Dover Athletic Football Club is an association football club formed in
1983, based in the town of Dover, Kent, England. In the 1989–90 season
Dover Athletic won the Southern League championship, but failed to gain
promotion to the Football Conference as the club's ground did not meet
the required standard. Three seasons later the team won the title again
and this time gained promotion to the Conference, where they spent nine
seasons before being relegated. The club was transferred to the Isthmian
League Premier Division in 2004, but another poor season led the club to
a further relegation. After three seasons in the Isthmian League
Division One South, the club won the championship and promotion back to
the Premier Division, and the following season won another championship
and promotion to Conference South. In the 2013–14 season, Dover
defeated Ebbsfleet United to return to the Conference Premier after a
twelve-year absence. Nicknamed the Whites for their white shirts, they
have played at the Crabble Athletic Ground since the club's formation.
Their best performance in the FA Cup was reaching the third round proper
in both the 2010–11 and 2014–15 seasons.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dover_Athletic_F.C.>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1055:
Theodora (pictured on coin) became sole ruler of the Byzantine
empire after the death of her brother-in-law Constantine IX Monomachos.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodora_(11th_century)>
1693:
An intensity XI earthquake, the most powerful in Italian
history, struck the island of Sicily.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1693_Sicily_earthquake>
1912:
Immigrant textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, U.S.,
went on strike in response to a pay cut corresponding to a new law
shortening the working week.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1912_Lawrence_textile_strike>
1923:
Troops from France and Belgium invaded the Ruhr to force the
German Weimar Republic to pay its reparations in the aftermath of World
War I.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_the_Ruhr>
2013:
French special forces failed in an attempted rescue of a DGSE
agent who had been taken hostage in July 2009 by Al-Shabaab in Bulo
Marer, Somalia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulo_Marer_hostage_rescue_attempt>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
oose:
(Scotland) Fluff, particularly from a textile source such as cotton or
wool.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oose>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
There is a realm of time where the goal is not to have but to be,
not to own but to give, not to control but to share, not to subdue but
to be in accord. Life goes wrong when the control of space, the
acquisition of things of space, becomes our sole concern.
--Abraham Joshua Heschel
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abraham_Joshua_Heschel>
Kalki Koechlin (born 10 January 1984) is an Indian actress and writer of
French descent who predominantly works in Bollywood. After studying
drama at Goldsmiths, University of London, she made her screen debut in
the drama Dev.D in 2009, winning a Filmfare Award for Best Supporting
Actress. She starred in and co-wrote the screenplay for the crime
thriller That Girl in Yellow Boots (2011). She has starred in two top-
grossing films, the coming-of-age film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011)
and the romantic drama Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013). Her work in the
independent drama Margarita with a Straw (2014) earned a National Film
Award – Special Jury Award. Her commercially successful films include
the political drama Shanghai (2012) and the supernatural thriller Ek Thi
Daayan (2013). She won The MetroPlus Playwright Award for co-writing the
dramatic play Skeleton Woman (2009), and made her directorial debut on
stage with the tragicomedy Living Room (2015). She hosted a travel show
entitled Kalki's Great Escape in 2016. Koechlin promotes causes ranging
from health and education to women's empowerment and gender equality.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalki_Koechlin>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
9:
The Western Han dynasty of China ended after the throne was
usurped by Wang Mang, who founded the Xin dynasty.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_dynasty>
1776:
Common Sense, a pamphlet by Thomas Paine denouncing British
rule in the Thirteen Colonies, was published.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Sense_(pamphlet)>
1923:
Lithuanian residents of the Memel Territory rebelled against
the League of Nations decision to leave the area as a mandated region
under French control.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaip%C4%97da_Revolt>
1985:
Sir Clive Sinclair launched the Sinclair C5 personal electric
vehicle, "one of the great marketing bombs of postwar British industry",
which later became a cult collector's item.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5>
2007:
A general strike began in Guinea as an attempt to force
President Lansana Conté to resign, eventually resulting in the
appointment of two new prime ministers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Guinean_general_strike>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
yucca:
1. Any of several evergreen plants of the genus Yucca, having long,
pointed, and rigid leaves at the top of a woody stem, and bearing a
large panicle of showy white blossoms.
2. (now proscribed, obsolete) The yuca (cassava).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yucca>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the
majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that
succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.
