Turbinellus floccosus, the shaggy chanterelle, is a cantharelloid
mushroom of the fungus family Gomphaceae native to Asia and North
America. It was known as Gomphus floccosus until 2011, when it was found
to be only distantly related to the genus's type species, G. clavatus,
and transferred to Turbinellus. The orange-capped vase- or trumpet-
shaped mushrooms may reach 30 cm (12 in) high and 30 cm (12 in)
wide. The lower and outer surfaces are covered in wrinkles and ridges
rather than gills or pores, and are pale buff or yellowish to whitish.
T. floccosus forms symbiotic relationships with the roots of various
conifers in woodlands across Eastern Asia, from North Korea to Pakistan,
and in North America, more frequently in the west. The mild-tasting
mushrooms are consumed locally in northeastern India, Nepal and Mexico,
but can cause gastrointestinal symptoms of nausea, vomiting and
diarrhea.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbinellus_floccosus>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1857:
Queen Victoria selected Ottawa (Parliament Hill pictured), then
a small logging town, to be the capital of the British colony of Canada.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa>
1907:
New York City held its first annual ball drop event in Times
Square as part of New Year's Eve celebrations.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_Square_Ball>
1999:
Panama assumed full control of the Panama Canal Zone from the
United States, in accordance with the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties,
concluding a 20-year transition period.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal_Zone>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
fullness of time:
The time which is appropriate for something; a time that is not too
soon.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fullness_of_time>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We must never regard as normal the regular and casual undermining
of our democratic norms and ideals. We must never meekly accept the
daily sundering of our country, the personal attacks, the threats
against principles, freedoms and institution, the flagrant disregard for
truth and decency, the reckless provocations, most often for the
pettiest and most personal reasons — reasons having nothing whatsoever
to do with the fortunes of the people that we have been elected to
serve. None of these appalling features of our current politics should
ever be regarded as normal. We must never allow ourselves to lapse into
thinking that that is "just the way things are now." If we simply become
inured to this condition, thinking that it is just politics as usual,
then heaven help us. Without fear of the consequences and without
consideration of the rules of what is politically safe or palatable, we
must stop pretending that the degradation of our politics and the
conduct of some in our executive branch are normal. They are not
normal.
--Jeff Flake
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jeff_Flake>
The Turn of the Screw is a British television film based on Henry
James's 1898 ghost story of the same name. Commissioned and produced by
the BBC, it was first broadcast on 30 December 2009, on BBC One. The
novella was adapted for the screen by Sandy Welch, and the film was
directed by Tim Fywell. Although generally true to the tone and story of
James's work, the film is set in the 1920s instead of the 1840s. The
story is told in flashbacks during consultations between the
institutionalised Ann, played by Michelle Dockery (pictured), and a
psychiatrist, Dr Fisher (Dan Stevens). Ann tells how she was hired by an
aristocrat (Mark Umbers) to care for the orphans Miles (Josef Lindsay)
and Flora (Eva Sayer) at their home, Bly House. Ann soon begins to see
unknown figures around the manor, and seeks an explanation. Though the
film generally received a positive response, critics disagreed over
whether it retained the novella's much-discussed ambiguity.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turn_of_the_Screw_%282009_film%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1702:
Queen Anne's War: James Moore, the British colonial governor of
Carolina, abandoned a siege against St. Augustine in Spanish Florida,
retreating to Charles Town in disgrace.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_St._Augustine_%281702%29>
1903:
In the deadliest single-building fire in United States history,
the Iroquois Theatre fire in Chicago claimed over 600 lives.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois_Theatre_fire>
1954:
The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation was established to
consolidate criminal investigation and intelligence into a single
agency.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Bureau_of_Investigation_%28Finland%29>
2009:
Pro-government counter-demonstrators held rallies in several
Iranian cities in response to recent anti-government protests held on
the holy day of Ashura.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_30,_2009_Iranian_pro-government_rall…>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
hyperthymesia:
(neuroscience) A rare condition in which an individual possesses a
superior autobiographical memory and is able to recall the vast majority
of personal events and experiences in life.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hyperthymesia>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The emperor needs all the headmasters he can get. If a quarter of
his people were headmasters he would be perfectly happy. But more than
two poets would tear his kingdom apart.
