles in the First World War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Verdun>
1939:
Second World War: The Luftwaffe victory over the Royal Air
Force in the Battle of the Heligoland Bight greatly influenced both
sides' future air strategy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Heligoland_Bight_(1939)>
1966:
Epimetheus, one of the moons of Saturn, was discovered, but was
mistaken for Janus. It took twelve years to determine that they are two
distinct objects sharing the same orbit.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epimetheus_(moon)>
1996:
The school board of Oakland, California, passed a controversial
resolution officially declaring African American Vernacular English as a
separate language or dialect.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_Ebonics_resolution>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
patroon:
(US) One of the landowning Dutch grandees of the Dutch colony of New
Amsterdam, especially after it became a British possession renamed as
New York.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/patroon>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The animal which the Egyptians worshipped as divine, which the
Romans venerated as a symbol of liberty, which Europeans in the ignorant
Middle Ages anathematised as an agent of demonology, has displayed to
all ages two closely blended characteristics — courage and self-
respect. No matter how unfavourable the circumstances, both qualities
are always to the fore. Confront a child, a puppy, and a kitten with a
sudden danger; the child will turn instinctively for assistance, the
puppy will grovel in abject submission to the impending visitation, the
kitten will brace its tiny body for a frantic resistance. … The cat of
the slums and alleys, starved, outcast, harried, still keeps amid the
prowlings of its adversity the bold, free, panther-tread with which it
paced of yore the temple courts of Thebes, still displays the self-
reliant watchfulness which man has never taught it to lay aside.
--Saki
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Saki>
Final Fantasy XIII is a science fiction role-playing video game,
initially released by Square Enix for PlayStation 3 on December 17,
2009, and later for Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, and mobile devices.
This edition in the series includes a new character-development system,
as well as the return of summoned monsters, the chocobo race, and
airships. The former soldier Lightning begins her fight along with a
band of allies to save her sister from both the government and a deadly
fate as an unwilling servant to a god-like being. Final Fantasy XIII is
the first game to use Square Enix's Crystal Tools engine and is the
flagship title of the Fabula Nova Crystallis collection of games. It
received mostly positive reviews from video game publications for its
graphics, presentation, and battle system. The game's story received a
mixed response, and its linearity was criticized. Selling 1.7 million
copies in Japan in 2009, Final Fantasy XIII became the fastest-selling
title in the history of the series. It sold over 7 million copies
overall and led to two sequel games.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XIII>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1583:
Cologne War: Forces under Ernest of Bavaria defeated the troops
under Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg at the Siege of Godesberg
(pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Godesberg>
1862:
American Civil War: Union General Ulysses S. Grant issued
General Order No. 11, expelling Jews from Tennessee, Mississippi, and
Kentucky.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Order_No._11_(1862)>
1907:
Ugyen Wangchuck was crowned the first King of Bhutan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugyen_Wangchuck>
1926:
A coup d'état by the Lithuanian military replaced the
democratically elected President Kazys Grinius with Antanas Smetona.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1926_Lithuanian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat>
2010:
Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in
protest to police harassment, triggering the Tunisian Revolution.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Bouazizi>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
keelhaul:
1. (transitive, nautical) To punish by dragging under the keel of a ship.
2. (transitive) To rebuke harshly.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/keelhaul>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
God's ways seem dark, but, soon or late, They touch the shining
hills of day; The evil cannot brook delay, The good can well afford to
wait.
--John Greenleaf Whittier
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Greenleaf_Whittier>
Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter.
His early works, mostly still lifes and depictions of peasant labourers,
contain few signs of the vivid colour that distinguishes his later work.
