Pittas (Pittidae) are a family of birds found in Asia, Australasia and
Africa. There are numerous species in three genera, Pitta, Erythropitta
and Hydrornis, all similar in general appearance and habits. They are
Old World suboscines, closely related to the broadbills. Pittas are
medium-sized by passerine standards, at 15 to 25 cm (5.9–9.8 in) in
length, and stocky, with strong, longish legs and long feet. They have
very short tails and stout, slightly decurved bills. Many have brightly
coloured plumage. Most pitta species are tropical, although a few
species can be found in temperate climates. They are mostly found in
forests, but some live in scrub and mangroves. They usually forage alone
on wet forest floors in areas with good ground cover. They eat
earthworms, snails, insects and similar invertebrate prey, as well as
small vertebrates. The main threat to pittas is habitat loss in the form
of rapid deforestation; they are also targeted by the cage-bird trade.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitta>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1894:
A crowd of workers unemployed due to the Panic of 1893
conducted the first significant popular protest march on Washington,
D.C.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coxey%27s_Army>
1945:
World War II: As Allied forces were closing in on Berlin, Adolf
Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide in the Führerbunker after being
married for one day.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Adolf_Hitler>
1982:
Sixteen monks and a nun belonging to Ananda Marga in Calcutta,
India, were dragged out of taxis by persons unknown in three different
locations, beaten to death and then set on fire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijon_Setu_massacre>
2009:
A Dutch man drove his car at high speed into a parade in an
attempt to kill the Dutch royal family.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_attack_on_the_Dutch_royal_family>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
desiccate:
1. (transitive) To remove moisture from; to dry.
2. (transitive) To preserve by drying.
3. (intransitive, rare) To become dry; to dry up.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/desiccate>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
To receive everything, one must open one's hands and give.
--Taisen Deshimaru
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Taisen_Deshimaru>
Jeremy Thorpe (29 April 1929 – 4 December 2014) was a British
politician who served as Member of Parliament for North Devon from 1959
to 1979, and as leader of the Liberal Party between 1967 and 1976. After
graduating from Oxford University, he became one of the Liberals'
brightest stars in the 1950s. As party leader, Thorpe capitalised on the
growing unpopularity of the Conservative and Labour parties to lead the
Liberals through a period of electoral success. This culminated in the
general election of February 1974, when the party won 6 million votes.
In May 1979 he was tried at the Old Bailey on charges of conspiracy and
incitement to murder, arising from an earlier relationship with Norman
Scott, a former model. Thorpe was acquitted on all charges, but the
case, and the scandal, ended his political career. By the time of his
death he was honoured for his record as an internationalist, a supporter
of human rights, and an opponent of apartheid and all forms of racism.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Thorpe>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1903:
A 30 million cubic-metre landslide buried the town of Frank,
Northwest Territories, and killed at least 70 of the town's residents,
making it the deadliest landslide in Canadian history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Slide>
1945:
The Holocaust: The Seventh U.S. Army liberated Dachau, the
first Nazi concentration camp, and allegedly wounded and killed German
prisoners of war.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dachau_liberation_reprisals>
1975:
Vietnam War: North Vietnam concluded its East Sea Campaign by
capturing all of the Spratly Islands that were being held by South
Vietnam.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Sea_Campaign>
2011:
A worldwide television audience of 300 million people watched
the wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine Middleton
at Westminster Abbey in London.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedding_of_Prince_William_and_Catherine_Middl…>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
curate's egg:
(idiomatic) A thing which has good and bad parts, but is overall spoilt
by the bad.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/curate%27s_egg>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The principal aim of mathematical education is to develop certain
faculties of the mind, and among these intuition is not the least
precious. It is through it that the mathematical world remains in touch
with the real world, and even if pure mathematics could do without it,
we should still have to have recourse to it to fill up the gulf that
separates the symbol from reality.
