United States v. Kagama was a United States Supreme Court case that
upheld the constitutionality of the Major Crimes Act of 1885, which gave
jurisdiction to the federal courts in certain cases involving Native
Americans. Kagama, a Yurok, was accused of murdering another Yurok on an
Indian reservation. His case was selected by the Department of Justice
as a test case for the Act. The court opinion, authored by Justice
Samuel Freeman Miller (pictured), confirmed the authority of Congress
over Indian affairs. Plenary power over Indian tribes, supposedly
granted to the U.S. Congress by the Commerce Clause of the Constitution,
was not deemed necessary to reach the decision; instead, the Court found
the power in the tribe's status as a dependent domestic nation. In the
year following the decision, Congress passed the Dawes Act, intended to
force assimilation and weaken tribal sovereignty. The case has been
criticized by legal scholars as drawing on powers that are not granted
to Congress by the Constitution.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Kagama>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1680:
Several tribes of Pueblo Indians captured the town of Santa Fe
in Nuevo México.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pueblo_Revolt>
1831:
Nat Turner led a slave revolt in Southampton County, Virginia,
US; it was suppressed about 48 hours later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Turner%27s_slave_rebellion>
1944:
Second World War: A combined Canadian–Polish force captured
the strategically important town of Falaise, France, in the final
offensive of the Battle of Normandy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tractable>
1969:
An Australian tourist set the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on
fire, a major catalyst of the formation of the Organisation of Islamic
Cooperation.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Aqsa_Mosque>
1986:
A limnic eruption of a cloud of carbon dioxide from Lake Nyos
in Cameroon killed up to 1,700 people and 3,500 livestock in nearby
villages.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Nyos>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
victory lap:
1. (sports) An extra lap of the race track taken after the conclusion of a
race.
2. (US, education, slang) One or more years of study beyond the traditional
four taken to complete one's undergraduate degree.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/victory_lap>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I like digging into these characters that are a lot more complex,
and there's a lot that isn't apparent on the surface … In a weird way,
you can access all that fear and pain. … Nothing makes me happier than
when somebody figures out I was in something, and then they'd seen me in
something else, and had no idea it was the same person… Then I feel
like I've done my job.
--Alicia Witt
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alicia_Witt>
Old Pine Church is a mid-19th-century church near Purgitsville, West
Virginia. It is among the earliest remaining log churches in Hampshire
County, along with Capon Chapel and Mount Bethel Church. Constructed in
1838 to serve as a nondenominational church, it may also have been built
as a meeting place for Schwarzenau Brethren adherents, known as
"Dunkers" or "Dunkards". The church probably hosted German Methodist
settlers as well. By 1870, most services were for the Brethren
denomination, and in 1878, the church's congregation split into White
Pine Church of the Brethren and Old Pine Church congregations. Both
continued to use the church until 1907. Old Pine Church reportedly
housed a school in the early 20th century while still serving as a
center for worship. In 1968, residents of the Purgitsville community
raised funds to restore the church. It was added to the National
Register of Historic Places in 2012 for its "significant settlement-era
rural religious architecture in the Potomac Highlands."
(Full article...).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Pine_Church>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
14:
The adopted son of Roman emperor Augustus Agrippa Postumus, was
executed by his guards while in exile under mysterious circumstances.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrippa_Postumus>
1710:
War of the Spanish Succession: The Spanish-Bourbon army
commanded by the Marquis de Bay was soundly defeated by a multinational
army led by the Austrian commander Guido Starhemberg.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Saragossa>
1882:
The 1812 Overture by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
was first performed at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1812_Overture>
1962:
NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship,
made her maiden voyage.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NS_Savannah>
1998:
The Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Sudan was destroyed by a
missile attack launched by the United States in retaliation for the
August 7 US embassy bombings.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Infinite_Reach>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
pollinivore:
(zoology) An animal that feeds on pollen; a palynivore.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pollinivore>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The centermost processes of the brain with which consciousness is
presumably associated are simply not understood. They are so far beyond
our comprehension that no one I know of has been able to imagine their
nature.
