Brabham was a British racing car manufacturer and Formula One racing
team. Founded in 1960 by two Australians, driver Jack Brabham and
designer Ron Tauranac, the team won four Drivers' and two Constructors'
World Championships in its 30-year Formula One history. Jack Brabham's
1966 Drivers' Championship remains the only such achievement using a car
bearing the driver's own name. In the 1960s, Brabham was the world's
largest manufacturer of open wheel racing cars for sale to customer
teams, building more than 500 cars by 1970. During this period, teams
using Brabham cars won championships in Formula Two and Formula Three.
Brabham cars also competed in the Indianapolis 500 and in Formula 5000
racing. The team won two more Formula One Drivers' Championships in the
1980s with Brazilian Nelson Piquet. Bernie Ecclestone owned Brabham
during most of the 1970s and 1980s. Its last owner was the Middlebridge
Group, a Japanese engineering firm. Midway through the 1992 season, the
team collapsed financially, and was investigated by the Serious Fraud
Office.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brabham>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
878:
Arab–Byzantine wars: The city of Syracuse was captured by the
Aghlabids, completing the Muslim conquest of Sicily.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Syracuse_(877%E2%80%93878)>
1674:
John III Sobieski, elected by the szlachta, became the monarch
of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_III_Sobieski>
1917:
The Imperial War Graves Commission was established through
royal charter to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of
commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations military forces.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_War_Graves_Commission>
1927:
Aboard the Spirit of St. Louis, American aviator Charles
Lindbergh completed the first solo non-stop transatlantic flight, flying
from Roosevelt Field near New York City to Paris–Le Bourget Airport.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lindbergh>
1996:
Algerian Civil War: The remains of seven French Trappist monks
who had been kidnapped in Algeria nearly two months earlier were found.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_the_monks_of_Tibhirine>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
smudge attack:
(computing) A method used to crack the password of a touchscreen device
by analysing the oily smears left on the device's screen by the user's
fingers.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/smudge_attack>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
In the United States of America, satire is protected speech, even
if the object of the satire doesn’t get it.
--Al Franken
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Al_Franken>
"Here We Go Again" is a country music standard written by Don Lanier and
Red Steagall that first charted as a rhythm and blues single by Ray
Charles (pictured) from the 1967 album Ray Charles Invites You to
Listen. It was produced by Joe Adams for ABC Records/Tangerine Records,
and spent twelve consecutive weeks on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart,
peaking at number 15. A cover version by Nancy Sinatra charted for five
weeks in 1969. Johnny Duncan charted with the song on Billboard's Hot
Country Songs for five weeks in 1972, while Roy Clark did so for seven
weeks in 1982. Another version sung by Norah Jones and Charles appeared
on his 2004 album Genius Loves Company, earning the Grammy Award for
Best Pop Collaboration at the 47th Grammy Awards (posthumously for
Charles, who died in 2004). The song lent its name to Steagall's 2007
album, and has been covered in a wide variety of musical genres. Many of
the more recent covers have been sung as duets, including one by Jones
and Willie Nelson (with Wynton Marsalis accompanying) released on their
2011 tribute album Here We Go Again: Celebrating the Genius of Ray
Charles.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_We_Go_Again_(Ray_Charles_song)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
685:
The Picts defeated the Northumbrians near Dunnichen, severely
weakening the latter's power in northern Great Britain.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dun_Nechtain>
1217:
In the Battle of Lincoln, the last land battle of the First
Barons' War, William the Marshal drove Prince Louis of France out of
England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lincoln_(1217)>
1873:
Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis received a patent for using copper
rivets to strengthen the pockets of denim overalls, allowing their
company to start manufacturing blue jeans.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_W._Davis>
1983:
A team of researchers led by French virologist Luc Montagnier
published their discovery of HIV, although they did not know yet if it
caused AIDS.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luc_Montagnier>
2012:
The first of two major earthquakes struck Northern Italy,
resulting in seven deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Northern_Italy_earthquakes>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
catchment:
1. (often attributive) Any structure or land feature which catches and
holds water; the collection of such water.
2. A catchment area, or the people it serves.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/catchment>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Many false opinions may be exchanged for true ones, without in the
least altering the habits of mind of which false opinions are made. …
I am now convinced, that no great improvements in the lot of mankind are
possible, until a great change takes place in the fundamental
constitution of their modes of thought.
--John Stuart Mill
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill>
Wood Siding railway station was a halt in Bernwood Forest,
Buckinghamshire, England, opened in 1871 as a terminus of a horse-drawn
tramway serving the Duke of Buckingham's estates and connecting them to
the railway at Quainton Road. After a campaign by residents of Brill,
the tramway was adapted for passengers and extended beyond Wood Siding
in 1872, becoming known as the Brill Tramway. The operation of the line
was taken over by the Metropolitan Railway in 1899. Between 1908 and
1910 Wood Siding was rebuilt on a bridge over the Chiltern Main Line. In
1933 the Metropolitan Railway was taken into public ownership, becoming
the Metropolitan line of London Transport. As a result, Wood Siding
became part of the London Underground network, despite being over 45
miles (72 km) from the City of London. London Transport aimed to move
away from freight services, and as the line served a sparsely populated
rural area the new management felt it would never be a viable passenger
route. The station was closed, along with the rest of the line, in
November 1935, and demolished in 1936. The remains of the bridge which
supported it are still in place.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_Siding_railway_station>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
639:
Ashina Jiesheshuai of the Eastern Turkic Khaganate failed in his
attempt to assassinate Emperor Taizong of the Tang dynasty.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashina_Jiesheshuai>
1743:
French physicist Jean-Pierre Christin published the design of a
mercury thermometer with the centigrade scale, with 0 representing the
freezing point of water and 100 its boiling point.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celsius>
1780:
A combination of thick smoke, fog, and heavy cloud cover caused
darkness to fall on parts of Canada and the New England area of the
United States by noon.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England%27s_Dark_Day>
1962:
Actress Marilyn Monroe performed a sultry rendition of "Happy
Birthday to You" during a televised celebration for U.S. President John
F. Kennedy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Birthday,_Mr._President>
1997:
The Sierra Gorda Biosphere, which encompasses the most
ecologically diverse region in Mexico, was established as a result of
grassroots efforts.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Gorda>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
chimera:
1. (Greek mythology) Alternative letter-case form of Chimera (a flame-
spewing monster often represented as having two heads, one of a goat and
the other of a lion; the body of a goat; and a serpent as a tail).
2. (mythology) Any fantastic creature with parts from different animals.
3. Anything composed of very disparate parts.
4. A foolish, incongruous, or vain thought or product of the imagination.
5. (architecture) A grotesque like a gargoyle, but without a spout for
rainwater.
6. (genetics) An organism with genetically distinct cells originating from
two zygotes.
7. Usually chimaera: a cartilaginous marine fish in the subclass
Holocephali and especially the order Chimaeriformes, with a blunt snout,
long tail, and a spine before the first dorsal fin.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chimera>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Today we live in the midst of upheaval and crisis. We do not know
where we are going, nor even where we ought to be going. Awareness is
spreading that our future cannot be a straight extension of the past or
the present … The century now approaching its end has been one of
indiscriminate violence, it has been perhaps the most murderous one in
Western history of which we have record. Yet I would think that what
will strike people most when, hundreds of years from now, they will look
back on our days is that this was the age when the exploration of space
began, the microchip was invented, revolutions in transport and
communication virtually annihilated time and distance, transforming the
world into a "global village," and relativity theory, quantum mechanics,
and the structure of the atom were discovered, in brief that this has
been the century of science and technology.
--Abraham Pais
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abraham_Pais>
William Henry Bury (1859–1889) was suspected of being the notorious
serial killer Jack the Ripper. Hanged for the murder of his wife Ellen,
he was the last person executed in Dundee, Scotland. Orphaned at an
early age, he was dismissed from a clerk job for theft, and became a
street peddler. In 1887, he was married in London; in January 1889, they
moved to Dundee. The following month, he strangled his wife with a rope,
stabbed her dead body with a penknife, and hid the corpse in a box in
their room. A few days later, he presented himself to the local police
and was arrested for her murder. This was shortly after the height of
the London Whitechapel murders, which were attributed to the
unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper. Bury's previous abode near
Whitechapel and the similarities between the Ripper's crimes and Bury's
led the press and executioner James Berry to suggest that Bury was the
Ripper. He protested his innocence in the Ripper crimes, and the police
discounted him as a suspect. Later authors have built on the earlier
accusations, but the idea that Bury was the Ripper is not widely
accepted.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Bury>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1388:
During the Battle of Buir Lake, General Lan Yu led a Chinese
army forward to crush the Mongol hordes of Toghus Temur, the Khan of
Northern Yuan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Buir_Lake>
1869:
One day after surrendering at the Battle of Hakodate, Enomoto
Takeaki turned over Goryōkaku to Japanese forces, signaling the
collapse of the Republic of Ezo.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ezo>
1927:
Disgruntled school board treasurer Andrew Kehoe set off a
series of explosives in the Bath Consolidated School, killing 44 people
in the deadliest mass murder in a school in United States history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster>
1965:
Eli Cohen, a spy who is credited with gathering significant
intelligence for Israel in the Six-Day War against Syria, was publicly
hanged after having been captured four months earlier.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Cohen>
1974:
India conducted its first nuclear test explosion at Pokhran,
the first confirmed nuclear test by a nation outside the five permanent
members of the United Nations Security Council.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smiling_Buddha>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
under the weather:
1. (idiomatic) Somewhat ill or gloomy.
2. (idiomatic) Somewhat intoxicated or suffering from a hangover.
3. (idiomatic, obsolete) Experiencing adversity.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/under_the_weather>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
In America everybody is of opinion that he has no social
superiors, since all men are equal, but he does not admit that he has no
social inferiors, for, from the time of Jefferson onward, the doctrine
that all men are equal applies only upwards, not downwards.
--Unpopular Essays
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Unpopular_Essays>
Edward III (1312–1377), King of England from 1327 until his death,
restored royal authority after the unorthodox and disastrous reign of
his father, Edward II. Edward III transformed the Kingdom of England
into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe. His reign of
fifty years, the second longest in medieval England, saw vital
developments in legislation and government—in particular the evolution
of the English parliament—as well as the ravages of the Black Death.
Edward was crowned at age fourteen after his father was deposed by his
mother, Isabella of France, and her lover Roger Mortimer. At age
seventeen he led a successful coup against Mortimer, the de facto ruler
of the country, and began his personal reign. After a successful
campaign in Scotland he declared himself the rightful heir to the French
throne in 1337, but his claim was denied, starting the Hundred Years'
War. Following some initial setbacks the war went well for England;
victories at Crécy and Poitiers led to the favourable Treaty of
Brétigny. Edward's later years were marked by international failure and
domestic strife, largely as a result of his inactivity and poor health.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_III_of_England>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1395:
An outnumbered Wallachian army repulsed an Ottoman invasion
force in the Battle of Rovine.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Rovine>
1590:
Anne of Denmark was crowned Queen consort of Scotland in the
abbey church at Holyrood Palace.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_of_Denmark>
1914:
Albania officially recognized the area of Northern Epirus as an
autonomous region within the Albanian state, which was never established
due to World War I.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_of_Corfu>
1947:
After renegotiating the contract with the makers of her
signature Chanel No. 5 perfume, Coco Chanel received her share of
wartime profits from its sale, making her one of the richest women in
the world.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_Chanel>
1997:
The First Congo War came to an end when Laurent-Désiré Kabila
proclaimed himself president of Zaire, which was also renamed the
Democratic Republic of the Congo.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Congo_War>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
jotun:
(Norse mythology) A member of a race of giants who usually stand in
opposition to the Æsir and especially to Thor.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jotun>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The understanding of things must be based, not on sentiment, but
on reason. There must be justice, not charity. Kindness is solitary.
Compassion becomes one with him whom we pity; it allows us to fathom
him, to understand him alone amongst the rest; but it blurs and befogs
the laws of the whole. I must set off with a clear idea, like the beam
of a lighthouse through the deformities and temptations of night.
--Henri Barbusse
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henri_Barbusse>
Apatosaurus ("deceptive lizard") is a genus of extinct sauropod
dinosaurs that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic period.
Fossils from the Morrison Formation of Colorado, Oklahoma, and Utah
indicate an average length of 21–22.8 m (69–75 ft) and an average
mass of 16.4–22.4 t (18.1–24.7 short tons), but a few specimens are
11% to 30% longer and 32.7–72.6 t (36.0–80.0 short tons). The
cervical vertebrae are less elongated and more heavily constructed than
those of Diplodocus, and the bones of the leg are much stockier despite
being longer, implying that Apatosaurus was a more robust animal. The
tail was held above the ground during normal locomotion. It had a single
claw on each forelimb and three on each hindlimb. The skull is similar
to that of Diplodocus. It browsed foliage and likely held its head
elevated. Air sacs permeated and lightened its vertebrae. In North
America during the late Jurassic, Apatosaurus lived alongside dinosaurs
such as Diplodocus, Allosaurus, Camarasaurus, and Stegosaurus.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apatosaurus>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1811:
Peninsular War: An allied force of British, Spanish, and
Portuguese troops clashed with the French at the Battle of Albuera south
of Badajoz, Spain.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Albuera>
1916:
The United Kingdom and France signed the Sykes–Picot
Agreement, a secret agreement considered to have shaped the Middle East,
defining the borders of Iraq and Syria.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes%E2%80%93Picot_Agreement>
1929:
The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held at the Hollywood
Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Academy_Awards>
1961:
The Military Revolution Committee, led by Park Chung-hee,
carried out a bloodless coup against the government of Yun Bo-seon,
ending the Second Republic of South Korea.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_16_coup>
1975:
Japanese climber Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach
the summit of Mount Everest.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junko_Tabei>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
twaddle:
(uncountable) Empty or silly idle talk or writing; nonsense, rubbish.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/twaddle>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The light comes at the same time as the Voice. … I will not tell
you all; I have not leave; my oath does not touch on that. My Voice is
good and to be honored. I am not bound to answer you about it. I request
that the points on which I do not now answer may be given me in writing.
… You shall not know yet. There is a saying among children, that
"Sometimes one is hanged for speaking the truth."
--Joan of Arc
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc>
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a US fantasy and science
fiction magazine initially published by Lawrence E. Spivak (pictured),
with regular issues from 1949 to the present. Under editors Anthony
Boucher and J. Francis McComas, it became a leader in the science
fiction and fantasy field, publishing literary material and including
more diverse stories than its competitors. Well-known stories from its
early years include Richard Matheson's "Born of Man and Woman" and Ward
Moore's Bring the Jubilee. After McComas left in 1954, Boucher continued
as sole editor until 1958, winning the Hugo Award for Best Magazine that
year, a feat his successor, Robert Mills, repeated in the next two
years. Mills was responsible for publishing "Flowers for Algernon" by
Daniel Keyes, Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys, Starship Troopers by Robert
Heinlein, and the first of Brian Aldiss's "Hothouse" stories. At the
start of 1966, after short stints by Avram Davidson and Joseph Ferman,
Edward Ferman began a 25-year career as editor. He published many well-
received stories, including Fritz Leiber's "Ill Met in Lankhmar", Robert
Silverberg's "Born with the Dead", and Stephen King's The Dark Tower
series.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magazine_of_Fantasy_%26_Science_Fiction>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1793:
Inventor Diego Marín Aguilera, the "father of aviation" in
Spain, flew one of the first gliders for about 300 yd (270 m).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_Mar%C3%ADn_Aguilera>
1850:
Members of the 1st Cavalry Regiment of the United States
Cavalry massacred at least 135 Pomo Indians in Lake County, California.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Island_massacre>
1904:
Russo-Japanese War: After striking several mines off Port
Arthur, the Japanese battleships Hatsuse and Yashima sank.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Yashima>
1970:
During a confrontation with a group of Jackson State College
students protesting the Vietnam War, specifically the United States
invasion of Cambodia, police opened fire, killing two students and
injuring twelve.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_State_killings>
1990:
Vincent van Gogh's Portrait of Dr. Gachet was sold at auction
in Christie's New York office for US$82.5 million, at the time the
world's most expensive painting.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Dr._Gachet>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
parentcraft:
The skills and knowledge used by parents in raising children.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/parentcraft>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Se um dia alguém perguntar por mim Diz que vivi para te amar.
Antes de ti, só existi Cansado e sem nada para dar. If one day someone
asks about me Tell them I lived to love you. Before you, I only existed
Tired and with nothing to give.
--Luísa Sobral
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lu%C3%ADsa_Sobral>
John Gielgud (1904–2000) was an English actor and theatre director
who, along with Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, dominated the
British stage for much of the 20th century. A member of the Terry family
theatrical dynasty, he became a star in the West End and on Broadway by
the 1930s, appearing in new works and classics. He began a parallel
career as a director, and set up his own company at the Queen's Theatre,
London. Though he made his first film in 1924 and had successes with The
Good Companions (1933) and Julius Caesar (1953), he did not begin a
regular film career until his sixties. He appeared in more than 60 films
between Becket in 1964 (his first Academy Award nomination) and
Elizabeth in 1998. As the acid-tongued Hobson in Arthur (1981) he won
the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He earned a Golden Globe
Award and two BAFTAs, and had the rare distinction of winning an Oscar,
an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Tony. He broadcast more than 100 radio and
television dramas and made commercial recordings of many plays,
including ten of Shakespeare's. He was knighted in 1953 and was
president of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from 1977 to 1989.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gielgud>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1264:
Second Barons' War: King Henry III was defeated at the Battle
of Lewes and forced to sign the Mise of Lewes, making Simon de Montfort
the de facto ruler of England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise_of_Lewes>
1796:
English physician Edward Jenner began testing cowpox as a
vaccine against smallpox.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Jenner>
1878:
The last witchcraft trial in the United States opened in Salem,
Massachusetts.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witchcraft_trial_(1878)>
1931:
Five people were killed in Ådalen, Sweden, as soldiers opened
fire on an unarmed trade union demonstration.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%85dalen_shootings>
1940:
World War II: The bulk of Dutch forces surrendered to the
Wehrmacht, ending the Battle of the Netherlands.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Netherlands>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
matriotism:
1. School, hometown, or parish pride or loyalty, as opposed to nationalism
or patriotism. [from 19th c.]
2. Love or celebration of a woman's influence upon society; the female
equivalent to male patriotism.
3. Love of the motherland, as opposed to patriotism as love of the
fatherland.
4. Pacifist patriotism; love of society as opposed to love of the state.
5. Devotion to Mother Earth, ecology, sustainability, peace, and the
survival of the human species for as long as possible.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/matriotism>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Don't give in to hate. That leads to the Dark Side.
--The Empire Strikes Back
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Empire_Strikes_Back>
Manuel Marques de Sousa, Count of Porto Alegre (1804–1875) was an army
officer, politician, abolitionist and monarchist of the Empire of
Brazil. For most of the 1820s, he joined the struggle for Brazilian
independence and then fought in the Cisplatine War. From 1835 to 1845,
his native province of Rio Grande do Sul was engulfed in a secessionist
rebellion, the Ragamuffin War, which he helped to suppress. In 1852, he
led an army division during the Platine War, invading the Argentine
Confederation and overthrowing its dictator. Porto Alegre was elected to
the legislature of Rio Grande do Sul, and founded the provincial
Progressive-Liberal Party—a coalition of Liberals like himself and
some members of the Conservative Party. He later entered the lower house
of the Brazilian parliament and was briefly Minister of War. After
returning to the military as one of the chief Brazilian commanders
during the Paraguayan War (1864), he became an active advocate for the
abolition of slavery and a patron in the fields of literature and
science.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Marques_de_Sousa,_Count_of_Porto_Alegre>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1638:
Construction began in Delhi on the Red Fort, the residence of
the Mughal emperors, now an iconic symbol of India.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Fort>
1779:
Russian and French mediators negotiated the Treaty of Teschen
to end the War of the Bavarian Succession.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Bavarian_Succession>
1917:
Ten-year-old Lúcia Santos (pictured middle) and her cousins
Francisco and Jacinta Marto reportedly began experiencing a Marian
apparition near Fátima, Portugal, now known as Our Lady of Fátima.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_F%C3%A1tima>
1981:
Mehmet Ali Ağca shot and critically wounded Pope John Paul II
in Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_Paul_II_assassination_attempt>
1992:
Li Hongzhi introduced Falun Gong in a public lecture in
Changchun, Jilin province, China.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Hongzhi>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
prahok:
A salted and fermented fish paste used in Cambodian cuisine.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/prahok>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
To struggle against the dreamers who dream ugliness, be they men
or gods, cannot but be the will of the Nameless. This struggle will also
bear suffering, and so one's karmic burden will be lightened thereby,
just as it would be by enduring the ugliness; but this suffering is
productive of a higher end in the light of the eternal values of which
the sages so often speak.
--Lord of Light
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lord_of_Light>
The Kuiper belt is a circumstellar disc in the Solar System extending
beyond the orbit of Neptune, at 30 to 50 astronomical units from the
Sun. It is similar to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, but
far larger—20 times as wide and 20 to 200 times as massive. Like the
asteroid belt, it consists mainly of small bodies that are remnants from
the Solar System's formation. Although many asteroids are composed
primarily of rock and metal, most Kuiper belt objects are composed
largely of frozen volatiles such as methane, ammonia and water. The disc
was named after Dutch-American astronomer Gerard Kuiper, though he did
not actually predict its existence. Some of the Solar System's moons,
such as Neptune's Triton and Saturn's Phoebe, are thought to have
originated in the region. It is home to three officially recognized
dwarf planets: Haumea, Makemake, and Pluto, the largest and most massive
member of the Kuiper belt. Originally considered a planet, Pluto was
reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuiper_belt>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
907:
Zhu Wen forced Emperor Ai into abdicating, ending the Tang
dynasty after nearly three hundred years of rule.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Ai_of_Tang>
1881:
Under the threat of invasion, the Bey of Tunis Muhammad III as-
Sadiq signed the Treaty of Bardo to make Tunisia a French protectorate.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_conquest_of_Tunisia>
1942:
World War II: Soviet forces under Marshal Semyon Timoshenko
launched a major offensive in eastern Ukraine, only to be encircled and
destroyed by German troops two weeks later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Kharkov>
1967:
The Jimi Hendrix Experience released the critically-acclaimed
and widely influential debut album Are You Experienced.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Are_You_Experienced>
1982:
The Coppergate Helmet, the best preserved of the six known
Anglo-Saxon helmets, was discovered.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coppergate_Helmet>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
bahuvrihi:
(linguistics, also attributive) A type of nominal compound in which the
first part modifies the second and neither part alone conveys the
intended meaning.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bahuvrihi>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
It's often been observed that the first casualty of war is the
truth. But that's a lie, too, in its way. The reality is that, for most
wars to begin, the truth has to have been sacrificed a long time in
advance.
--L. Neil Smith
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/L._Neil_Smith>