The North Norfolk Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest in Norfolk,
England, is a Special Protection Area for birds and other wildlife,
included in the European Union's Natura 2000 network of protected sites.
Its habitats include reed beds, salt marshes, freshwater lagoons, and
sand or shingle beaches, across 7,700 ha (19,027 acres) of the
county's north coast. The wetlands are important for scarce breeding
birds such as pied avocets. The location also attracts rare migrating
birds, and ducks and geese winter along this coast in considerable
numbers. The area is archaeologically significant, with sites including
the mound of an Iron Age fort, a Roman naval port near Brancaster,
medieval ruins, and remnants of military use from both world wars. The
area attracts many tourists for birdwatching and other outdoor
activities. The threat of the sea's encroachment on this soft coast is
being met by managed retreat and the creation of new reserves inland.
The site is designated as a wetland of international importance, and
most of it is a Biosphere Reserve.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Norfolk_Coast_Site_of_Special_Scientifi…>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1561:
The Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima, one of the most cherished
tales in Japanese military history, the epitome of Japanese chivalry and
romance, took place in Shinano Province.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Kawanakajima>
1897:
A peaceful labor demonstration made up of mostly Polish and
Slovak anthracite coal miners in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, US, was
fired upon by a sheriff's posse in the Lattimer massacre.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lattimer_massacre>
1946:
While riding a train to Darjeeling, Sister Teresa Bojaxhiu,
later Mother Teresa, experienced what she later described as "the call
within the call", directing her "to leave the convent and help the poor
while living among them".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa>
1990:
Pope John Paul II consecrated the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace
in Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire, one of the largest churches in the
world.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_Our_Lady_of_Peace>
2008:
CERN's Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and highest-
energy particle accelerator, was first powered up beneath the Franco-
Swiss border near Geneva.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
chronophagous:
(rare) Time-consuming.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chronophagous>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
For those who believe, no explanation is necessary; for those who
do not believe, no explanation is possible.
--Franz Werfel
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Franz_Werfel>
Milos Raonic (born 1990) is a Canadian professional tennis player. He
reached a career-high world No. 4 singles ranking in May 2015, as ranked
by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). His career highlights
include a Grand Slam final at the 2016 Wimbledon Championships and two
Grand Slam semifinals at the 2014 Wimbledon Championships and 2016
Australian Open. He was the 2011 ATP Newcomer of the Year, and has been
ranked continuously inside the top 20 since August 2012. Raonic is the
first player born in the 1990s to win an ATP title, to be ranked in the
top 10, and to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals. He has eight ATP
singles titles, all won on hard courts. He is frequently described as
having one of the best serves among his contemporaries. Statistically,
he is among the strongest servers in the Open Era, winning 91% of
service games to rank third all-time. Aided by his serve, he plays an
all-court style with an emphasis on short points. Raonic has more ATP
titles and finals appearances in the Open Era than all other Canadian
men combined.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milos_Raonic>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1141:
Yelü Dashi, the Liao dynasty general who founded the Qara-
Khitai, defeated the Seljuq and Kara-Khanid forces at the Battle of
Qatwan near Samarkand, present-day Uzbekistan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Qatwan>
1791:
The commissioners overseeing the construction of the United
States' new capital city named it in honor of the first president:
Washington, D.C.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,_D.C.>
1892:
At Lick Observatory, Edward Emerson Barnard discovered
Amalthea, the third moon of Jupiter and the last natural satellite
discovered by direct visual observation.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amalthea_(moon)>
1939:
World War II: About 3,000 Polish Army forces began a nearly
month-long defence of the Hel Peninsula during the German invasion of
Poland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hel>
2001:
Ahmad Shah Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance, was
assassinated in Afghanistan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Shah_Massoud>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
cleavage:
1. The act of cleaving or the state of being cleft. [from 19th c.]
2. The hollow or separation between a woman's breasts, especially as
revealed by a low neckline. [from 20th c.]
