The Battle of Kalavrye was fought in 1078 between the Byzantine imperial
forces of general (and future emperor) Alexios Komnenos (pictured) and a
force led by the rebellious governor of Dyrrhachium, Nikephoros
Bryennios the Elder. Bryennios had rebelled against Michael VII Doukas
(reigned 1071–78) and had won over the allegiance of the Byzantine
army's regular regiments in the Balkans. Even after Doukas's overthrow
by Nikephoros III Botaneiates (r. 1078–81), Bryennios continued his
revolt, threatening Constantinople. After failed negotiations,
Botaneiates sent the young general Alexios Komnenos to confront him. The
two armies clashed at Kalavrye on the Halmyros river. Komnenos, whose
army was considerably smaller and far less experienced, tried but failed
to ambush Bryennios's army, which in turn fell into disorder after its
own Pecheneg allies attacked its camp. Reinforced by Turkish
mercenaries, Alexios lured the troops of Bryennios into another ambush
through a feigned retreat. The rebel army broke, and Bryennios himself
was captured. This is one of the few battles that was described in
detail by Byzantine sources.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kalavrye>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1674:
The Third Anglo-Dutch War ended with the signing of the Treaty
of Westminster, with England regaining New York, and the Netherlands
taking Suriname.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Anglo-Dutch_War>
1811:
Peninsular War: An outnumbered French force under Édouard
Mortier routed and nearly destroyed the Spanish at the Battle of the
Gebora near Badajoz, Spain.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Gebora>
1942:
World War II: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed
Executive Order 9066, authorizing the forcible relocation of over
112,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese people residing in the United
States to internment camps (Manzanar War Relocation Center pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans>
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>
2006:
A methane explosion in a coal mine in Nueva Rosita, Mexico,
trapped and killed 65 miners.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasta_de_Conchos_mine_disaster>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
tendentious:
1. Having a tendency; written or spoken with a partisan, biased or
prejudiced purpose, especially a controversial one.
2. Implicitly or explicitly slanted.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tendentious>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
When I want something to happen — or not happen — I begin to
look at all events and all things as relevant, an opportunity to take or
avoid.
--Amy Tan
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Amy_Tan>
The 2012 Budweiser Shootout was the first exhibition stock car race of
the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. It was held on February 18, 2012,
before a crowd of 82,000 in Daytona Beach, Florida, at the Daytona
International Speedway, one of six superspeedways to hold NASCAR races.
The 82-lap race was won by Kyle Busch (pictured) of the Joe Gibbs Racing
team. It was Busch's first victory in the event; Tony Stewart finished
second and Marcos Ambrose came in third. The race saw twenty-six lead
changes, shared among thirteen drivers. Before the first turn, pole
position driver Martin Truex, Jr. was passed by Jeff Gordon, and at the
end of the first lap, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. led. On the ninth lap, a
multiple-car accident prompted the first caution flag. Sixteen laps
later the second caution was issued, with Jamie McMurray leading. During
the caution period, all teams made pit stops. On lap 62 Gordon reclaimed
the lead and held it until his car hit the wall and rolled over,
prompting the fifth and final caution. Stewart took the lead, but in the
final lap, Busch passed him to win. The race attracted 7.46 million
television viewers.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Budweiser_Shootout>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1766:
A mutiny by captive Malagasy began at sea on the slave ship
Meermin, leading to the ship's destruction on Cape Agulhas in present-
day South Africa and the recapture of the instigators.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meermin_slave_mutiny>
1878:
Competition between two merchants in Lincoln County, New Mexico
Territory, US, turned into a range war when a member of one faction was
murdered by the other.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_County_War>
1943:
Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda minister, delivered the
"total war speech" to motivate the German people when the tide of World
War II was turning against Germany.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sportpalast_speech>
1977:
NASA's first Space Shuttle, Enterprise, made its first "flight"
atop a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Enterprise>
2010:
Rebels attacked the presidential palace in Niamey, Niger, and
replaced President Mamadou Tandja with a ruling junta, the Supreme
Council for the Restoration of Democracy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Nigerien_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
quoit:
1. A flat disc of metal or stone thrown at a target in the game of quoits.
2. A ring of rubber or rope similarly used in the game of deck-quoits.
3. The flat stone covering a cromlech.
4. The discus used in ancient sports.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quoit>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream
together is reality.
