The WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) served in the
United States Naval Reserve during World War II. In July 1942, the
Naval Reserve was authorized to accept women as commissioned officers
and at the enlisted level, effective until six months after the war,
which freed up many men for ship duty. Mildred H. McAfee (pictured), on
leave as president of Wellesley College, became the first director of
the WAVES. The notion of women serving in the Navy was not widely
supported in Congress or by the Navy, but it was supported by the Navy's
Women's Advisory Council, Margaret Chung, and Eleanor Roosevelt, the
First Lady of the United States. The WAVES were primarily white, but
eventually included 72 African-American women. Serving at 900 stations
in the United States and the territory of Hawaii, many of the women
experienced workplace hostility, but almost all of them looked upon
their service as beneficial.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAVES>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1864:
A crack in the Dale Dyke Dam in Sheffield, England, caused it
to fail, and the resulting flood killed 238 people and damaged more than
600 homes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Sheffield_Flood>
1941:
World War II: The Lend-Lease Act was signed into law, allowing
the United States to supply the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China,
France and other Allied nations with vast amounts of war materiel.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lend-Lease>
1999:
Infosys became the first Indian-registered company to have its
shares listed on NASDAQ.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infosys>
2009:
A teenage gunman engaged in a shooting spree at a secondary
school in Winnenden, Germany, killing 16, including himself.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnenden_school_shooting>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
jibe:
1. (transitive) To reproach with contemptuous words; to deride, to mock,
to taunt.
2. (transitive) To say in a mocking or taunting manner.
3. (intransitive) To make a mocking remark or remarks; to jeer. […]
4. (intransitive, Canada, US, informal) To accord or agree.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jibe>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Science, by itself, provides no panacea for individual, social,
and economic ills. It can be effective in the national welfare only as a
member of a team, whether the conditions be peace or war. But without
scientific progress no amount of achievement in other directions can
insure our health, prosperity, and security as a nation in the modern
world.
--Vannevar Bush
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vannevar_Bush>
The Australasian gannet (Morus serrator) is a large seabird of the booby
and gannet family, Sulidae. Adults are mostly white, with black flight
feathers at the wingtips and the trailing edge of the wing. The central
tail feathers are also black. The head is tinged with buff-yellow, with
a pale blue-grey bill edged in black, and blue-rimmed eyes. Young birds
have mottled plumage in their first year, dark above and light below,
gradually acquiring more white until they reach maturity after five
years. The species ranges over water above the continental shelf along
the southern and eastern Australian coastline, as well as the North and
South Islands of New Zealand, Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island.
Nesting takes place in colonies along the coastlines of New Zealand,
Victoria and Tasmania. The birds plunge into the ocean at high speed,
catching mainly squid and forage fish. The species faces few natural or
man-made threats.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australasian_gannet>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1949:
Mildred Gillars, nicknamed "Axis Sally", was convicted of
treason for working with the Nazis as a broadcaster.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mildred_Gillars>
1967:
British progressive rock band Pink Floyd released their first
single, "Arnold Layne".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Floyd>
1975:
Ho Chi Minh Campaign: North Vietnam began its final push for
victory over South Vietnam with an attack on Ban Me Thuot.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ban_Me_Thuot>
2006:
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter attained orbit around Mars
(artist's impression shown).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Reconnaissance_Orbiter>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
audiation:
(music) The comprehension and internal realization of music by an
individual in the absence of any physical sound.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/audiation>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Wit is the appearance, the external flash of imagination. Thus
its divinity, and the witty character of mysticism.
