Saguaro National Park is a United States national park in southeastern
Arizona that preserves Sonoran Desert landscapes, fauna, and flora,
including the giant saguaro cactus. The 92,000-acre (37,000 ha) park
has two separate areas—the Tucson Mountain District (TMD) about 10
miles (16 km) west of the city of Tucson and the Rincon Mountain
District about 10 miles (16 km) east of the city. The Rincon Mountains
are part of the Madrean Sky Islands between the southern Rocky Mountains
and the Sierra Madre Oriental in Mexico; they are significantly higher
and wetter than the Tucson Mountains, and support many plants and
animals that do not live in the TMD. Earlier residents of and visitors
to the lands in and around the park before its creation included the
Hohokam, Sobaipuri, Tohono O'odham, and Apaches, as well as Spanish
explorers, missionaries, miners, homesteaders, and ranchers. In 1933,
President Herbert Hoover, using the Antiquities Act, established the
original park, Saguaro National Monument, in the Rincon Mountains. In
1961, President John F. Kennedy added the TMD.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saguaro_National_Park>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
763:
The Abbasid Caliphate crushed the Alid revolt when one of the
rebel leaders was mortally wounded in battle near Basra in what is now
Iraq.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alid_revolt_of_762%E2%80%93763>
1789:
The Power of Sympathy by William Hill Brown, widely considered
to be the first American novel, was published.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Sympathy>
1941:
Sparked by the murder of a German officer the previous day in
Bucharest, Romania, members of the Iron Guard engaged in a rebellion and
pogrom, killing 125 Jews.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legionnaires%27_rebellion_and_Bucharest_pogrom>
1968:
Vietnam War: The Vietnamese People's Army attacked Khe Sanh
Combat Base, a U.S. Marines outpost in Quảng Trị Province, South
Vietnam, starting the Battle of Khe Sanh (U.S. Army soldiers pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Khe_Sanh>
2011:
Demonstrations in Tirana to protest the alleged corruption of
the Albanian government led to the killings of three demonstrators by
the Republican Guard.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Albanian_opposition_demonstrations>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
breadbasket:
1. A basket used for storing or carrying bread.
2. A region which has favourable conditions to produce a large quantity of
grain or, by extension, other food products; a food bowl.
3. (humorous) The abdomen or stomach, especially as a vulnerable part of
the body in an attack.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/breadbasket>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Though "none by searching can find out God, or the Almighty to
perfection," yet I am persuaded, that if mankind would dare to exercise
their reason as freely on those divine topics as they do in the common
concerns of life, they would, in a great measure, rid themselves of
their blindness and superstition, gain more exalted ideas of God and
their obligations to him and one another, and be proportionally
delighted and blessed with the views of his moral government, make
better members of society, and acquire, manly powerful incentives to the
practice of morality, which is the last and greatest perfection that
human nature is capable of.
