The Franklin half dollar coin was struck by the United States Mint from
1948 to 1963. It pictures Founding Father Benjamin Franklin on the
obverse, with the Liberty Bell and a small eagle on the reverse.
Produced in 90 percent silver with a reeded edge, the coin was struck
at the Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco mints. Mint director
Nellie Tayloe Ross had long admired Franklin, and asked the Mint's chief
engraver, John Sinnock, to design the coin; his initials appear on the
obverse, but some mistook them for the initials of Soviet dictator
Joseph Stalin. When Ross submitted the designs to the Commission of Fine
Arts, they disliked the small eagle and felt that depicting the crack in
the Liberty Bell would expose the coinage to jokes and ridicule;
nevertheless, the Mint proceeded with Sinnock's designs. Beginning in
1964 the coin was replaced by the Kennedy half dollar, issued in honor
of the assassinated President, John F. Kennedy. Though the coin is still
legal tender, its face value is greatly exceeded by its value to
collectors or as silver.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_half_dollar>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1598:
King Henry IV of France issued the Edict of Nantes, granting
freedom of religion to the Huguenots.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edict_of_Nantes>
1943:
Second World War: The Royal Navy submarine HMS Seraph began
Operation Mincemeat to deceive Germany about the upcoming invasion of
Sicily.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mincemeat>
1982:
Sixteen monks and a nun belonging to Ananda Marga in Calcutta,
India, were dragged out of taxis by persons unknown in three different
locations, beaten to death and then set on fire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijon_Setu_massacre>
2009:
A gunman went on a shooting spree at the Azerbaijan State Oil
Academy, a public university in Baku, killing 12 people before
committing suicide.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijan_State_Oil_Academy_shooting>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
weatherbound:
Prevented by bad weather from doing something, such as travelling.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/weatherbound>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I have had my results for a long time: but I do not yet know how I
am to arrive at them.
--Carl Friedrich Gauss
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Friedrich_Gauss>
Lightning is a fictional character from Square Enix's Final Fantasy
series. She first appeared as a playable character and protagonist in
the role-playing video game Final Fantasy XIII, and reappeared as a
supporting character in Final Fantasy XIII-2 and as the sole playable
character in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. She was created by
Motomu Toriyama, the director and scenario writer of XIII, and designed
by Tetsuya Nomura, a regular character artist for the series. Their idea
was to create a strong female protagonist who was adept at combat and
less feminine than previous Final Fantasy heroines. Lightning has
received mixed commentary from critics—much of it relating to her cold
personality, which was compared to that of Final Fantasy VII's
protagonist Cloud Strife. Some critics saw her in Lightning Returns as
underdeveloped and unlikable, while others found her better developed
and more human than in previous games. In lists later compiled by video
game publications, Lightning was commended as one of the best characters
in the Final Fantasy series and in video games as a whole.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_(Final_Fantasy)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1587:
Anglo-Spanish War: In the Bay of Cádiz, Francis Drake led the
first of several naval raids on the Spanish Armada that destroyed so
many ships that Philip II of Spain had to delay his plans to invade
England for over a year.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singeing_the_King_of_Spain%27s_Beard>
1770:
British explorer James Cook and the crew of HMS Endeavour
(replica pictured), the first European ship to land in eastern
Australia, reached the coast of Botany Bay near present-day Sydney.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Endeavour>
1903:
A 30 million cubic-metre landslide buried the town of Frank,
Northwest Territories, and killed at least 70 of the town's residents,
making it the deadliest landslide in Canadian history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Slide>
1946:
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East convened
and indicted Hideki Tojo and 27 other Japanese leaders for war crimes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Military_Tribunal_for_the_Far_E…>
1997:
The 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention went into effect,
outlawing the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons in
those countries that ratified the arms control agreement.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_Weapons_Convention>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
scrape the bottom of the barrel:
(idiomatic) To use the least desirable parts of something.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/scrape_the_bottom_of_the_barrel>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally
convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection.
--Henri Poincaré
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henri_Poincar%C3%A9>
On 28 April 1789, a mutiny on HMS Bounty in the south Pacific was led by
Fletcher Christian. Bounty had left England in 1787 on a mission to
collect breadfruit plants from Tahiti. During a five-month layover
there, many of the men were in relationships with native Polynesians.