--Friedrich Schlegel
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Friedrich_Schlegel>
AirTrain JFK is an 8.1-mile-long (13 km) elevated people mover system
and rail link serving John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York
City. Its three lines and ten stations, operated by the Canadian firm
Bombardier Transportation, connect the airport's six terminals with the
New York City Subway in Howard Beach, Queens, and with the Long Island
Rail Road and subway in Jamaica, Queens. In-depth planning for a
dedicated transport system at JFK began in 1990, and construction
commenced in 1998. The system opened in December 2003 after multiple
delays. Since then, several improvements have been proposed for AirTrain
JFK, including an extension to Manhattan. The system was originally
projected to carry 4 million annual paying passengers and 8.4 million
annual inter-terminal passengers, but the AirTrain has consistently
exceeded these projections; in 2017, it had approximately 7.66 million
paying passengers and 12.6 million inter-terminal passengers.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AirTrain_JFK>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1862:
American Civil War: In the world's first battle between two
ironclad warships, USS Monitor and CSS Virginia fought to a draw near
the mouth of Hampton Roads in Virginia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hampton_Roads>
1932:
Éamon de Valera, one of the dominant political figures in
20th-century Ireland, became President of the Executive Council of the
Irish Free State.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89amon_de_Valera>
1944:
World War II: As part of the Battle of Narva, the Soviet Air
Forces heavily bombed Tallinn, Estonia, killing up to 800 people, mostly
civilians.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tallinn_in_World_War_II>
2010:
The first legal U.S. same-sex marriages south of the
Mason–Dixon line took place in Washington, D.C.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_the_District_of_Columbia>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
ply:
1. (transitive, obsolete) To bend; to fold; to mould; (figuratively) to
adapt, to modify; to change (a person's) mind, to cause (a person) to
submit.
2. (intransitive) To bend, to flex; to be bent by something, to give way
or yield (to a force, etc.). […]
3. (transitive) To work at (something) diligently.
4. (transitive) To wield or use (a tool, a weapon, etc.) steadily or
vigorously.
5. (transitive) To press upon; to urge persistently.
6. (transitive) To persist in offering something to, especially for the
purpose of inducement or persuasion.
7. (transitive, transport) To travel over (a route) regularly.
8. (intransitive, obsolete) To work diligently.
9. (intransitive, nautical, obsolete) To manoeuvre a sailing vessel so
that the direction of the wind changes from one side of the vessel to
the other; to work to windward, to beat, to tack.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ply>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I have nothing to prove to you.
--Captain Marvel
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Captain_Marvel_%28film%29>
Brie Larson (born 1989) is an American actress and filmmaker who has
received many awards and nominations. At age six, she became the
youngest student admitted to a training program at the American
Conservatory Theater. She began her acting career in 1998 with a comedy
sketch in The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Larson played supporting roles
in the comedy films Hoot (2006), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), and
21 Jump Street (2012), and appeared as a sardonic teenager in the
television series United States of Tara (2009–2011). After her
breakthrough with a leading role in Short Term 12 (2013), she continued
to take on supporting parts in The Spectacular Now (2013) and Trainwreck
(2015). For playing a kidnapping victim in the drama Room (2015), Larson
won the Academy Award for Best Actress. After playing a photojournalist
in the adventure film Kong: Skull Island (2017), she starred as the
titular superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Captain Marvel
(2019).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brie_Larson>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1702:
Anne became the Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland,
succeeding William III.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne,_Queen_of_Great_Britain>
1919:
During the Egyptian Revolution of 1919, British authorities
arrested rebel leader Saad Zaghloul, exiling him to Malta.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Revolution_of_1919>
1983:
Cold War: During a speech to the National Association of
Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida, U.S. President Ronald Reagan described
the Soviet Union as an "evil empire".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_Empire_speech>
2017:
The Azure Window, a limestone natural arch in Gozo, Malta,
collapsed during a storm.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azure_Window>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
muliebrity:
1. (literary) The state or quality of being a woman; the features of a
woman's nature; femininity, womanhood.
2. (literary) The state of attainment of womanhood following maidenhood.
3. (physiology) The state of puberty in a female.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/muliebrity>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
In a world populated by people who believe that through more and
more information, paradise is attainable, the computer scientist is
king. But I maintain that all of this is a monumental and dangerous
waste of human talent and energy. Imagine what might be accomplished if
this talent and energy were turned to philosophy, to theology, to the
arts, to imaginative literature or to education? Who knows what we could
learn from such people — perhaps why there are wars, and hunger, and
homelessness and mental illness and anger.