--Ethan Allen
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ethan_Allen>
Reg Pollard (20 January 1903 – 9 March 1978) was a senior commander
in the Australian Army, serving as Chief of the General Staff from 1960
to 1963. He was mentioned in despatches in 1941 after seeing action with
the 7th Division in the Middle East. In 1942 he became senior staff
officer of the division in New Guinea, and was awarded the Distinguished
Service Order for his actions. Pollard's early post-war roles involved
recruit training, administration, and planning. In 1953 he took command
of the Australian Army Component of the British Commonwealth Forces
Korea. In 1957 he was promoted to lieutenant general and took charge of
Eastern Command in Sydney. Knighted in 1961, he presided over the Army's
reorganisation as Chief of the General Staff, and helped Royal Military
College, Duntroon become a degree-granting institution. In 1962, he
oversaw deployment of the first team of Australian military advisors to
South Vietnam. After retiring from the military in 1963, Pollard became
Honorary Colonel of the Royal Australian Regiment; he served as
Australian Secretary to Queen Elizabeth II during the Royal Visit in
1970.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reg_Pollard_(general)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1265:
Summoned by Simon de Montfort, the first English parliament
held its first meeting in the Palace of Westminster.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_de_Montfort%27s_Parliament>
1843:
Honório Hermeto Carneiro Leão, Marquis of Paraná, became the
de facto first prime minister of the Empire of Brazil.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hon%C3%B3rio_Hermeto_Carneiro_Le%C3%A3o,_Marq…>
1945:
World War II: Germany began the evacuation of at least 1.8
million people from East Prussia, an operation which took nearly two
months to complete.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evacuation_of_East_Prussia>
1969:
Bengali student activist Amanullah Asaduzzaman was shot and
killed by East Pakistani police, one of the events that led to the
Bangladesh Liberation War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanullah_Asaduzzaman>
2009:
During the Icelandic financial crisis, thousands of people
gathered to protest at the parliament in Reykjavík.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Icelandic_financial_crisis_protests>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
intuit:
To know intuitively or by immediate perception.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/intuit>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
There are so many clues and feelings in the world that it makes a
mystery and a mystery means there's a puzzle to be solved. Once you
think like that you're hooked on probably finding a meaning, and
there're many avenues in life where we're given little indications that
the mystery can one day be solved. We get little proofs, — not the big
proof — but the little proofs that keep us searching.
--David Lynch
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Lynch>
Sonic Spinball is a pinball video game developed by the Sega Technical
Institute and published by Sega. It was originally released for the Mega
Drive/Genesis in North America and Europe in November 1993 and in Japan
the following month. It was later ported to the Game Gear and Master
System in 1994 and 1995 respectively. The game has been re-released on
eleven different consoles and has been included in Genesis-related
compilations. The player controls Sonic the Hedgehog, who is manipulated
like a pinball in various machine-like environments for most of the
game, while the series antagonist Doctor Robotnik tries to enslave the
population on the planet Mobius. Sonic Spinball was commissioned by Sega
when it became clear that a new Sonic the Hedgehog game could not be
completed in time for the 1993 holiday season, since the majority of
their staff were developing Sonic the Hedgehog 3. The game was hastily
developed, with most work completed within two months. It received mixed
reviews upon release; most critics praised the game's novelty and
graphics but faulted its control scheme.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_Spinball>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
649:
War against the Western Turks: The forces of Kucha surrendered
after a siege, establishing Tang control over the northern Tarim Basin
in what is now Xinjiang.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_campaign_against_Kucha>
1795:
The Batavian Republic was established, a day after William V,
Prince of Orange fled the Dutch Republic as a result of the Batavian
Revolution in Amsterdam.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batavian_Revolution_in_Amsterdam>
1945:
World War II: Soviet forces liberated the Łódź Ghetto; only
877 Jews of the initial population of 164,000 remained there at that
time.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%81%C3%B3d%C5%BA_Ghetto>
1975:
A magnitude 6.8 Ms earthquake struck northern Himachal Pradesh
in India, causing extensive damage to the region.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Kinnaur_earthquake>
2012:
The Hong Kong-based file-sharing website Megaupload (founder
Kim Dotcom pictured) was shut down by the FBI.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaupload>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
ununennium:
The systematic element name for the (as yet undiscovered) chemical
element with an atomic number of 119 (symbol Uue).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ununennium>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
A man is none the less a slave because he is allowed to choose a
new master once in a term of years. Neither are a people any the less
slaves because permitted periodically to choose new masters. What makes
them slaves is the fact that they now are, and are always hereafter to
be, in the hands of men whose power over them is, and always is to be,
absolute and irresponsible.