--Henri Poincaré
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henri_Poincar%C3%A9>
Skipper Thomas Crisp (28 April 1876 – 15 August 1917) was a posthumous
recipient of the Victoria Cross. A commercial fisherman operating from
Lowestoft in Suffolk, England, Crisp joined the Royal Navy in 1915. He
was killed in the North Sea defending his armed naval vessel, His
Majesty's Smack Nelson, against an attack from a German submarine. The
government used his self-sacrifice against long odds to bolster morale
in the First World War during a difficult time for Britain, the summer
and autumn of 1917, when the country was suffering heavy losses in the
Battle of Passchendaele. His exploit was read aloud by David Lloyd
George in the House of Commons and made headline news for nearly a week.
After the war, a small display to his memory was set up in a Lowestoft
library with parts of the sunken Nelson, which were dredged up years
later, and a specially commissioned painting. This display was destroyed
during the Second World War when the building was gutted in the Blitz.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Crisp>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1887:
A week after being arrested by the Prussian Secret Police,
French police inspector Guillaume Schnaebelé was released on the order
of William I, the German Emperor, defusing a possible war.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume_Schnaebel%C3%A9>
1949:
Former First Lady of the Philippines Aurora Quezon, her
daughter, and ten others were assassinated by the military arm of the
Philippine Communist Party.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_Quezon>
1973:
The album The Dark Side of the Moon by the British progressive
rock band Pink Floyd entered the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart, on
which it spent a record 942 weeks.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Side_of_the_Moon>
1999:
A 14-year-old former student in Taber, Alberta, walked into his
high school and opened fire, killing one student and wounding another in
Canada's first fatal school shooting in more than two decades.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._R._Myers_High_School_shooting>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
philopolemic:
1. (rare) Exalting or supporting conflict or war.
2. (rare) Fond of polemics or controversy.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/philopolemic>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
This is the school, isn't it. The magic place? The world. Here.
And you don't realize it until you look. Do you know the pictsies think
this world is heaven? We just don't look.
--The Wee Free Men
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Discworld#The_Wee_Free_Men_%282003%29>
Teresa Sampsonia (1589–1668) was a noblewoman of the Safavid Empire of
Iran. She was born into a noble Orthodox Christian Circassian family and
grew up in Isfahan in the Iranian royal court. In 1608 she married the
Elizabethan English adventurer Robert Shirley, who attended the Safavid
court in an effort to forge an alliance against the neighbouring Ottoman
Empire. She accompanied him on the Persian embassy to Europe
(1609–15), where he represented the Safavid king Abbas the Great. She
was received by many of the royal houses of Europe, including the
English prince Henry Frederick and Queen Anne, who were her son's
godparents. The historian Thomas Herbert considered Robert Shirley "the
greatest Traveller of his time", but admired the "undaunted Lady Teresa"
even more. Following the death of her husband from dysentery in 1628,
she left Iran and lived in a convent in Rome for the rest of her life.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_Sampsonia>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1522:
Italian War of 1521–26: The combined forces of Spain and the
Papal States defeated a French and Venetian army at the Battle of
Bicocca.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bicocca>
1810:
Ludwig van Beethoven composed his "Bagatelle No. 25 in A
minor", better known as "Für Elise" (audio featured), one of his most
popular compositions.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%BCr_Elise>
1865:
An explosion destroyed the steamboat Sultana on the Mississippi
River, killing an estimated 1,700 of the 2,400 passengers.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultana_%28steamboat%29>
1949:
In response to the treatment of Lorenzo Gamboa under the White
Australia policy, the Philippine House of Representatives passed a bill
banning Australians from the country.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenzo_Gamboa>
2012:
Unknown perpetrators committed a series of four bombings in
Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Dnipropetrovsk_explosions>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
recrudescence:
1. The condition or state being recrudescent; the condition of something
(often undesirable) breaking out again, or re-emerging after temporary
abatement or suppression.
2. (medicine, by extension) The acute recurrence of a disease, or its
symptoms, after a period of improvement.
3. (botany) The production of a fresh shoot from a ripened spike.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/recrudescence>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Tempt me no more, for I Have known the lightning's hour, The
poet's inward pride, The certainty of power.