Lieutenant William Bligh handed out increasingly harsh punishments and
abuse, especially to Christian, and morale plummeted. After three weeks
back at sea, Bligh and 18 of his crew were forced into the ship's small
uncovered launch, and had to row and sail more than 4,000 miles
(6,400 km) to reach safety. In 1791, 14 of the Bounty crew were
arrested in Tahiti; four of these died when their ship ran aground on
the Great Barrier Reef, four were acquitted at a court martial, three
were pardoned and three were hanged. On Pitcairn Island, just one
surviving mutineer, John Adams, was discovered in 1808; Christian and
most of the rest had been killed, by each other and by the mistreated
Tahitians they brought with them. Their descendants would continue to
inhabit Pitcairn into the 21st century. The view of Bligh as an
overbearing monster has in recent years been challenged by historians.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutiny_on_the_Bounty>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1253:
Nichiren, a Japanese monk, expounded Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō
for the first time and declared it to be the essence of Buddhism, in
effect founding Nichiren Buddhism.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nichiren_Buddhism>
1887:
A week after being arrested by the Prussian Secret Police,
Alsatian police inspector Guillaume Schnaebelé was released on order of
German Emperor William I, defusing a possible war.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume_Schnaebel%C3%A9>
1949:
Former First Lady of the Philippines Aurora Quezon, her
daughter, and ten others were assassinated by the military arm of the
Philippine Communist Party.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_Quezon>
1965:
Four days after the Dominican Civil War began, the United
States invaded the country, aiming to prevent the development of what
Lyndon Johnson saw as a possible second Cuban Revolution.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominican_Civil_War>
2001:
Dennis Tito became the world's first fee-paying space tourist,
riding the Russian Soyuz TM-32 spacecraft to the International Space
Station.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Tito>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Boreas:
1. (Greek mythology) The god of the North Wind.
2. (poetic) The north wind personified.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Boreas>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I have never disliked religion. I think it has some purpose in our
evolution. I don't have much truck with the "religion is the cause of
most of our wars" school of thought because that is manifestly done by
mad, manipulative and power-hungry men who cloak their ambition in God.
I number believers of all sorts among my friends. Some of them are
praying for me. I'm happy they wish to do this, I really am, but I think
science may be a better bet.
--Terry Pratchett
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Terry_Pratchett>
Menkauhor Kaiu was an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the Old Kingdom
period, the seventh ruler of the Fifth Dynasty in the 25th or 24th
century BC. He ruled for possibly eight or nine years, following king
Nyuserre Ini, and was succeeded by Djedkare Isesi. Although Menkauhor is
well attested by historical sources, few artefacts from his reign have
survived; less is known about him than about most Fifth Dynasty
pharaohs, and no offspring of his have been identified. Khentkaus III
may have been Menkauhor's mother, as indicated by discoveries in her
tomb in 2015. Beyond the construction of monuments, the only known
activity dated to his reign is an expedition to the copper and turquoise
mines in Sinai. He ordered the construction of a sun temple, the last
ever to be built, called the Akhet-Ra ("The Horizon of Ra"). Known from
inscriptions found in the tombs of its priests, this temple is yet to be
located. Menkauhor was buried in Saqqara in a small pyramid named
Netjer-Isut Menkauhor ("The Divine Places of Menkauhor"). Known today as
the Headless Pyramid, the ruin had been lost under shifting sands until
its rediscovery in 2008.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menkauhor_Kaiu>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1521:
Filipino natives led by chieftain Lapu-Lapu killed Portuguese
explorer Ferdinand Magellan and more than forty Spanish soldiers at the
Battle of Mactan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mactan>
1667:
John Milton, blind and impoverished, sold the copyright of
Paradise Lost for £10.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Milton>
1810:
Ludwig van Beethoven composed his "Bagatelle No. 25 in A
minor", better known as "Für Elise" (audio featured), one of his most
popular compositions.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%BCr_Elise>
1941:
Boris Kidrič and Edvard Kardelj founded the Liberation Front
of the Slovene Nation, the main anti-fascist Slovene civil resistance
and political organization.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_Front_of_the_Slovene_Nation>
1993:
Members of the Zambia national football team were killed in a
plane crash en route to play a 1994 World Cup qualifying match against
Senegal.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Zambia_national_football_team_air_disast…>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
proot:
A command to a donkey or mule to move faster.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/proot>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Man needed one moral constitution to fit him for his original
state; he needs another to fit him for his present state; and he has
been, is, and will long continue to be, in process of adaptation. And
the belief in human perfectibility merely amounts to the belief that, in
virtue of this process, man will eventually become completely suited to
his mode of life. Progress, therefore, is not an accident, but a
necessity. Instead of civilization being artificial, it is part of
nature; all of a piece with the development of the embryo or the
unfolding of a flower.