--Roger Wolcott Sperry
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Roger_Wolcott_Sperry>
Borscht is a tart soup popular in several Eastern European cuisines,
including Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, Belarusian, Lithuanian and
Romanian, as well as Ashkenazi Jewish. It derives from an ancient soup
cooked from pickled common hogweed. The variety most commonly associated
with the name in English is a beetroot soup of Ukrainian origin; other
varieties include sorrel, rye, and cabbage borscht. Borscht is typically
made by combining meat or bone stock with sautéed vegetables, including
cabbage, carrots, onions, potatoes and tomatoes. It may include meat,
fish or neither, may be served hot or cold, and may range from a hearty
one-pot meal to a dainty clear broth or a smooth refreshing drink.
Common garnishes and side-dishes include sour cream, hard-boiled eggs,
potatoes, uszka dumplings and pampushky buns. Several ethnic groups
claim borscht, in its variegated local guises, as their own national
dish and consume it as part of ritual meals within Eastern Orthodox,
Greek Catholic, Roman Catholic, and Jewish religious traditions.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borscht>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1745:
Bonnie Prince Charlie raised the Jacobite standard at
Glenfinnan in the Scottish Highlands to begin the Second Jacobite
Rising.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobite_rising_of_1745>
1934:
Per the results of a German referendum, the posts of Chancellor
and President were merged, indicating public approval for Adolf Hitler's
assumption of supreme power.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_referendum,_1934>
1953:
The intelligence agencies of the United Kingdom and the United
States orchestrated a coup d'état of Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad
Mosaddegh and restored the absolute monarchy of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat>
1991:
A Hasidic man accidentally struck two Guyanese immigrant
children with his car in the Crown Heights neighborhood of New York
City, initiating three days of rioting.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Heights_riot>
2002:
The single deadliest helicopter crash took place when a team of
Chechen separatists brought down a Russian Mil Mi-26 with a man-portable
air-defense system, resulting in 127 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Khankala_Mi-26_crash>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
ylem:
(astronomy, cosmology, physics, now chiefly historical) In the Big Bang
theory, the hot and dense plasma which made up the cosmos at the time of
recombination in an early stage of its expansion and cooling, when the
first atoms formed and photons decoupled. The ylem is regarded as the
source of the cosmic microwave background.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ylem>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The most exciting happiness is the happiness generated by forces
beyond your control.
--Ogden Nash
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ogden_Nash>
Tjioeng Wanara is a 1941 film from the Dutch East Indies (modern-day
Indonesia) directed and produced by Jo Eng Sek as the second production
by Star Film. Starring R Sukran, Elly Joenara, and AB Djoenaedi, the
film depicts the political manipulations in the Sundanese kingdom of
Galuh, where a young prince named Tjioeng Wanara must reclaim his
throne. The film, which was adapted by Rd Ariffien from the Sundanese
legend of the same name, was the first colossal production in the
Indies, featuring more than 500 people in supporting roles and as
extras. Tjioeng Wanara was released on 18 August 1941. Advertisements
emphasised that the scholar Poerbatjaraka had served as the historical
adviser and that the film was based on the version of the legend
published by Balai Pustaka, the official publisher of the Dutch colonial
government. The film premiered to commercial success, but received mixed
reviews. Following the film's release, Star released four further films.