3. (by extension) Any similar separation between two body parts, such as
the buttocks or toes.
4. (biology) The repeated division of a cell into daughter cells after
mitosis. [from 19th c.]
5. (chemistry) The splitting of a large molecule into smaller ones.
6. (mineralogy) The tendency of a crystal to split along specific planes.
[from 19th c.]
7. (politics) The division of voters into voting blocs.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cleavage>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience.
--Leo Tolstoy
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy>
"The Man Trap" was the first episode to be broadcast in the American
science fiction television series Star Trek, but the sixth to be filmed.
It aired on NBC on September 8, 1966. The story was assigned to George
Clayton Johnson; his first draft was entitled "Damsel With a Dulcimer",
incorporating elements from his Twilight Zone episode "The Four of Us
Are Dying". Series creator Gene Roddenberry, producer Robert H. Justman
and story editor John D. F. Black all tweaked elements of the episode.
The story, part of Roddenberry's original Star Trek pitch to the studio,
was chosen for the first broadcast episode because the studio liked its
horror-based plot. "The Man Trap" placed first in the timeslot with a
Nielsen rating of 25.2 percent for the first half-hour and 24.2 for the
remainder. After broadcast, reviewers criticized the violent scenes but
praised the acting. More recent appraisals have been mixed; praise has
been given to the plot and diverse cast, but Hollywood.com listed it
among the worst episodes of the series. The creature, created by Wah
Chang and William Ware Theiss, has been dubbed the "salt vampire" by
fans.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Trap>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
617:
Li Yuan defeated a Sui dynasty army in the Battle of Huoyi,
opening the path to his capture of the imperial capital Chang'an and the
eventual establishment of the Tang dynasty.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Huoyi>
1755:
French and Indian War: British and French forces and their
respective Indian allies fought to a draw in the Battle of Lake George.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lake_George>
1941:
World War II: German forces severed the last land connection to
Leningrad, beginning a 28-month siege that would result in the deaths of
over 1 million of the city's civilians from starvation, making it one of
the most lethal battles in world history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Leningrad>
1966:
Queen Elizabeth II opened the Severn Bridge, hailing it as the
dawn of a new economic era for South Wales.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_Bridge>
1978:
Iranian Revolution: After the government of the Shah of Iran
declared martial law in response to protests, the Iranian Army shot and
killed at least 88 demonstrators in Tehran on Black Friday.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(1978)>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
folio:
1. A leaf of a book or manuscript.
2. A page of a book, that is, one side of a leaf of a book.
3. (printing) A page number. The even folios are on the left-hand pages and
the odd folios on the right-hand pages.
4. (paper) A sheet of paper folded in half.
5. (books) A book made of sheets of paper each folded in half (two leaves
or four pages to the sheet); hence, a book of the largest kind,
exceeding 30 cm in height.
6. (accounting) A page in an account book; sometimes, two opposite pages
bearing the same serial number.
7. (law, dated, 19th to early 20th century) A leaf containing a certain
number of words; hence, a certain number of words in a writing, as in
England, in law proceedings 72, and in chancery, 90; in New York, 100
words.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/folio>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
When you’re a charmer the world applauds they don’t know that
secretly charmers feel like they’re frauds When you’re a charmer you
hate yourself a victim of sideshow hypnosis like everyone else.
