John Doubleday (about 1798 – 1856) was a British craftsperson,
restorer, and dealer in antiquities. He was employed by the British
Museum for the last 20 years of his life as a specialist restorer,
perhaps the first person in that role. In 1845 the Portland Vase, a
Roman cameo glass piece, was smashed into hundreds of pieces, and
Doubleday was selected for the restoration. Guided by a watercolour of
the fragments by Thomas H. Shepherd, he glued the vase whole again
within a few months, omitting only 37 small splinters. This restoration
would remain for more than 100 years, until the adhesive grew
increasingly discoloured. In other work for the museum, he cleaned
bronzes from Nimrud, and he at least twice testified in criminal trials.
By the time of his death he had amassed one of the largest collections
of casts of seals in the world. In 2006 William Andrew Oddy of the
British Museum ranked him "in the forefront of the craftsmen-restorers
of his time".
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Doubleday_%28restorer%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1857:
Queen Victoria selected Ottawa, then a small logging town, to
be the capital of the British colony of Canada.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa>
1963:
Despite Prime Minister Roy Welensky's efforts, the Central
African Federation officially collapsed, subsequently becoming three
separate nations: Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Welensky>
1986:
Three disgruntled employees set fire to the Dupont Plaza Hotel
in San Juan, Puerto Rico, killing more than 90 people and injuring 140
others (rescue efforts depicted), making it the second deadliest hotel
fire in United States history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dupont_Plaza_Hotel_arson>
1999:
Panama took control of the Panama Canal Zone from the United
States, in accordance with the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal_Zone>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
auld lang syne:
(idiomatic) Days gone by; former times.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/auld_lang_syne>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We must present democracy as a force holding within itself the
seeds of unlimited progress by the human race. By our actions we should
make it clear that such a democracy is a means to a better way of life,
together with a better understanding among nations. Tyranny inevitably
must retire before the tremendous moral strength of the gospel of
freedom and self-respect for the individual, but we have to recognize
that these democratic principles do not flourish on empty stomachs, and
that people turn to false promises of dictators because they are
hopeless and anything promises something better than the miserable
existence that they endure. However, material assistance alone is not
sufficient. The most important thing for the world today in my opinion
is a spiritual regeneration which would reestablish a feeling of good
faith among men generally. Discouraged people are in sore need of the
inspiration of great principles. Such leadership can be the rallying
point against intolerance, against distrust, against that fatal
insecurity that leads to war. It is to be hoped that the democratic
nations can provide the necessary leadership.
--George Marshall
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Marshall>
First Tennessee Park is a baseball park in downtown Nashville,
Tennessee, in the United States. It opened in 2015 as the home of the
Triple-A Nashville Sounds of the Pacific Coast League. It was built on
the site of the former Sulphur Dell, a minor league ballpark in use from
1870 to 1963. The design of the park incorporates imagery inspired by
country music, Sulphur Dell, and the city's former baseball players and
teams. Its most distinctive feature is its guitar-shaped scoreboard.
During construction of the park, artifacts dating to around 1150 were
uncovered; these are now on permanent display in the Tennessee State
Museum's Mississippian Period exhibit. Archaeologists believe them to be
the remnants of a workshop in a Native American settlement where mineral
water from underground springs was boiled to collect salt. The park is
on a flood plain of the Cumberland River that flooded in 2010.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Tennessee_Park>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1853:
The United States purchased approximately 29,700 square miles
(77,000 km2) of land south of the Gila River and west of the Rio Grande
(map pictured) from Mexico for $10 million.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadsden_Purchase>
1906:
The All-India Muslim League, a political party in British India
that developed into the driving force behind the creation of Pakistan as
a Muslim state on the Indian subcontinent, was founded in Dhaka.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-India_Muslim_League>
1958:
The Guatemalan Air Force fired upon Mexican fishing boats which
had strayed into Guatemalan territory, causing a conflict between the
two nations.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico%E2%80%93Guatemala_conflict>
2013:
Supporters of religious leader Paul-Joseph Mukungubila attacked
television studios, the airport and a military base in Kinshasa, DR
Congo.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_2013_Kinshasa_attacks>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
supine:
1. Lying on its back; reclined.
2. (figuratively) Reluctant to take action due to indifference or moral
weakness; apathetic or passive towards something; lazy, lethargic,
listless.
3. (rare, now poetic) Inclining or leaning backward; inclined, sloping.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/supine>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I imagine that a hero is a man who does what he can. The others
do not do it.