--Herbert Spencer
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Herbert_Spencer>
Big Star was an American power pop band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in
1971 by Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Jody Stephens, and Andy Hummel. The
group broke up in 1974, but reorganized with a new line-up nearly 20
years later. In its first era, the band's musical style drew on the
vocal harmonies of The Beatles, as well as the swaggering rhythms of The
Rolling Stones and the jangling guitars of The Byrds. To the resulting
power pop, Big Star added dark, existential themes, and produced a style
that foreshadowed the alternative rock of the 1980s and 1990s. Their
first two albums, #1 Record and Radio City, suffered from ineffective
marketing but garnered enthusiastic reviews; Rolling Stone called the
band a "quintessential American power pop band" that was "one of the
most mythic and influential cult acts in all of rock & roll". In 1993,
Chilton and Stephens re-formed Big Star with Jon Auer and Ken
Stringfellow. After tours in Europe and Japan, they released a new
studio album, In Space, in 2005. Big Star was inducted into the Memphis
Music Hall of Fame in 2014.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Star>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1478:
In a conspiracy to replace the Medici family as rulers of the
Florentine Republic, the Pazzi family attacked Lorenzo de' Medici and
killed his brother Giuliano during High Mass at the Florence Duomo.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pazzi_family>
1777:
American Revolutionary War: Sixteen-year-old Sybil Ludington
rode forty miles through the night to warn militiamen under the control
of her father that British troops were planning to invade Danbury,
Connecticut.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_Ludington>
1946:
In Naperville, Illinois, US, two passenger trains collided,
leaving 45 people dead and some 125 injured.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naperville_train_disaster>
1986:
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Chernobyl, Ukrainian
SSR, suffered a steam explosion, resulting in a fire, a nuclear
meltdown, and the evacuation and resettlement of over 336,000 people
around Europe.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster>
2002:
Expelled student Robert Steinhäuser murdered 16 people and
wounded seven others before committing suicide at the Gutenberg-
Gymnasium Erfurt in Erfurt, Germany.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erfurt_massacre>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
culturicide:
The systematic destruction of a culture.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/culturicide>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
If God be God and man a creature made in image of the divine
intelligence, his noblest function is the search for truth.
--Morris West
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Morris_West>
The Battle of Kaiapit was fought in 1943 between Australian and Japanese
forces in New Guinea during the Finisterre Range campaign of World War
II. Following landings at Nadzab and at Lae, the Allies attempted to
exploit their success with an advance into the upper Markham Valley,
starting with Kaiapit (pictured). The Australian 2/6th Independent
Company flew in to the valley from Port Moresby in 13 USAAF C-47
Dakotas, making a difficult landing on a rough airstrip. Unaware that a
much larger Japanese force was also headed for Kaiapit and Nadzab, the
company attacked the village on 19 September to secure the area so that
it could be developed into an airfield. They then held it against a
strong counterattack. During two days of fighting the larger force, the
Australians suffered relatively few losses. Their victory at Kaiapit
enabled the Australian 7th Division to be flown in to the upper Markham
Valley, stopping the Japanese from threatening Lae or Nadzab, where a
major airbase was being developed. The victory also led to the capture
of the Ramu Valley, which provided new forward fighter airstrips for the
air war.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kaiapit>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
775:
Forces of the Abbasid Caliphate crushed those of rebelling
Armenian princes in the Battle of Bagrevand
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bagrevand>
1644:
The Ming dynasty of China fell when the Chongzhen Emperor
committed suicide during a peasant rebellion led by Li Zicheng.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming_dynasty>
1846:
An open conflict between the military forces of the United
States and Mexico began over the disputed border of Texas north of the
Rio Grande and south of the Nueces River, later serving as a primary
justification for Mexican–American War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thornton_Affair>
1953:
"Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids" by molecular biologists
James Watson and Francis Crick was first published in the scientific
journal Nature, describing the discovery of the double helix structure
of DNA.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_Structure_of_Nucleic_Acids:_A_Struc…>
1986:
Mswati III was crowned King of Swaziland, succeeding his father
Sobhuza II.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mswati_III>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
total football:
(soccer) A football (soccer) tactic in which the outfield players assume
different roles during a game, while keeping an organised structure.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/total_football>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember
always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon
evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of
another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we
dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not
descended from fearful men — not from men who feared to write, to
speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment,
unpopular. This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy's methods
to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and
our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There
is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities.
As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age. We
proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever
it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad
by deserting it at home.