This black-and-white production, which was screened until at least 1948,
may now be lost.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tjioeng_Wanara>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1487:
Reconquista: After a four-month siege, the Catholic Monarchs
conquered the city of Málaga from the Muslims.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_M%C3%A1laga_(1487)>
1783:
An unusually bright meteor procession blazed across the night
sky over Great Britain.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1783_Great_Meteor>
1891:
A hurricane struck Martinique, killing about 700 people,
injuring at least 1,000 others, and obliterating houses, trees, and
crops across the entire island.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1891_Martinique_hurricane>
1966:
Vietnam War: Members from D Company of the 6th Battalion of the
Royal Australian Regiment were surrounded and attacked on all sides by a
much larger Viet Cong unit at the Battle of Long Tan (RAAF helicopter
pictured), but held them off for several hours until reinforcements
arrived.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Long_Tan>
1976:
North Korean soldiers killed two American soldiers in the Joint
Security Area of the Korean Demilitarized Zone, heightening tensions
over a 100-foot (30 m) poplar tree that blocked the line of sight
between a United Nations Command checkpoint and an observation post.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axe_murder_incident>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
hoover:
1. (transitive, Britain) To clean (a room, etc.) with a vacuum cleaner,
irrespective of brand.
2. (intransitive, Britain) To use a vacuum cleaner, irrespective of brand.
3. (transitive) To suck in or inhale, as if by a vacuum cleaner.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hoover>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
When the first flint, the first shell, was shaped into a weapon,
that action shaped man. As he molded and complicated his tools, so they
molded and complicated him. He became the first scientific animal. And
at last, via information theory and great computers, he gained knowledge
of all his parts. He formed the Laws of Integration, which reveal all
beings as part of a pattern and show them their part in the pattern.
There is only the pattern; the pattern is all the universe, creator and
created.
--Brian Aldiss
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brian_Aldiss>
HMS Formidable was an Illustrious-class aircraft carrier ordered for the
Royal Navy before World War II. Transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet
as a replacement for the crippled sister ship Illustrious, Formidable's
aircraft played a key role in the Battle of Cape Matapan in early 1941,
then provided cover for Allied ships and attacked Axis forces until the
carrier was badly damaged by German dive bombers in May. Assigned to the
Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean in early 1942, the carrier covered the
invasion of Diego Suarez in Vichy Madagascar in mid-1942 against the
possibility of a sortie by the Japanese into the Indian Ocean. The ship
participated in Operation Torch, the invasion of French North Africa, in
November, and covered the invasions of Sicily and mainland Italy in
1943. Formidable made several attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz
in Norway with the Home Fleet in mid-1944, and in 1945 attacked targets
in the Japanese Home Islands. After repatriating liberated Allied
prisoners of war and soldiers and ferrying British personnel across the
globe, the ship was placed in reserve, and finally sold for scrap in
1953.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Formidable_(67)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
986:
Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars: The Bulgarians defeated the
Byzantine forces at the Gate of Trajan near present-day Ihtiman, with
Byzantine Emperor Basil II barely escaping.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Gates_of_Trajan>
1560:
The Scottish Parliament adopted a Protestant confession of
faith to initiate the Scottish Reformation and disestablishing
Catholicism as the national religion.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Reformation>
1943:
Second World War: The Royal Air Force began a strategic bombing
campaign against Nazi Germany's V-weapon programme by attacking the
Peenemünde Army Research Center.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Hydra_(1943)>
1980:
Two-month-old Australian Azaria Chamberlain was taken from her
family's campsite at Uluru by a dingo, for which her mother was later
convicted of murder.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Azaria_Chamberlain>
2008:
With the victory in the 4×100 m medley relay at the Beijing
Summer Olympics, Michael Phelps set the records for the most gold medals
won by an individual in a single Olympics (8) as well as total career
gold medals (14) in modern Olympic history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Phelps>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
stevedore:
A dockworker involved in loading and unloading cargo.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stevedore>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We now give more serious weight to the words of a country's poets
than to the words of its politicians — though we know the latter may
interfere more drastically with our lives. Religions, ideologies,
mercantile competition divide us. The essential solidarity of the very
diverse poets of the world, besides being mysterious fact is one we can
be thankful for, since its terms are exclusively those of love,
understanding and patience. It is one of the few spontaneous guarantees
of possible unity that mankind can show, and the revival of an appetite
for poetry is like a revival of an appetite for all man's saner
possibilities, and a revulsion from the materialist cataclysms of recent
years and the worse ones which the difference of nations threatens for
the years ahead.