--Romain Rolland
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Romain_Rolland>
Mensa (Latin for "table") is a constellation in the southern celestial
hemisphere near the south celestial pole. It is one of the 88 modern
constellations, and one of twelve drawn up in the 18th century by
French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille. Originally named for Table
Mountain overlooking Cape Town, South Africa, where Lacaille made
observations, it covers a keystone-shaped wedge of sky of approximately
153.5 square degrees. Other than the south polar constellation of
Octans, it is the most southerly of constellations and is only
observable south of the 5th parallel of the Northern Hemisphere. Barely
visible in suburban skies, Mensa is one of the faintest constellations
in the night sky. At least three of its star systems have been found to
have exoplanets. Parts of the Large Magellanic Cloud, several star
clusters and a quasar lie in the area covered by the constellation.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mensa_%28constellation%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1876:
A railway bridge over the Ashtabula River in Ohio collapsed
when a Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway train was crossing over
it, killing 92 people and injuring 64 others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashtabula_River_railroad_disaster>
1911:
Sun Yat-sen was elected in Nanjing as the Provisional President
of the Republic of China.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Yat-sen>
1959:
Physicist Richard Feynman gave a speech entitled "There's
Plenty of Room at the Bottom", anticipating the field of nanotechnology.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_Plenty_of_Room_at_the_Bottom>
1997:
In order to prevent the spread of the H5N1 flu virus, the Hong
Kong government began the slaughter of 1.3 million chickens.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_spread_of_H5N1>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
dashcam:
(automotive) A digital video recorder mounted on the dashboard of a
vehicle or elsewhere inside the vehicle to record occurrences in the
vicinity, such as traffic accidents that the vehicle has been involved
in, to provide evidence for criminal prosecutions, insurance claims,
etc.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dashcam>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Take chances, make mistakes. That's how you grow. Pain nourishes
your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.
--Mary Tyler Moore
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mary_Tyler_Moore>
"Halo" is a song recorded by American singer Beyoncé for her third
studio album, I Am... Sasha Fierce (2008). Inspired by Ray LaMontagne's
2004 song "Shelter", "Halo" was written by Ryan Tedder, E. Kidd Bogart,
Eric Nealante Phillips, and Beyoncé herself. The song is a pop power
ballad, with lyrics describing a sublime love. The single won Best Song
at the 2009 MTV Europe Music Awards and Best Female Pop Vocal
Performance at the 52nd Grammy Awards, and was nominated for Record of
the Year. "Halo" topped the singles charts of Brazil, Norway and
Slovakia, and reached the top five in Australia, Germany, Ireland,
Italy, New Zealand, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the US. Philip
Andelman directed Beyoncé and actor Michael Ealy in the accompanying
music video. The song was performed on the television show Glee and has
been covered by many artists, including Florence and the Machine, Harper
Blynn, and Westlife.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_%28Beyonc%C3%A9_song%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1768:
Taksin the Great was crowned king of the newly established
Thonburi Kingdom in the new capital at Thonburi, present-day Thailand.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taksin>
1918:
Irishwoman Constance Markievicz became the first female Member
of Parliament elected to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom,
although she never served.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constance_Markievicz>
1943:
World War II: After eight days of brutal house-to-house
fighting, the 1st Canadian Infantry Division captured Ortona, Italy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ortona>
2006:
Somali Civil War: Troops of Somalia's Transitional Federal
Government and their Ethiopian allies captured Mogadishu unopposed.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Mogadishu>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
count coup:
(intransitive, US, historical) To win prestige in battle by performing
an act of bravery in the face of the enemy (such as touching him and
escaping unharmed), a ritual of the Plains Indians of North America.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/count_coup>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Work as if you live in the early days of a better world.