--Lysander Spooner
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lysander_Spooner>
Cleopatra Selene (died 69 BC) was a queen of Seleucid Syria (83–69
BC). The daughter of Ptolemy VIII and Cleopatra III of Egypt, she became
the queen of Egypt in 115 BC when she was married to her brother, King
Ptolemy IX, and later probably married King Ptolemy X. In 103 BC,
Cleopatra III established an alliance with the Seleucid ruler Antiochus
VIII; Cleopatra Selene was sent to be his bride, and stayed with him
until his assassination in 96 BC. The widowed queen married her previous
husband's brother, Antiochus IX, who died in 95 BC. She then married her
stepson, Antiochus X, who probably died in 92 BC. She hid somewhere in
Syria with her children until 83 BC, when the Seleucid thrones in
Antioch and Damascus became vacant. Declaring her son Antiochus XIII
king, she ruled alongside him, according to depictions on coins from the
period. She was ousted when the people of Antioch and Damascus,
exhausted by the Seleucids' civil wars, invited foreign monarchs as
their new rulers. She then controlled several coastal towns until she
was besieged, captured and executed in 69 BC by Tigranes in Ptolemais.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra_Selene_of_Syria>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1866:
Wesley College, one of the largest schools in Australia by
enrolment, was established in Melbourne.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_College_(Victoria)>
1884:
Welsh physician William Price was arrested for attempting to
cremate his deceased infant son; he was acquitted in the subsequent
trial, which led to the legalisation of cremation in the United Kingdom.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Price_(physician)>
1943:
World War II: As part of Operation Iskra, the Soviet Red Army
eased the Siege of Leningrad, opening a narrow land corridor to the
city.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Iskra>
1958:
African Canadian Willie O'Ree of the Boston Bruins played his
first game in the National Hockey League, breaking the colour barrier in
professional ice hockey.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_O%27Ree>
1983:
Thirty years after his death, the International Olympic
Committee presented commemorative medals to the family of American
athlete Jim Thorpe, who had had his gold medals stripped for playing
semi-professional baseball before the 1912 Summer Olympics.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Thorpe>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
frangible:
Able to be broken; breakable, fragile.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/frangible>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I can't find a word to say to you I can't comprehend, I can't
relate to you. Plain to see your faith for me Take me higher angel fire
Take me where I want to go Teach me things I need to know.
--Dolores O'Riordan
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dolores_O%27Riordan>
The Eastbourne manslaughter (R v Hopley) was an 1860 legal case in
Eastbourne, England, about the death of a teenage pupil at the hands of
his teacher, Thomas Hopley. Reginald Cancellor's parents gave Hopley
permission to use corporal punishment to overcome what he perceived as
the boy's stubbornness. After the boy died, the teacher insisted that
the beating was justifiable and that he was not guilty of any crime. An
inquest into Cancellor's death began when his brother requested an
autopsy. As a result of the inquest Hopley was arrested and charged with
manslaughter. He was found guilty at trial and sentenced to four years
in prison. Hopley's conviction was upheld by the Court of King's Bench
(Chief Justice Alexander Cockburn pictured), which said that a
schoolmaster "may for the purpose of correcting what is evil in the
child, inflict moderate and reasonable corporal punishment." The trial
was sensationalised by the Victorian press and incited debate over the
use of corporal punishment in schools. Physical discipline was
officially banned in British schools more than a century later.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastbourne_manslaughter>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1773:
On James Cook's second voyage, his ship HMS Resolution became
the first to cross the Antarctic Circle.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_voyage_of_James_Cook>
1893:
Lorrin A. Thurston, along with the Citizens' Committee of
Public Safety led the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii and the
government of Queen Liliʻuokalani (pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overthrow_of_the_Kingdom_of_Hawaii>
1912:
Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition reached
the South Pole, only to find that Roald Amundsen's team had beaten them
by 33 days.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_Nova_Expedition>
1948:
Indonesian National Revolution: The Renville Agreement between
the Netherlands and Indonesian Republicans was ratified, recognising a
cease-fire along the "Van Mook Line".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renville_Agreement>
1998:
The Drudge Report became the first news source to break the
Bill Clinton–Monica Lewinsky scandal to the public
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drudge_Report>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
emasculate:
1. (transitive) To deprive of virile or procreative power; to castrate, to
geld.
2. (transitive) To deprive of masculine vigor or spirit; to weaken; to
render effeminate; to vitiate by unmanly softness.