--Alasdair Gray
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alasdair_Gray>
The red-tailed tropicbird is a seabird native to the tropical Indian and
Pacific Oceans. One of three closely related species of tropicbird, it
has four subspecies. Superficially resembling a tern in appearance, it
has almost all-white plumage with a black mask and a red bill. The sexes
have similar plumage. Adults have red tail streamers that are about
twice their body length, which gives rise to its common name. Nesting
takes place in loose colonies on oceanic islands, the nest itself a
scrape found on a cliff face, in a crevice, or a sandy beach. A single
egg is laid, being incubated by both sexes for about six weeks. The red-
tailed tropicbird eats fish, mainly flying fish, and squid, catching
them by plunge-diving into the ocean. This bird is considered to be a
least-concern species according to the IUCN, though it is adversely
affected by human contact. Rats and feral cats prey on eggs and young at
nesting sites.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-tailed_tropicbird>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1911:
Sun Yat-sen was elected the provisional president of the
Republic of China in Nanjing.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Yat-sen>
1940:
The Blitz: The Luftwaffe conducted a major night bombing raid
on the British capital, beginning what was later called the "Second
Great Fire of London".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Great_Fire_of_London>
1959:
Physicist Richard Feynman gave a speech entitled "There's
Plenty of Room at the Bottom" at Caltech, anticipating the field of
nanotechnology.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_Plenty_of_Room_at_the_Bottom>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
succour:
1. (transitive) To give aid, assistance, or help.
2. (transitive, military) To provide aid or assistance in the form of
military equipment and soldiers; in particular, for helping a place
under siege.
3. (transitive, obsolete except dialectal) To protect, to shelter; to
provide a refuge.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/succour>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Every child, at birth, is the Universal Man. But, as it grows, we
turn it into "a petty man." It should be the function of education to
turn it again into the original "Universal Man." The child which by
birth was the universal man is fettered by us with such constraints as
country, language, religion, caste, race and colour. To free it from all
these limitations and transform it into "the enlightened soul", that is
to say, the universal man, — this should become the first and foremost
function of our education, culture, civilization, and what not.
--Kuvempu
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kuvempu>
The Beaune Altarpiece is a large polyptych altarpiece by the Early
Netherlandish artist Rogier van der Weyden. It was commissioned in 1443
for the Hospices de Beaune by Nicolas Rolin, Chancellor of the Duchy of
Burgundy, and his wife Guigone de Salins, who was buried in front of the
altarpiece. The polyptych consists of fifteen paintings spread across
nine panels, of which six are painted on both sides. The inner panels
contain scenes from the Last Judgement, with a central image that shows
Christ seated in judgement, and the Archangel Michael holding scales as
he weighs souls. The panel on Christ's far right depicts the gates of
Heaven, that to his far left the entrance to Hell; souls are shown
moving towards each after being judged. The altarpiece is in poor
condition, having suffered from extensive paint loss, darkening of its
colours and accumulations of dirt. .
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_views_on_Hell>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1879:
The Tay Bridge, spanning the Firth of Tay in Scotland between
Dundee and Wormit, collapsed during a violent storm while a train was
passing over it, killing all on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_Bridge_disaster>
1907:
The last confirmed sighting of the now-extinct huia
(illustration shown) occurred in the Tararua Range on New Zealand's
North Island.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huia>
1989:
In one of Australia's worst natural disasters, an earthquake
measuring 5.6 ML struck Newcastle, New South Wales, killing 13 people
and injuring more than 160 others, and causing an estimated A$4 billion
in damages.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Newcastle_earthquake>
2009:
A suicide bomber attacked a Shia procession commemorating the
day of Ashura in Karachi, Pakistan, causing 43 deaths.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Karachi_bombing>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
forthcoming:
1. (not comparable) Approaching or about to take place.
2. Available when needed; in place, ready.
3. Willing to co-operate or provide information; candid, frank,
responsive.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/forthcoming>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The universe is of the nature of a thought or sensation in a
universal Mind … To put the conclusion crudely — the stuff of the
world is mind-stuff. As is often the way with crude statements, I shall
have to explain that by "mind" I do not exactly mean mind and by "stuff"
I do not at all mean stuff. Still that is about as near as we can get to
the idea in a simple phrase. The mind-stuff of the world is something
more general than our individual conscious minds; but we may think of
its nature as not altogether foreign to feelings in our consciousness
… Having granted this, the mental activity of the part of world
constituting ourselves occasions no great surprise; it is known to us by
direct self-knowledge, and we do not explain it away as something other
than we know it to be — or rather, it knows itself to be.