--Yoko Ono
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Yoko_Ono>
Myles Standish (c. 1584 – 1656) was an English military officer hired
by the Pilgrims as military advisor for the Plymouth Colony. One of the
Mayflower passengers, Standish played a leading role in the
administration and defense of the colony from its inception. On February
17, 1621, the colony militia elected him as its first commander and
continued to re-elect him to that position for the remainder of his
life. He served as an agent of Plymouth Colony in England, and as
assistant governor and treasurer of the colony. He was also one of the
first settlers and founders of the town of Duxbury, Massachusetts. As a
military leader, Standish favored preemptive action, sometimes angering
Native Americans and disturbing more moderate members of the colony. By
the 1640s, he relinquished his role as an active soldier and settled
into a quieter life on his Duxbury farm. Several towns and military
installations have been named for Standish, and monuments have been
built in his memory. The popularity of the fictionalized book The
Courtship of Miles Standish by H.W. Longfellow helped to cement the
Pilgrim story in US culture.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myles_Standish>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1801:
The U.S. House of Representatives elected Thomas Jefferson as
President and Aaron Burr as Vice President, resolving an electoral tie
in the 1800 presidential election.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1800>
1859:
The French Navy captured the Citadel of Saigon, a fortress that
was manned by 1,000 Nguyễn Dynasty soldiers, en route to conquering
Saigon and other regions of southern Vietnam.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citadel_of_Saigon>
1904:
Italian composer Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly (Geraldine
Farrar in the title role pictured) premiered at La Scala in Milan,
generating negative reviews that forced him to rewrite the opera.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madama_Butterfly>
1959:
Vanguard 2, the first weather satellite, was launched to
measure cloud cover distribution.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanguard_2>
2006:
A massive landslide in the Philippine province of Southern
Leyte killed over 1,000 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Southern_Leyte_mudslide>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
suzerainty:
1. A relation between states in which a subservient nation has its own
government, but is unable to take international action independent of
the superior state; a similar relationship between other entities.
2. The status or power of a suzerain.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/suzerainty>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
While the broad principles of democracy are universal, the fact
remains that their application varies considerably … We are at the
beginning of the road, at the very beginning. We still have a long way
to go.
--Boutros Boutros-Ghali
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Boutros_Boutros-Ghali>
Fort Yellowstone was established as a U.S. Army cavalry post in 1891 at
Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. The army administered
the park from then until 1918 when it was transferred to the newly
created National Park Service. The first structures (1891–1897) were
mainly wood-framed buildings in what has been called the "cottage
style", some with Colonial Revival elements. Later structures
(1908–1913), including the current park headquarters and the Horace
Albright Visitor Center, were primarily built from locally quarried
sandstone, and many of these are still in use as administrative offices,
residences for National Park Service employees, and museums. The army
left a legacy of policies and practices that served as precedents for
the National Park Service's management of national parks, including
wildlife management, protection of natural features, and prosecution of
illegal activities. A version of the campaign hat worn by members of the
army during the last years of their management of Yellowstone National
Park was adopted by the National Park Service's Park Rangers.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Yellowstone>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1270:
Livonian Crusade: In the Battle of Karuse, the Grand Duchy of
Lithuania achieved a decisive victory over the Livonian Order on the
frozen surface of the Baltic Sea.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Karuse>
1804:
United States Navy Lieutenant Stephen Decatur led a raid to
destroy the captured USS Philadelphia in Tripoli, denying her use to the
Barbary States in the First Barbary War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Philadelphia_(1799)>
1918:
The Council of Lithuania signed the Act of Independence of
Lithuania, proclaiming the restoration of an independent Lithuania
governed by democratic principles, despite the presence of German troops
in the country during World War I.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_Independence_of_Lithuania>
1946:
The Sikorsky S-51, the first helicopter to be built for
civilian instead of military use, made its first flight.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_H-5>
1983:
The Ash Wednesday bushfires burned 513,979 acres (2,080 km2)
in South Australia and 518,921 acres (2,100 km2) in Victoria, killing
75 people and injuring 2,676 others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_Wednesday_bushfires>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
finitary:
1. Of a function, taking a finite number of arguments to produce an output.
2. (logic) Pertaining to finite-length proofs, each using a finite set of
axioms.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/finitary>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I know of nothing useful in life except what is beautiful or
creates beauty.