--Aimee Mann
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Aimee_Mann>
The Krulak Mendenhall mission was an American fact-finding expedition
sent by President Kennedy's administration to South Vietnam in 1963. It
investigated the progress of the war by the South Vietnamese regime and
their US military advisers against the Viet Cong insurgency. The mission
was led by Victor Krulak (pictured), a major general in the Marine
Corps, and Joseph Mendenhall, a senior Foreign Service officer
experienced in Vietnamese affairs. The four-day whirlwind trip came in
the wake of increasingly strained relations between the United States
and South Vietnam. In their submissions Krulak presented an optimistic
report on the progress of the war, but Mendenhall presented a bleak
picture of military failure and public discontent. Krulak said that the
Vietnamese soldiers' efforts in the field would not be affected by the
public's unease with President Ngô Đình Diệm's policies. Mendenhall
concluded that those policies increased the possibility of religious
civil war and led the South Vietnamese to believe that their quality of
life would improve under the Viet Cong. The contradictory reports
prompted Kennedy to ask, "You two did visit the same country, didn't
you?" (Full article...).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krulak_Mendenhall_mission>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1191:
Third Crusade: Forces under Richard I of England defeated
Ayyubid troops under Saladin in Arsuf, present-day Israel.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Arsuf>
1812:
Napoleonic Wars: The French Grande Armée forced the Russians
to withdraw at the Battle of Borodino.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Borodino>
1893:
British expatriates in Italy founded the Genoa Cricket &
Athletic Club, today one of Italy's oldest association football clubs.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genoa_C.F.C.>
1936:
The last thylacine died in captivity in Hobart Zoo in
Australia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thylacine>
1986:
Desmond Tutu became the first black person to lead the Church
of the Province of Southern Africa.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Tutu>
1996:
American rapper Tupac Shakur was fatally shot multiple times in
Las Vegas, dying from his injuries six days later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Tupac_Shakur>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
crickets:
[…] (US, slang, humorous) Used alone or in metaphorically descriptive
phrases: absolute silence; no communication.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/crickets>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
When a nation threatens another nation the people of the latter
forget their factionalism, their local antagonisms, their political
differences, their suspicions of each other, their religious
hostilities, and band together as one unit. Leaders know that, and that
is why so many of them whip up wars during periods of national crisis,
or when the people become discontented and angry. The leaders stigmatize
the enemy with every vice they can think of, every evil and human
depravity. They stimulate their people’s natural fear of all other men
by channeling it into a defined fear of just certain men, or nations.
Attacking another nation, then, acts as a sort of catharsis,
temporarily, on men’s fear of their immediate neighbors. This is the
explanation of all wars, all racial and religious hatreds, all
massacres, and all attempts at genocide.
--Taylor Caldwell
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Taylor_Caldwell>
Triturus is a genus of European and West Asian newts, with two species
of marbled newts and seven species of crested newts. They live and breed
in vegetation-rich aquatic habitats for two to six months and usually
spend the rest of the year in shady, well-protected land habitats close
to their breeding sites. Males court females with a ritualised display,
ending in the deposition of a spermatophore that is picked up by the
female. After fertilisation, a female lays 200–400 eggs, folding them
individually into leaves of water plants. Larvae develop over two to
four months before metamorphosing into land-dwelling juveniles. The
alpine newt (Ichthyosaura alpestris), banded newts (Ommatotriton), and
small-bodied newts (Lissotriton) are now placed in other genera, leaving
the European brook newts (Calotriton) as Triturus's closest relatives.
Although not immediately threatened, crested and marbled newts suffer
from population declines, caused mainly by habitat loss and
fragmentation. All species are legally protected in Europe, and some of
their habitats have been designated as special nature reserves.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triturus>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1522:
The Victoria (replica pictured) returned to Sanlúcar de
Barrameda, Spain, with Basque explorer Juan Sebastián Elcano and 17
other survivors of Ferdinand Magellan's 265-man expedition, becoming the
first ship to circumnavigate the globe.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_(ship)>
1781:
American Revolutionary War: General Benedict Arnold led British
forces to victory in the Battle of Groton Heights.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Groton_Heights>
1946:
United States Secretary of State James F. Byrnes announced that
the US would follow a policy of economic reconstruction in postwar
Germany.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restatement_of_Policy_on_Germany>
1966:
South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, the "architect
of apartheid", was stabbed to death by Dimitri Tsafendas.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrik_Verwoerd>
2000:
The Millennium Summit, a meeting of world leaders to discuss
the role of the United Nations at the turn of the 21st century, opened
in New York City.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Summit>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
mimiamb:
(literature, Ancient Greece, rare) A short humorous dramatic scene in
verse.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mimiamb>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Liberty means, not the mere voting at elections, but the free and
fearless exercise of the mental faculties, and that self-possession
which springs out of well-reasoned opinions and consistent practice.
--Frances Wright
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frances_Wright>
A calutron (pictured) is a device that separates isotopes of a chemical
element by ionizing, accelerating and deflecting them using electric and
magnetic fields. A type of sector mass spectrometer, it was developed by
Ernest O. Lawrence at the Radiation Laboratory at the University of
California as part of the Manhattan Project during World War II, based
on his earlier invention, the cyclotron. Calutrons were used to separate
the isotopes of uranium on an industrial scale at the Y-12 plant at the
Clinton Engineer Works in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The enriched uranium
produced was used in the Little Boy atomic bomb employed in the bombing
of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. Electromagnetic uranium enrichment was
abandoned in the early post-war period in favor of the more complicated,
but more efficient, gaseous diffusion method, but calutrons remained in
use to produce isotopically enriched samples of naturally occurring
elements for military, scientific and medical purposes.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calutron>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1697:
War of the Grand Alliance: A French warship captured York
Factory, a trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company in present-day
Manitoba, Canada.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hudson%27s_Bay>
1793:
French Revolution: The National Convention began the Reign of
Terror, a ten-month period of systematic repression and mass executions
by guillotine of perceived enemies within the country.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reign_of_Terror>
1905:
Under the mediation of US President Theodore Roosevelt, the
Russo-Japanese War officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of
Portsmouth at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard near Portsmouth, New
Hampshire, US.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Portsmouth>
1945:
Cold War: Soviet cipher clerk Igor Gouzenko defected to Canada
with over 100 documents on Soviet espionage activities and sleeper
agents.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Gouzenko>
1980:
The St. Gotthard Tunnel (interior pictured), at the time the
world's longest highway tunnel at 16.4 km (10.2 mi), opened in
Switzerland stretching from Göschenen to Airolo.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotthard_Road_Tunnel>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
pharisaism:
1. The doctrines and practices, or the character and spirit, of the
Pharisees.
2. (chiefly Christianity) Rigid observance of external forms of religion
without genuine piety; hypocrisy in religion; a censorious, self-
righteous spirit in matters of morals or manners.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pharisaism>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
While no tradition coincides with experience, every tradition is
essentially unique and valuable. While all traditions are of value, none
is finally binding.
--Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sarvepalli_Radhakrishnan>
Wotton railway station in Buckinghamshire, England, was part of a horse-
drawn freight tramway built by Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-
Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos in
1871. It served the Duke's home at Wotton House and the nearby village
of Wotton Underwood. In 1872 the line was extended to the nearby town of
Brill, converted to passenger use, equipped with steam locomotives, and
named the Brill Tramway. In the 1880s, the route was taken over by the
Metropolitan Railway. Wotton, the Tramway's third busiest passenger
station, was also a transit point for large shipments of milk from local
farms. In 1933 the Metropolitan Railway became the Metropolitan line of
London Transport, making Wotton a station on the London Underground,
despite its distance from London. In November 1935 London Transport
withdrew all services from the route. The Tramway reverted to the
descendants of the Duke of Buckingham, but having no funds and no
rolling stock they were unable to operate it. By early April 1936 the
line's entire infrastructure, including Wotton station, had been sold
for scrap at auction.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wotton_(Metropolitan_Railway)_railway_station>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1260:
Wars of the Guelphs and Ghibellines: Siena Ghibellines defeated
the Florence Guelphs at the Battle of Montaperti thanks to an act of
treachery, which was immortalised in Dante's Divine Comedy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Montaperti>
1812:
War of 1812: A coalition of Native American tribes began the
Siege of Fort Harrison in Terre Haute, Indiana, by setting the fort on
fire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Fort_Harrison>
1912:
The Albanian Revolt of 1912 came to an end when the Ottoman
government agreed to meet the rebels' demands.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_Revolt_of_1912>
1984:
The Progressive Conservative Party led by Brian Mulroney won
the largest majority government by total number of seats in Canadian
history during the federal election.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Mulroney>
2010:
A 7.1 Mw earthquake struck the South Island, New Zealand
(damage pictured), causing up to NZ$3.5 billion in damages.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Canterbury_earthquake>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
googolplex:
1. (cardinal) The number
2. (figuratively) An unimaginably large number.