In 1886 he moved to Paris where he met members of the avant-garde,
including Emile Bernard and Paul Gauguin, who were reacting against the
Impressionist sensibility. As Van Gogh's work developed he created a new
approach to still lifes and local landscapes. In the south of France in
1888, he turned to painting olive trees, cypresses, wheat fields and
sunflowers, using brighter colours. Selling only one painting during his
lifetime, he was considered a madman and a failure, and committed
suicide at 37. His reputation began to grow in the early 20th century as
Fauvists and German Expressionists took up elements of his painting
style. He has attained widespread critical and popular acclaim, and is
remembered as an important but tragic painter. His works are among the
world's most expensive paintings.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1761:
Seven Years' War: Russian forces captured Kolberg, Prussia's
last port on the Baltic coast, after a four-month siege.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Kolberg_(Seven_Years%27_War)>
1811:
The first two in a series of four severe earthquakes struck the
Midwestern United States and made the Mississippi River appear to run
backward.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1811%E2%80%9312_New_Madrid_earthquakes>
1893:
Czech composer Antonín Dvořák's New World Symphony (audio
featured) premiered at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._9_(Dvo%C5%99%C3%A1k)>
1938:
Adolf Hitler instituted the Cross of Honour of the German
Mother as an order of merit for Imperial German women.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_of_Honour_of_the_German_Mother>
1986:
Dinmukhamed Konayev was dismissed from the post of First
Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, sparking riots
throughout the country.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeltoqsan>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
middelmannetjie:
A ridge between ruts made by wheels in a dirt or gravel road.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/middelmannetjie>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The Information Age offers much to mankind, and I would like to
think that we will rise to the challenges it presents. But it is vital
to remember that information — in the sense of raw data — is not
knowledge, that knowledge is not wisdom, and that wisdom is not
foresight. But information is the first essential step to all of these.
--Arthur C. Clarke
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke>
The Yugoslav torpedo boat T1 was a sea-going vessel operated by the
Royal Yugoslav Navy between 1921 and 1941. Launched on 15 December 1913
as a 250t-class torpedo boat for the Austro-Hungarian Navy under the
name 76 T, she was armed with two 66 mm (2.6 in) guns and four 450 mm
(17.7 in) torpedo tubes, and could carry 10–12 naval mines. The
vessel performed anti-submarine operations and convoy, escort and
minesweeping tasks during World War I. She was escorting the dreadnought
SMS Szent István when that ship was sunk by Italian torpedo boats in
June 1918. Following Austria-Hungary's defeat, the torpedo boat was
allocated to what became the Royal Yugoslav Navy. During the German-led
Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, the vessel was captured by
the Italians. She served with the Royal Italian Navy, but was returned
to the Royal Yugoslav Navy-in-exile following the Italian capitulation
in September 1943. She was commissioned by the Yugoslav Navy after World
War II and, after a refit, served as Golešnica until 1959.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_torpedo_boat_T1>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1161:
Emperor Hailing (bust pictured) of the Jin dynasty was
assassinated in a military camp near the Yangtze River front following
Jin losses in the Battle of Caishi.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanyan_Liang>
1791:
The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution,
collectively known as the Bill of Rights, were ratified.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights>
1906:
The Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway, a
14.17-kilometre (8.80 mi) long deep-level underground tube railway
connecting Hammersmith and Finsbury Park, London, opened.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Northern,_Piccadilly_and_Brompton_Railw…>
1946:
US-backed Iranian troops brought an end to the Iran crisis when
they marched upon the breakaway Republic of Mahabad and recaptured the
territory.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_crisis_of_1946>
1961:
Former Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann was sentenced to death after
being found guilty on fifteen criminal charges, including war crimes and
crimes against humanity.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Eichmann>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
stroopwafel:
A Dutch waffle made from two thin wafers with syrup in between.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stroopwafel>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
In this moment when we face horizons and conflicts wider than ever
before, we want our resources, the ways of strength. We look again to
the human wish, its faiths, the means by which the imagination leads us
to surpass ourselves. If there is a feeling that something has been
lost, it may be because much has not yet been used, much is still to be
found and begun. Everywhere we are told that our human resources are all
to be used, that our civilization itself means the uses of everything it
has — the inventions, the histories, every scrap of fact. But there is
one kind of knowledge — infinitely precious, time-resistant more than
monuments, here to be passed between the generations in any way it may
be: never to be used. And that is poetry.