--Henry Adams
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_Adams>
Chester A. Arthur (1829–1886) was the 21st President of the United
States, from 1881 to 1885. After practicing law in New York City, he
served as quartermaster general in the New York Militia during the
American Civil War. Rising quickly in the Republican political machine
run by Senator Roscoe Conkling, he was appointed to the lucrative post
of Collector of the Port of New York in 1871. In 1878 the new president,
Rutherford B. Hayes, fired Arthur as part of a reform measure. When
James Garfield won the Republican nomination for president in 1880,
Arthur was nominated for vice president to balance the ticket. After
Garfield's assassination, Arthur took up the cause of reform, supporting
the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. He presided over the rebirth of
the U.S. Navy but was criticized for failing to alleviate a growing
federal budget surplus. Suffering from poor health, Arthur retired at
the close of his term. Journalist Alexander McClure later wrote, "No man
ever entered the Presidency so profoundly and widely distrusted as
Chester Alan Arthur, and no one ever retired ... more generally
respected, alike by political friend and foe." (Full article...).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_A._Arthur>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1898:
The United States Navy battleship USS Maine exploded and sank
in Havana, Cuba, killing more than 260 people and precipitating the
Spanish–American War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Maine_(ACR-1)>
1900:
Second Boer War: British cavalry under Major-General John
French defeated Boer forces to end a 124-day siege of Kimberley,
present-day South Africa.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Kimberley>
1954:
The Canadian and American governments agreed to jointly build
the Distant Early Warning Line (DEW Line), a line of radar stations
running across the high Arctic (radar station pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distant_Early_Warning_Line>
1976:
The current Constitution of Cuba, providing for a system of
government and law based on those of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc
countries, was adopted by a national referendum.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Cuba>
2003:
In one of the largest anti-war rallies in history, millions
around the world in approximately 800 cities took part in protests
against the impending invasion of Iraq.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_15,_2003,_anti-war_protests>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
voluntourist:
A tourist who takes part in voluntourism.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/voluntourist>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Life is too short to pursue every human act to its most remote
consequences; "for want of a nail, a kingdom was lost" is a commentary
on fate, not the statement of a major cause of action against a
blacksmith.
--Antonin Scalia
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Antonin_Scalia>
Asmara Moerni (Indonesian for True Love) is a 1941 romance film from the
Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) produced by Ang Hock Liem for Union
Films. The film was written by Saeroen and directed by Rd Ariffien. It
follows Dr. Pardi (Adnan Kapau Gani), who is stunned to find that his
childhood playmate, the family's maid Tati (Djoewariah), has grown up to
be a beautiful woman. When his mother tells him he should marry quickly,
he says only that he already has someone in mind, aware that his mother
would never approve an inter-class marriage. Tati, meanwhile, is engaged
to Amir (S. Joesoef), who falls victim to a car accident after many
adventures. On his deathbed, Amir asks Pardi to take care of Tati; the
two are later married. The black-and-white film was cast and advertised
to cater to the growing native intelligentsia: Ariffien was part of the
nationalist movement, Gani was a medical doctor, and advertisements
emphasised the film's departures from the stage traditions which
dominated the local film industry. Despite mixed reviews, Asmara Moerni
was a commercial success. As with most films of the Indies, it may be
lost.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asmara_Moerni>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1779:
English explorer James Cook was killed near Kealakekua when he
tried to kidnap Kalaniʻōpuʻu, the ruling chief of the Island of
Hawaii.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping_of_Kalani%CA%BB%C5%8Dpu%CA%BBu_by_…>
1835:
The members of the original Quorum of the Twelve of the Latter
Day Saint movement were selected by the Three Witnesses.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorum_of_the_Twelve>
1919:
The first serious armed conflict of the Polish–Soviet War
took place near present-day Biaroza, Belarus.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish%E2%80%93Soviet_War>
1943:
World War II: General Hans-Jurgen von Arnim's Fifth Panzer Army
launched a concerted attack against Allied positions in Tunisia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sidi_Bou_Zid>
1991:
Upon the death of Carrie C. White, Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment
became the world's oldest living person, and she went on to have the
longest confirmed human life span in history, dying in 1997 at the age
of 122 years and 164 days.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Calment>
2011:
A "Day of Rage" marked the beginning of the Bahraini uprising,
part of the Arab Spring.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahraini_uprising_of_2011>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Arizona room:
(US) A room found in homes in Arizona, typically a patio that has been
covered and screened so as to create an outdoor feeling while avoiding
excessive heat and insects.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Arizona_room>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most
difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the
work for which all other work is but preparation.
--Rainer Maria Rilke
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rainer_Maria_Rilke>
The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) operated 24 McDonnell Douglas F-4E
Phantom II fighter-bombers between 1970 and 1973. The aircraft were
leased from the United States Air Force (USAF) as an interim measure
owing to delays in the delivery of the RAAF's General Dynamics F-111C
bombers. The F-4C Phantom was evaluated by the RAAF in 1963 as a
possible replacement for the English Electric Canberra, but was judged
unsuitable. The F-111 was selected instead, but when technical faults
delayed the project, the RAAF decided that the F-4E would be the best
alternative. The Australian and US governments negotiated an agreement
in 1970 for the RAAF to lease 24 F-4Es from the USAF. The Phantoms
entered service in September that year, and proved highly effective.