--Alasdair Gray
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alasdair_Gray>
The Carolwood Pacific Railroad was a 7 1⁄4-inch (184 mm) gauge
ridable miniature railroad run by the American animator and producer
Walt Disney at his home in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles,
California. It featured the Lilly Belle, a 1:8-scale live steam
locomotive named after his wife Lillian and built by the Walt Disney
Studios' machine shop. It pulled a set of freight cars, as well as a
caboose that was built almost entirely by Disney himself. The railroad,
which became operational in 1950, was 2,615 feet (797 m) long and
encircled his house. It attracted visitors who rode and occasionally
drove the miniature train. In 1953, after a guest was injured in an
accident, the railroad was closed to the public. It inspired Disney to
include an encircling railroad in the design for Disneyland in Anaheim,
California. Railroad attractions in Disney theme parks around the world
are now commonplace.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolwood_Pacific_Railroad>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1831:
Aboard HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin left Plymouth, England, on
the expedition to South America that made his name as a naturalist.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_voyage_of_HMS_Beagle>
1932:
New York City's Radio City Music Hall opened with the world's
largest auditorium at the time.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_City_Music_Hall>
2008:
In response to rocket attacks from Palestinian armed groups,
Israel launched a surprise attack against the Gaza Strip, opening the
three-week Gaza War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_War_%282008%E2%80%9309%29>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
trice:
Now only in the term in a trice: a very short time; an instant, a
moment. [...]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/trice>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The greatness of human actions is measured by the inspiration
that it brings. Blessed is he who carries within himself a God, an ideal
of beauty and obeys it: an ideal of art, ideal of science, ideal of
country, ideal virtues of the Gospel! These are the wellsprings of great
thoughts and great actions. All reflections illuminate infinity.
--Louis Pasteur
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_Pasteur>
Allied naval bombardments of Japan during the last weeks of World War II
in 1945 targeted industrial and military facilities. Warships of the
United States Navy, the British Royal Navy, and the Royal New Zealand
Navy, mostly cruisers and battleships, caused heavy damage to several
factories, as well as nearby civilian areas. One goal was to provoke the
Japanese military into committing some of its reserve force of aircraft
into battle, but the Allied forces were not attacked, and none of their
warships suffered damage. US Navy ships attacked the cities of Kamaishi
and Muroran, a joint American and British force bombed targets around
the city of Hitachi, and cruisers and destroyers shelled areas including
Nojima Saki and Shionomisaki. In the final bombardment on 9 August,
Kamaishi was hit again by American, British and New Zealand warships. Up
to 1,739 Japanese were killed, and as many as 1,497 were wounded. The
Allies lost 32 prisoners of war during the bombardments of Kamaishi.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_naval_bombardments_of_Japan_during_Wor…>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1811:
Seventy-two people died when a theater in Richmond, Virginia,
U.S., was destroyed by fire—the worst urban disaster in American
history at the time.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_Theatre_fire>
1871:
Thespis, the first comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan, made
its debut at the Gaiety Theatre, London, UK.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thespis_%28opera%29>
1898:
At the French Academy of Sciences, physicists Pierre and Marie
Curie (both pictured) announced the discovery of a new element, naming
it radium.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium>
1996:
Six-year-old American beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey was found
beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder,
Colorado, a murder that generated extensive coverage from the American
media.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_JonBen%C3%A9t_Ramsey>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
box:
1. (transitive) To place inside a box; to pack in one or more boxes.
2. (transitive) Usually followed by in: to surround and enclose in a way
that restricts movement; to corner, to hem in.
3. (transitive) To mix two containers of paint of similar colour to
ensure that the color is identical.
4. (transitive, agriculture) To make an incision or hole in (a tree) for
the purpose of procuring the sap.
5. (transitive, architecture) To enclose with boarding, lathing, etc.,
so as to conceal (for example, pipes) or to bring to a required form.
6. (transitive, engineering) To furnish (for example, the axle of a
wheel) with a box.
7. (transitive, graphic design, printing) To enclose (images, text,
etc.) in a box.
8. (transitive, object-oriented programming) To place a value of a
primitive type into a corresponding object.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/box>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
All about us we see a world in revolt; but revolt is negative, a
mere finishing-off process. In the midst of destruction we carry with us
also our creation, our hopes, our strength, our urge to be fulfilled.
The climate changes as the wheel turns, and what is true for the
sidereal world is true for man. The last two thousand years have brought
about a duality in man such as he never experienced before, and yet the
man who dominates this whole period was one who stood for wholeness, one
who proclaimed the Holy Ghost. No life in the whole history of man has
been so misinterpreted, so woefully misunderstood as Christ's.
--Henry Miller
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_Miller>
A Christmas Carol (1843) is a novella by Charles Dickens, illustrated by
John Leech. It recounts the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser
who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley
and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. After their
visits, Scrooge is transformed into a kinder, gentler man. Dickens wrote
the story during a period when the British were exploring and re-
evaluating past Christmas traditions, including carols, and newer
customs such as Christmas trees. His Christmas stories (including three
before and four after this one) were influenced by those of other
authors, including Washington Irving and Douglas William Jerrold. Parts
of the novella point out the misery that poor children often endured;
Dickens had recently witnessed appalling conditions for children working
in the Cornish tin mines. He gave 128 public readings of A Christmas
Carol, including his farewell performance in 1870, the year of his
death.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1815:
The Handel and Haydn Society, the oldest continuously
performing arts organization in the United States, made its debut at
King's Chapel in Boston.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handel_and_Haydn_Society>
1941:
Second World War: The Japanese occupation of Hong Kong began
when Mark Aitchison Young, the Governor of Hong Kong, surrendered the
territory to Japan after 18 days of fierce fighting.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_occupation_of_Hong_Kong>
1968:
In Tamil Nadu, India, families of striking Dalit workers were
massacred by a gang, allegedly led by their landlords.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilvenmani_massacre>
2009:
Fire destroyed Longford's 19th-century St Mel's Cathedral,
considered the "flagship cathedral" of the Irish midlands.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mel%27s_cathedral,_Longford>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Charlie Brown tree:
A Christmas tree considered unattractive and undesirable by normal
standards, often small and sparse.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Charlie_Brown_tree>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Christmas turns everything upside down. This is the central truth
of the incarnation — "Immanuel, God with us." The upside of heaven
come down to earth. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we
beheld his glory, . . . full of grace and truth." Men miss the entire
meaning of Jesus when they see in him the highest upreach of man; he is
God reaching down and making common cause with man's struggle. The
meaning of Christmas puts down the mighty things in men's minds from
their seats — place, riches, talents — and exalts the things of low
degree — humility, simplicity, and trust.
--Halford E. Luccock
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Halford_E._Luccock>
Apollo 8 (December 21–27, 1968) was the second crewed mission in the
United States Apollo space program and the first to leave low Earth
orbit, reach the Moon, orbit it, and return. The three-astronaut
crew – Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and
Lunar Module Pilot William Anders – were the first people to witness
and photograph an Earthrise (pictured) and to escape the gravity of
another celestial body. The third flight of the Saturn V rocket, the
mission was also the first human spaceflight launched from the Kennedy
Space Center, adjacent to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
Apollo 8 took almost three days to travel to the Moon, and orbited it
ten times over the course of 20 hours. In orbit, the crew made a
Christmas Eve television broadcast, reading the first 10 verses from the
Book of Genesis. At the time, the broadcast was the most watched TV
program ever.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_8>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1818:
"Silent Night", a Christmas carol by Josef Mohr and Franz
Gruber, was first performed in a church in Austria.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Night>
1913:
Seventy-three people were crushed to death in a stampede after
someone falsely yelled "fire" at a crowded Christmas party in Calumet,
Michigan, U.S.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Hall_disaster>
1953:
On New Zealand's North Island, at Tangiwai, a railway bridge
was damaged by a lahar and collapsed beneath a passenger train, killing
151 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangiwai_disaster>
2008:
The Lord's Resistance Army, a Ugandan rebel group, began
attacks on several villages in Haut-Uele District, Democratic Republic
of the Congo, resulting in at least 400 deaths and numerous atrocities.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Christmas_massacres>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
mistletoe:
1. (countable, uncountable) Any of several hemiparasitic evergreen
plants of the order Santalales with white berries that grow in the
crowns of apple trees, oaks, and other trees, such as the European
mistletoe (Viscum album) and American mistletoe or eastern mistletoe
(Phoradendron leucarpum).
2. (uncountable) A sprig of one such plant used as a Christmas
decoration, associated with the custom that a man may kiss any woman
standing beneath it.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mistletoe>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
"God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the
waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good." And from the crew
of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and
God bless all of you — all of you on the good Earth.