--Neil Postman
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Postman>
Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer,
pianist and conductor. He is often associated with impressionism along
with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, but both composers rejected
the term. After studying at France's premier music college, the Paris
Conservatoire, he developed a style that incorporated elements of
baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. Some of his piano
music, such as Gaspard de la nuit (1908), requires advanced virtuoso
technique. His complex orchestral work Daphnis et Chloé (1912) was
commissioned by the impresario Sergei Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes.
In 1922 Ravel made an orchestral arrangement of Mussorgsky's Pictures at
an Exhibition. He liked to experiment with musical form, as in Boléro
(1928), his best-known work. A slow and painstaking worker, Ravel wrote
fewer pieces than many of his contemporaries. He was among the first
composers to use recordings to reach a wider public.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Ravel>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1871:
José Paranhos, Viscount of Rio Branco, became Prime Minister
of the Empire of Brazil, starting a four-year rule, the longest in the
state's history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Paranhos,_Viscount_of_Rio_Branco>
1941:
The German submarine U-47, one of the most successful U-boats
of World War II, disappeared and was lost with all hands.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-47_%281938%29>
1985:
The charity single "We Are the World" by the supergroup United
Support of Artists for Africa was released, and went on to sell more
than 20 million copies.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Are_the_World>
2009:
Two off-duty soldiers of the British Army's 38 Engineer
Regiment were shot dead by the Real IRA in Antrim town, Northern
Ireland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Massereene_Barracks_shooting>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
nervous:
1. Easily agitated or alarmed; edgy, on edge.
2. Apprehensive, anxious, hesitant, worried.
3. Relating to or affecting the nerves.
4. (archaic) Having nerves; nervose.
5. (obsolete) Showing nervous strength; sinewy, vigorous.
6. (obsolete) Of a piece of writing: forceful, powerful.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nervous>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Self-respect is the cornerstone of all virtue.
--John Herschel
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Herschel>
Al-Mu'tasim (796–842) was the eighth Abbasid caliph. A younger son of
Caliph Harun al-Rashid, he rose to prominence as a key lieutenant of his
brother Caliph al-Ma'mun after forming a private army composed
predominantly of Turkish slave-soldiers. When al-Ma'mun died on campaign
in August 833, al-Mu'tasim succeeded him and continued many of his
policies, including support for Mu'tazilism. The traditional Arab and
Iranian elites were weakened in favour of a new elite drawn from among
the Turks, while the government was centralized around the caliphal
court and a new capital founded to house it at Samarra. Al-Mu'tasim also
achieved lasting fame as a warrior-caliph by sacking the Byzantine city
of Amorium in 838. The rise of the Turks would eventually lead to
factional strife and the collapse of Abbasid power in the mid-10th
century, but the slave-soldier system inaugurated by al-Mu'tasim would
be widely adopted throughout the Muslim world for centuries to come.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Mu%27tasim>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1853:
Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata premiered at Venice's La Fenice,
but the performance was considered so bad that it caused the Italian
composer to revise portions of the opera.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_traviata>
1913:
First Balkan War: The Greek army captured Bizani Fortress, near
Ioannina, from the Ottomans.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bizani>
1945:
Petru Groza of the Ploughmen's Front became the first Prime
Minister of the Communist Party-dominated governments of Romania.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petru_Groza>
1964:
In a radio broadcast, Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad
announced that American boxer Cassius Clay would change his name to
Muhammad Ali.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali>
1987:
The ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsized while leaving the
harbour of Zeebrugge, Belgium, killing 193 people on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Herald_of_Free_Enterprise>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
periodic table:
(chemistry) A tabular chart of the chemical elements according to their
atomic numbers so that elements with similar properties are in the same
group (column).
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/periodic_table>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
All is in the hands of Man. Therefore you should wash them often.