They prepared aircrew to operate the sophisticated F-111, and the
training program improved the RAAF's professional standards. One of the
F-4Es was destroyed in an accident in June 1971, and another was
repaired by the RAAF after it was damaged in a crash landing. The 23
surviving aircraft were returned to the USAF in two batches during
October 1972 and June 1973.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F-4_Phantom_II_in_Australia…>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1739:
During his invasion of the Mughal Empire, the forces of Nader,
Shah of Persia, defeated the Mughal army at Karnal within three hours,
despite being outnumbered six-to-one.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Karnal>
1815:
The Cambridge Union Society, one of the oldest debating
societies in the world, was founded at the University of Cambridge in
Cambridge, England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Union_Society>
1931:
New Delhi (India Gate pictured) was inaugurated as the new
capital of British India by Viceroy Lord Irwin.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Delhi>
1961:
American geode prospectors discovered what they claimed was a
500,000-year-old rock with a spark plug encased inside.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coso_artifact>
1991:
Gulf War: The United States Air Force dropped two laser-guided
"smart bombs" on an air-raid shelter in Baghdad, Iraq, which was
believed to be a military command site, killing at least 408 civilians.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiriyah_shelter_bombing>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
trigger warning:
A notice placed before the beginning of media content (usually an online
article, e-mail, or post) to warn of potential traumatic triggers it
contains.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/trigger_warning>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The priceless heritage of our society is the unrestricted
constitutional right of each member to think as he will. Thought control
is a copyright of totalitarianism, and we have no claim to it. It is not
the function of the government to keep the citizen from falling into
error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from
falling into error. We could justify any censorship only when the
censors are better shielded against error than the censored.
--Robert H. Jackson
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_H._Jackson>
The Alpine chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus) is a bird in the crow family,
one of two species in the genus Pyrrhocorax. Its two subspecies breed in
high mountains from Spain east through southern Europe and North Africa
to Central Asia, India and China. It has nested at 6,500 m (21,300 ft),
higher than any other bird species, and its eggs have adaptations that
improve oxygen intake and reduce water loss at these altitudes. This
bird has glossy black plumage, a yellow bill, and red legs. Widely
spread flight feathers allow acrobatic manoeuvres. A large bird with
distinctive whistling calls, it pairs for life and displays fidelity to
its breeding site, usually a cave or crevice in a cliff face. Building a
lined stick nest, it lays three to five brown-speckled pale beige eggs.
It feeds on fruit in winter and mainly invertebrate prey in grazed
grassland in summer. Although some localised populations have declined
due to predation, parasitism and changes in agricultural practices, this
widespread and abundant species is not threatened globally. Climate
change may present a long-term threat by shifting the bird's alpine
habitat even higher.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpine_chough>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1818:
On the first anniversary of its victory in the Battle of
Chacabuco, Chile formally declared its independence from Spain.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilean_Declaration_of_Independence>
1855:
Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, was
founded as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the United
States' first agricultural college.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_State_University>
1912:
Xinhai Revolution: Puyi, the last Emperor of China, abdicated
under a deal brokered by military official and politician Yuan Shikai,
formally replacing the Qing Dynasty with a new republic in China.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puyi>
1946:
Black United States Army veteran Isaac Woodard was severely
beaten by a South Carolina police officer to the point that he lost his
vision in both eyes, an incident that galvanized the Civil Rights
Movement.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Woodard>
1993:
Two-year-old James Bulger was led away from New Strand Shopping
Centre in Bootle, England, and brutally murdered by two ten-year-old
boys, who became the youngest convicted murderers in modern English
history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_James_Bulger>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
gravitational wave:
(physics) A fluctuation in spacetime caused by accelerating mass, which
propagates as a wave at the speed of light.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gravitational_wave>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Slavery, I can not but hate. I hate it because of the monstrous
injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our
republican example of its just influence in the world; enables the
enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as
hypocrites; causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity,
and especially because it forces so many really good men amongst
ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil
liberty; criticizing the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that
there is no right principle of action.
--Abraham Lincoln
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln>
Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839–1903) was an American scientist who made
important theoretical contributions to physics, chemistry, and
mathematics. His work on the applications of thermodynamics was
instrumental in transforming physical chemistry into a rigorous
deductive science. Together with James Clerk Maxwell and Ludwig
Boltzmann, he created statistical mechanics (a term that he coined),
explaining the laws of thermodynamics as consequences of the statistical
properties of large ensembles of particles. Gibbs also worked on the
application of Maxwell's equations to problems in physical optics. He
invented modern vector calculus, independently of Oliver Heaviside's
similar work. In 1863, Yale awarded Gibbs the first American doctorate
in engineering. He was a professor of mathematical physics at Yale from
1871 until his death. Working in relative isolation, he became the
earliest theoretical scientist in the United States to earn an
international reputation, and in 1901 he was awarded the Copley Medal of
the Royal Society of London. He was praised by Albert Einstein as "the
greatest mind in American history".
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Willard_Gibbs>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
660 BC:
According to tradition, Emperor Jimmu founded Japan and
established his capital in Yamato.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Jimmu>
1858:
Fourteen-year-old peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous reported
the first of eighteen Marian apparitions in Lourdes, France, resulting
in the town becoming a major site for pilgrimages by Catholics.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lourdes_apparitions>
1929:
To help settle the "Roman Question", Italy and the Holy See of
the Roman Catholic Church signed the Lateran Treaty to establish Vatican
City as an independent sovereign enclave within Italy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateran_Treaty>
1979:
The Pahlavi dynasty of Iran effectively collapsed when the
military declared itself "neutral" after rebel troops overwhelmed forces
loyal to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in armed street fighting.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Revolution>
1990:
Anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela, a political prisoner
for 27 years, was released from Victor Verster Prison near Paarl, South
Africa.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
nosh:
(intransitive, usually with on) To eat a snack or light meal. […]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nosh>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Government ought not to be invested with power to control the
affections, any more than the consciences of citizens. A man has at
least as good a right to choose his wife, as he has to choose his
religion. His taste may not suit his neighbors; but so long as his
deportment is correct, they have no right to interfere with his
concerns.
--Lydia Maria Child
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lydia_Maria_Child>
Telopea truncata, commonly known as the Tasmanian waratah, is a plant in
the family Proteaceae. It is endemic to Tasmania where it is found on
moist acidic soils at altitudes of 600 to 1200 m (2000–4000 ft). A
component of alpine eucalypt forest, rainforest, and scrub
communities,T. truncata grows as a multistemmed shrub to a height of 3
metres (10 ft), or occasionally as a small tree, with red flower heads,
known as inflorescences, that appear over the Tasmanian summer (November
to February) and bear 10 to 35 individual flowers. Yellow-flowered forms
are occasionally seen, but do not form a population distinct from the
rest of the species. Collected by French botanist Jacques Labillardière
in 1792–93, T. truncata was first described in 1805. Genetically the
most distinctive of the five waratah species, Tasmanian waratah can be
cultivated in temperate climates, requiring soils with ample moisture
and good drainage and in partly shaded or sunny positions. Several
commercially available cultivars have been developed that are hybrids of
T. truncata with the New South Wales waratah (T. speciosissima) and
Gippsland waratah (T. oreades).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telopea_truncata>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1567:
After an explosion destroyed the house in Kirk o' Field,
Edinburgh, where he was staying, the strangled body of Henry Stuart,
Lord Darnley, the King consort of Scotland, was found in a nearby
orchard.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Stuart,_Lord_Darnley>
1763:
Britain, France, and Spain signed the Treaty of Paris to end
the Seven Years' War, significantly reducing the size of the French
colonial empire while at the same time marking the beginning of an
extensive period of British dominance outside of Europe.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Paris_(1763)>
1936:
Second Italo-Abyssinian War: The Battle of Amba Aradam began,
ending nine days later in a decisive tactical victory for Italy and the
neutralisation of almost the entire Ethiopian army as a fighting force.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Amba_Aradam>
1962:
"Rudolf Abel" (pictured on stamp), a Soviet spy arrested by the
FBI, was exchanged for Gary Powers, the pilot of the CIA spy plane that
had been shot down over Soviet airspace two years earlier.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Abel>
2009:
The first accidental hypervelocity collision between two intact
satellites in low Earth orbit took place when Iridium 33 and Kosmos-2251
collided and destroyed each other.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_satellite_collision>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
beholden:
1. Obligated to provide, display, or do something for another; indebted,
obliged.
2. Bound by external expectations, such as fashion or morality.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/beholden>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Courage is poorly housed that dwells in numbers; the lion never
counts the herd that are about him, nor weighs how many flocks he has to
scatter.
--Aaron Hill
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Aaron_Hill>