--John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dalberg-Acton,_1st_Baron_Acton>
The Rogue River in southwestern Oregon in the United States flows 215
miles (346 km) generally westward, from the Cascade Range to the
Pacific Ocean. With salmon runs, whitewater rafting, and rugged scenery,
it was one of the original eight rivers designated for protection by the
Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968. Beginning near Crater Lake, which
occupies the caldera left by the explosive volcanic eruption of Mount
Mazama, the river flows through the geologically young High Cascades,
the older Western Cascades, and the ancient Klamath Mountains. The
Kalmiopsis Wilderness section of the Rogue basin contains peridotite
rocks from the Earth's mantle. Near the mouth of the river, dinosaur
fragments were found in the Otter Point Formation. European explorers
made first contact with local Native Americans toward the end of the
18th century and began beaver trapping. Clashes between the natives and
the trappers and later between the natives and European-American miners
and settlers culminated with the Rogue River Wars of 1855 and 1856.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_River_(Oregon)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1857:
A 7.9 Mw earthquake ruptured part of the San Andreas Fault in
California and was felt as far east as Las Vegas.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1857_Fort_Tejon_earthquake>
1909:
Ernest Shackleton, leading the Nimrod Expedition, planted the
British flag 97 nautical miles (180 km) from the South Pole, the
furthest south anyone had ever reached at that time.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farthest_South>
1917:
First World War: Troops of the British Empire defeated Ottoman
forces at the Battle of Rafa on the Sinai–Palestine border in present-
day Rafah.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Rafa>
1972:
Seawise University, formerly RMS Queen Elizabeth, an ocean
liner that sailed the Atlantic for the Cunard White Star Line, was
destroyed by fire in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Queen_Elizabeth>
2011:
In poor weather conditions, Iran Air Flight 277 crashed near
Urmia Airport, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran, killing at least 77.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_277>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
à contrecœur:
Reluctantly, unwillingly.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%C3%A0_contrec%C5%93ur>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Relativism is not indifference; on the contrary, passionate
indifference is necessary in order for you not to hear the voices that
oppose your absolute decrees. … Relativism is neither a method of
fighting, nor a method of creating, for both of these are uncompromising
and at times even ruthless; rather, it is a method of cognition. If one
must fight or create, it is necessary that this be preceded by the
broadest possible knowledge ... One of the worst muddles of this age is
its confusing of the ideas behind combative and cognitive activity.
Cognition is not fighting, but once someone knows a lot, he will have
much to fight for, so much that he will be called a relativist because
of it.
--Karel Čapek
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karel_%C4%8Capek>
Operation Ironside was a deception operation in the Second World War,
meant to persuade the Germans that the Allies would stage an invasion
near Bordeaux along the Bay of Biscay. The operation consisted entirely
of deceptive messages, without any supporting physical evidence, unlike
other deception operations intended to draw German defences away from
the planned Normandy landings. Bordeaux was an important military port
during the war and had already been a target of commando raids in 1942.
Planned by the London Controlling Section, Ironside was communicated to
the Germans by double agents in May and June 1944. Rumours of an
impending two-division assault were communicated by Agent Bronx, a
Peruvian socialite, with help from other agents, including Tate and
Garbo. Historians have found no indication that the Germans believed an
invasion in the area to be imminent, probably because Bordeaux was
beyond air cover from the UK and there were no detectable naval
activities in the region. Nevertheless, the operation may have succeeded
in delaying one Panzer division from moving north to defend in Normandy.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ironside>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1198:
Lotario de Conti was elected as Pope Innocent III; he later
worked to restore papal power in Rome.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Innocent_III>
1697:
Scottish student Thomas Aikenhead became the last person in
Britain to be executed for blasphemy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Aikenhead>
1904:
Blackstone Library, the first branch of the Chicago Public
Library system, was dedicated.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstone_Library>
1977:
Three bombs attributed to Armenian nationalists exploded across
Moscow, killing seven people and injuring 37.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Moscow_bombings>
2003:
Turkish Airlines Flight 634 crashed in extensive fog during
final approach to Diyarbakır Airport in Turkey, leaving only five
survivors out of 80 people on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Airlines_Flight_634>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
sitting pretty:
1. (idiomatic) Having a comfortable or certain supply of money or
resources.
2. (idiomatic) In a favorable situation, especially a situation in which
one possesses an advantage.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sitting_pretty>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Teach the child to respect that which is not respectable and you
teach the child the first requirement of slavery: submission to unjust
authority.