--Ted Hughes
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ted_Hughes>
Banksia scabrella, commonly known as the Burma Road banksia, is a
species of woody shrub in the genus Banksia. It is classified in the
series Abietinae, a group of several species of shrubs with small round
or oval flower spikes. It occurs in several isolated populations south
of Geraldton, Western Australia; the largest is south and east of Mount
Adams. Found on sandy soils in heathland or shrubland, it grows to 2 m
(7 ft) high and 3 m (10 ft) across with fine needle-like leaves.
Appearing in spring and summer, the flower spikes are tan to cream with
purple styles. B. scabrella is killed by fire and regenerates by seed.
Originally collected in 1966, it was one of several species previously
considered to be forms of Banksia sphaerocarpa, before it was finally
described by banksia expert Alex George in his 1981 revision of the
genus. Like many members of the Abietinae, it is rarely seen in
cultivation, but has been described as having horticultural potential.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksia_scabrella>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1513:
War of the League of Cambrai: King Henry VIII of England and
his Imperial allies defeated French cavalry, who were then forced to
retreat.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Spurs>
1819:
Fifteen people were killed and 400–700 others were injured
when cavalry charged into a crowd gathered at St Peter's Field,
Manchester, England, to demand the reform of parliamentary
representation.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterloo_Massacre>
1891:
The San Sebastian Church in Manila, the only all-steel church
in Asia, was officially consecrated.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Sebastian_Church_(Manila)>
1946:
A day of widespread riot and manslaughter between Hindus and
Muslims took place in the city of Calcutta as a result of the Muslim
League's call for an independent Pakistan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Action_Day>
1977:
Elvis Presley, "The King of Rock and Roll", was officially
pronounced dead at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee,
after he was found unresponsive on the floor of his Graceland bathroom.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Presley>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
funemployed:
(neologism) In a state of enjoyable unemployment.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/funemployed>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is a sad thing when men have neither enough intelligence to
speak well, nor enough sense to hold their tongues; this is the root of
all impertinence.
--Jean de La Bruyère
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jean_de_La_Bruy%C3%A8re>
The 24th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Karstjäger was a German
mountain infantry division of the Waffen-SS during World War II. Formed
in July 1944 from the SS Volunteer Karstwehr Battalion, it was a
division in name only, and was soon reduced to a brigade. Built around a
company in existence since 1942, the unit consisted mainly of Yugoslav
Volksdeutsche and recruits from South Tyrol. It was primarily involved
in fighting partisans in the Karst Plateau on the frontiers of
Yugoslavia, Italy, and Austria; the mountainous terrain required
specialized mountain troops and equipment. It also saw action in the
wake of the Italian surrender when it moved to disarm Italian troops and
protect ethnic German communities in Italy. At the end of the war it
successfully fought to keep passes into Austria open, allowing German
units to escape the Balkans and surrender to British forces. The
remnants of the unit became some of the last Germans to lay down their
arms when they surrendered on 9 May 1945.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24th_Waffen_Mountain_Division_of_the_SS_Karst…>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
778:
A Frankish army led by Roland was defeated by the Basques at
Roncevaux Pass in the Pyrenees on the border between France and Spain.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Roncevaux_Pass>
1261:
Michael VIII Palaiologos was crowned Byzantine emperor in
Constantinople.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_VIII_Palaiologos>
1812:
War of 1812: Potawatomi warriors destroyed the United States
Army's Fort Dearborn in what is now Chicago, Illinois, and captured the
survivors.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Dearborn>
1941:
Corporal Josef Jakobs was executed by firing squad at the Tower
of London for espionage, making him the last person to be executed at
the Tower.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Jakobs>
2005:
The Helsinki Agreement between the Free Aceh Movement and the
Government of Indonesia was signed, ending 28 years of fighting.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurgency_in_Aceh>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
sais:
1. (India) A groom, or servant with responsibility for the horses.