--Stanisław Jerzy Lec
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Jerzy_Lec>
Resident Evil 5 is a third-person shooter video game developed and
published by Capcom, and produced by Jun Takeuchi (pictured). It was
released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles on March 5, 2009. The
plot involves an investigation of a terrorist threat by counter-
terrorist agents Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar in Kijuju, a fictional
region of Africa. It is the seventh major installment in the Resident
Evil series, and the first designed for two-player cooperative gameplay.
Critics described the game as closer to the action genre than the
survival horror of other games in the series. Resident Evil 5 had a
mostly positive reception, although it was criticized for problems with
its controls. The game was re-released for Nvidia Shield, PlayStation 4
and Xbox One in 2016. As of September 2018, it had sold over 7.4 million
units, making it Capcom's second best-selling game and the best-selling
game of the Resident Evil franchise.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_Evil_5>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1770:
The Boston Massacre (engraving shown): British soldiers fired
into a crowd in Boston, Massachusetts.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Massacre>
1811:
Peninsular War: In the Battle of Barrosa, an Anglo-Spanish-
Portuguese force trying to lift the Siege of Cádiz defeated a French
attack but could not break the siege itself.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Barrosa>
1966:
BOAC Flight 911 disintegrated and crashed near Mount Fuji
shortly after departure from Tokyo International Airport, killing all
113 passengers and 11 crew members on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BOAC_Flight_911>
1975:
Computer hackers in Silicon Valley held the first meeting of
the Homebrew Computer Club, whose members would go on to have great
influence on the development of the personal computer.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homebrew_Computer_Club>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
dekulakize:
(transitive, historical) Usually with reference to the Soviet Union and
communist Eastern Europe: to dispossess (a kulak, that is, a prosperous
peasant) of his or her property and/or rights.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dekulakize>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
My favorite thing about the Internet is that you get to go into
the private world of real creeps without having to smell them.
--Penn Jillette
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Penn_Jillette>
John Adams (1735–1826) was a leader of the American Revolution and the
second president of the United States (1797–1801). He was a dedicated
diarist, and corresponded with his wife and advisor Abigail, recording
important historical information on the era. As a lawyer, Adams was
devoted to the right to counsel and presumption of innocence; he defied
anti-British sentiment and successfully defended British soldiers
against murder charges arising from the Boston Massacre. A political
activist prior to the revolution, Adams was a Massachusetts delegate to
the Continental Congress. He assisted in drafting the Declaration of
Independence in 1776 and was its foremost advocate in Congress. As a
diplomat in Europe, he helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris with
Britain. Adams was the primary author of the Massachusetts Constitution
in 1780, which influenced the United States Constitution.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Adams>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1769:
French astronomer Charles Messier first noted the Orion Nebula,
a bright nebula situated south of Orion's Belt, later cataloguing it as
the 42nd item in his list of Messier objects.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Nebula>
1899:
Cyclone Mahina struck Bathurst Bay, Queensland, killing over
400 people in the deadliest natural disaster in Australian history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Mahina>
1944:
Murder, Inc. leader Louis Buchalter was executed, becoming the
only major mob boss to receive the death penalty in the United States
after being convicted of murder.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Buchalter>
2009:
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for
President of Sudan Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes
against humanity regarding his actions during the War in Darfur.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_al-Bashir>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
not to put too fine a point on it:
(idiomatic) Used to apologize for a possibly impolite statement one is
making.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/not_to_put_too_fine_a_point_on_it>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Build up your weaknesses until they become your strong points.
--Knute Rockne
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Knute_Rockne>
The Liberty Head double eagle is an American twenty-dollar gold piece
struck as a pattern coin in 1849, and for commerce from 1850 to 1907.
The eagle, or ten-dollar piece, had been the largest denomination
authorized by the Mint Act of 1792, but Congress considered new
denominations of gold coinage in the 1840s after the discovery of gold
in California generated a large amount of bullion. The gold dollar and
double eagle were the result. After considerable infighting at the
Philadelphia Mint, United States Mint Chief Engraver James B. Longacre
designed the double eagle. Only one 1849 double eagle is known to
survive; it rests in the National Numismatic Collection at the
Smithsonian. The coin was immediately successful; merchants and banks
used it in trade, and it was struck until replaced by the Saint-Gaudens
double eagle in 1907. Many were melted when President Franklin D.
Roosevelt recalled gold coins from the public in 1933.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Head_double_eagle>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1875:
The first indoor game of ice hockey was played at the Victoria
Skating Rink in Montreal by James Creighton and McGill University
students.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_indoor_ice_hockey_game>
1945:
Second World War: The Royal Air Force accidentally bombed the
Bezuidenhout neighbourhood in the Dutch city of The Hague, killing 511
evacuees.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_the_Bezuidenhout>
1972:
Jethro Tull released Thick as a Brick, a concept album
supposedly written by an eight-year-old boy, Gerald Bostock.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thick_as_a_Brick>
2012:
Two passenger trains collided head-on near the town of
Szczekociny in Poland, resulting in 16 deaths and 58 injuries.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szczekociny_rail_crash>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
triangulation:
1. (uncountable, surveying) A technique in which distances and
directions are estimated from an accurately measured baseline and the
principles of trigonometry.
2. (countable, surveying) The network of triangles so obtained, that are
the basis of a chart or map.
3. (countable, chess) A delaying move in which the king moves in a
triangular path to force the advance of a pawn.
4. (uncountable, navigation, seismology) A process by which an unknown
location is found using three known distances from known locations.
5. (uncountable, politics) The practice of repositioning one's group or
oneself on the political spectrum in an attempt to capture the centre.
6. (uncountable, qualitative research) The use of three (or more)
researchers to interview the same people or to evaluate the same
evidence to reduce the impact of individual bias.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/triangulation>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Truth is powerful, and, if not instantly, at least by slow
degrees, may make good her possession. Gleams of good sense may
penetrate through the thickest clouds of error … and, as the true
object of education is not to render the pupil the mere copy of his
preceptor, it is rather to be rejoiced in, than lamented, that various
reading should lead him into new trains of thinking; open to him new
mines of science and new incentives to virtue; and perhaps, by a blended
and compound effect, produce in him an improvement which was out of the
limits of his lessons, and raise him to heights the preceptor never
knew.
--William Godwin
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Godwin>
The Battle of Auberoche was fought during the Gascon campaign of 1345 on
21 October between a 1,200-strong force composed of English and local
Gascons under Henry, Earl of Derby, and a French army of 7,000 commanded
by Louis of Poitiers. It was fought at the village of Auberoche near
Périgueux in northern Aquitaine. At the time, Gascony was a territory
of the English Crown. The battle resulted in a heavy French defeat and
they suffered very high casualties, with their leaders killed or
captured. The battle took place during the early stages of the Hundred
Years' War. Along with the Battle of Bergerac earlier in the year, it
marked a change in the military balance of power in the region after the
French position collapsed. It was one of a series of victories which
would lead to Henry of Derby being called "one of the best warriors in
the world" by a contemporary chronicler.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Auberoche>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1877:
The U.S. Electoral Commission awarded twenty disputed electoral
votes to Rutherford B. Hayes, thus assuring his victory in the 1876
presidential election.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutherford_B._Hayes>
1919:
Communist, revolutionary socialist, and syndicalist delegates
met in Moscow to establish the Communist International.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Congress_of_the_Comintern>
1949:
The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II landed in Fort Worth,
Texas, after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane
flight in 94 hours and 1 minute.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lady_II>
1978:
As a cosmonaut on Soyuz 28, Czechoslovak military pilot
Vladimír Remek became the first person from outside the Soviet Union or
the United States to go into space.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_28>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
conversely:
1. (often conjunctive) With a reversed relationship.
2. (conjunctive, loosely) From another point of view; on the other hand.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/conversely>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Life forces enough final decisions on us. We should have the
sense to avoid as many of the unnecessary ones as we can.
--John Irving
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Irving>