--Gerry Spence
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gerry_Spence>
Francis Poulenc (7 January 1899 – 30 January 1963) was a French
composer and pianist. His compositions include mélodies, solo piano
works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral
concert music. Among his frequently performed pieces are the piano suite
Trois mouvements perpétuels (1919), the ballet Les biches (1923), the
Concert champêtre (1928) for harpsichord and orchestra, the opera
Dialogues des Carmélites (1957), and the Gloria (1959) for soprano,
choir and orchestra. Largely self-educated musically, he studied with
the pianist Ricardo Viñes and was influenced by the avant-garde
composer Erik Satie. Initially composing light-hearted and irreverent
works, he also wrote serious, sombre and religious pieces beginning in
the 1930s. He was an accomplished pianist, and toured Europe and America
performing with the baritone Pierre Bernac and the soprano Denise Duval.
One of the first composers to see the importance of the gramophone, he
recorded extensively from 1928 onwards. This century has seen many new
productions worldwide of his serious works, including Dialogues des
Carmélites and La Voix humaine.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Poulenc>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1558:
Francis, Duke of Guise, retook Calais, England's last
continental possession, for France.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calais>
1782:
The Bank of North America opened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
as the United States' first de facto central bank.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_North_America>
1979:
The People's Army of Vietnam captured Phnom Penh, deposing Pol
Pot and the Khmer Rouge, which marked the end of large-scale fighting in
the Cambodian–Vietnamese War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian%E2%80%93Vietnamese_War>
1989:
Representatives of Ruhollah Khomeini delivered a letter to
Mikhail Gorbachev, inviting him to consider Islam as an alternative to
communism, and predicting the dissolution of the Soviet Bloc.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khomeini%27s_letter_to_Mikhail_Gorbachev>
2015:
The offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie
Hebdo in Paris were attacked by a branch of Al-Qaeda, leaving twelve
people dead.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Hebdo_shooting>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
pantechnicon:
1. (chiefly Britain) A building or place housing shops or stalls where all
sorts of (especially exotic) manufactured articles are collected for
sale.
2. (chiefly Britain) Originally pantechnicon van: a van, especially a large
moving or removal van.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pantechnicon>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
May God save the country, for it is evident that the people will
not.
--Millard Fillmore
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Millard_Fillmore>
The Clinton Engineer Works was the site of the Manhattan Project's World
War II production facilities that provided the enriched uranium used in
the bombing of Hiroshima in August 1945. Its X-10 Graphite Reactor
produced the first samples of plutonium from a reactor. Located just
south of the town of Clinton, Tennessee, it included the production
facilities of the K-25, Y-12 and S-50 projects, various utilities, and
the township of Oak Ridge. The Manhattan District Engineer, Kenneth
Nichols, moved the Manhattan District headquarters there from Manhattan
in August 1943. Many construction workers were housed in large temporary
communities, including Happy Valley. The construction labor force peaked
at 75,000. Oak Ridge was established to house the operating staff, which
peaked at 50,000 workers just after the war. It was developed by the
federal government as a segregated community; black residents lived in
an area known as Gamble Valley, in government-built hutments of one-room
shacks.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_Engineer_Works>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1066:
Harold Godwinson, widely regarded as the last Anglo-Saxon king
before the Norman conquest, was crowned King of England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Godwinson>
1449:
The last Byzantine-Roman Emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos,
was crowned, four years before the Fall of Constantinople.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_XI_Palaiologos>
1907:
Italian educator Maria Montessori opened her first school and
day-care centre for working-class children in Rome, employing the
philosophy of education that now bears her name.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Montessori>
1953:
The first Asian Socialist Conference, an organisation of
socialist political parties in Asia, opened in Rangoon, Burma, with 177
delegates, observers and fraternal guests.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Socialist_Conference>
1977:
The record label EMI ended its contract with the English punk
rock band Sex Pistols in response to its members' disruptive behaviour
at Heathrow Airport two days earlier.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_Pistols>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Twelfthtide:
(archaic or obsolete) The season including Epiphany (the twelfth day
after Christmas) and the evening of the preceding day (Twelfth Night),
regarded as the end of the Christmas season; Epiphany itself.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Twelfthtide>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
My aim is not the establishment of an anarchist society or the
total destruction of the state. Here I differ from anarchists. I do not
believe that it is possible to destroy the modern state. It is pure
imagination to think that some day this power will be overthrown. From a
pragmatic standpoint there is no chance of success. Furthermore, I do
not believe that anarchist doctrine is the solution to the problem of
organization in society and government. I do not think that if anarchism
were to succeed we should have a better or more livable society. Hence I
am not fighting for the triumph of this doctrine. On the other hand, it
seems to me that an anarchist attitude is the only one that is
sufficiently radical in the face of a general statist system.