2. (Malaya, dated) usually syce: chauffeur, driver.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sais>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
All religions have some truth in them, but none has the whole
truth; all are created in time and finally decline and perish. Mahomed
himself never pretended that the Koran was the last message of God and
there would be no other. God and Truth outlast these religions and
manifest themselves anew in whatever way or form the Divine Wisdom
chooses. You cannot shut up God in the limitations of your own narrow
brain or dictate to the Divine Power and Consciousness how or where or
through whom it shall manifest; you cannot put up your puny barriers
against the divine Omnipotence. These again are simple truths which are
now being recognised all over the world; only the childish in mind or
those who vegetate in some formula of the past deny them.
--Sri Aurobindo
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sri_Aurobindo>
The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman is the 22nd album by the American rock
group Sparks, released on August 14, 2009. The duo's first work in the
radio musical or pop opera genre, the album is built around an imaginary
visit to Hollywood by Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman in the mid-
1950s. Its storyline focuses on the divides between European and
American culture, between art and commerce. Unlike other Sparks albums,
the work is conceived as a single piece, to be listened to as a whole,
rather than a collection of stand-alone songs. The work was commissioned
by Sveriges Radio Radioteatern, the radio drama department of Sweden's
national radio broadcaster. First released in the Swedish broadcast
version in August 2009, with an English-language version following in
November 2009, it features a cast of Swedish and American actors and a
variety of musical styles ranging from opera to vaudeville and pop. The
album's recording was a collaborative effort, with music and English
vocals recorded by Sparks in the United States, and Swedish vocals
recorded by Sveriges Radio in Stockholm.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seduction_of_Ingmar_Bergman>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1816:
The United Kingdom formally annexed the Tristan da Cunha
archipelago, ruling it from the Cape Colony in South Africa.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristan_da_Cunha>
1901:
Gustave Whitehead allegedly made a successful powered flight of
his Number 21 aircraft in Fairfield, Connecticut, US; if true, this
predates the Wright brothers by two years.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Whitehead>
1941:
After a secret meeting off the Canadian coast, British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill and US President Franklin D. Roosevelt (both
pictured) issued the Atlantic Charter, establishing a vision for a post-
World War II world despite the fact that the United States had yet to
enter the war.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Charter>
1973:
The current Constitution of Pakistan came into effect.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Pakistan>
1996:
Greek Cypriot refugee Solomos Solomou was shot to death by
Turkish forces while trying to remove a Turkish flag from a flagpole in
the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomos_Solomou>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
jiffy:
1. (colloquial) A very short, unspecified length of time.
2. (computing) A unit of time defined by the frequency of its basic
timer – historically, and by convention, 0.01 of a second, but
some computer operating systems use other values.
3. (electronics) The length of an alternating current power cycle (1/60 or
1/50 of a second).
4. (physics) The time taken for light to travel a specified distance in a
vacuum, usually one centimetre, but sometimes one foot or the width of a
nucleon.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jiffy>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
O, what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to deceive!
