In Nevada, U.S. Route 50 runs from the resort communities of Lake Tahoe
eastward to the Utah border near Great Basin National Park. Route 50 is
a transcontinental highway that stretches from West Sacramento,
California, to Ocean City, Maryland, on the east coast. The Nevada
portion crosses several large desert valleys separated by alpine
forestland, across the Basin and Range province of the Great Basin. It
passes through the state capital in Carson City as well as Fort
Churchill State Historic Park, ghost towns and petroglyph sites. The
route was constructed along a historic corridor, first used for the Pony
Express and Central Overland Route and later for most of State Route 2
(before the U.S. Highway System) and the Lincoln Highway. U.S. Route 50
in Nevada was named "The Loneliest Road in America" by Life magazine in
1986; they were referring to large desolate areas with few or no signs
of civilization along the route, but Nevada officials seized on the name
as a marketing slogan.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_50_in_Nevada>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1601:
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex led a failed rebellion
against Queen Elizabeth I.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex%27s_Rebellion>
1879:
Enraged by a controversial umpiring decision, cricket
spectators rioted and attacked the England cricket team during a match
in Sydney, Australia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Riot_of_1879>
1915:
Film director D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (film
poster pictured) was released, becoming one of the most influential and
controversial films in the history of American cinema.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation>
1971:
Trading began on NASDAQ, the world's first electronic stock
exchange.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASDAQ>
2010:
A freak storm in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan
triggered a series of at least 36 avalanches that buried over 3.5 km
(2.2 mi) of road, killed 171 people and trapped over 2,500 travellers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Salang_avalanches>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
sawpit:
A pit over which lumber is positioned to be sawn with a long two-handled
saw (a pitsaw) by two people, one standing above the timber and the
other in the pit below.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sawpit>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I do not accept any absolute formulas for living. No preconceived
code can see ahead to everything that can happen in a man's life. As we
live, we grow and our beliefs change. They must change. So I think we
should live with this constant discovery. We should be open to this
adventure in heightened awareness of living. We should stake our whole
existence on our willingness to explore and experience.
--Martin Buber
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Buber>
In the Guadalcanal Campaign of the Second World War, the Allies reversed
the gains of Imperial Japan in the southwest Pacific. U.S. forces had
inflicted heavy losses on the Imperial Japanese Navy at the Battle of
Midway in June 1942, but Japan had remained on the offensive, pushing
into the Solomon Islands from Rabaul and threatening supply lines to
Australia and New Zealand. In August 1942, U.S. Marines landed on
Guadalcanal in the southern Solomon Islands. The Japanese had occupied
the islands since May, and were building an airfield (later named
Henderson Field). The Allies overwhelmed the surprised Japanese
defenders and captured the airfield. The Japanese attempted to retake it
but were defeated in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in early November.
They abandoned their campaign in December, and evacuated their remaining
forces on 7 February 1943. The Allied victories on Guadalcanal, and in
New Guinea, marked the transition from defensive operations to a series
of offensives that culminated in the Japanese surrender in 1945.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guadalcanal_Campaign>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1795:
The Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution,
limiting the ability of U.S. citizens and foreign nationals to sue U.S.
states in federal courts, was ratified in order to overrule the Supreme
Court decision in Chisholm v. Georgia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleventh_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Const…>
1813:
Napoleonic Wars: Two evenly matched frigates from the French
Navy and the British Royal Navy fought for four hours, causing
significant damage, but resulting in a stalemate.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_7_February_1813>
1907:
More than 3,000 women in London participated in the Mud March,
the first large procession organized by the National Union of Women's
Suffrage Societies, seeking women's suffrage in the United Kingdom.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mud_March_(Suffragists)>
1948:
Neil Harvey became the youngest Australian to score a century
in Test cricket.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Harvey>
1997:
Steve Jobs returned to Apple Inc. as a consultant after the
company purchased his startup NeXT Software.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXT>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
wordster:
1. One who is skilled at using words; a wordsmith.
2. One who studies words.
3. (pejorative) One who uses words instead of actions; a hypocrite, a
verbalist.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wordster>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
When men are about to commit, or sanction the commission of some
injustice, it is not uncommon for them to express pity for the object
either of that or some parallel proceeding, and to feel themselves, at
the time, quite virtuous and moral, and immensely superior to those who
express no pity at all. This is a kind of upholding of faith above
works, and is very comfortable.
--The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nicholas_Nickleby>
Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia (1882–1960) was the youngest
child of Emperor Alexander III of Russia and younger sister of Emperor
Nicholas II. Her father died when she was 12, and her brother Nicholas
became emperor. At 19 she married Duke Peter Alexandrovich of Oldenburg;
their marriage was unconsummated and was annulled by the Emperor in
October 1916. The following month Olga married cavalry officer Nikolai
Kulikovsky, with whom she had fallen in love several years before.