--Arthur Eddington
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_Eddington>
Salih ibn Mirdas (died 1029) was the founder of the Mirdasid dynasty and
emir of Aleppo from 1025 until his death. His sons and grandsons ruled
Aleppo for most of the next five decades. In 1008 he seized the
Euphrates river fortress of al-Rahba. He was imprisoned and tortured in
1012 by the emir of Aleppo, Mansur ibn Lu'lu', before escaping two years
later and capturing Mansur in battle. With his Bedouin warriors, Salih
captured a string of fortresses along the Euphrates, including Manbij
and Raqqa, by 1022. He later allied with the Banu Kalb and Banu Tayy
tribes in their rebellion against the Fatimids of Egypt, who ruled
Aleppo. He annexed the central Syrian towns of Homs, Baalbek and Sidon
before conquering Aleppo in 1025 and establishing a well-organized
administration. He paid formal allegiance to the Fatimids, but his
alliance with the Banu Tayy drew him into conflict with the Fatimid
general, Anushtakin al-Dizbari, whose forces killed Salih in battle near
the Sea of Galilee.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salih_ibn_Mirdas>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1845:
John L. O'Sullivan, in his newspaper the New York Morning News,
argued that the United States had the right to claim the entire Oregon
Country "by the right of our manifest destiny", popularizing the term's
use.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_destiny>
1904:
The stage play Peter Pan; or, The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, by
Scottish author and dramatist J. M. Barrie, premiered in London.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_and_Wendy>
1966:
A group of three men made the first descent into the Cave of
Swallows, the largest known cave shaft in the world, in Aquismón,
Mexico.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_Swallows>
2002:
The company Clonaid claimed that a cloned human baby had been
born, although it has yet to present any verifiable evidence.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clonaid>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
golden touch:
(idiomatic) Synonym of Midas touch (“the ability to achieve financial
reward (or, more generally, success) easily and consistently”)
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/golden_touch>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The Greeks understood the mysterious power of the hidden side of
things. They bequeathed to us one of the most beautiful words in our
language — the word "enthusiasm" — en theos [Εν Θεος] — a
god within. The grandeur of human actions is measured by the inspiration
from which they spring. Happy is he who bears a god within and obeys it.
--Louis Pasteur
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_Pasteur>
"A Rugrats Kwanzaa" is a television special from the American animated
series Rugrats, first broadcast on December 11, 2001. It was one of the
first mainstream television shows to feature the holiday Kwanzaa. In the
episode, the toddler Susie Carmichael and her friends – Tommy
Pickles, Chuckie and Kimi Finster, and Phil and Lil DeVille – learn
about the holiday during a visit from her great-aunt. Anthony Bell
directed the episode from a script by Lisa D. Hall, Jill Gorey, and
Barbara Herndon. "A Rugrats Kwanzaa" was praised by critics for its
representation of the holiday and the voice acting; there was a mixed
response to its commercialism. Cree Summer, who voices Susie, earned a
nomination for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Performance by a
Youth at the 34th NAACP Image Awards for her role in the episode. A
picture book entitled The Rugrats' First Kwanzaa was adapted from the
script.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rugrats_Kwanzaa>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1825:
Imperial Russian Army officers led about 3,000 soldiers in
protest against Nicholas I's assumption of the throne after his elder
brother Konstantin removed himself from the line of succession.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decembrist_revolt>
1919:
American baseball player Babe Ruth was sold by the Boston Red
Sox to their rivals, the New York Yankees, beginning the 84-year-long
"Curse of the Bambino".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babe_Ruth>
1996:
The Federation of Korean Trade Unions called on its 1.2 million
members to refuse to work, beginning the largest organized strike in
South Korea's history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996%E2%80%9397_strikes_in_South_Korea>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
take the gilt off the gingerbread:
(idiomatic) To take away the most attractive or appealing qualities of
something; to destroy an illusion.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/take_the_gilt_off_the_gingerbread>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
War has no longer the justification that it makes for the
survival of the fittest; it involves the survival of the less fit. The
idea that the struggle between nations is a part of the evolutionary law
of man's advance involves a profound misreading of the biological
analogy. The warlike nations do not inherit the earth; they represent
the decaying human element.