3. (transitive, botany) Of a flower: to deprive of the anthers.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/emasculate>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I want our young people to know that they matter, that they
belong. So don't be afraid — you hear me, young people? Don't be
afraid. Be focused. Be determined. Be hopeful. Be empowered. Empower
yourselves with a good education, then get out there and use that
education to build a country worthy of your boundless promise. Lead by
example with hope, never fear. And know that I will be with you, rooting
for you and working to support you for the rest of my life.
--Michelle Obama
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michelle_Obama>
The Illinois Centennial half dollar is a commemorative fifty-cent piece
struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1918. The obverse
side, depicting Abraham Lincoln, was designed by Chief Engraver George
T. Morgan; the reverse image, based on the Seal of Illinois, was done by
his assistant and successor, John R. Sinnock. Morgan's design is based
on a statue by Andrew O'Connor. The State of Illinois asked for a
commemorative to mark the centennial of its 1818 statehood. In 1918,
after legislation was enacted, the two engravers produced designs, but
Treasury Secretary William G. McAdoo required changes, not all of which
were made. The coins were minted in August 1918, and were sold to the
public for one dollar each. Though many were held by a bank until 1933,
all were sold, and profits were used to cover the cost of local
centennial celebrations or to help those in need because of World War I.
Later writers have generally admired the coin, considering it one of the
more handsome American commemoratives. It is valued in the hundreds of
dollars today, and occasionally trades for more.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_Centennial_half_dollar>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1809:
Peninsular War: French forces under Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult
attacked the amphibious evacuation of the British under Sir John Moore
in Corunna, Galicia, Spain.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Corunna>
1862:
The beam of a pumping engine broke at the Hartley Colliery in
Northumberland, England, and fell down the shaft, trapping the men below
and resulting in the deaths of 204.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartley_Colliery_disaster>
1945:
World War II: Adolf Hitler and his staff moved into the
Führerbunker (entrance pictured), where he would eventually commit
suicide.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%BChrerbunker>
1986:
The Internet Engineering Task Force, a standards organization
that develops and promotes Internet standards, held its first meeting,
consisting of twenty-one United States-government-funded researchers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Engineering_Task_Force>
2016:
After gunmen took hostages the previous night at a restaurant
in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, government commandos stormed the premises
to bring the situation to an end.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Ouagadougou_attacks>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
serac:
1. Often sérac: a hard, cone-shaped, pale green, strongly flavoured cheese
from Switzerland made from skimmed cowmilk and blue fenugreek
(Trigonella caerulea); Schabziger, Sapsago. It is usually eaten grated,
mixed with butter, or in a fondue.
2. (geography (glaciology)) A sharp tower of ice formed by intersecting
crevasses of a glacier.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/serac>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Authoritarian political ideologies have a vested interest in
promoting fear, a sense of the imminence of takeover by aliens — and
real diseases are useful material. Epidemic diseases usually elicit a
call to ban the entry of foreigners, immigrants. And xenophobic
propaganda has always depicted immigrants as bearers of disease… Such
is the extraordinary potency and efficacy of the plague metaphor: it
allows a disease to be regarded both as something incurred by vulnerable
"others" and as (potentially) everyone's disease.
--Susan Sontag
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Susan_Sontag>
Ankylosaurus was an armored dinosaur that lived roughly 67 million years
ago, at the very end of the Cretaceous Period. This genus was among the
last of the non-avian dinosaurs, living alongside Tyrannosaurus,
Triceratops, and Edmontosaurus. Its name means "fused lizard"; bones in
its skull and other parts of its body were fused, increasing their
strength. Ankylosaurus was up to 6.25 m (20.5 feet) long and 1.7 m
(5.6 feet) tall, weighing about 4.8–8 tonnes (11,000–18,000 lb). It
had a broad, robust body with a wide, low skull. The front parts of the
jaws were covered in a beak, with rows of small, leaf-shaped teeth
behind it, adapted for a herbivorous diet. It was covered in armor
plates for protection against predators, with bony half-rings covering
the neck, and had a large club on the end of its tail which may have
been used as a weapon. Fossils from a few specimens of Ankylosaurus have
been found in various geological formations in western North America,
but a complete skeleton has not been discovered.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankylosaurus>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1885:
American photographer Wilson Bentley took the first known
photograph of a snowflake by attaching a bellows camera to a microscope
(process pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilson_Bentley>
1934:
At least 10,700 people died when an 8.0 magnitude earthquake
struck Nepal and the Indian state of Bihar.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1934_Nepal%E2%80%93Bihar_earthquake>
1951:
Ilse Koch, the wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald and
Majdanek concentration camps, was sentenced to life imprisonment by a
West German court.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilse_Koch>
1962:
The Derveni papyrus, which dates to 340 BC, making it the
oldest surviving manuscript in Europe, was discovered in Macedonia,
northern Greece.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derveni_papyrus>
1975:
Portugal signed the Alvor Agreement with UNITA, the MPLA, and
the FNLA, ending the Angolan War of Independence.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvor_Agreement>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
obtuse:
1. Intellectually dull or dim-witted.
2. Indirect or circuitous.
3. Of sound, etc.: deadened, muffled, muted.
4. (geometry) Of an angle: greater than 90 degrees but less than 180
degrees.
5. (geometry) Of a triangle: having one obtuse angle.
6. (now chiefly botany, zoology) Not sharp; blunt.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/obtuse>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
If everyone were clothed with integrity, If every heart were just,
frank, kindly, The other virtues would be well-nigh useless, Since their
chief purpose is to make us bear with patience The injustice of our
fellows.
--Molière
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moli%C3%A8re>
State Route 94 (SR 94) is a 63.3-mile (101.9 km) highway in the U.S.
state of California. The western portion, known as the Martin Luther
King Jr. Freeway, begins at Interstate 5 (I-5) in downtown San Diego and
continues to the end of the freeway portion past SR 125 in Spring
Valley. The non-freeway segment of SR 94 that continues east through
the mountains to I-8 near Boulevard is known as Campo Road. In the 19th
and early 20th centuries, this section was a wagon road providing access
to eastern San Diego County. The Campo road was often the only road
through the Peninsular Ranges to stay open for the entire winter; other
roads, at higher elevations, were closed due to snow, leading to
increased traffic along this road. It was added to the state highway
system in 1933, and signs for Route 94 were posted along local roads
later that decade. Efforts to convert the western half of the route to a
freeway got underway in the 1950s, and the freeway was complete by 1962
west of the road that became SR 125.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Route_94>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1900:
Giacomo Puccini's opera Tosca (audio featured), based on the
play La Tosca by French dramatist Victorien Sardou, premiered at the
Teatro Costanzi in Rome.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tosca>
1933:
Harold Larwood, of the England cricket team, employing the
controversial tactic known as Bodyline, bowled a ball into the chest of
the Australian cricket captain, Bill Woodfull, during play, in an image
that became one of the defining symbols of the series.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodyline>
1943:
Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Charles de Gaulle,
and Henri Giraud met in Casablanca to plan the Allied European strategy
for the next phase of World War II.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca_Conference>
1953:
Josip Broz Tito was inaugurated as the first President of
Yugoslavia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josip_Broz_Tito>
1978:
Austrian logician Kurt Gödel, who suffered from an obsessive
fear of being poisoned, died of starvation after his wife was
hospitalized and unable to cook for him.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_G%C3%B6del>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
windsucker:
1. A horse with the habit of windsucking.
2. (archaic) […]
3. The common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus).
4. (derogatory) A term of abuse.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/windsucker>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The thinking man must … oppose all cruel customs no matter how
deeply rooted in tradition and surrounded by a halo. True manhood is too
precious a spiritual good for us to surrender any part of it to
thoughtlessness.