--Cecil Day Lewis
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cecil_Day_Lewis>
The Benty Grange helmet is a boar-crested Anglo-Saxon helmet from the
7th century. It was excavated by Thomas Bateman in 1848 from a burial
mound at the Benty Grange farm in Monyash in western Derbyshire. The
grave had likely been looted by the time of Bateman's excavation, but
still contained other high-status objects suggestive of a richly
furnished burial, such as the fragmentary remains of a hanging bowl. The
ornate helmet was constructed by covering the outside of an iron
framework with plates of horn and the inside with cloth or leather, now
decayed. It would have provided some protection against weapons, but may
have also been intended for ceremonial use. It was the first Anglo-Saxon
helmet to be discovered; others have been found at Sutton Hoo, York,
Wollaston, Shorwell, and Staffordshire. The helmet is displayed at
Sheffield's Weston Park Museum, which purchased it from Bateman's estate
in 1893.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benty_Grange_helmet>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1777:
American Revolutionary War: Sixteen-year-old Sybil Ludington
(statue pictured) rode forty miles through the night to warn militiamen
under the control of her father that British troops were planning to
invade Danbury, Connecticut.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_Ludington>
1944:
World War II: U.S. Navy submarines began attacks on Japan's
Take Ichi convoy as it sailed in waters between Taiwan and the
Philippines, eventually sinking four vessels and killing more than 4,000
troops.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_Ichi_convoy>
1989:
A tornado struck the Manikganj District of Bangladesh, killing
an estimated 1,300 people, making it the deadliest tornado in history.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daulatpur%E2%80%93Saturia_tornado>
2002:
Expelled student Robert Steinhäuser murdered sixteen people
and wounded seven others before committing suicide at the Gutenberg-
Gymnasium Erfurt in Erfurt, Germany.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erfurt_school_massacre>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
prozymite:
(Roman Catholicism, historical, derogatory) One who administers the
Eucharist with leavened bread, in particular a member of the Eastern
Orthodox Church.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/prozymite>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
There was an idea … called the Avengers Initiative. The idea
was to bring together a group of remarkable people — see if they could
become something more — see if they could work together when we needed
them to to fight the battles we never could.
--The Avengers
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Avengers_%282012_film%29>
Alodia was a medieval Nubian kingdom in what is now Central and Southern
Sudan. Its capital was Soba, near modern-day Khartoum at the confluence
of the Blue and White Nile rivers. In 580 it became a part of the
Christian world, following the other two Nubian kingdoms, Nobadia and
Makuria. Alodia reached its peak during the 9th–12th centuries, when
it exceeded its northern neighbor and close ally, Makuria, in size,
military power and economic prosperity. A large, multicultural state,
Alodia was ruled by a powerful king and provincial governors appointed
by him. Soba was a prosperous town and trading hub, and literacy in
Nubian and Greek flourished. Goods arrived from Makuria, the Middle
East, western Africa, India and even China. Alodia began a slow decline
in the 12th century, possibly because of invasions from the south,
droughts and a shift of trade routes, before finally collapsing around
1500.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alodia>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1644:
The Ming dynasty of China fell when the Chongzhen Emperor
committed suicide during a peasant rebellion led by Li Zicheng.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming_dynasty>
1792:
The French highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier became the
first person to be executed by guillotine.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Jacques_Pelletier>
1920:
At the San Remo conference, the principal Allied Powers of
World War I decided upon the League of Nations mandates for
administration of the former Ottoman-ruled lands of the Middle East.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Remo_conference>
1960:
The U.S. Navy submarine USS Triton (SSRN-586) completed the
first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sandblast>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
chur:
1. (New Zealand, informal) A strong voicing of agreement, approval, or
thanks: awesome!, cheers!, ta!, thanks!.
2. (New Zealand, informal) A parting salutation: bye, see you later.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chur>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The layman always means, when he says "reality" that he is
speaking of something self-evidently known; whereas to me it seems the
most important and exceedingly difficult task of our time is to work on
the construction of a new idea of reality.