--Edward R. Murrow
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_R._Murrow>
Nelson's Pillar was a large granite column capped by a statue of Horatio
Nelson, erected in the centre of O'Connell Street, Dublin, Ireland in
1809. It was severely damaged by explosives in March 1966 and demolished
a week later. The monument was erected after the euphoria following
Nelson's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. It proved a popular
tourist attraction but provoked aesthetic and political controversy, and
there were frequent calls for it to be removed, or replaced with a
memorial to an Irish hero. Nevertheless it remained, even after Ireland
became a republic in 1948. Although influential literary figures
defended the Pillar on historical and cultural grounds, its destruction
just before the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising was, on the whole,
well received by the Irish public. The police could not identify those
responsible; when in 2010 a former republican activist admitted planting
the explosives, he was not charged. The Pillar was finally replaced in
2003 with the Spire of Dublin. Relics of the Pillar are found in various
Dublin locations, and its memory is preserved in numerous works of Irish
literature.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson%27s_Pillar>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1479 BC:
Thutmose III (statue pictured) became the sixth Pharaoh of
the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, although during the first 22 years of
the reign he was co-regent with his aunt, Hatshepsut.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thutmose_III>
1704:
The first issue of The Boston News-Letter, the first
continuously published newspaper in British North America, was
published.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boston_News-Letter>
1916:
Irish republicans led by Patrick Pearse began the Easter Rising
against British rule in Ireland, and proclaimed the Irish Republic an
independent state.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Rising>
1933:
Nazi Germany began its persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses by
shutting down the Watch Tower Society office in Magdeburg.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Jehovah%27s_Witnesses_in_Nazi_…>
2013:
A building in the Savar Upazila of Dhaka, Bangladesh,
collapsed, resulting in over 1,100 deaths, making it the deadliest
accidental structural failure in modern human history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Savar_building_collapse>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
have legs:
1. (idiomatic) To have endurance; to have prospects to exist or go on for a
long time.
2. (nautical) To have speed.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/have_legs>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
things explain each other, Not themselves.
--George Oppen
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Oppen>
Stanley Price Weir (23 April 1866 – 14 November 1944) was a public
servant and Australian Army officer. He was awarded the Volunteer
Officers' Decoration in 1908, and appointed a justice of the peace in
1914. During World War I, he commanded the 10th Battalion of the
Australian Imperial Force during the landing at Anzac Cove and the
Gallipoli Campaign against the Ottoman Turks, and during the battles of
Pozières and Mouquet Farm in France. Weir returned to Australia at his
own request at the age of 50 in late 1916, when he was appointed as the
first South Australian Public Service Commissioner. In 1917 he was
awarded the Distinguished Service Order and was mentioned in dispatches
for his performance at Pozières and Mouquet Farm. On his retirement
from the Australian Military Forces in 1921, he was given an honorary
promotion to brigadier general, only the second South Australia-born
officer to reach this rank. Before his retirement as Public Service
Commissioner in 1931, Weir was the chairman of both the Central Board of
Health and the Public Relief Board. He led an active retirement,
contributing to several religious, charitable and welfare organisations.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Price_Weir>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1016:
Edmund Ironside became King of England, reigning for only seven
months before the country was conquered by Cnut the Great.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Ironside>
1516:
The most well-known version of the Reinheitsgebot, the German
Beer Purity Law was adopted across the entirety of Bavaria.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinheitsgebot>
1918:
First World War: The British Royal Navy conducted a raid on the
Belgian port of Bruges-Zeebrugge.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeebrugge_Raid>
1951:
American journalist William N. Oatis was arrested for espionage
by the Communist government of Czechoslovakia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_N._Oatis>
2010:
Governor of Arizona Jan Brewer signed the controversial anti-
illegal immigration bill SB 1070 into law.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_SB_1070>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
all the world's a stage:
People have roles to play in life just as actors do in the theatre.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/all_the_world%27s_a_stage>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle
rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless’d; It
blesseth him that gives and him that takes. ’Tis mightiest in the
mightiest; it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown; His
sceptre shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and
majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is
above this sceptred sway, It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, It is
an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then show likest
God’s, When mercy seasons justice.
--The Merchant of Venice
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Merchant_of_Venice>
Gravity Bone is a freeware first-person adventure video game developed
by Brendon Chung through his studio, Blendo Games, and released on
August 28, 2008. The game employs a modified version of id Software's id
Tech 2 engine—originally used for Quake 2—and incorporates music
originally performed by Xavier Cugat for films by director Wong Kar-wai.