--Jacques Ellul
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jacques_Ellul>
Defense of the Ancients (DotA) is a multiplayer online battle arena mod,
or game modification, created for the video game Warcraft III: Reign of
Chaos and its expansion, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. First released
in 2003, it is based on StarCraft custom map "Aeon of Strife". Each team
of up to five players attempts to destroy the opponents' Ancient, a
heavily guarded structure at a far corner of the map. Players use
powerful units known as heroes, and are assisted by allied heroes and
AI-controlled fighters. As in role-playing games, players level up their
heroes and use gold to buy items and equipment during the game. DotA
became a feature at several worldwide tournaments, including Blizzard
Entertainment's BlizzCon, and was featured at the Asian World Cyber
Games and in the Cyberathlete Amateur League. Valve Corporation acquired
the intellectual property rights to DotA to develop a stand-alone
sequel, Dota 2, released in July 2013.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_of_the_Ancients>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1757:
Louis XV of France survived an assassination attempt by Robert-
François Damiens, who later became the last person to be executed in
the country by drawing and quartering.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert-Fran%C3%A7ois_Damiens>
1919:
The German Workers' Party, the forerunner to the Nazi Party,
was founded by Anton Drexler.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Workers%27_Party>
1949:
In his State of the Union speech, U.S. President Harry S.
Truman announced, "Every segment of our population, and every
individual, has a right to expect from his government a fair deal."
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Deal>
1991:
Georgian troops attacked Tskhinvali, the capital of South
Ossetia, opening the 1991–1992 South Ossetia War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991%E2%80%931992_South_Ossetia_War>
2003:
London police arrested six people in conjunction with an
alleged terrorist plot to release ricin on the London Underground,
although no ricin was actually found.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_Green_ricin_plot>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
king cake:
A decorative cake distributed among friends or visitors on Epiphany. In
many traditions it contains a pea, a trinket or some other small object
which entitles its finder to be the "king" for one day.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/king_cake>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Not long ago, if you wanted to seize political power in a country
you had merely to control the army and the police. Today it is only in
the most backward countries that fascist generals, in carrying out a
coup d'état, still use tanks. If a country has reached a high degree of
industrialization the whole scene changes. The day after the fall of
Khrushchev, the editors of Pravda, Izvestiia, the heads of the radio and
television were replaced; the army wasn't called out. Today a country
belongs to the person who controls communications.
--Umberto Eco
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Umberto_Eco>
Wrestle Kingdom 9 was a professional wrestling event at the Tokyo Dome
on January 4, 2015, produced by the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW)
promotion. The first event on the 2015 NJPW schedule, it featured ten
professional wrestling matches and one pre-show match, six of which were
for championships. In the double main event, Shinsuke Nakamura
successfully defended the IWGP Intercontinental Championship (belt
pictured) against Kota Ibushi, and Hiroshi Tanahashi successfully
defended the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Kazuchika Okada. The
appearance of Pro Wrestling Noah wrestlers led to a storyline in which
NJPW's Suzuki-gun group began wrestling at Noah events. Wrestle Kingdom
9 was attended by 36,000 people and was broadcast as a pay-per-view
event with English commentary in the United States and Canada. Critics
issued universally positive reviews; Paste magazine said it presented
"some of the most passionate and poignant performance art today".
Readers of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter voted Wrestle Kingdom 9 the
Best Major Wrestling Show of 2015, and named its Ibushi–Nakamura match
as the 2015 Pro Wrestling Match of the Year.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrestle_Kingdom_9>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1642:
King Charles I of England sent soldiers to arrest members of
Parliament, beginning England's slide into civil war.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I_of_England>
1798:
After having been invested as Prince of Wallachia, Constantine
Hangerli arrived in Bucharest to assume the throne.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_Hangerli>
1847:
American gun inventor Samuel Colt made his first large sale of
his revolvers to the Texas Rangers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Colt>
1912:
The Boy Scout Association was incorporated throughout the then
British Empire by royal charter.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scout_Association>
1936:
Billboard magazine published its first music hit parade.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_(magazine)>
1973:
Last of the Summer Wine, the longest-running sitcom in the
world, premiered as an episode of the BBC's Comedy Playhouse.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_of_the_Summer_Wine>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
easement:
1. (law) The legal right to use another person's real property (real
estate), generally in order to cross a part of the property, or to gain
access to something on the property.
2. (architecture) An element such as a baseboard, handrail, etc., that is
curved instead of abruptly changing direction.
3. (archaic) Easing, relief.