--Wolfgang Pauli
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Pauli>
Æthelberht was the King of Wessex from 860 until his death in 865. He
was the third son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife, Osburh. In 855
Æthelwulf went on pilgrimage to Rome and appointed Æthelberht as king
of the recently conquered territory of Kent. Æthelberht's older
brother, Æthelbald, was named king of Wessex. After the deaths of his
father in 858 and his brother in 860, Æthelberht ruled both Wessex and
Kent without appointing a sub-king, fully uniting the two territories
for the first time. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, he reigned
"in good harmony and in great peace". He appears to have been on good
terms with his younger brothers, the future kings Æthelred I and
Alfred the Great. The kingdom came under attack from Viking raids during
his reign, but these were minor compared to the invasions after his
death. Æthelberht died in the autumn of 865 and was buried next to his
brother Æthelbald at Sherborne Abbey in Dorset. He was succeeded by
Æthelred.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86thelberht,_King_of_Wessex>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1904:
Realizing that the Russification of Lithuania was not working,
the Russian Empire lifted the 40-year-old ban on publications using the
Lithuanian language.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuanian_press_ban>
1932:
An estimated 400 ramblers committed a willful trespass of
Kinder Scout in the Peak District of England to highlight the denial of
access to areas of open country.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_trespass_of_Kinder_Scout>
1965:
The Dominican Civil War broke out due to tensions caused by a
military coup of the democratically elected government two years
previous.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominican_Civil_War>
1990:
The Hubble Space Telescope was launched aboard the Space
Shuttle Discovery in mission STS-31.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
loath:
1. Averse, disinclined; reluctant, unwilling.
2. (obsolete) Angry, hostile.
3. (obsolete) Loathsome, unpleasant.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/loath>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I cannot hold with those who wish to put down the insignificant
chatter of the world.
--Anthony Trollope
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anthony_Trollope>
Marjorie Cameron (April 23, 1922 – June 24, 1995) was an American
artist, poet, actress, and occultist. After serving in the navy during
the Second World War, she settled in Pasadena, California. There she met
the rocket pioneer Jack Parsons, whom she married in 1946. After
Parsons' death in an explosion at their home in 1952, Cameron came to
suspect that her husband had been assassinated, and began rituals to
communicate with his spirit. She was part of the avant-garde artistic
community of Los Angeles; among her friends were the filmmakers Curtis
Harrington and Kenneth Anger. She appeared in two of Harrington's films,
The Wormwood Star and Night Tide, as well as in Anger's film
Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome. In later years, she made appearances
in art-house films created by John Chamberlain and Chick Strand.
Cameron's recognition as an artist increased after her death, and her
paintings were shown in exhibitions across the country.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Cameron>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1516:
The best-known version of the Reinheitsgebot, the German Beer
Purity Law, was adopted across the entirety of Bavaria.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinheitsgebot>
1879:
A fire destroyed the second version of the Main Building of the
University of Notre Dame.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Building_%28University_of_Notre_Dame%29>
1979:
Activist Blair Peach suffered fatal head injuries when he was
knocked unconscious during an Anti-Nazi League demonstration in
Southall, London, against a National Front election meeting in the town
hall.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Blair_Peach>
2009:
Gamma-ray burst GRB 090423 was detected, coming from the most
distant astronomical object of any kind known at the time.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GRB_090423>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
Gramarye:
(literary, Arthurian, rare) The island of Britain.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Gramarye>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as
derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness.
Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing,
postulates consciousness.