--Muriel Rukeyser
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Muriel_Rukeyser>
"Under the Bridge" is a song by the American rock band Red Hot Chili
Peppers, released in 1992 as the second single from the group's fifth
studio album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Vocalist Anthony Kiedis wrote the
lyrics to express feelings of loneliness and despondency, and to reflect
on the impact of narcotics on his life. He was reluctant to show his
band mates the lyrics, which were more emotional than the Chili Peppers'
usual style, but producer Rick Rubin insisted. The band was receptive,
and wrote the music. The song peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot
100 and was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of
America. The accompanying video was frequently played on music
television channels, and won the Viewer's Choice and Breakthrough Video
awards at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. The band's growing popularity
overwhelmed guitarist John Frusciante, who temporarily left them the
same year. The song is now considered a standard of the alternative rock
movement of the early and mid-1990s, and has been cited as an
inspiration by many artists.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_the_Bridge>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
835:
In the Sweet Dew Incident, Emperor Wenzong of the Tang dynasty
conspired to kill the powerful eunuchs of the Tang court, but the plot
was foiled.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Dew_Incident>
1836:
The Toledo War, the mostly bloodless boundary dispute between
Ohio and the adjoining Territory of Michigan, unofficially ended with a
resolution passed by the controversial "Frostbitten Convention".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toledo_War>
1911:
Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his team became the first
people to reach the South Pole (pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen%27s_South_Pole_expedition>
1960:
Australian cricketer Ian Meckiff was run out on the last day of
the first Test between Australia and the West Indies, causing the first
tied Test in the history of cricket.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Meckiff>
2008:
During a press conference in Baghdad, Iraqi journalist
Muntadhar al-Zaidi infamously threw his shoes at U.S. President George
W. Bush, yelling that "this is for the widows and orphans and all those
killed in Iraq".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muntadhar_al-Zaidi>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
handlanger:
(South Africa) An unskilled assistant to an artisan.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/handlanger>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
In its original literal sense, "moral relativism" is simply moral
complexity. That is, anyone who agrees that stealing a loaf of bread to
feed one's children is not the moral equivalent of, say, shoplifting a
dress for the fun of it, is a relativist of sorts. But in recent years,
conservatives bent on reinstating an essentially religious vocabulary of
absolute good and evil as the only legitimate framework for discussing
social values have redefined "relative" as "arbitrary." That conflation
has been reinforced by social theorists and advocates of identity
politics who argue that there is no universal morality, only the value
systems of particular cultures and power structures.
--Ellen Willis
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ellen_Willis>
Ike Altgens (April 28, 1919 – December 12, 1995) was an American
photojournalist, photo editor and field reporter for the Associated
Press (AP) who took two photographs that circulated worldwide after the
assassination of President John F. Kennedy (JFK). Altgens was 19 when he
began his AP career, which was interrupted by military service during
World War II. When his service time ended, he returned to Dallas, Texas,
got married, and went back to work for the local AP bureau, eventually
earning a position as a senior editor. He was on assignment for the AP
when he captured two historic images on November 22, 1963. The second
photo, showing First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy toward the rear of the
presidential limousine and Secret Service agent Clint Hill on its
bumper, was reproduced on the front pages of newspapers around the
world. Within days, Altgens' preceding photo became controversial after
people began to question whether it showed accused assassin Lee Harvey
Oswald in the main doorway of the Texas School Book Depository as the
gunshots were fired at JFK.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ike_Altgens>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1577:
Sir Francis Drake left Plymouth, England, with five ships and
164 men on his round-the-world voyage.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Drake>
1862:
American Civil War: Union forces under Maj. Gen. Ambrose
Burnside suffered severe casualties against entrenched Confederate
defenders at the Battle of Fredericksburg in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fredericksburg>
1960:
With Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie out of the country,
four conspirators staged a coup attempt and installed Crown Prince Asfaw
Wossen as the new Emperor.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_Ethiopian_coup_attempt>
1989:
The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army engaged in
a fierce firefight with the King's Own Scottish Borderers at a vehicle
checkpoint complex in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Derryard_checkpoint>
2006:
The baiji, a freshwater dolphin found only in the Yangtze River
in China, was announced as functionally extinct by leaders of the
Yangtze Freshwater Dolphin Expedition.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baiji>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
feague:
1. To increase the liveliness of a horse by inserting an irritant, such as
a piece of peeled raw ginger or a live eel, in its fundament.
2. (obsolete) To beat or whip; to drive.
3. (obsolete) To subject to some harmful scheme; to ‘do in’. […]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/feague>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
There are those... who enter the world in such poverty that they
are deprived of both the means and the motivation to improve their lot.
Unless these unfortunates can be touched with the spark which ignites
the spirit of individual enterprise and determination, they will only
sink back into renewed apathy, degradation and despair. It is for us,
who are more fortunate, to provide that spark.
--Aga Khan IV
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Aga_Khan_IV>
Hydrus is a small constellation in the deep southern sky. Its first
appearance was on a celestial globe published in 1598 in Amsterdam by
the astronomer Petrus Plancius and the cartographer Jodocus Hondius. The
first celestial atlas to depict it was Johann Bayer's Uranometria, in
1603. The French explorer and astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille
charted the brighter stars and gave their Bayer designations in 1756.
Its name means "male water snake", as opposed to Hydra, a much larger
constellation that represents a female water snake. Hydrus remains below
the horizon for most Northern Hemisphere observers. The brightest star
is the 2.8-magnitude Beta Hydri, also the brightest star within 15° of
the south celestial pole. Pulsating between magnitude 3.26 and 3.33,
Gamma Hydri is a variable red giant some 60 times the diameter of our
Sun. Near it is VW Hydri, one of the brightest dwarf novae in the
heavens. Four star systems have been found to have exoplanets to date,
including HD 10180, which might bear up to nine planetary companions.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrus>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1531:
According to traditional Catholic accounts, the image of the
Blessed Virgin Mary miraculously appeared imprinted on Juan Diego's
tilma.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Guadalupe>
1866:
England's worst mining disaster occurred when a series of
explosions caused by flammable gases ripped through the Oaks Colliery.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oaks_explosion>
1941:
At a Nazi Party meeting in the Reich Chancellery, Adolf Hitler
declared the imminent destruction of the Jewish race.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reich_Chancellery_meeting_of_12_December_1941>
1956:
The Irish Republican Army began its Border Campaign, a
guerrilla campaign to overthrow British rule in Northern Ireland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_Campaign_(Irish_Republican_Army)>
1988:
Three trains collided (scene pictured) near Clapham Junction
railway station in London, killing 35 people and injuring 484 others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapham_Junction_rail_crash>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
cockalorum:
1. A menial, yet self-important person; a person who makes empty boasts.
2. Boastful speech, crowing.
3. A game similar to leapfrog.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cockalorum>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I have not come here with reference to any flag but that of
freedom. If your Union does not symbolize universal emancipation, it
brings no Union for me. If your Constitution does not guarantee freedom
for all, it is not a Constitution I can ascribe to. If your flag is
stained by the blood of a brother held in bondage, I repudiate it in the
name of God. I came here to witness the unfurling of a flag under which
every human being is to be recognized as entitled to his freedom.
Therefore, with a clear conscience, without any compromise of
principles, I accepted the invitation of the Government of the United
States to be present and witness the ceremonies that have taken place
today. And now let me give the sentiment which has been, and ever will
be, the governing passion of my soul: "Liberty for each, for all, and
forever!"
--William Lloyd Garrison
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Lloyd_Garrison>