--Norman Angell
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Norman_Angell>
Charles H. Stonestreet (1813–1885) was an American Catholic priest
and Jesuit who led several institutions in Maryland and Washington, D.C.
After becoming a professor at Georgetown University, he led St. John's
Literary Institution and St. John the Evangelist Church in Frederick,
Maryland. He was appointed president of Georgetown University in 1851,
and oversaw the expansion of its library. The following year, he became
provincial superior of the Jesuits' Maryland Province, which faced
growing anti-Catholicism from the Know Nothings; as a result, he forbade
Jesuits from wearing their clerical attire in public. While president of
Gonzaga College in Washington, D.C. (today a high school), he oversaw
construction of St. Aloysius Church, becoming its first pastor. In the
trial of the conspirators in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, he
was called to testify about a parishioner, Mary Surratt, and a former
student, Samuel Mudd.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_H._Stonestreet>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1809:
American physician Ephraim McDowell performed the world's first
removal of an ovarian tumor.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephraim_McDowell>
1989:
Romanian Revolution: Communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and
his wife Elena were condemned to death on a wide range of charges and
executed.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_and_execution_of_Nicolae_and_Elena_Ceau…>
2009:
A 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>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Kris Kringle:
1. Synonym of Christkind (“a personification of the baby Jesus who, in
German-speaking parts of Europe, takes the place of Santa Claus in
bringing gifts to people at Christmastime”)
2. Synonym of Santa Claus
3. Synonym of secret Santa (“a Christmas tradition where a group of
people give anonymous gifts to each other, with each person randomly
selected to give a gift to one other person; a person who anonymously
gives a present to another in such a gift exchange”)
4. A gift given in a Kris Kringle or secret Santa gift exchange.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Kris_Kringle>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Charles Lamb, in one of his most delightful essays, sets high
worth on the observance of All Fools' Day, because it says to a man:
"You look wise. Pray correct that error!" Christmas brings the universal
message to men: "You look important and great; pray correct that error."
It overturns the false standards that have blinded the vision and sets
up again in their rightful magnitude those childlike qualities by which
we enter the Kingdom. Christmas turns things inside out. Under the
spell of the Christmas story the locked up treasures of kindliness and
sympathy come from the inside of the heart, where they are often kept
imprisoned, to the outside of actual expression in deed and word. … It
is the vision of the Christ-child which enables all men to get at the
best treasures of their lives and offer them for use.
--Halford E. Luccock
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Halford_E._Luccock>
Frank Borman (born 1928) is a retired United States Air Force colonel,
aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and businessman, and the oldest
living former NASA astronaut. In 1968, he was the commander of Apollo 8,
the first crewed mission to fly around the Moon, for which he was
awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. A graduate of West
Point, he served as an air force fighter pilot and flight instructor,
and an assistant professor at West Point. He was one of five students
in the first class at the Aerospace Research Pilot School, and was
selected with the second group of NASA astronauts in 1962. He set a
fourteen-day spaceflight endurance record as commander of Gemini 7, and
served on the review board for the Apollo 1 fire. He became a senior
vice president at Eastern Air Lines in 1970, and later its chief
executive officer and chairman of the board, leading the company through
its four most profitable years before resigning in 1986. He currently
owns a ranch in Montana.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Borman>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1846:
The Sultanate of Brunei ceded the island of Labuan to the
British Empire as a crown colony.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Colony_of_Labuan>
1955:
According to legend, the NORAD Tracks Santa program began after
children began calling the Continental Air Defense Command Center to
inquire about Santa Claus's whereabouts due to a misprinted phone number
in an advertisement (pictured).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NORAD_Tracks_Santa>
1979:
The Soviet government deployed troops in Afghanistan, starting
the Soviet–Afghan War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet%E2%80%93Afghan_War>
2008:
The Lord's Resistance Army, a Ugandan rebel group, began
attacks on several villages in the north of the Democratic Republic of
the Congo, killing hundreds and committing numerous atrocities.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Christmas_massacres>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
party spirit:
1. A feeling or sense of celebration or enjoyment.
2. (politics) The feeling of common purpose and togetherness experienced
or shown by members or supporters of a group, especially a political
party, sometimes accompanied by unreasonable animosity towards members
or supporters of other groups.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/party_spirit>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
As far as I'm concerned we are all God. That's the difference.
If you really think another guy is God he doesn't lock you up … Funny
about that.