--Max Planck
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Max_Planck>
The Lynchburg Sesquicentennial half dollar was a commemorative half
dollar designed by Charles Keck and struck by the United States Bureau
of the Mint in 1936, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the
incorporation of Lynchburg, Virginia. The obverse of the coin depicts
former Secretary of the Treasury and U.S. Senator Carter Glass, a native
of Lynchburg. The reverse depicts a statue of the goddess Liberty, her
arms outstretched in welcome. In the background is the Old Lynchburg
Courthouse and the city's Confederate monument. After Congress
authorized the half dollar, the Commission of Fine Arts proposed that it
should bear the portrait of John Lynch, founder of Lynchburg, instead of
Glass, but no portrait of him was known. Glass became the third living
person to appear on a U.S. coin, and the first to be shown alone. Issued
for $1, the coins have appreciated over the years, with 2018 estimates
of value ranging between $225 and $365.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynchburg_Sesquicentennial_half_dollar>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1889:
More than 50,000 people rushed to claim a piece of the
available two million acres (8,000 km2) in the Unassigned Lands, the
present-day U.S. state of Oklahoma, founding Oklahoma City.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Rush_of_1889>
1951:
Korean War: The People's Volunteer Army of China attacked
positions occupied mainly by Australian and Canadian forces, starting
the Battle of Kapyong.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kapyong>
2004:
Flammable cargo exploded at Ryongchon Station in Ryongchon,
North Korea, killing at least 54 people and injuring more than a
thousand.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryongchon_disaster>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
agrology:
1. (rare) A subdiscipline of agronomy (the science of utilizing animals,
plants, and soils) and of soil science which addresses the influence of
edaphic (soil-related) conditions on crop production for optimizing it.
2. (chiefly Canada) The science and art of agriculture.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/agrology>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Our own political life is predicated on openness. We do not
believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate
without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to
avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be
free to enquire. We know that the wages of secrecy are corruption. We
know that in secrecy error, undetected, will flourish and subvert.
--Robert Oppenheimer
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Oppenheimer>
Gothic boxwood miniatures are very small religious wood sculptures
produced during the 15th and 16th centuries, mostly in today's Low
Countries. They were formed from intricate layers of reliefs often
rendered at nearly microscopic levels, with around 150 examples extant
today. The majority are spherical beads known as prayer nuts,
statuettes, skulls, or coffins; some 20 are in the form of polyptychs
including triptych and diptych altarpieces, tabernacles, and
monstrances. Typically imagery includes scenes from the Crucifixion of
Jesus and extensive vistas of Heaven and Hell. Each miniature required
exceptional craftsmanship and may have taken decades to complete.
Important collections are in the Art Gallery of Ontario, the British
Museum, and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_boxwood_miniature>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1615:
The Wignacourt Aqueduct in Malta was inaugurated and was used
to carry water to Valletta for about 300 years.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wignacourt_Aqueduct>
1914:
Mexican Revolution: The United States detained a German steamer
carrying materiel for the Mexican federal government.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ypiranga_incident>
1934:
The "Surgeon's Photograph", purportedly showing the Loch Ness
Monster (later revealed to be a hoax), was published in the Daily Mail.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch_Ness_Monster>
1970:
In response to a dispute over wheat production quotas, the
Principality of Hutt River proclaimed its secession from Western
Australia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Hutt_River>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
hector:
1. (transitive) To dominate or intimidate in a blustering way; to bully,
to domineer.
2. (intransitive) To behave like a hector or bully; to bluster, to
swagger; to bully.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hector>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The word "resurrection" has for many people the connotation of
dead bodies leaving their graves or other fanciful images. But
resurrection means the victory of the New state of things, the New Being
born out of the death of the Old. Resurrection is not an event that
might happen in some remote future, but it is the power of the New Being
to create life out of death, here and now, today and tomorrow. Where
there is a New Being, there is resurrection, namely, the creation into
eternity out of every moment of time. The Old Being has the mark of
disintegration and death. The New Being puts a new mark over the old
one. Out of disintegration and death something is born of eternal
significance. That which is immersed in dissolution emerges in a New
Creation. Resurrection happens now, or it does not happen at all. It
happens in us and around us, in soul and history, in nature and
universe. Reconciliation, reunion, resurrection — this is the New
Creation, the New Being, the New state of things.
--Paul Tillich
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Tillich>