During the First World War, the Grand Duchess served as an army nurse at
the front and was awarded a medal for personal gallantry. At the
downfall of the Romanovs in the Russian Revolution of 1917, she fled to
the Crimea with her husband and children, where they lived under the
threat of assassination. After her brother and his family were shot by
revolutionaries, she and her family escaped to Denmark in February 1920.
In exile, she was often sought out by Romanov impostors who claimed to
be her dead relatives. In 1948, feeling threatened by Joseph Stalin's
regime, she emigrated with her immediate family to Ontario, Canada.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duchess_Olga_Alexandrovna_of_Russia>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1778:
France and the United States signed the Treaty of Alliance and
the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, establishing military and commercial
ties respectively between the two nations.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Amity_and_Commerce_(United_States%E…>
1819:
British official Stamford Raffles signed a treaty with Sultan
Hussein Shah of Johor, establishing Singapore as a trading post for the
British East India Company.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_of_modern_Singapore>
1840:
The British and the Māori signed the Treaty of Waitangi,
considered as the founding document of New Zealand.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Waitangi>
1958:
The aircraft carrying the Manchester United football team
crashed while attempting to take off from Munich-Riem Airport in West
Germany, killing 8 players and 15 others.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_air_disaster>
1987:
Mary Gaudron was appointed as the first female Justice of the
High Court of Australia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Gaudron>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
haka:
A group dance of New Zealand's Maori people featuring rhythmic chanting,
vigorous facial and arm movements, and foot stamping. Traditionally a
war dance, today it is also performed to welcome guests, as a mark of
respect at occasions such as commemorations and funerals, as a challenge
to opposing teams at sports events, and for artistic purposes.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/haka>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have
come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.
--Ronald Reagan
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan>
The white-breasted nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) is a small songbird
that breeds in old-growth woodland across much of temperate North
America. It is a stocky nuthatch with a large head, short tail, powerful
bill, and strong feet. The upperparts are pale blue-gray, and the face
and underparts are white. It has a black cap and a chestnut lower belly.
The nine subspecies differ mainly in the color of the body plumage. Like
other nuthatches, the white-breasted nuthatch forages for insects on
trunks and branches and is able to move head-first down trees. Seeds
form a substantial part of its winter diet, as do acorns and hickory
nuts that were stored by the bird in the fall. The nest is in a hole in
a tree, and a breeding pair may smear insects around the entrance as a
deterrent to squirrels. Adults and their young may be killed by hawks,
owls, and snakes, and forest clearance may lead to local habitat loss,
but this is a common species with no major conservation concerns over
most of its range.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-breasted_nuthatch>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1637:
The speculative bubble for rare tulip bulbs (catalog pictured)
in the Dutch Republic burst, marking the decline of tulip mania.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania>
1869:
Prospectors in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia, discovered the
largest alluvial gold nugget ever found, known as the "Welcome
Stranger".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_Stranger>
1909:
Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announced the creation of
Bakelite, the world's first synthetic plastic.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakelite>
1958:
A Mark 15 nuclear bomb disappeared off the shores of Tybee
Island, Georgia, after it was jettisoned during a practice exercise when
the bomber carrying it collided in midair with a fighter plane.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_Tybee_Island_mid-air_collision>
2008:
Eighty-seven tornadoes occurred over the course of the Super
Tuesday tornado outbreak across multiple U.S. states, causing 56 deaths
and over $1 billion in damage.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Super_Tuesday_tornado_outbreak>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
shoot one's cuffs:
To straighten one's arms with a sudden movement to make the cuffs of
one's shirt appear beyond the sleeves of one's coat or jacket.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shoot_one%27s_cuffs>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The strange alchemy of time has somehow converted the Democrats
into the truly conservative party of this country — the party
dedicated to conserving all that is best, and building solidly and
safely on these foundations. The Republicans, by contrast, are behaving
like the radical party — the party of the reckless and the embittered,
bent on dismantling institutions which have been built solidly into our
social fabric.
--Adlai Stevenson
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Adlai_Stevenson>
The 1998 NFC Championship Game was a National Football League game
played on January 17, 1999, to determine the National Football
Conference (NFC) champion for the 1998 NFL season. The visiting Atlanta
Falcons defeated the heavily favored Minnesota Vikings 30–27 in sudden
death overtime to win their first conference championship and advance to
the franchise's first Super Bowl appearance. The Vikings had gone
undefeated in their home stadium, the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome
(pictured), during the regular season, and their placekicker, Gary
Anderson, had become the first kicker in NFL history to convert every
field goal and extra point attempt in a season. At a critical moment
late in the game, Anderson missed a field goal that would have given the
Vikings a nearly insurmountable 10-point lead. Instead, the Falcons
scored a touchdown to tie the game on their ensuing drive, and in
overtime they won by a field goal. The Vikings became the first team
with an NFL regular season record of 15–1 that did not go on to win
the Super Bowl.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_NFC_Championship_Game>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
960:
Emperor Taizu began his reign in China, initiating the Song
dynasty period that eventually lasted for more than three centuries.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_dynasty>
1899:
The Philippine–American War opened when an American soldier,
under orders to keep insurgents away from his unit's encampment, fired
upon a Filipino soldier in Manila.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Manila_(1899)>
1945:
World War II: U.S. Army forces liberated the Santo Tomas
Internment Camp in Manila, the largest of the Japanese internment camps
in the Philippines.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santo_Tomas_Internment_Camp>
1998:
A magnitude 5.9 MW earthquake struck northern Afghanistan,
triggering landslides that killed over 2,300 people and destroyed around
15,000 homes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_1998_Afghanistan_earthquake>
2008:
The London low emission zone, governing what types of vehicles
may enter Greater London, came into being.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_low_emission_zone>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
dabble:
1. (transitive) To make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling
a liquid (such as water, mud, or paint) on it; to bedabble.
2. (transitive) To cause splashing by moving a body part like a bill or
limb in soft mud, water, etc., often playfully; to play in shallow
water; to paddle.
3. (intransitive) To participate or have an interest in an activity in a
casual or superficial way.
4. (intransitive, obsolete) To interfere or meddle in; to tamper with.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dabble>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The war might stop this winter, but that is improbable. It may go
on for fifty years or more. That also is improbable. The elements are
too conflicting and confused to form any accurate judgment of its
length. There may be a series of wars, one after another, going on
indefinitely. Possibly the world will come to its senses sooner than I
expect. But, as I have often said, the environment of human life has
changed more rapidly and more extensively in recent years than it has
ever changed before. When environment changes, there must be a
corresponding change in life. That change must be so great that it is
not likely to be completed in a decade or in a generation.
--Charles Lindbergh
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Lindbergh>
Plunketts Creek is a 6.2-mile-long (10.0 km) tributary of Loyalsock
Creek in Lycoming and Sullivan counties in the U.S. state of
Pennsylvania. Its watershed drains 23.6 square miles (61 km2) in the
Chesapeake Bay basin by way of the West Branch Susquehanna and
Susquehanna rivers. The creek is named for Colonel William Plunkett, who
led a Pennsylvania expedition in the Pennamite–Yankee War to forcibly
remove settlers arriving from Connecticut, who were claiming lands that
were also claimed by Pennsylvania. For his services, Plunkett was
granted land that included the creek's mouth. The creek flows southwest
and then south through the dissected Allegheny Plateau, through rock
from the Mississippian sub-period and Devonian period. Much of the
Plunketts Creek valley is composed of glacial deposits, chiefly
alluvium. A potentially large source of natural gas, the Marcellus
Shale, lies 1.5 to 2.0 miles (2.4 to 3.2 km) below the surface.
Although the watershed was clear-cut and home to a tannery, sawmills,
and a coal mine in the nineteenth century, today it is heavily wooded
with abundant potable water.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plunketts_Creek_(Loyalsock_Creek_tributary)>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1781:
Fourth Anglo-Dutch War: British forces captured the Dutch
island of Sint Eustatius after a brief skirmish.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_Sint_Eustatius>
1813:
Argentine War of Independence: José de San Martín and his
Regiment of Mounted Grenadiers were victorious against a royalist army
in the Battle of San Lorenzo.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_San_Lorenzo>
1916:
A fire destroyed the Centre Block, the main building of the
Canadian parliamentary complex on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, Ontario.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_Block>
1933:
Adolf Hitler announced that the conquest of Lebensraum in
Eastern Europe, and its "ruthless Germanisation", were the geopolitical
objectives of Reich foreign policy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebensraum>
1998:
Despite a large international movement advocating the
commutation of her sentence to life imprisonment, Karla Faye Tucker
became the first woman to be executed in the United States since 1984.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karla_Faye_Tucker>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
printer:
1. One who makes prints.
2. The operator of a printing press, or the owner of a printing business.
3. (computing) A device, usually attached to a computer, used to print text
or images onto paper.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/printer>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is the aim of public life to arrange that all forms of power
are entrusted, so far as possible, to men who effectively consent to be
bound by the obligation towards all human beings which lies upon
everyone, and who understand the obligation. Law is the quality of the
permanent provisions for making this aim effective.
--Simone Weil
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Simone_Weil>
Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin (With peace and joy I depart), BWV
125, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach, composed in Leipzig
in 1725 for the Candlemas feast on 2 February. The cantata is based on
Martin Luther's 1524 hymn of the same name. The gospel for the feast
day, the presentation of Jesus at the Temple, includes Simeon's canticle
(painting pictured), which Luther paraphrased in his hymn. For Bach's
chorale cantata cycle, an unknown librettist retained the first and the
last of Luther's four stanzas, paraphrasing the second stanza for an
aria, and including its original text line by line in a recitative. Bach
framed four solo movements with choral music, a chorale fantasia and a
closing chorale. He scored the work for three vocal soloists, a four-
part choir, horn, flauto traverso, oboes, strings and basso continuo. In
the third movement, Bach uses recitative for the librettist's text, and
arioso for the interspersed hymn quotations, accompanying both with a
joyful motif. The opening chorus has been compared to the opening
movement of Bach's later St Matthew Passion.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mit_Fried_und_Freud_ich_fahr_dahin>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1438:
Nine leaders of the Transylvanian peasant revolt were executed
at Torda.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transylvanian_peasant_revolt>
1709:
Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk (commemorative statue
pictured) was rescued by English captain Woodes Rogers and the crew of
the Duke after spending four years as a castaway on an uninhabited
island in the Juan Fernández archipelago, providing the inspiration for
Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodes_Rogers>
1913:
New York City's Grand Central Terminal, the world's largest
train station in number of platforms, opened at midnight.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Central_Terminal>
1942:
The Osvald Group committed the first active event of the
Norwegian resistance movement by blowing up Oslo East Station to protest
the inauguration of Vidkun Quisling.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osvald_Group>
2012:
The passenger ferry MV Rabaul Queen capsized and sank in rough
conditions in the Solomon Sea, resulting in at least 88 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Rabaul_Queen>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
coo:
1. (transitive, intransitive) To make a soft murmuring sound, as a pigeon.
2. (intransitive) To speak in an admiring fashion, to be enthusiastic
about.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/coo>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
All things are inconstant except the faith in the soul, which
changes all things and fills their inconstancy with light, but though I
seem to be driven out of my country as a misbeliever I have found no man
yet with a faith like mine.
--James Joyce
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Joyce>
Eight 250t-class torpedo boats were built by Stabilimento Tecnico
Triestino for the Austro-Hungarian Navy between 1913 and 1916 for
service in World War I. They were among 27 high-seas torpedo boats that
undertook anti-submarine operations in the Adriatic Sea, shore
bombardment missions along its Italian coastline, and convoy, and escort
and minesweeping tasks. Under the terms of the post-war Treaty of Saint-
Germain-en-Laye, the boats were surrendered to Romania, Portugal,
Greece, and the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
(later Yugoslavia). By 1940, 13 torpedo boats had been lost or scrapped.
During World War II, the five remaining Greek boats were sunk by Axis
aircraft during the German-led invasion of Greece in April 1941. The two
Romanian boats that survived the war performed escort tasks in the Black
Sea before being taken over by the Soviet Navy for service in the Black
Sea Fleet. The six surviving Yugoslav boats were captured by the
Italians during the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, and were
operated by the Italian navy in coastal and second-line escort roles.
The last of the Yugoslav boats was withdrawn from service in 1962.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/250t-class_torpedo_boat>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1327:
Fourteen-year-old Edward III became King of England, but the
country was ruled by his mother, Queen Isabella, and her lover, Roger
Mortimer.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_III_of_England>
1329:
The Teutonic Knights succeeded in their siege of a fortress in
Samogitia, Lithuania, and baptized the defenders in the Catholic rite.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Medv%C4%97galis>
1968:
Photographer Eddie Adams took his Pulitzer Prize-winning
photograph of the summary execution of Viet Cong prisoner Nguyễn Văn
Lém, which helped build opposition to the Vietnam War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Adams_(photographer)>
1978:
After having served 42 days in prison for the sexual assault of
a 13-year-old girl, Polish film director Roman Polanski fled the United
States before the formal sentencing hearing.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Polanski_sexual_abuse_case>
2013:
The Shard, located in Southwark, London, and the tallest
building in the European Union, opened to the public.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shard>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
ASMRtist:
(informal, neologism) A person who creates audiovisual material designed
to induce an autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR; a claimed
biological phenomenon involving a pleasurable tingling in response to a
stimulus).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ASMRtist>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Revolution is everywhere, in everything. It is infinite. There is
no final revolution, no final number. The social revolution is only one
of an infinite number of numbers: the law of revolution is not a social
law, but an immeasurably greater one. It is a cosmic, universal law —
like the laws of the conservation of energy and of the dissipation of
energy (entropy).
--Yevgeny Zamyatin
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Zamyatin>