3. (US, real estate, nonstandard, rare) An infinitesimally small portion of
land, defined for legal purposes.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/googolplex>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper's wounds, I
feel I am nursing the Lord himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?
--Mother Teresa
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa>
Air Rhodesia Flight 825 was a passenger flight that was shot down by the
Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) on 3 September 1978, during
the Rhodesian Bush War. The aircraft, a Vickers Viscount, was flying Air
Rhodesia's scheduled service from Victoria Falls to the capital
Salisbury, via the resort town of Kariba. Soon after its takeoff, ZIPRA
guerrillas launched a Soviet-made Strela 2 surface-to-air missile at the
plane. Attempting a belly landing in a cotton field west of Karoi, the
plane hit an unseen ditch, cartwheeled, and exploded. Of the 52
passengers and four crew, 38 died in the crash. The insurgents then
massacred 10 survivors with automatic gunfire. Joshua Nkomo, the ZIPRA
leader, publicly claimed responsibility for the missile attack (but not
for the massacre) on the BBC's Today programme the same evening, saying
the aircraft had been used for military purposes. Most Rhodesians, black
and white, saw the attack as an act of terrorism. Martial law and a
fierce white Rhodesian backlash followed, even though few black
Rhodesians supported the attack. Five months later, ZIPRA shot down Air
Rhodesia Flight 827 in a similar incident.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Rhodesia_Flight_825>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
863:
Arab–Byzantine wars: The Byzantine Empire decisively defeated
the Emirate of Melitene in the Battle of Lalakaon, beginning the era of
Byzantine ascendancy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lalakaon>
1189:
Richard the Lionheart was crowned King of England in
Westminster.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_I_of_England>
1783:
The Peace of Paris formally ended the states of war between
United States, France, Spain and Great Britain.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_of_Paris_(1783)>
1941:
The Holocaust: SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Fritzsch first used
the pesticide Zyklon B to execute Soviet POWs en masse at Auschwitz;
eventually it was used to kill about 1.2 million people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zyklon_B>
1991:
A fire killed 25 people locked inside a burning chicken
processing plant in Hamlet, North Carolina, US.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet_chicken_processing_plant_fire>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
earwitness:
A witness who gives evidence of what he or she has heard.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/earwitness>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
An architect, to be a true exponent of his time, must possess
first, last and always the sympathy, the intuition of a poet … this is
the one real, vital principle that survives through all places and all
times.