Four incarnations of the game were produced during its one-year
development; the first featured more first-person shooter elements than
the released version. Subsequent versions included more spy-oriented
gameplay. Gravity Bone received critical acclaim from video game
journalists. It was called "a pleasure to experience" by Charles Onyett
from IGN, and was compared to games such as Team Fortress 2 and Portal.
The game was praised for its visual style, atmosphere, cohesive story,
and ability to quickly catch the player's interest. It received the
"Best Arthouse Game" award in Game Tunnel's Special Awards of 2008. A
sequel released in 2012, Thirty Flights of Loving, was also critically
acclaimed, mostly for its novel nonlinear storytelling.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_Bone>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1622:
An Anglo-Persian force combined to take over the Portuguese
garrison at Hormuz Island in the Persian Gulf.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_Ormuz_(1622)>
1889:
Over 50,000 people rushed to claim a piece of the available two
million acres (8,000 km2) in the Unassigned Lands, the present-day US
state of Oklahoma, entirely founding the brand-new Oklahoma City.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Rush_of_1889>
1911:
Tsinghua University ("The Old Gate" pictured), one of the
leading universities in mainland China, was founded, funded by an
unexpected surplus in indemnities paid by the Qing Dynasty to the United
States as a result of the Boxer Rebellion.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsinghua_University>
1948:
Civil War in Mandatory Palestine: The Jewish paramilitary group
Haganah captured Haifa from the Arab Liberation Army.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Haifa_(1948)>
2000:
In a predawn raid, US Immigration and Naturalization Service
agents seized six-year-old Elián González from his relatives' home in
Miami, Florida, and returned him to his Cuban father.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli%C3%A1n_Gonz%C3%A1lez_affair>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
sanctum:
A place set apart, as with a sanctum sanctorum; a sacred or private
place; a private retreat or workroom.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sanctum>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
How can U just leave me standing? Alone in a world that's so cold?
(So cold) Maybe I'm just 2 demanding Maybe I'm just like my father, 2
bold Maybe you're just like my mother She's never satisfied (She's never
satisfied) Why do we scream at each other? This is what it sounds like
When doves cry. I believe that through discipline,
though not through discipline alone, we can achieve serenity, and a
certain small but precious measure of the freedom from the accidents of
incarnation, and charity, and that detachment which preserves the world
which it renounces.
--Robert Oppenheimer
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Oppenheimer>
The Runaway Scrape was the 1836 escape of Texas residents from the
encroaching Mexican Army of Operations under the command of Antonio
López de Santa Anna during the Texas Revolution. Civilian evacuations
began on the Gulf Coast in January after the vanguard of the Mexican
army crossed the Rio Grande to quell the insurrection of American
colonists and Tejanos (Mexicans born in Texas). Weeks later, news of the
Battle of the Alamo and the Goliad massacre created a state of panic.
Sam Houston was the Texas commander-in-chief of raw recruits who had
little or no combat experience. Fleeing civilians moved in tandem with
Houston's troops for protection, as he sought a safe training camp for
his soldiers. The pursuing Mexican army had orders to execute all rebel
combatants, and it cut a swath of destruction in its search for them.
After a mere three weeks training near the Brazos River, the Texas
troops finally parted ways with the civilians, who were given a military
escort to safety. Houston turned his army southeast and engaged the
Mexican army at the April 21 Battle of San Jacinto that resulted in
Santa Anna's surrender.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaway_Scrape>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
900:
A debt was pardoned by the Datu of Tondo on the island of Luzon,
as inscribed on the Laguna Copperplate Inscription, the earliest known
written document found in the Philippines.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laguna_Copperplate_Inscription>
1509:
Henry VIII became King of England, following the death of his
father Henry VII, eventually becoming a significant figure in the
history of the English monarchy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_VIII_of_England>
1863:
After the Ottoman Empire exiled him from Baghdad,
Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, began his twelve-day
stay in the Garden of Ridván where he declared his mission as "He whom
God shall make manifest".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bah%C3%A1%27u%27ll%C3%A1h>
1914:
Mexican Revolution: The United States detained a German steamer
carrying materiel for the Mexican federal government.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ypiranga_incident>
1970:
In response to a long-running dispute over wheat production
quotas, the Principality of Hutt River proclaimed its secession from
Western Australia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Hutt_River>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
macroeconomics:
The study of the entire economy in terms of the total amount of goods
and services produced, total income earned, the level of employment of
productive resources, and the general behavior of prices.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/macroeconomics>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The purpose and cause of the incarnation was that He might
illuminate the world by His wisdom and excite it to the love of Himself.
--Peter Abelard
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Peter_Abelard>