--Frank Borman
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frank_Borman>
Sonic Adventure is a platform game for Sega's Dreamcast. The first main
Sonic the Hedgehog game to feature 3D gameplay, it was produced by Yuji
Naka (pictured) and first released on December 23, 1998. The story
follows Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, Knuckles the Echidna,
Amy Rose, Big the Cat, and E-102 Gamma in their quests to stop Doctor
Robotnik from unleashing Chaos, a water-like being. Controlling one of
the six characters, players explore a series of themed levels. Sonic
Team began work on Sonic Adventure in 1997. A 60-member development team
created the game in ten months, drawing inspiration from locations in
Peru and Guatemala. The game received critical acclaim for its visuals
and gameplay. With 2.5 million copies sold by August 2006, it became the
Dreamcast's bestseller. It is recognized as an important release in both
the Sonic series and the platform genre. Sonic Adventure was ported to
other consoles, and in 2001 it was followed by Sonic Adventure 2.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_Adventure>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1876:
The Constantinople Conference opened, which resulted in
political reforms in Bosnia and the Ottoman territories with a majority
Bulgarian population.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantinople_Conference>
1938:
The first living specimen of a coelacanth (example pictured),
long believed to be extinct, was discovered in a South African
fisherman's catch.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coelacanth>
1958:
The Tokyo Tower, then the world's tallest freestanding
structure at 332.5 metres (1,091 ft), opened.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Tower>
2008:
The Guinean military engineered a coup d'état, and announced
that it planned to rule the country for two years prior to a new
presidential election.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Guinean_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
parse:
1. (transitive, linguistics) To resolve (a sentence, etc.) into its
elements, pointing out the several parts of speech, and their relation
to each other by agreement or government; to analyze and describe
grammatically. [from mid 16th c.]
2. (transitive, by extension) To examine closely; to scrutinize.
3. (transitive, by extension, computing) To resolve (a string of code or
text) into its elements to determine if it conforms to a particular
grammar.
4. (transitive, by extension, computing) To split a file or other input
into pieces of data that can be easily manipulated or stored.
5. (intransitive, computing, linguistics) Of a string of code or text,
sentence, etc.: to conform to rules of grammar, to be syntactically
valid.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/parse>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
In the ancient days when gods played their own games, and had
their own celebrations, tossing lightning bolts between mountaintops,
hurling great boulders — Festivus came out of that. It's a holiday
that celebrates being alive at a time when it was hard to be alive.
There was no Christ yet, no Yahweh, no Buddha. There were great ruins
and raw nature. But there was a kindling spark of hope among men. They
celebrated that great thunderous storms hadn't enveloped them in the
past year, that landslides hadn't destroyed them. They made wishes that
there crops would grow in the fields, that they'd have food the next
year and the wild animals wouldn't attack and eat them. There's
something pure about Festivus, something primal, raw in the hearts of
humans.
--Jerry Stiller
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jerry_Stiller>
Alan Bush (22 December 1900 – 31 October 1995) was a British
composer, pianist, teacher and political activist. From a prosperous
middle-class background, Bush enjoyed considerable success as a student
at the Royal Academy of Music in the early 1920s. Many of his early
works took the form of settings for pageants and workers' songs and
choruses. In his maturer years he wrote symphonies, operas and other
large-scale works, which found greater acceptance in Eastern Europe
than at home, in part because of his lifelong communist convictions. In
his prewar works, Bush's music retained an essential Englishness, but
was also influenced by the avant-garde European idioms of the period.
Later he sought to simplify this style, in line with his Marxist-
inspired belief that music should be widely accessible. Bush taught
composition at the Academy for more than 50 years and was the founder
and president of the Workers' Music Association.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Bush>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1807:
In an effort to avoid engaging in the Napoleonic Wars, the
United States Congress passed the Embargo Act, forbidding American ships
from engaging in trade with foreign nations.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embargo_Act_of_1807>
1968:
Cultural Revolution: The People's Daily published a piece by
Mao Zedong directing that "the intellectual youth must go to the
country, and will be educated from living in rural poverty."
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sent-down_youth>
1988:
Brazilian unionist and environmental activist Chico Mendes was
murdered at his Xapuri home.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chico_Mendes>
2008:
A dike ruptured at a waste containment area in Roane County,
Tennessee, U.S., releasing 1.1 billion US gallons (4,200,000 m3) of
coal fly ash slurry into local waterways.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_Fossil_Plant_coal_fly_ash_slurry_spi…>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
oneiromancy:
1. (uncountable, divination) Divination by the interpretation of dreams.
2. (uncountable, in a weak sense) The interpretation of dreams.
3. (countable, divination) An act of such divination or dream-
interpretation.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oneiromancy>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Today we hear a great deal about Organizational Men, Mass
Culture, Conformity, the Lonely Crowd, the Power Elite and its
Conspiracy of Mediocrity. We forget that the very volume of this
criticism is an indication that our society is still radically
pluralistic.
--Kenneth Rexroth
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kenneth_Rexroth>