--Louis Sullivan
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_Sullivan>
Hotel Chevalier is a 2007 short film written and directed by Wes
Anderson, starring Jason Schwartzman and Natalie Portman as former
lovers who reunite in a Paris hotel room. The 13-minute film acts as a
prologue to Anderson's 2007 feature film The Darjeeling Limited, in
which a man (played by Adrien Brody) reunites with his brothers (Owen
Wilson and Schwartzman) in India after the death of their father. Hotel
Chevalier was shot on location in a Parisian hotel by a small crew and
self-financed by Anderson, who initially intended it as a stand-alone
work. Its first showing was at the Venice Film Festival première of the
feature film on September 2, 2007, and it made its own debut later that
month at Apple Stores in four American cities. The day after its
première, it was made available for free from the iTunes Store for one
month, during which it was downloaded more than 500,000 times. The film
garnered near-universal critical acclaim from reviewers who compared it
favorably with The Darjeeling Limited and praised its richness,
poignancy, and careful construction.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Chevalier>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1666:
A large fire began on London's Pudding Lane and burned the city
for three days, destroying St Paul's Cathedral and the homes of 70,000
of the city's 80,000 inhabitants.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_London>
1792:
French Revolution: Due to an overwhelming fear that foreign
armies would attack Paris and prisoners would revolt, thousands of
people were summarily executed.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_Massacres>
1946:
The interim government of India, headed by Jawaharlal Nehru,
was formed to assist the transition of India from British rule to
independence.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interim_Government_of_India>
1985:
Hurricane Elena, an unpredictable and damaging tropical cyclone
that affected eastern and central portions of the United States Gulf
Coast, made landfall near Biloxi, Mississippi as a Category 3 major
hurricane.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Elena>
1998:
Swissair Flight 111, en route from New York City to Geneva,
crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 229 people on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swissair_Flight_111>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
autochthon:
1. The earliest inhabitant of an area; an aborigine.
2. (geology) An autochthonous rock formation.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/autochthon>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Human thought is like a monstrous pendulum: it keeps swinging from
one extreme to the other. Within the compass of five generations we find
the Puritan first an uncompromising believer in demonology and magic,
and then a scoffer at everything involving the play of fancy.
--Eugene Field
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eugene_Field>
The passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius), now extinct, was endemic
to North America. Sometimes confused with the mourning dove, the male
pigeons were 39 to 41 cm (15.4 to 16.1 in) in length and mainly gray
on the upperparts, with iridescent bronze feathers on the neck and black
spots on the wings; the females were duller and browner. They inhabited
mainly deciduous forests in eastern North America, primarily around the
Great Lakes. Migrating in enormous flocks, they were once the most
abundant bird species in North America, with a population of perhaps 3
to 5 billion. They could reach flying speeds of 100 km/h (62 mph). The
birds fed on nuts, seeds, fruits and invertebrates. They practiced
communal roosting and communal breeding. In the 19th century, when
widespread deforestation was destroying their habitat, they were
commercialized as cheap food and hunted voraciously. Martha, thought to
be the last passenger pigeon, died on September 1, 1914, at the
Cincinnati Zoo. Eradication of the species has been described as one of
the most senseless extinctions induced by humans.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_pigeon>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1529:
Sancti Spiritu, the first European settlement in Argentina, was
destroyed by local natives.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sancti_Spiritu_(Argentina)>
1715:
Louis XIV of France, the "Sun King", died after a reign of 72
years, longer than any other French or other major European monarch at
the time.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XIV_of_France>
1831:
Pope Gregory XVI established the Order of St. Gregory the Great
to recognize high support for the Holy See or for the Pope.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_St._Gregory_the_Great>
1920:
The Fountain of Time opened in Chicago as a tribute to the 100
years of peace between the United States and Great Britain following the
Treaty of Ghent.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_of_Time>
1983:
Soviet jet interceptors shot down the civilian airliner Korean
Air Lines Flight 007 near Sakhalin Island in the North Pacific, killing
all 246 passengers and 23 crew on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
dust bunny:
(US, idiomatic) A small clump of dust, fluff, hair, particles of skin,
etc., that tends to accumulate indoors in areas not regularly dusted,
such as under heavy furniture.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dust_bunny>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
As he had grown older, he found that he had grown away from his
people. Their interests and his were far removed. They had not kept pace
with him, nor could they understand aught of the many strange and
wonderful dreams that passed through the active brain of their human
king. So limited was their vocabulary that Tarzan could not even talk
with them of the many new truths, and the great fields of thought that
his reading had opened up before his longing eyes, or make known
ambitions which stirred his soul. Among the tribe he no longer had
friends as of old. A little child may find companionship in many strange
and simple creatures, but to a grown man there must be some semblance of
equality in intellect as the basis for agreeable association.
--Edgar Rice Burroughs
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edgar_Rice_Burroughs>