4. (archaic, euphemistic) The act of relieving oneself: defecating or
urinating.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/easement>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Unions and management agree that we ought to sell the time of our
lives in exchange for survival, although they haggle over the price.
Marxists think we should be bossed by bureaucrats. Libertarians think we
should be bossed by businessmen. Feminists don't care which form bossing
takes so long as the bosses are women. Clearly these ideology-mongers
have serious differences over how to divvy up the spoils of power. Just
as clearly, none of them have any objection to power as such and all of
them want to keep us working. You may be wondering if I'm joking or
serious. I'm joking and serious.
--Bob Black
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bob_Black>
Smilodon, the saber-toothed tiger, is an extinct genus that lived in the
Americas up to 2.5 million years ago, during the Pleistocene epoch. It
was named in 1842 and identified by fossils from Brazil. The largest
collection of its fossils has come from the La Brea Tar Pits in Los
Angeles, California. The species S. gracilis and S. fatalis lived
mostly in North America. A third species, the South American
S. populator (meaning destroyer), was perhaps the largest known member
of the family of cats, at 220 to 400 kg (490 to 880 lb) and 120 cm
(47 in) in height. Overall, saber-toothed tigers were stronger than any
modern cat, with well-developed forelimbs, big jaws, and long, slender
upper canines, adapted for precision killing. In North America, they
hunted large herbivores such as bison and camels, pinning their prey
before biting it. They probably lived in habitats that provided cover
for ambushing prey, such as forests and shrubland. They died out at the
same time that most North and South American megafauna disappeared,
during a period of climate change about 10,000 years ago.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smilodon>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1749:
The first issue of Berlingske, Denmark's oldest continually
operating newspaper, was published.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlingske>
1777:
American Revolutionary War: American forces under General
George Washington defeated British troops at the Battle of Princeton.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Princeton>
1911:
A gun battle in the East End of London left two dead and
sparked a political row over the involvement of then-Home Secretary
Winston Churchill (pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Sidney_Street>
1911:
A 7.7 Mw earthquake destroyed the city of Almaty in Russian
Turkestan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1911_Kebin_earthquake>
2002:
Israeli forces seized the MV Karine A, which was carrying 50
tons of weapons being smuggled in on behalf of the Palestinian
Authority.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karine_A_Affair>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
narcokleptocracy:
1. (rare) Drug lords and others involved in organized crime as a dominant
group in society; the influence or rule exerted by this group.
2. (rare) A government influenced by such persons; a narcocracy.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/narcokleptocracy>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of
universal application, unchanging and everlasting; it summons to duty by
its commands, and averts from wrongdoing by its prohibitions.
--Cicero
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cicero>
The English Benedictine Reform in the late tenth century was the most
important religious and intellectual movement in the later Anglo-Saxon
period. The reformers sought to replace married secular clergy in
monasteries with celibate contemplative monks who followed the Rule of
Saint Benedict. The court of Æthelstan (924–39), the first king of
the whole of England, began a cosmopolitan trend; future reformers such
as Æthelwold of Winchester, Oswald of Worcester, and Dunstan,
Archbishop of Canterbury, learned from Continental exponents of
Benedictine monasticism. The reformers had close relations with the
crown, furthering its interests and depending on its support, especially
under King Edgar (959–75). Influential artistic workshops established
by Æthelwold reached a high standard of craftsmanship in manuscript
illustration, sculpture and gold and silver, and his monasteries
produced scholarship and competent prose and poetry in the elaborate
hermeneutic style of Latin. His Winchester school helped create the
standard vernacular West Saxon literary language, and his pupil Ælfric
was its most eminent writer.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Benedictine_Reform>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1777:
American Revolutionary War: American forces under the command
of George Washington repulsed a British attack at the Battle of the
Assunpink Creek near Trenton, New Jersey.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Assunpink_Creek>
1941:
Second World War: Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff, Wales, was
severely damaged by German bombing during the Cardiff Blitz.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llandaff_Cathedral>
1963:
Vietnam War: The Viet Cong won its first major victory in the
Battle of Ap Bac.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ap_Bac>
1976:
The Gale of January 1976 began, which resulted in coastal
flooding around the southern North Sea coasts, leading to at least 82
deaths and US$1.3 billion in damage.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gale_of_January_1976>
1991:
Sharon Pratt Dixon was sworn in as mayor of Washington, D.C.,
thus becoming the first African American woman to lead a major American
city.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharon_Pratt_Kelly>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
rosemaling:
(US) A Norwegian style of stylized floral decoration with scrollwork and
geometric elements.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rosemaling>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers
knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.
--Isaac Asimov
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov>