"My Happiness" is a song by Australian rock band Powderfinger
(pictured), released by Universal Music Australia on 21 August 2000 as
the first single from the band's fourth album, Odyssey Number Five.
Frontman Bernard Fanning, inspired by a love of gospel and soul music,
wrote the lyrics for "My Happiness" as a reflection on the loneliness
the band felt while touring. The rest of the band are co-credited with
Fanning for composing the track. Powderfinger's most successful single,
it peaked at number four on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart, was
instantly successful in New Zealand, and was the first Powderfinger song
to appear on the American Hot Modern Rock Tracks. It won an ARIA and an
APRA Award, topped the Triple J Hottest 100 poll in 2000, and placed
27th in the 2009 Triple J Hottest 100 of All Time poll. Along with the
single "My Kind of Scene", "My Happiness" was highly praised by critics;
even negative reviews of Odyssey Number Five noted it as a highlight,
especially for its catchy chorus.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Happiness_(Powderfinger_song)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1140:
Song dynasty general Yue Fei defeated an army led by Jin
dynasty general Wanyan Wuzhu at the Battle of Yancheng during the
Jin–Song Wars.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Yancheng>
1858:
The first of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen
A. Douglas, candidates for an Illinois seat in the United States Senate,
was held in Ottawa.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln%E2%80%93Douglas_debates>
1911:
Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre by a
museum employee and was not recovered until two years later.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa>
1942:
World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army lost the Battle of the
Tenaru, the first of its three major land offensives during the
Guadalcanal Campaign.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Tenaru>
2007:
Hurricane Dean made landfall on the Yucatán Peninsula as a
Category 5 storm, causing 45 deaths and US$1.5 billion in damage.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Dean>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
occultation:
1. (astronomy) An astronomical event that occurs when one celestial object
is hidden by another celestial object that passes between it and the
observer when the nearer object appears larger and completely hides the
more distant object.
2. The state of being occult (“hidden, undetected”).
3. (Shia Islam) The disappearance of the messianic figure, or Mahdi, who
will one day return to the world.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/occultation>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Once upon a time I was falling in love But now I'm only falling
apart And there's nothing I can do A total eclipse of the heart Once
upon a time there was light in my life But now there's only love in the
dark Nothing I can say A total eclipse of the heart.
--Jim Steinman
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jim_Steinman>
Lundomys molitor, commonly known as the greater marsh rat, is a
semiaquatic rat species from southeastern South America. Its
distribution is now restricted to Uruguay and nearby Rio Grande do Sul,
Brazil, but it previously ranged northward into Minas Gerais, Brazil,
and southward into eastern Argentina. It was first described in 1887 by
Danish zoologist Herluf Winge, who reviewed materials collected by Peter
Wilhelm Lund in the caves of Lagoa Santa in Minas Gerais. The Argentine
form may have been distinct from the form that now lives in Brazil and
Uruguay. It is a large rodent, with a head-and-body length averaging
193 mm (7.6 in). Its tail is longer than the head and body combined.
Its coat, yellow-brown at the sides, is long, dense, and soft. It is an
excellent swimmer, propelled by large hindfeet with conspicuous
interdigital webbing. It builds nests above the water supported by
reeds. It is not currently threatened, reflecting a relatively wide
distribution and the absence of evidence for a decline in populations.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lundomys>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
917:
Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars: Bulgarians led by Tsar Simeon I
drove the Byzantines out of Thrace with a decisive victory in the Battle
of Achelous.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Achelous_(917)>
1707:
The first Siege of Pensacola came to an end with the British
abandoning their attempt to capture Pensacola in Spanish Florida.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Pensacola_(1707)>
1882:
The 1812 Overture by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
was first performed in Moscow, conducted by Ippolit Al'tani.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1812_Overture>
1988:
Fires in the United States' Yellowstone National Park destroyed
more than 150,000 acres (610 km2), the single-worst day of the
conflagration.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_fires_of_1988>
2008:
Spanair Flight 5022 crashed just after take off from Madrid's
Barajas Airport, killing 154 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanair_Flight_5022>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
underbelly:
1. The underside of an animal.
2. The underside of any thing.
3. (figuratively) The side which is not normally seen, normally a dark,
immoral place.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/underbelly>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth
is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one
in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and
where They shall break through again. He knows where They have trod
earth's fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can
behold Them as They tread.
--H. P. Lovecraft
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/H._P._Lovecraft>
The Bone Wars were rivalries between paleontologists, mainly Edward
Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh (pictured), that led to a surge
of fossil discoveries during the Gilded Age of American history. Cope,
of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, and Marsh, of the
Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale, competed using underhanded
methods, resorting to bribery, theft, destruction of bones, and mutual
attacks in scientific publications. They sought fossils in rich bone
beds in Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming. From 1877 to 1892, they used
their wealth and influence to finance their own expeditions and to
procure services and dinosaur bones from fossil hunters. Cope and Marsh
were financially and socially ruined by their attempts to disgrace each
other, but their contributions to science and the field of paleontology,
including many unopened boxes of fossils found after their deaths, were
massive. Their efforts led to many new descriptions of dinosaur species,
of which 32 remain valid today. The Bone Wars shed light on prehistoric
life and sparked the public's interest in dinosaurs, leading to
continued fossil excavation in North America in the decades to follow.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_Wars>
_______________________________
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:
A German referendum supported the recent merging of the posts
of Chancellor and President, consolidating Adolf Hitler's assumption of
supreme power.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_referendum,_1934>
1964:
Over 17,000 fans saw the Beatles on the opening date of the
group's first nationwide U.S. tour.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles_in_the_United_States>
1987:
A 27-year-old unemployed local labourer shot and killed sixteen
people and wounded fifteen others before fatally shooting himself in
Hungerford, Berkshire, England, one of the worst criminal atrocities
involving firearms in British history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungerford_massacre>
2003:
A Hamas suicide bomber killed 23 people and wounded over 130
others on a crowded public bus in the Shmuel HaNavi quarter in
Jerusalem.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shmuel_HaNavi_bus_bombing>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
trickle truth:
(informal) Facts gradually and reluctantly admitted by one's significant
other under questioning, especially about having been unfaithful.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/trickle_truth>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
A political leader must keep looking over his shoulder all the
time to see if the boys are still there. If they aren’t still there,
he’s no longer a political leader.
--Bernard Baruch
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bernard_Baruch>
Heathenry, or Germanic Neopaganism, is a modern Pagan religion. The
practitioners of this new religious movement model their faith on the
belief systems of Germanic peoples of Iron Age and Early Medieval
Europe. Heathenry uses historical, archaeological, and folkloric
evidence as a basis. It does not have a unified theology and typically
centers on a pantheon of deities. It adopts cosmological views,
including an animistic view of the cosmos in which the natural world is
imbued with spirits. Many practitioners are solitary; other members of
the Heathen community assemble in small groups to perform their rites in
specially constructed buildings or outdoors (pictured). Heathen ethical
systems place great emphasis on honor, personal integrity, and loyalty,
while beliefs about an afterlife are varied and rarely emphasized. Many
groups adopt a universalist perspective which holds that the religion is
open to all, irrespective of ethnic or racial identity. Scholarly
estimates put the number of Heathens at no more than 20,000 worldwide,
with communities of practitioners active in Europe, North America, and
Australasia.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathenry_(new_religious_movement)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
684:
Second Fitna: Umayyad partisans defeated the supporters of Ibn
al-Zubayr and cemented Umayyad control of Syria.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marj_Rahit_(684)>
1590:
On the third birthday of his granddaughter Virginia Dare, the
first English child born in the Americas, John White returned to the
Roanoke Colony in present-day North Carolina, U.S., only to find it
deserted.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roanoke_Colony>
1868:
Astronomer Pierre Janssen discovered helium while analysing the
chromosphere of the sun during a total solar eclipse in Guntur, India.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium>
1940:
Second World War: During the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe
made an all-out effort to destroy RAF Fighter Command, wherein both
sides lost more aircraft combined on this day than at any other point
during the campaign.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hardest_Day>
2008:
War in Afghanistan: French ISAF forces were ambushed by Afghan
militants, suffering heavy casualties.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uzbin_Valley_ambush>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
scabrous:
1. Covered with scales or scabs; hence, very coarse or rough.
2. (figuratively) Disgusting, repellent, repulsive, vile.
3. (figuratively) Of music, writing, etc.: lacking refinement, harsh,
rough; unmelodious, unmusical.
4. (figuratively) Difficult, thorny, troublesome.
5. (figuratively, chiefly US) Covered with a crust of dirt or grime.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/scabrous>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
If we can see our difficulties, there is a way of resolving them,
or the hope of a way.
--Brian Aldiss
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brian_Aldiss>
Hurricane Andrew (1992) was an Atlantic hurricane, the most destructive
one ever in Florida. Named as a tropical storm on August 17, it hit the
northwestern Bahamas six days later at Category 5 strength, leaving
1,700 people homeless, killing four, and disrupting the transport,
communications, water, sanitation, agriculture, and fishing sectors. It
struck Florida on August 24 with sustained wind speeds as high as
165 mph (270 km/h). In the city of Homestead in Miami-Dade County, it
stripped many homes of all but their concrete foundations. Statewide,
Andrew destroyed or damaged over 164,000 homes, killed 44 people, and
left a record $25 billion in damage. A facility housing Burmese pythons
was destroyed, releasing them into the Everglades, where they now number
up to 300,000. The hurricane destroyed oil platforms in the Gulf of
Mexico before hitting Louisiana, where it downed 80% of the trees in the
Atchafalaya River Basin, devastated agriculture, and caused 17 deaths.
The storm spawned at least 28 tornadoes along the Gulf Coast, mostly in
Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. In total, Andrew caused
$26.5 billion in damage and left 65 people dead.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Andrew>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
986:
Byzantine–Bulgarian wars: The Bulgarians defeated Byzantine
forces at the Gate of Trajan near present-day Ihtiman, with Emperor
Basil II barely escaping.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Gates_of_Trajan>
1676:
The Battle of Halmstad was fought at Fyllebro and was the last
battle in Halland between Denmark and Sweden.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Halmstad>
1907:
Pike Place Market, the most popular tourist destination in
Seattle, Washington, U.S., opened for business.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pike_Place_Market>
1947:
A commission led by Cyril Radcliffe established the Radcliffe
Line, the border between India and Pakistan after the Partition of
India.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radcliffe_Line>
1977:
The Soviet icebreaker NS Arktika became the first surface ship
to reach the North Pole.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arktika_(1972_icebreaker)>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
grisly:
Horrifyingly repellent; gruesome, terrifying.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/grisly>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I think it’s the shock of every writer’s life when their first
book is published. The shock of their lives. One has somehow to adjust
from being anonymous, a figure in ambush, working from concealment, to
being and working in full public view.
--Ted Hughes
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ted_Hughes>
Richard II (1367–1400) was King of England, the last of the main-line
kings of the House of Plantagenet. He ruled from 1377 until he was
deposed in 1399. A son of Edward, the Black Prince, he was born during
the reign of his grandfather, Edward III. Richard was tall, good-
looking and intelligent, but he may have suffered from a personality
disorder, especially toward the end of his reign. Less warlike than his
father or grandfather, he sought to bring an end to the Hundred Years'
War started by Edward III. A firm believer in the royal prerogative, he
restrained the power of the aristocracy and relied on a private retinue
for military protection. He promoted an elevated image of himself, and
art and culture were at the centre of his court, in contrast to the
fraternal, martial court of his grandfather. Shakespeare's play
Richard II portrays his misrule and deposition as responsible for the
15th-century Wars of the Roses, but modern historians disagree,
attributing his downfall to practices that were unacceptable to the
political establishment.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_II>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1863:
After Spain had annexed the Dominican Republic, rebels raised
the Dominican flag in Santiago de los Caballeros to begin the War of
Restoration.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominican_Restoration_War>
1896:
A group led by Skookum Jim Mason discovered gold near Dawson
City, Yukon, Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klondike_Gold_Rush>
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>
1987:
Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashed after takeoff in Detroit,
Michigan, U.S., leaving a sole survivor.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Airlines_Flight_255>
2015:
Suicide bombers assassinated Pakistani politician Shuja
Khanzada and killed at least 22 others at his home.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuja_Khanzada>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
come together:
1. (intransitive) To assemble, to congregate.
2. (intransitive, figuratively) To harmonize socially; to come to an
amicable agreement; to ally or band together. […]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/come_together>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Lofty posts make great men greater still, and small men much
smaller.
--Jean de La Bruyère
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jean_de_La_Bruy%C3%A8re>
Jennifer Lawrence (born August 15, 1990) is an American actress. After
starring in the television series The Bill Engvall Show (2007–2009)
and making her film debut in Garden Party (2008), she had her
breakthrough with Winter's Bone in 2010. She took over the role of
Mystique in the X-Men film series in 2011, and starred as Katniss
Everdeen in the top-grossing Hunger Games films (2012–2015). She
became the second-youngest recipient of the Academy Award for Best
Actress for playing a depressed widow in Silver Linings Playbook (2012).
She won a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for playing
a troubled wife in American Hustle (2013), and received Golden Globe
Awards for both of these films and for playing an inventor in the biopic
Joy (2015). Lawrence's films have grossed in excess of $5.5 billion
globally, and she has been the world's highest-paid actress since 2015.
Her many awards and honors include appearances in Time's 100 most
influential people in the world in 2013 and the Forbes Celebrity 100 in
2014 and 2016. She is a vocal advocate of feminism and gender equality.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Lawrence>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1038:
Upon the death of his uncle Stephen I, Peter became the second
King of Hungary.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter,_King_of_Hungary>
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>
1942:
World War II: The tanker SS Ohio reached Malta, as part of an
operation to deliver much-needed supplies during the Siege of Malta.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Pedestal>
1963:
President Fulbert Youlou was overthrown in the Republic of
Congo, after a three-day uprising in the capital.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trois_Glorieuses_(1963)>
1977:
The Big Ear radio telescope in Ohio received a strong,
apparently extraterrestrial radio signal, which became known as the
"Wow! signal" (printout pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
pomerium:
(historical, Roman Empire) The tract of land denoting the formal, sacral
ambit of a Roman city.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pomerium>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Whatever plans we may make, we shall find quite useless when the
time for action comes. Revolutions are always full of surprises, and
whoever thinks he can play chess with a revolution will soon find how
terrible is the grasp of God and how insignificant the human reason
before the whirlwind of His breath. That man only is likely to dominate
the chances of a Revolution, who makes no plans but preserves his heart
pure for the will of God to declare itself. The great rule of life is to
have no schemes but one unalterable purpose. If the will is fixed on the
purpose it sets itself to accomplish, then circumstances will suggest
the right course; but the schemer finds himself always tripped up by the
unexpected.
--Sri Aurobindo
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sri_Aurobindo>
xx is the debut album by English indie pop band the xx, released by
Young Turks, an imprint of XL Recordings, on 14 August 2009. Audio
engineer Rodaidh McDonald and the xx strove for an intimate,
unembellished sound. The band's Jamie Smith produced xx on his laptop,
mixing in electronic beats. Strongly influenced by R&B; acts, the album
also drew comparisons to alternative rock, electronica, and post-punk
sounds. The melancholic songs on xx featured minimalist arrangements.
Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim sang most of these as low-key duets,
and wrote emotional lyrics about love, intimacy, loss, and desire. The
album received widespread acclaim from critics, many naming it one of
the year's best records. It became a sleeper hit in Britain and the
United States. Although none of its singles became hits, xx benefited
from the licensing of its songs on television and the band's 2010
Mercury Prize win for the album. In 2013, xx was ranked number 237 on
NME magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xx_(album)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1720:
The Spanish Villasur expedition, intended to check French
influence on the Great Plains of North America, ended in failure as it
was ambushed by a Pawnee and Otoe force.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villasur_expedition>
1888:
A recording of English composer Arthur Sullivan's The Lost
Chord, one of the first recordings of music ever made, was played during
a press conference introducing Thomas Edison's phonograph in London.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Chord>
1901:
Gustave Whitehead allegedly made a successful powered flight of
his Number 21 aircraft in Fairfield, Connecticut, U.S.; if true, this
predates the Wright brothers by two years.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Whitehead>
1975:
The film The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which is still in
limited release today, making it the longest-running theatrical release
in film history, premiered in Los Angeles.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rocky_Horror_Picture_Show>
2007:
Four coordinated suicide bomb attacks detonated in the Iraqi
towns of Qahtaniya and Jazeera, killing an estimated 796 people and
wounding 1,562 others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Yazidi_communities_bombings>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
rupee:
1. The common name for the monetary currencies used in modern India,
Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, the Seychelles, or Sri Lanka, often
abbreviated ₨.
2. (historical) A silver coin circulating in India between the 16th and
20th centuries, weighing one tola (formerly 170–180 troy grains;
from 1833, 180 troy grains).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rupee>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Art is the great and universal refreshment. For Art is never
dogmatic; holds no brief for itself; you may take it, or you may leave
it.
--John Galsworthy
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Galsworthy>
Bert T. Combs (August 13, 1911 – December 4, 1991) was an American
jurist and politician from Kentucky. After being decorated for
prosecuting Japanese war criminals before military tribunals during
World War II, he returned to his law practice in Prestonsburg. In 1951
he was appointed by Governor Lawrence Wetherby to fill a vacancy on the
Kentucky Court of Appeals, and was elected to a full term later that
year. He was elected the 50th Governor of Kentucky in 1959 on his second
run for the office. Combs secured passage early in his term of a larger-
than-needed three percent sales tax to pay a bonus to the state's
military veterans, and used much of the surplus to improve the state's
educational system and expand the state park and highway systems. He was
appointed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals by President Lyndon B.
Johnson in 1967, serving three years. In 1985 Combs' challenge to the
state's education funding model led to a court ruling that declared
Kentucky's entire public school system unconstitutional. In 1991 Combs
was caught in a flash flood on the road, and died of hypothermia.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_T._Combs>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
554:
As a reward for over 60 years of service to the Byzantine
Empire, Emperor Justinian I granted Liberius extensive estates in Italy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberius_(praetorian_prefect)>
1624:
Cardinal Richelieu became the chief minister to King Louis
XIII, and transformed France's feudal political structure into one with
a powerful central government.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_Richelieu>
1868:
A major earthquake near Arica, Peru (now in Chile), caused an
estimated 25,000 casualties, and the subsequent tsunami caused
considerable damage as far away as Hawaii and New Zealand.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1868_Arica_earthquake>
1942:
Major General Eugene Reybold of the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers authorized the construction of facilities that would house the
Manhattan Project.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project>
1954:
The complete version of "Qaumi Taranah", the national anthem of
Pakistan, was broadcast for the first time on Radio Pakistan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qaumi_Taranah>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
sinistromanual:
Left-handed.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sinistromanual>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We must try to advance the cause of humanity by developing in
ourselves, as well as in others, a higher type of manhood and womanhood
than the past has known. To aid in the evolution of a new conscience, to
inject living streams of moral force into the dry veins of materialistic
communities is our aim. We seek to come into touch with the ultimate
power in things, the ultimate peace in things, which yet, in any literal
sense, we know well that we cannot know. We seek to become morally
certain — that is, certain for moral purposes — of what is beyond
the reach of demonstration. But our moral optimism must include the
darkest facts that pessimism can point to, include them and transcend
them.
--Felix Adler
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Felix_Adler>
In the Battle of the Falaise Pocket (12–21 August 1944) in the Second
World War, Allied forces encircled and destroyed most of the German Army
Group B west of the Seine river in a pocket at Falaise in northwestern
France. It was the decisive engagement of the Battle of Normandy. The
Americans had broken out from the Normandy beachhead, the Third U.S.
Army under General George Patton was rapidly advancing, and British and
Canadian forces were launching offensives south of Caumont and Caen.
Adolf Hitler ordered Field Marshal Günther von Kluge, the commander of
Army Group B, to conduct a counter-offensive at Mortain instead of
withdrawing. Four depleted panzer divisions were not enough to stop the
First U.S. Army, which converged with the British Second Army and the
First Canadian Army on the Falaise–Chambois area, directed by the
Allied ground forces commander, General Bernard Montgomery. German
counter-attacks forced some gaps in the Allied lines, but by the evening
of 21 August the pocket had been sealed, with around 50,000 Germans
trapped inside. Many escaped, but losses in men and equipment were huge.
A few days later, the Allies liberated Paris.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falaise_Pocket>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1877:
American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered Deimos, the smaller
of the two moons of Mars.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deimos_(moon)>
1883:
The last known quagga (example pictured), a subspecies of the
plains zebra, died at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quagga>
1914:
World War I: Despite the Belgian victory in the Battle of
Halen, they were ultimately unable to stop the German invasion of
Belgium.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Halen>
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>
2000:
The Oscar-class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navy
suffered an on-board explosion and sank in the Barents Sea during a
military exercise.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kursk_submarine_disaster>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
gunmetal:
1. (historical) A type of bronze used for making cannons.
2. An alloy of 88% copper, 10% tin and 2% zinc, originally used for making
guns.
3. A dark grey or bluish-grey colour; gunmetal-grey.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gunmetal>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I wish I could write a book that will be read for as long as our
civilization lasts … would value it much more highly than any business
success if I could contribute to an understanding of the world in which
we live or, better yet, if I could help to preserve the economic and
political system that has allowed me to flourish as a participant.
--George Soros
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Soros>