--Albert Schweitzer
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Schweitzer>
SMS Wittelsbach (His Majesty's Ship Wittelsbach) was the lead ship of
her class of pre-dreadnought battleships, built for the German Imperial
Navy. She was the first capital ship built under the Navy Law of 1898,
which was brought about by Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz. Wittelsbach was
laid down in 1899 at the Wilhelmshaven Navy Dockyard and completed in
October 1902, armed with a main battery of four 24 cm (9.4 in) guns
and with a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). During World War I
the ship served in the IV Battle Squadron, with limited non-combat duty
in the Baltic Sea, including during the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in
August 1915. By late 1915, crew shortages and the threat from British
submarines forced the navy to withdraw older battleships like
Wittelsbach. The ship then saw service in auxiliary roles, first as a
training ship and then as a ship's tender. In 1919, after the war, she
was converted to a tender for minesweepers.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Wittelsbach>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1435:
Sicut Dudum, forbidding the enslavement of the Guanche natives
in Canary Islands by the Spanish, was promulgated by Eugene IV.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicut_Dudum>
1847:
The Treaty of Cahuenga was signed, informally ending the
fighting of the Mexican–American War in California.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Cahuenga>
1910:
The first public radio broadcast, a live performance of
Cavalleria rusticana from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City,
was sent over the airwaves.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_of_public_radio_broadcasting>
1972:
Ignatius Kutu Acheampong led a coup d'état to overthrow Prime
Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia and President Edward Akufo-Addo of Ghana.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignatius_Kutu_Acheampong>
2012:
The Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia ran aground on a reef
off the shore of Isola del Giglio, Tuscany, and partially sank.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa_Concordia_disaster>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
bolt-on:
1. An accessory that can be attached by bolting it on.
2. An additional functionality or service for a mobile telephone
subscription.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bolt-on>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The gentle minde by gentle deeds is knowne. For a man by nothing
is so well bewrayd, As by his manners.
--Edmund Spenser
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmund_Spenser>
The first season of True Detective, an American anthology crime drama
television series created by Nic Pizzolatto, premiered on HBO on January
12, 2014, starring Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Michelle
Monaghan, Michael Potts, and Tory Kittles. The nonlinear narrative in
eight episodes focuses on Louisiana State Police homicide detectives
Rust Cohle (McConaughey) and Marty Hart (Harrelson) as they investigate
the murder of prostitute Dora Lange in 1995. Seventeen years later, they
must revisit the investigation, along with several other unsolved
crimes. The first season explores themes of philosophical pessimism,
masculinity, and Christianity; critics have analyzed the show's
portrayal of women, its auteurist sensibility, and the influence of
comics, weird fiction and horror fiction on its narrative. The episodes,
directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, were filmed in Louisiana. The series
received positive reviews and garnered a Primetime Emmy Award nomination
for Outstanding Drama Series and a Golden Globe Award for Best
Miniseries or Television Film, along with other honors for writing,
cinematography, direction, and acting.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Detective_(season_1)>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1554:
Bayinnaung, who later assembled the largest empire in the
history of Southeast Asia, was crowned king of the Burmese Toungoo
dynasty.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayinnaung>
1895:
The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural
Beauty, a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern
Ireland, was founded.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Trust_for_Places_of_Historic_Interes…>
1921:
Seeking to restore confidence after the Black Sox Scandal,
owners of Major League Baseball teams elected former United States
district court judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis as the league's first
commissioner.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenesaw_Mountain_Landis>
1967:
Seventy-three-year-old psychology professor James Bedford
became the first person to be cryonically frozen with intent of future
resuscitation.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryonics>
2010:
A 7.0 Mw earthquake struck Haiti, affecting an estimated three
million people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Haiti_earthquake>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
upcycle:
1. (transitive) To convert (waste materials, etc.) into new materials or
products of higher quality and greater functionality.
2. (transitive) To promote into a more productive or useful role.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/upcycle>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
All truth is eternal. Truth is nobody’s property; no race, no
individual can lay any exclusive claim to it. Truth is the nature of all
souls.
--Swami Vivekananda
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Swami_Vivekananda>