--Walter Scott
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walter_Scott>
Hurricane Dean evolved into one of two storms in the 2007 Atlantic
hurricane season to make landfall as a Category 5 hurricane. Dean was
the seventh most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded, tied with
Camille and Mitch, and the third most intense Atlantic hurricane ever at
landfall. Its winds, rains and storm surge were responsible for at least
45 deaths across ten countries and caused around US$1.66 billion in
damage. The storm was designated Tropical Depression Four on August 13,
born more than 1,500 mi (2,400 km) east of the Lesser Antilles in a
vigorous tropical wave heading west from Africa. A deep layered ridge
steered the system towards the Caribbean and warmer waters. It was
upgraded to Tropical Storm Dean the next day, and to a hurricane two
days later. In the Caribbean Sea, the storm rapidly intensified to a
Category 5 hurricane, then brushed the southern coast of Jamaica on
August 19. It crossed the Yucatán Peninsula and emerged, weakened,
into the Bay of Campeche, then briefly restrengthened in the warm waters
of the bay before making a second landfall in Veracruz.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteorological_history_of_Hurricane_Dean>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1521:
After an extended siege, forces led by Spanish conquistador
Hernán Cortés captured Tlatoani Cuauhtémoc and conquered the Aztec
capital of Tenochtitlan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Tenochtitlan>
1624:
Cardinal Richelieu became the chief minister to King Louis
XIII, and under his supervision, France's feudal political structure
transformed into one with a powerful central government.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_Richelieu>
1906:
The all-black infantrymen of the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry
Regiment were accused of killing a white bartender and wounding a white
police officer in Brownsville, Texas, despite exculpatory evidence; all
were later dishonorably discharged.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownsville_Affair>
1937:
The Battle of Shanghai broke out, eventually becoming one of
the largest and bloodiest battles of the entire Second Sino-Japanese
War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Shanghai>
1996:
Marc Dutroux was arrested for the kidnapping of 14-year-old
Laetitia Delhez, revealing a number of other victims and one of
Belgium's biggest child molestation cases.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Dutroux>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
natatorium:
(US) A swimming pool, especially an indoor one; a building housing one
or more swimming pools.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/natatorium>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Good deeds remain good, no matter whether we know how the world
was made or not. Vile deeds are vile, no matter whether we know or do
not know what, after death, will be the fate of the doer. We know, at
least, what his fate is now, namely, to be wedded to the vileness. The
question for anyone to decide, who hesitates between good and evil, is
whether he aspires to be a full-weight man, or merely the fragment, nay,
the counterfeit of a man. Only he who ceaselessly aims at moral
completeness is, in the true sense, a human being.
--Felix Adler
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Felix_Adler>
The turquoise parrot (Neophema pulchella) is native to Eastern
Australia, from southeastern Queensland through New South Wales and into
northeastern Victoria. Described by George Shaw in 1792, it is a small
lightly-built parrot at around 20 cm (8 in) long and 40 g
(1 1⁄2 oz) in weight. The sexes are dimorphic: females are generally
duller and paler than males, with a pale green breast and yellow belly.
Males (apart from some colour-variant subspecies) are predominantly
green, with yellowish underparts, a bright turquoise blue face,
predominantly blue wings, and red shoulders. Found in grasslands and
open woodlands dominated by Eucalyptus and Callitris species, the bird
feeds mainly on grasses and seeds and occasionally flowers, fruit and
scale insects. It nests in hollows of gum trees. Much of its habitat has
been altered, destroying potential nesting sites. Predominantly
sedentary, the species can be locally nomadic. Populations appear to be
recovering from a crash in the early 20th century. The turquoise parrot
has been kept in captivity since the 19th century.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turquoise_parrot>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
30 BC:
Cleopatra, the last ruler of the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty,
committed suicide, allegedly by means of an asp bite.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra>
1323:
Sweden and the Novgorod Republic signed the Treaty of Nöteborg
to temporarily end the Swedish–Novgorodian Wars.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_N%C3%B6teborg>
1877:
American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered Deimos, the smaller
of the two moons of Mars.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deimos_(moon)>
1953:
The first Soviet thermonuclear bomb, Joe 4, was detonated at
Semipalatinsk, Kazakh SSR.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_4>
1981:
The IBM Personal Computer, the original version and progenitor
of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform, was introduced.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_Computer>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
bumfluff:
(Australia, Britain, New Zealand, derogatory) The first, sparse beard
growth of an adolescent.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bumfluff>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The task is, not so much to see what no one has yet seen; but to
think what nobody has yet thought, about that which everybody sees.
--Erwin Schrödinger
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Erwin_Schr%C3%B6dinger>