--Ram Dass
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ram_Dass>
Arthur Gilligan (23 December 1894 – 5 September 1976) was an English
first-class cricketer who captained the England cricket team nine times
in 1924 and 1925, winning four Test matches, losing four and drawing
one. In first-class cricket, he played mainly for Cambridge University
and Sussex, and captained the latter team between 1922 and 1929. A fast
bowler and hard-hitting lower order batsman, Gilligan completed the
double in 1923 and was one of Wisden's Cricketers of the Year for 1924.
As a captain, Gilligan was well-liked by players and commentators,
although many did not believe he was an effective tactician. During his
playing days, Gilligan was a member of the British Fascists, and it is
possible he helped to establish small fascist groups in Australia when
he captained the England team there during the 1924–25 tour. As the
Marylebone Cricket Club president during England's 1968–69 tour of
South Africa, he played a part in the D'Oliveira affair.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Gilligan>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1783:
George Washington resigned as commander-in-chief of the
Continental Army at the Maryland State House in Annapolis (painting
shown).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington%27s_resignation_as_commande…>
1919:
The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act was enacted, lifting
most of the existing common-law restrictions on women in the United
Kingdom.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_Disqualification_%28Removal%29_Act_1919>
1984:
An engine fire caused Aeroflot Flight 3519 to crash shortly
after takeoff from Krasnoyarsk, USSR, killing all but one of the 111
people on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroflot_Flight_3519>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
run someone ragged:
(originally US, idiomatic) To exhaust; to demand excessive effort or
work from somebody.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/run_someone_ragged>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Laws, wisely administered, will secure men in the enjoyment of
the fruits of their labour, whether of mind or body, at a comparatively
small personal sacrifice; but no laws, however stringent, can make the
idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober. Such
reforms can only be effected by means of individual action, economy, and
self-denial; by better habits, rather than by greater rights. The
Government of a nation itself is usually found to be but the reflex of
the individuals composing it. The Government that is ahead of the people
will inevitably be dragged down to their level, as the Government that
is behind them will in the long run be dragged up. In the order of
nature, the collective character of a nation will as surely find its
befitting results in its law and government, as water finds its own
level. The noble people will be nobly ruled, and the ignorant and
corrupt ignobly. Indeed all experience serves to prove that the worth
and strength of a State depend far less upon the form of its
institutions than upon the character of its men. For the nation is only
an aggregate of individual conditions, and civilization itself is but a
question of the personal improvement of the men, women, and children of
whom society is composed.
--Samuel Smiles
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_Smiles>
The Maryland Tercentenary half dollar was a commemorative fifty-cent
piece issued by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1934. It depicts
Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, on the obverse (pictured) and the
coat of arms of Maryland on the reverse. The Maryland Tercentenary
Commission sought a coin in honor of the 300th anniversary of the
arrival of English settlers in Maryland. The state's senators introduced
legislation, and it passed both houses of Congress with no opposition. A
design had already been prepared by Professor Hans Schuler; it passed
review by the Commission of Fine Arts, though there was controversy over
whether Lord Baltimore, a Cavalier and Catholic, would have worn a
collar typical of Puritans. The Commission sold about 15,000 of the full
issue of 25,000 for $1 each, and thereafter discounted the price for
large sales to dealers and speculators. The coins have increased in
value over time, and are now valued in the low hundreds of dollars.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryland_Tercentenary_half_dollar>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1769:
Having been soundly defeated in battle, the Qing dynasty agreed
to terms of truce, ending the Sino-Burmese War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Burmese_War_%281765%E2%80%931769%29>
1920:
The 8th Congress of Soviets approved the GOELRO plan, the first
Soviet plan for national economic recovery and development.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOELRO_plan>
1939:
Members of the All-India Muslim League observed a "Day of
Deliverance" to celebrate the resignations of members of the Indian
National Congress over the decision to enter the Second World War at the
request of the United Kingdom.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_Deliverance_%28India%29>
2001:
Richard Reid unsuccessfully attempted to detonate a bomb in his
shoe on a transatlantic flight from Paris to Miami, Florida.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Reid>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
lotologist:
A person who collects lottery tickets.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lotologist>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I write for one and only one purpose, to overcome the invincible
ignorance of the traduced heart. My poems are acts of force and violence
directed against the evil which murders us all.
--Kenneth Rexroth
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kenneth_Rexroth>